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Erik: Where do you seek advice and support from your board of directors?
Richard: Well, it depends on what kind of input I'm looking for. So if it's corporate
strategy, if it's, you know, something to do with our finances, sometimes marketing,
I mean kind of broad strategic decisions, that's a board level thing, we do that every
sort of six to eight weeks, less frequent. We used to do it every month but we do it
less frequently now, as the company is more established and it's, you know, kind of bigger
and, you know, got its act together. I think we need less input less frequently. I speak
with Robin, our chairman, frequently, at least once a week, I would say. We're talking about
hiring people, more technical things sometimes, but he's my go-to person on things that may
escalate to the board at some stage, and again, he's a great insight into -- you know, he's
involved in lots of different businesses and has been an entrepreneur many times himself,
who understands this sort of operational discussions. The operational discussions we try to keep
out of board meetings. And then when it's personal business things, so when it's, I
want one level, you know, detached from the business, and it's, you know, about, let's
say decision-making about my senior team or brainstorming other ideas that will one day
make it into Robin's line of visibility or into the board's, I have a mentor, a business
mentor who I've worked with for the last couple of years who is really great on kind of a
more personal kind of decision-making or even more tactical stuff in my team. So I got a
great support network. I mean in addition to that, I've been a member of the Young Presidents
Organization for about two and a half years and, you know, that tackles a whole another
area of, you know, personal and family issues with that kind of group of incredible business
professionals. Probably the most amazing collection of men and women, you know, in business around
the world. The members of YPO, it's a great -- it's a great network. I have a lot of support.
I'm a first-time entrepreneur running a big business. You know, I take as much support
as I can get. You know, it's really important.