When I joined 50 CEOs on Cranfield‘s SME Programme, the last thing I expected from such a divergent group was convergence on what single thing would allow us to reach our ambitions….how wrong was I?
Is your top team capable of running the business without you? Or are you forever stuck IN the business rather than ON it.
Your exit depends on it.
Back in 1997 I was running a fast-growing international brand consultancy in the West End. I was enjoying the ride.
We’d just put on another £1m in sales, and we were moving to a swanky building in Covent Garden. Life was good.
I had two partners, more than 30 full time staff and a client list that was the who’s who of big domestic and international brand owners.
I spent a lot of time with these people. And while we lived in the same brand world, we were world apart in our understanding of each others’ businesses.
I knew many other agency principals. We met, and we shared stories. These meetings all-too frequently became moan-ins. We were all struggling with similar problems.
We were all SMEs working at high level for multinational clients. I was sensing a reality disconnect. I was desperately in need of input from outside the marketing sector.
By chance, I met someone from Cranfield Business School at a seminar and, six months later, I embarked on their highly regarded ‘Business Growth and Development Programme’.
There were 50 of us that first Friday morning. Managing Directors and owners of Small and Medium Enterprises, or SMEs, ranging in turnover from £1m, to £50m.
They were a wonderfully eclectic bunch. From the founder and owner of Cobra beer, before it was sold, to a company who made high tech heat pumps to a guy who had 40 vans distributing pies and sausage rolls around the Midlands. Out of 50, thankfully, there were only two other marketing agency businesses but they were in different disciplines to my own.
The programme ran over six weekends, three weeks apart. The three week gap was for our homework. It was like a mini version of their famous MBA programme and we had lots of input from the guys on that programme; Malcolm McDonald et al.
When I got home late that first Saturday evening my wife asked how the first weekend had gone. I hesitated. Perhaps it was too eclectic a mix. After all, what was I going to learn from a pie man?
How wrong was I?
We used the lecture hall and break out rooms as test tubes for each of us to put our problems and evolving business plans under the microscope of intense peer review.
I didn’t learn anything more about the world of branding. Nor did my friend learn how to brew a better beer. We knew that stuff. We needed new thinking. We wanted to reset our businesses. To move to the next step on the Cranfield entrepreneurial ladder.
When all was said and done, and we’d all spent weeks creating and then presenting our business plans, we all came to a very similar conclusion. There was one thing, above everything else, that would make the difference between success and failure.
The achievement of our goals was, to a man, directly associated with our ability to recruit, retain and incentivize the very best senior talent. Nothing else. Not a better mousetrap, a fizzier beer or bigger, better IT or fresher pies.
It was a real lightbulb moment for many of us. Particularly those in the group trying to work through legacy managements. The outcome was some tough decisions.
The six weekends were an eye-opener, worth every penny.
Look around, has your top team got it in them to drive your business to the next level, or are they waiting for you. That might feed your ego but it wont deliver results. Every day you waste carrying senior passengers on the top team, you’re a day further away from achieving your goals.
We know who the passengers are. The tough bit is grasping the nettle and making change happen.
Adrian Collins
Exit Planner, NED and Mentor
Adrian runs his own Mentoring, NED and Business Advisory consultancy.
AdrianCollins.co.uk
“..I have been in business for 40 years. The scars on my back are real. I successfully grew a 6 man 2nd tier UK business into an international leader employing 49 people servicing some of the world’s biggest consumer brands.
I’ve worked with people in the biggest corporations down to the smallest entrepreneurs. The common factor was that they came to me seeking success. Success for their brand, their company, for themselves. For over 25 years I was a multi award-winning talent shop for gifted creatives, strategists, project managers and production specialists. Now I’m working with CEOs of SMEs as a mentor, NED and advisor, leveraging 40 years experience.
In the end, it’s all about people. Getting out from the Covid mess presents us a challenge. Smart, driven people will be required. If I can impart any of my experience to help what will be the biggest challenge of a lifetime, please let me know.. ..check out my Linkedin profile….give me a call…”
