What I Know Now
Notes from 35 years in the Boardroom
Most board directors arrive in the role without a manual. Some pick it up quickly. Many spend years doing the job by feel and never quite sure whether they’re getting it right.
What I Know Now is the book Paul Rothwell wished someone had handed him 35 years ago.
Written from four decades at board level – as director, MD, CEO, chair, NED, and investor across manufacturing, food, retail, and engineering – it covers the eleven things that actually determine whether a board makes a business better or lets it drift: purpose, leadership, culture, performance, people, strategy, growth, exit, family-business dynamics, reputation, and what the role eventually teaches you about yourself.
Direct, experience-based, and deliberately short on theory, each chapter ends with a single question the reader has to answer for themselves.
This is not a governance textbook. It is a working guide for owners, MDs, directors, and aspiring directors who are already doing the job and want to do it better.
Order the book
Paperback · 112 pages · £14.99
Every penny made from the book donated to Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice.
About the author
An engineer by training. Thirty-five years at board level across manufacturing, food, retail, and engineering.
Paul Rothwell has worked at board level for over 35 years — as director, MD, CEO, chair, NED, and investor across fifteen businesses. He currently chairs four Northern Ireland businesses and has mentored more than thirty owners and CEOs. This book is the distillation of what he has learned.