❓ Ask Eyal
Eyal Danon is the President and Founder of Ignite Advisory Group, and a world-renowned expert on customer and partner advisory boards.
Question: Eyal, are there any legal implications of initiating a CAB program, or for our members’ participation?
Answer: Initiating a CAB program should not generate any concerns from your (or your customers’) legal department(s). A customer advisory board is designed to provide guidance to the sponsoring company about its products and services in various markets. It is not a governance organization.
Typically, companies invite a select group of member companies to provide collaborative insight to help improve the host company's business in the markets it serves. Some of the members may be competitors and as such, care is taken to ensure that no competitively sensitive or confidential information about individual CAB members is solicited or shared.
When communicating product roadmaps, sponsoring companies can reveal plans without necessarily providing a hard copy. If a copy is shared, ask members not to share the information beyond their internal team, or remind them of the NDA agreement they likely signed when they became a customer.
A related area that may generate policy questions is lodging or transportation for members. Generally, CAB sponsors provide lodging and ground transportation but not all cover air travel to and from the meeting. Some member companies have strict travel guidelines requiring members to actually book and pay for their own rooms to comply with their company’s guidelines. Typically, no compensation is provided to CAB members, although we have seen direct compensation for medical professional CAB members in the healthcare industry.
The bottom line: in many years of advising companies, I have never experienced any legal issues resulting from a CAB program.
Got a CAB management question for Eyal? eMail him at eyal.danon@igniteag.com. Your question could be included in the next CAB Connection.
