I've spent my career working where something needs to be different - typically to fuel growth or improve performance. I've worked through changes of ownership, mergers and periods where performance needed to change direction, as well as international expansion, diversification, market entry, public-to-private transition and roll-ups.
Today, most of my work is with mid-market and private equity-backed groups. One specific challenge comes up time and again: getting groups of successful businesses to earn more together than they would apart. It's become a consistent thread, though rarely the starting point.
The immediate priority may be a shift in performance, a merger or acquisition, or expansion into new markets. Once the individual businesses are working well, however, there is another layer of value to go after. Successful businesses are built one at a time; successful groups are something different.
In practice, that means investing not only in the individual businesses, but also in what connects them and allows them to compete more effectively together.
Working out where businesses might connect is usually relatively straightforward. Making those connections work is harder. Building a permanent central capability might seem the obvious answer, but it often runs against the grain of the organisation - and doesn't necessarily solve the problem. Who would decide, for example, when what's right for the group isn't obviously what's right for one of its businesses?
Building those connections and turning them into something commercial needs a catalyst, although what that looks like varies significantly from situation to situation. Sometimes it's right to lead with the client, sometimes with a proposition and, on occasions, less directly through community. The common factors are leadership beyond formal authority, trust and the ability to broker across business boundaries.
My role tends to evolve with the situation. Sometimes I start by leading a broader transformation which develops into an interim Chief Commercial Officer or operating role. Sometimes I advise. It depends on what the organisation needs at that point in its journey.
My core work is in financial and business services, with additional work in manufacturing. I'm also increasingly working with the independent education sector as it navigates many of the same strategic challenges, and continuing to build a portfolio of Non-Executive Director roles.
