Aura Boards — start here
Aura Boards is a way of turning board work into leading the future, developed by Finnish board chair and investor Ville Tolvanen. It connects owners, the board and management into one chain: the owner creates the opportunities, the board builds tomorrow, and management delivers the results.
The problem
When a company does not grow, the cause is usually in the chain between owners, board and management, not in the business idea. The owner doesn’t quite know what they want from the board. The board doesn’t know what value it should create. And management is left too alone carrying responsibility for the future.
Five pillars
- Foresight and forecasting. Looking ahead with scenarios, not in the rear-view mirror.
- Strategy and documentation. One shared plan for owners, board and management.
- Real-time information. Interaction before the meetings, not only in them.
- Structured encounters. An annual clock, workshops and at least six meetings a year.
- AI support. An AI situation room and leading by forecast.
Five plans
- owner strategy
- 1000-day plan
- annual plan
- budget, forecast, deviations and scenarios
- the board’s annual plan
The AI situation room
The machine calculates, the human decides. The machine does not sit at the table; the machine is the table. Five streams feed one situation room and one decision: strategy, finance, market, AI and experience.
Three ways to put the model into practice
- I teach the model. The board and management learn the method and run it themselves.
- You build it, I support. The public materials are the base, and I spar when needed.
- I join the board. I bring the model with me as chair or member.
About Ville Tolvanen
Three decades on Finnish boards as owner, chair, member, CEO and adviser: 30 companies and around one hundred mandate years.
No company is perfect, but there is always a better version of the previous one.
