The twelve-page board paper

Every board we work with has the same complaint: too many pages, too little decision. The pack arrives on Friday night, runs to 180 slides, and the actual question is buried somewhere around page 64. Directors read the executive summary, skim the appendix, and the meeting turns into a debate about the data rather than the choice.

One decision per paper

Our rule is simple. A board paper exists to secure one decision. If there are three decisions, there are three papers. The first sentence states the decision required; the second states what we recommend; the third states what it costs and what it is expected to return.

Everything after that is evidence, ranked by how much it would change a reasonable director’s mind. Supporting analysis lives in an appendix that nobody is obliged to read.

If a director can’t repeat the recommendation after reading page one, the paper has failed — no matter how good the analysis behind it.

The structure we use

Decision required. Recommendation. Options considered and why they were rejected. Financial impact with a base, low and high case. Key risks and how they will be monitored. Next steps with named owners and dates. That is the whole document, and it rarely needs more than twelve pages.

Short papers are harder to write, not easier. But they produce faster meetings, cleaner minutes and, most importantly, decisions that management can execute on Monday morning.