The little things

I was unavoidably overseas this week, so I was away for an important Board meeting, where we were due to make a big decision that we’ve been building up to for over a year. I was keen to take part, so I had arranged for the Board secretary to call me from the boardroom conference phone so that I could join in. He had my mobile phone number and email address as well, in case of problems.

At the time the Board meeting was due to begin - an anti-social hour of the morning for me - I was ready, board papers open, questions prepared, waiting for the call. Nothing.

After 15 minutes, I texted the Board secretary. Nothing.

20 minutes later, I had a text saying they’d rung twice, but the hotel hadn’t picked up the phone, and the Chairman had (understandably) decided to get on with the meeting... and he doesn’t then like to be disturbed. A little later, when the Board adjourned for a cup of tea, I finally received a call from the Board secretary, who had got through this time, to give me a run-down on the discussion, and I was able to ask a few further questions.

We probably didn’t lose much in practice, other than about three hours’ sleep for me. But as I headed to breakfast a couple of hours later I saw the irony in my role as chair of the Board’s Audit & Risk Committee: one risk I hadn’t factored on Thursday morning was that a five-star international hotel wouldn’t answer its phone at 4.30am.

So often, in the end, it’s the little things that get you.