The Board's Role in GTM, Scaling, Alignment, and the AI Shift

Board Evolution: A Tech Leadership Interview Series

"Every cog leaves a fingerprint. No part of the business is separate from the customer experience."

That's Rod M. 's perspective, one grounded in two decades of building high-performing teams across enterprise tech.

With a career spanning leadership roles at SAP and Zendesk , Rod brings a practical perspective on how boards can better support scaling organisations, particularly when they're navigating rapid growth and technology shifts. His insights cut through the noise with a focus on what actually drives sustainable success. Now as founder and CEO of BAC, he continues to shape how companies approach strategic go-to-market execution.

Having worked with Rod during his time on the PaperCut Software advisory board, I've seen firsthand how his customer-centric approach translates into actionable guidance for technology companies looking to scale.

Talent First, Always

When growth accelerates, boards often jump straight to strategy or metrics. But Rod takes a different view.

"The first area I landed on is determining whether the organisation has the right talent, the right people," he explains. "If you cascade down to where the gaps may exist in operational excellence, culture, go-to-market, or product development capacity required to manage scale and growth—it will start with people first."

This isn't just about technical skills. Rod emphasises the value of cross-functional thinking, especially in early scaling stages.

"As you get bigger, you will silo talent into areas aligned to their skills. But in early days, you need cross-operational talent that can blend across the business."

Too many boards focus exclusively on product strategy or financial metrics without first ensuring the team is built for the journey ahead. Rod believes boards should assess whether leadership has the lived experience to adapt as the company scales.

Customer Centricity at Scale

Even with the right talent in place, staying connected to customers becomes harder as organisations grow.

"Retaining customer centricity is really hard," Rod notes. "I think a board does play a role in ensuring there is a seat at the table with the customer lens. Some organisations can get overwhelmed with product development rather than allowing that development to be referenced back to the user."

He sees a common pattern in tech companies: product teams receiving disproportionate resources compared to customer engagement.

"Look at where their spend is on product versus consumer engagement models. We usually see a more heavily inflated budget towards product teams than go-to-market teams, which is ironic because the money coming in is coming from the customers."

The board's role? Ensuring balance—and making sure customer feedback loops directly into product development.

Bridging Sales and Product

In many sales-led tech companies, a divide exists between what the sales team hears and what the product team builds. Rod believes boards can bridge that gap, but only if they have the right composition.

"Firstly, I think you need diversity on the board that includes both product and go-to-market leaders, because you're going to get a more unifying vision around the priorities for both."

Beyond composition, he advocates for shared metrics that create aligned incentives. Rod explains how sales metrics should inform product development:

"Sales carries a customer acquisition number, a revenue number, a reduction in churn and contraction. If you can connect these sales metrics to product development, you can find cross-operational excellence."

This extends to how teams are rewarded.

"I do think you can tie some compensation and performance metrics between product release and sales impact. Customer satisfaction should be tied to both product and sales teams. If adoption or satisfaction drops, it's on both."

His mental model is one that resonates with me: 

"I've always talked about the cogs turning in unison. One cog turns the other. No cog operates independently. Whether it's a big cog or little cog, it still turns the engine. If one cog doesn't turn, the engine doesn't turn."

Asking the Right Questions

Whether evaluating a CRM replacement or an AI initiative, Rod believes board members should anchor every decision in core strategic goals.

"On any initiative in an organisation, the questions I will always ask are: what goals or initiatives does that decision impact? Whether it's an investment request, a strategic initiative, an operational change in direction—it must always tie back to the pillars of that vision or those goals."

He offers a practical example:

"The board is told: 'We want to replace our CRM platform.' Why? 'We want a single master file of the customer.' Beyond that? 'We want to unify activity so we know what's taking place across the business.' Which of our goals is it linked to? Increased customer share of wallet? Increased customer satisfaction? Reducing cost of our tech debt? If we can't define that, why are we doing it?"

These questions are essential for focusing resources where they'll deliver real impact.

"A lot of companies, when you ask them how they measure success, will tell you it's a revenue number or profitability. Yes, but what else? What other metrics tell you you're successful and you'll continue to be consistently successful?"

AI and the Modern Board

Rod's view on AI is pragmatic and grounded. He's clear that boards don't need to become technologists—but they do need to understand the terrain.

"For a lot of boards, the boards themselves are learning and evolving around what AI is," he acknowledges. "I think the first thing I would say is that boards need to educate themselves. They need to ensure they're educating themselves on how AI is spreading across industries, the implications, the threats, and the opportunities of what AI is going to present."

His message is direct:

"Do not underestimate the strategic importance of AI. Do not underestimate what it can do for your business, how your consumers will react and embrace AI, how your employees will react and embrace AI, how it will improve your decision making at scale, how it will accelerate your revenue generation."

Beyond education, he emphasises the need for governance:

"Get into AI now, but ensure you're putting some governance around it because it can get unwieldy very quickly. Boards need to ensure there's a strategy around adoption, why we're doing it, how it links to our goals and vision, but also ensuring you've got data quality and governance around it."

He even sees AI as a potential performance tool for boards themselves:

"There are fractional Chief AI Officers now. That's becoming a trend. But I think for most companies right now, they're quite happy to play in that low technical complexity of content creation."

The Changing Role of Boards

Perhaps most striking is Rod's view on how boards themselves need to evolve:

"Boards now need to traverse to almost being operationally linked to the company. They need to play a role where they're in the company canvassing the business more frequently than just turning up to a board meeting. I think that's the profile of a modern board member."

This extends to their relationship with technology:

"All modern board members now cannot just say technology is the technologist's responsibility. It's everybody's. The board's got to commit to continuous learning and adapting to the landscape we're in now."

Key Takeaways from My Conversation with Rod

On Talent Priority: "The first area I landed on is determining whether the organisation has the right talent, the right people."

On Customer Centricity: "Retaining customer centricity is really hard. The board does play a role in ensuring there is a seat at the table with the customer lens."

On Team Alignment: "I've always talked about the cogs turning in unison. One cog turns the other. No cog operates independently."

On Strategic Questions: "On any initiative, the question I will always ask is: what goals does that decision impact? It must always tie back to the pillars of that vision."

On Board Evolution: "Boards now need to traverse to almost being operationally linked to the company. Technology isn't just the technologist's responsibility—it's everybody's."

Actionable Next Steps

For Boards: 

• Assess whether the leadership team is built for scale, not just current state 
• Ensure product roadmaps reflect genuine customer needs, not just internal priorities 
• Create shared metrics that connect product development to revenue outcomes 
• Require direct linkage between initiatives and strategic goals 
• Develop a clear AI strategy with appropriate governance 
• Increase engagement beyond formal board meetings

For Executive Teams: 

• Build cross-functional capabilities in key leadership roles 
• Balance investment between product development and customer engagement
• Create incentive structures that reward collaboration across departments 
• Frame all initiatives in terms of strategic goal alignment 
• Prepare for the right mix of internal capability and external expertise in AI

For Both: 

• Commit to continuous learning about emerging technologies 
• Create a culture where customer centricity is everyone's responsibility 
• Develop metrics that measure organisational health beyond financial outcomes 
• Focus on the human elements of change management alongside technology shifts 
• Maintain a balanced view of AI as both opportunity and challenge

Final Thought

Rod Moynihan believes that modern boards need to go beyond governance. They should be close to the company, informed, and ready to challenge assumptions.

As he puts it:

"Technology isn't someone else's job. If you're on a board, it's your job to keep learning."