Last week I participated in the ACG event – a forum for people who fund the ‘middle market’. Attendees are typically VCs, banks, investment agencies, family offices, private equity – in short anyone who has a few million to give, lend, or invest in mid-sized firms. One of the most interesting sessions was on ESG (environmental, social and...
Read MoreThere are good reasons why you should do both, and actually, for a fast-growing company, you should try to do both. There are advantages to each option, but there are also reasons why you should take care. Let’s go back to first principles and consider what we are really trying to achieve. In an earlier blog, I said that people are not your most...
Read MoreThe UK has recently carried out a trial-based study into the practicalities and impacts of a 4-day week - and the results are just in. The idea of a 4-day week has been around for quite a long time - with much anecdotal evidence suggesting that there could be considerable benefit. This latest trial involved over 70 companies of all sorts and...
Read MoreWhile the Bridge Keeper in the movie The Holy Grail only asked ‘questions three’, I will ask you ‘questions eight’. Eight questions that as a business owner you can ask yourself, and the answers to which could help you cross the bridge to greater success. We talk a lot about being ‘Best in World’ - executing on the above is the path to get...
Read MoreOur client was experiencing significant turnover amongst the new hires they needed to expand their production. They told us, ‘No one wants to work anymore’. Digging deeper it became evident that a small number of senior employees had created an environment that worked well for them but made it difficult for any new-comers to fit in. And worse, it...
Read MoreI am reminded of the truism that the average person has less than one leg. Looming recessions, stock markets down, bond values up, interest rates up, inflation up, market contractions, etc. It would seem that there will be lots of turmoil. These changes will impact you to some extent if you are highly leveraged. But when you think about the...
Read MoreAnyone remember VUCA? It’s an acronym that stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. I’ve used VUCA as a strategic planning tool when trying to understand what was going on around me and so increase the chances of coming to an optimal course of action. As a concept, it was first described by the leadership guru Warren Bennis in...
Read MoreA recent UK employee study paints a rather troubling picture of company life. It found that: The study went on to identify that roughly half the people would leave a negative on-line review about their company, and that nearly 50% wouldn't even apply to a company that had negative online reviews. At a time when so many companies are struggling to...
Read MoreWe often use the term 'a square peg in a round hole' to describe someone that in some way just doesn't fit either in the role, the office, or just the culture. That interpretation comes from an early 19th-century philosophical treatise* that considered people and their situations as a wide range of shapes - including triangles and oblongs, and...
Read MoreSo many manufacturers are hiring these days – or at least trying to. Our manufacturing clients are bouncing back after Covid with lots of new business, and their pipelines are full. Some are struggling to find components and materials, and many are wondering where they are going to find the people they need to keep up with the production.
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