growth

The craft of company building

This year I’ve interviewed more than 50 founders about their experiences building businesses through the seed and series A stages. I’ve been struck by two … Read More

Systems thinking in scaling business

Systems thinking is a way of thinking about your business. It helps leaders better understand their organisation and how to maximise their impact. I’ve spent … Read More

Escape from firefighting

Firefighting. Fire drills. Chaos. Pulled from pillar to post. Overwhelmed. I hear those words a lot in my conversations with founder CEOs in growth businesses. … Read More

Mise en place

Chefs know a lot goes into making consistently good restaurant food. Each dish is a detailed, time-critical project with high quality thresholds. Dishes need to … Read More

Scaling leadership

As businesses grow, what they need from their leaders changes. Separating personal and business needs when thinking about this is hard, but important. A conversation … Read More

Reducing friction

If you leave a boat in seawater for too long, barnacles will start attaching and growing. They glue themselves to the hull of your boat … Read More

The value of organisation

How your business is organised is at the core of creating sustainable growth. It probably needs more focus than you give it. Businesses are usually … Read More