PJ Tips for leaders to improve business, change, performance, culture, teams and commercial success

If you are interested in business transformation, leading business change and navigating your growth strategy with a Private Equity investor, this podcast is for you. 

Simon Grosse is CEO of FSP, a people-centric technology and change specialist with an award-winning workplace culture, head quartered in Reading, and an office in Barcelona. Simon is a very people-centric leader, and believes their ethos helps clients to transform their ways of working and to realise the value of their technology investments. Their clients successes are significant in the growth strategy of FSP. 

In this podcast, Simon talks through the history of the 12 year old company, and how his purpose led style and award winning culture has brought about success for his staff, clients and the shareholders.

There was a material change in the business a couple of years ago when LDC backed FSP’s ambitious management team. According to Simon, the deal marked a key step in Foundation SP’s growth journey and very importantly, he knew that partnering with LDC would help FSP to scale while remaining true to our culture and ethos. Indeed Simon was keen that LDC understood the culture of FSP and not just what they did, but how and why they were different. 

I hope you will learn from his insights about business life before and after Investment, and how the change helped FSP to mature in many ways. Is PE for everyone - you'll have to listen to his views on this, and his strong views on Organic vs Inorganic business growth, such as Buy and Build / M&A. 

If you are considering a PE Investment, I sincerely hope Simons view will be of good use. Personally, I wonder how many businesses would fail to make the (mature) adjustments that Simon talks about which might lead to a failed investment prior to or during the deal period. By listening to this podcast, I hope you learn how to better prepare your management team and business for the required changes.

What strikes me about Simon and FSP, is that for tech company -  offering consulting, digital services, managed services, cloud, cyber security and Microsoft cloud suite for modern workplace - they are very people focused. I'm not sure Simon is that tech orientated himself, but perhaps the strength of the man, to build a business where those that do love tech can grow and develop self and services in a meaningful way.  

I think its certain that Simon loves business and the value that good business and businesses brings to communities. 

The purpose of the PJ Tips podcasts is to share very practical insights and information to enable us to lead better businesses, navigate change and release the potential that exists in our people and businesses. Please give me feedback on whether you think this podcast hits the mark. 

If you learn anything from listening or feel others could, please share this recording. 

#privateequity #leadingbusinesschange #LDC #culture #businessgrowth #growthstrategy #ambition #technology #cloudservices #microsoft #digitalstrategy #change #businesstransformation #PEbacked #awardwinningculture 

Andrew doesn't deal with arseholes, and he'll tell you why in this down to earth podcast on leading business change globally. 

If you think being purposeful or purpose led is a cliché or strapline, listen to this podcast with Andrew Powell who demonstrates how being deeply purposeful can lead to a global change. 

Andrew has founded, created and led a dozen businesses with many ups and a few downs, the lessons from which he shares openly and practically in this recording. Insights from having to close a business growing too fast and working with Private Equity Company LDC to run a business that he subsequently took through an MBO, are just two of the stories he shares. 

What is it about Andrew Powell that makes him the leader he is? Perhaps you could comment or email me your thoughts. 

There's no doubt in my mind that part of the answer is a deep seated purpose, a social conscience and ambition to do better business in a better way. The results of this internal drive are evident, not just in his boundless energy for an old man ( just joking, Andrew!!) but in the commercial outcomes that allow for additional community benefits. 

One lesson for me was the comment on the power of focussing on three things. Makes sense! 

Unfortunately if you are looking for a successful, driven Humble Entrepreneur and CEO to lead your business, he's unavailable. Andrew has found a new home where he can align his love of sport, commercial brain and focus on social mobility at the Lighthouse Group. The Lighthouse Group serves those in ‘high intensity careers, and specialise in working with talent across the worlds of Sport & Entertainment. The Group have a clear purpose to help maximise the individual’s potential, and to create sustainable financial futures.

With all is acumen and influence, and being a lifelong supporter of Swansea City Football Club, why-oh-why didn't he buy the Club when the opportunity arose? You've got to love his honest answer. 

No doubt Andrew is a wonderful guest with numerous practical insights and information to help develop us as leaders and inspire listeners to lead and build even better business and businesses. 

If Andrew was to run a Master Class, it might be titled : Businesses with purpose can change the global landscape. Here's how to do it.  

Should you have any questions, feedback or suggestions for future guests, please email pj @ pjstevens.co.uk or connect with me through LinkedIn. 

#PJTips #LeadingBusinessChange #Purpose #Entrepreneurship #PrivateEquity #LDC #SocialMobility #Sport #Entertainment #Education 

In this Episode of the PJ Tips Podcast on Leading Business Change, guest Gareth Rogers, CEO Farnborough International and ex CFO and CEO Southampton Football Club talks about his leadership experiences from Football, and perhaps more importantly, as CEO of Farnborough International. 

This podcast is for those interested in hearing practical insights and learning from leaders who want to share their experiences in the hope it will help us to build and lead better business. Whilst there are some comments about Football, this is more about Leadership and Business. If you want deep dark secrets from the Premier League, this is not the podcast for you. If you are interested in financial strategy, change, business transformation, hard work, honest and credible leadership, and leading business change, then tune in to hear Gareth Rogers talking Top Flight Leadership.... Top Flight... top flight football, top flight Aviation... get it?! 

Gareth is, by his own admittance, a professional Accountant. And it was whilst he was at Deloittes that the opportunity came up to do an interim role at Saints. He joined the year after Administration in a CFO role. He soon took the full time role and went on to be CEO at the Club.  During his tenure Saints enjoyed some decent success in Premiere League and got into Europe. During this period revenues grew from some £11 – 175M .

Football seems a peculiar business, to me, with some of its own rules and behaviours. Yet in essence, it should be a simple business. Gareth offers some very matter of fact insights into the business of football and how it is similar but different from more main stream business.

From Saints, Gareth moved to the role of CEO at Farnborough International. They organise the world's best Air Show, and are an International Events organiser and have invested in and built one of the Top 5 Conference centres in the UK at a cost of some £35M. 

Listening to Gareth talk through the last two years, the challenges of running an Air Show virtually, putting customers first and the mindset change that took, is inspiring. Listen out for the break through moment he describes, it's quite something special. 

The Farnborough Air Show has been around since 1948, and Gareth and his team are tasked with building on that and ensuring it remains current and relevant to the global Aviation players. How are they going about that, Gareth explains. I was enthralled hearing him talk about what Farnborough International should or could be in the business space, how it can help people ‘convene’ and deliver thought leadership around aviation. Certainly aviation is big business in the UK and he talks about the need and value to getting people together around Farnborough as a global hub for the industry.

Did you know that in recent years, they have set up film studios, stored cars and host the British Car Show? Demonstrating the business transformation and ambition of the team at Farnborough.

I asked Gareth what were the common lessons learned from Saints and from his first few years at Farnborough. The common thread is mind set and how to change and develop thinking, beliefs and behaviours. Notably how do you turn a business that delivers a massive air show every other year into an online show and conference for the market place? 

We may be fed up with the C-word, but Covid really has left a positive mark on Farnborough and its people, by 'forcing' them to get creative, move quickly and create a Virtual Air Show, whilst ensuring clients felt loved. No mean feat! 

Major world shows and events have disappeared, so how will Gareth future proof our air show. How will they listen to customers and transform in order to be sustainable and successful in the New world….? You'll have to listen. 

My thanks to Gareth Rogers from Farnborough International, and to you for listening. 

In this episode of the PJ Tips Leading Business Change podcast series, our guest is Jami Taylor from the Bay Area, West Coast USA.

Jami Taylor joined us from the West Coast of the US, she is an expert in innovation, change and growth strategies, and has a wealth of experience in M&A on a global scale, particularly in Pharma, BioTech and MedTech space.

She spent nearly 15 years at global pharma giant Johnson & Johnson in leadership roles in Corporate Affairs and founding team, Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health. Her current roles include Biotech Executive, Advisor & Board Member, Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Protagonist Therapeutics and Board Member at Object Pharma and Aneira Pharma.

J&J have been involved in over 1000 Mergers & Acquisitions, and many more will have been researched and rejected. In this podcast Jami gives insight into The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of M&A, and offers some very practical lessons from case studies.

We nearly called this episode 'Know M&A, Know the Future of Business', have a listen and let us know your thoughts.

First off Jami gives us an over view of some of the key growth strategies for business, and when different strategies are more appropriate for businesses. I found it fascinating how she talks us through the value of Organic Growth, the hard, dirty, yet often over looked hands on work that adds significant value to businesses. Organic Growth can often be less risky, if not as sexy as Inorganic Growth including Joint Ventures and M&A. 

I ask Jami 'What is an M&A, and why should business leaders engage in M&A?'. Her experience affords us specific insights and valuable lessons. She talks us through examples of failed M&A, and give us some useful insight into the hurdles and losses. Listening to this might help listeners to think very precisely about potential hurdles or losses that might occur - or have occurred - in their growth. 

So what ae the ingredients in a good M&A?  Jami tells us in this podcast. 

Change, as we know, is often risky, expensive and failure intensive. I do a lot of work with clients on identifying, understanding and managing potential pitfalls to any change or project, including M&A, and I use I tried and tested process to show management precisely where to pay more and less attention in order to reduce those pitfalls and greatly improve the likelihood of success. 

When you hear Jami talk about de-risking mergers and acquisitions ( integration etc), she shares some useful and practical suggestions from her years of experience, and even suggests a tippy-toe / softly-softly approach to M&A, such as get to know the potential target, do some work together, deliver a project and so on. This gives first hand insight into how they they work, they values, culture and ways of being. A great strategy or deal can be undermined and brought to its knees by a clash of culture or failure to find a 'fit'. 

Finally we talk about the importance to buyers in the Medtech and Biotech fields of acquiring business with clear Purpose, Green Credentials and ESG strategy.

Thanks to Jami Taylor, thanks to you for listening. Please message with any questions, feedback or suggestions for future guests.

On this PJ Tips Leading Business Change podcast, our guest is Oliver Hoffman, Head of M&A at Mazars. Oliver gives us his Straight Talking M&A views, practical insights and information in this episode. 

If you are interested in understanding more about M&A generally, why some work and others don't, or if you are thinking about participating in M&A activity, this podcast is for you. 

PJ Tips podcasts promise practical tips from experienced leaders. Here's why Oliver is worth listening to: 

Oliver advises owner managers, families, entrepreneurs and private equity houses on the sale of their businesses, usually seeking well funded larger corporates as buyer. He also works with larger corporate clients on divesting their non-core subsidiaries and finding acquisition targets. In recent years a high proportion of the transactions Oliver and the team at Mazars have advised on have been cross-border deals with the purchasers and vendors based in the UK, Europe, North America and the Far East. He and the team have been involved in hundreds of deals, and Oliver shares insights and tips from that combined experience.

Oliver answers questions such as:

What is an M&A Deal? 

What are the typical elements or characteristics of a successful deal?

What are the hurdles or failings that lead to an unsuccessful deal or even stop deals being done?

How is is different working with Entrepreneurial Businesses and Family Owned Businesses

How do Sellers and Buyers fair Emotionally in M&A? 

What do Buyers and Sellers want from a deal - and how do you help facilitate the deal?

Oliver tells us about what owners need to think about in selling and offers a few tips to help better prepare. He also shares what buyers look for, and therefore what can we learn? The piece I enjoyed hearing in talk about, is the need for Certainty from Buyers. Let me know what you think? 

Given that any change is failure or risk intensive, and that some 70% of M&A fail to meet expectation, I ask Oliver why this is, and what he suggests we do to improve the odds. 

This is a space I operate in for clients, and can show clients potential hurdles to delivering M&A, so they can see precisely where to pay attention to significantly tip the likelihood of success in their favour.

Finally Oliver answers a few fun quickfire questions from listeners. 

Thank you to Oliver Hoffman @ Mazars for giving us in-depth and practical insights and information to better prepare for Merges and Acquisitions. 

If you have suggestions for guests on this show, please get in touch. Thank you for listening, and I hope you laughed at the Door Bell moment! 

#M&A  #mergers   #acquisition #change #leadingbusinesschange #crossborder # familyownedbusiness #entrepreneurialbusiness #preptosell 

This episode of PJ Tips Podcast on Leading Business Change features Matthew Wragg, Chief Customer Officer at Gattaca who tells us why you need to stay paranoid in business, and how Covid helped transform their mission and ‘change up the game’.

Gattaca provide collaborative workforce solutions and recruitment services, tailored for the engineering & technology markets. Gattaca is a group of companies, including Matchtech, and has 500-600 staff globally.

If you want to hear more about practical challenges in mergers and integration and how having a clear purpose can help build an even better business, this is worth a listen. Unearthing your purpose, engaging and embedding it is not a quick fix. You need to commit and listen – really listen to people – and when you get it ‘right’ the transformation is palpable. Don’t believe me, check out this podcast.

Topics covered include:

Bringing Purpose to Life

Mission, Vision and Values

Clarity of message

What does good and bad look like

Merger M&A

Sustainability

Integration and Business transformation

Leadership in Change

Transformation through Tribes to Villages

If you are in any doubt about how purpose affects people, then listen carefully to Matthews voice and energy change as he starts to share insights about crafting the ‘new’ Mission and Vision.

I particularly love the bit where he shares how the Purpose is brought to life in some many aspects inside and outside the business, including the Children’s Christmas ( Party) Challenge this year. It clearly demonstrates that Purpose is not just a marketing phrase or hollow words on a job spec.

The story he tells starts with the challenges of a merger and integration. The purpose and mission existed, but was not unified, understood and really lived, though as he admits, it could have been ok. His points about trust and leadership are important elements of the learning from the journey. In essence the merger and integration could have been better and more efficient, and with their new purpose and better aligned business, doubtless new acquisitions will be much easier.

If you are interested in Matthews points about Tribes and Villages, these are referenced from Author of Blitzscaling, Chris Yeh, who talks about understanding how an organisation grows, the Five Stages and challenges. You might find it interesting to read this and cross reference with this podcast.

The story continues from working from the office to be almost entirely home based due to Covid. At this time the business set some goals and challenges to engage staff and have some fun. The outcomes turned out to be much more than fun, indeed it led to rethinking their Mission, Vision and Values, and gave them a new clearly defined Purpose. The 12 month process was engaging and collaborative. Matthew admits he could have written a decent purpose on his own. In reality none of his words made the final version. What does that say about the importance of engaging staff, listening and finding that common purpose.

The fun challenges mentioned included ‘Helping 1000 people get back to work’ during Covid. In fact they achieved twice this number in less time than expected. Why?

Matthew has done a few Marathons, even his slow ones are quicker than me! But did you know he did a Marathon around his garden in support of the NHS in Lockdown. What’s this got to do with purpose and leadership – may be very little, or perhaps there’s more to it?

Matthew offers many examples of how the Mission, Vision and Values are brought to life and lived in the business. You get the sense it really is integrated and understood.

Finally his Top Tips for Leading Business Change:

· Execution

· Authentic

Stay Paranoid ( you need to hear the narrative to understand this) 

Thank you to Matthew, and thank you for listening.

In this episode of the PJ Tips podcast ‘Leading Business Change’, we hear from Zoe Bailey, Head of Strategic Operations at Withers & Rogers, with responsibility for the development and management of the firm’s strategic operational activities. Zoe is ex-BDO, where I first met her.

This podcast conversation is about Purpose , and more specifically, the Purpose (or power) of Purpose.

We hear the word Purpose touted around a lot, its on websites and marketing material and I’ve seen it written on walls but what does really mean and what value – if any – does it offer people and businesses.

Zoe helps defines Purpose and offers a very interest sailing analogy. Listen to it and see what pictures it helps your create.

We explore what purpose is and why in a post pandemic world it could be argued that purpose is more important than ever. Zoe talks about the agile disconnected workforce, fragmented culture, critical decision making, scenario planning, strategic planning and the importance of trust.

She references agile working policy at W&R, the rationale for it, how it is working and some of the challenges and advantages.

Zoe talks about how being purposeful can provide clarity for the business, it’s people and clients, and offers a specific example from BDO and oil and gas sector example and how this works alongside the focus on GDPR. She continues on this thread with reference to Withers & Rogers moving from a European focus to Winning World Wide and how this recognised the purpose of being a Global business.

I found it useful to hear her practical insights ( and hard work) on bringing purpose into the business, it has to resonate, it cannot be imposed, and she shares the approach taken by BDO and the approach being taken now in a smaller firm at W&R to unearth and instil purpose.

We know that the practical benefits of purpose are wide ranging, and it’s simply fascinating to listen to Zoe bring it back to the simple and powerful things such as increased trust and improved decision making. She goes on to talk about the power of certainty around direction, clarity around vision and strategy, and purpose as a bedrock to values and behaviours. This leads to doing what you know you are capable of and are good at, it improve collaboration and stops you being so easily blinded by shiny objects – a challenge that many teams and business face!

Zoe expects that this approach will enable W&R to become more strategic and have the confidence to invest more readily in the future, and to trial and pilot new things.

I really wanted to explore trust in this recording, as its ever more important. Trust is key in any business. Trust is central in effective relationships, good leadership and problem solving, yet many businesses sense a low level of trust in their leadership, and varies surveys and papers inc HBR support this. So how can purpose help?

Zoe tells us about how increased levels of trust lead to decisions being made swiftly and importantly supported and implemented even when there are varying levels of agreement.  In essence, having Purpose liberates a business – but everyone has to buy into this – otherwise it quickly falls apart.

It could be asked that ‘trust’ in business, trust in business leaders, trust in each other has been challenged as we all take stock of decisions that have been taken in the last 18 months.

Having purpose may well improve profits, but it comes as a result of really bringing the purpose to life. There are surveys and data that show purposeful companies are 12% more profitable than their counter parts

As an example Purpose, we talk about Air BnB and WeWork, or rather I have a rant about the two examples!

In closing here’s a few Top Tips:

Commit - It’s not necessarily quick and easy.

Don’t assume

Engage people

Embed

The Role of the CEO in Transformation.

In this PJ Tips Podcast, Global CEO Julio Bruno shares his experiences and insights into the role of the CEO in business transformation. Julio was the CEO Of Time Out Group, comprising two businesses - Time Out Media and Time Out Markets. 

He is an Investor, Non Executive Director, Award Winning Business Leader and recognised as an advocate for the environment and for human rights around the globe. He is recognised for his work in Diversity and Inclusion, and offers some powerful views on why this matters to business and the broader community.

Julio shares his thoughts on the very practical activities that a CEO needs to pay attention to in Transformation, including:

Digital Transformation

IPO 

Strategic Alignment

Culture Change

Business Growth 

Problem Solving 

Julio talks specifically about taking the business Public in the Summer of 2016, raising £195M, prior to the Brexit Vote and the subsequent uncertainty and questions arose in the market. He shares the challenges of taking the business global, opening up new Time Out Markets, and then taking a business focussed on Time OUT, to a business that needed to pivot to a business helping people spend Time IN necessitated by Covid - imagine all the work that would have taken not just in the digital change and online content, but the challenge of aligning peoples beliefs and confidence in the strategy and change. 

The importance of clarity in strategy, culture and communication in transformation is clear, though its not easy! Listen to Julio's practical tips and consider which ones will best be of interest and use in your business. 

Julio is now a Non Executive Director, Investor and Speaker, with global experience. Get in touch with Julio or me, PJ Stevens, if we can be of service. 

#leadingbusinesschange #culture #transformation #business #ipo #merger #acquisition #fundraising #diversity # inclusion #culturechange #strategy #strategicalignment #ceo #leadership #communication #nonexecutivedirector #conferencespeaker #facilitator #digitaltransformation #globalmarkets #pjtips #buildingbetterbusiness 

In this Podcast on Leading Business Change, our guest Richard Draisey talks about Purpose, Strategy & Transformation and Why Business Leaders Must Think BIG!

Richard is the Chief Financial Officer at the newly founded E1 Series and is the ex Director, Financial Strategy & Transformation at McLaren F1 Racing Team, he is a qualified Accountant and yet is surprisingly human! An experienced strategic finance leader, skilled in complex business transformation – perhaps more importantly, he’s a true believer and participant in the purpose led business movement and aims to make a positive contribution to the sustainability revolution to protect our planet and future generations.

In this podcast Richard shares his views on Transformation is. He shares in some detail about the financial strategy and transformation programmes they ran at McLaren F1. Further, he gives us insights into the systems and changes he put in place to specifically improve business and transformation.

During Richard's time at McLaren the Spending Cap in F1 was introduced, Richard tells us how it impacted the business, decisions and behaviours. There are some very practical and useful lessons learned (and shared), including the transformational relationships between Finance and Engineering. Rich shares how the recognition of the importance and value of the Finance Department changed, and how the innovation and collaboration developed out of necessity. 

I asked Rich how can teams talk about sustainability and then go racing in cars? How do you manage Sponsors wanting to win with sustainability and broader purpose?  We talk about that purpose and sustainability and the conflicts that might exist in Formula One F1.

Richard reveals his personal interest in sustainability and the planet, and how it offered him the opportunity to join Rodi Basso CEO and Founder of the E1 Series. The E 1 Series is the first and only World Electric Powerboat Series. These guys have been said to be the coolest Team of the Sport Industry to build a new exciting sport show and spectacular city events. E1 will accelerate the electrification process of the Marine Industry.

E1 do not claim to be the fastest and most impressive form of motorsport. There are turbine powered cats doing well over 200mph and boats costing many millions £$£ setting records across the Atlantic. So the E1 electric boats, 7m long and doing 50kts may not seem exciting. E1 will be innovative and capable of running races much closer to spectators than offshore power boats. Racing side by side in City Docks or Harbours will undoubtedly be a spectacle. More over, the E1 Series will be a development platform for electrification in the marine industry. 

Finally, Richard ends with some Tip Tips on leading business change. 

Having listened to the Podcast, we hope you understand what Richard means 'Why Businesses must think BIG regarding, Purpose, Strategy and Transformation. 

#business #ambition #leadingbusinesschange #culture #finance #financedirector #transformation #purpose #formulaone #f1 formula1 #formulae #marineindustry #sustainability #racing #innovation #motorsport #pjtips #engineering #spendingcap #businesstransformation #leadership #electrification #powerboats #E1 #E1Series #strategy #startup #branding 

Disruption and High Growth Business Strategies 

This Podcast will be of interest to Business Students, Managers, Leaders and Company Owners, those starting a business and those thinking about exiting a business. This podcast is a Leadership MBA Masterclass from Aaron Montgomery, who founded Carlotz in 2011 with two colleagues, in 2020 they IPO'd the business for some $300M. 

The purpose of PJ Tips Podcasts is to offer listeners insights and information to inspire practical change. My hope is that together we help build even better business, for all our sakes. 

Aaron hails from Detroit and was in the car business before going to Harvard. The aim of Carlotz was to disrupt the market and improve service for both buyers and sellers. 

Carlotz was founded out of some frustration, from what the founders saw as a broken system. Their view was if you wanted to buy or sell a car, you could either take the easy way and lose your shirt with a dealership or the hard way and do it all yourself. Whichever way you went, you had to be prepared for headaches and hassles and that simply wasn’t good enough. The system lacked trust in their opinion. 

The innovative Carlotz model put the value back in the hands of their guests. Sellers get what their car is worth without the hassle of selling it themselves, and our buyers pay below traditional dealership prices. Carlotz do not pay pay staff commission, so their only incentive is to help they buyer find a car. Likewise, as cars are sold for a set fee, there is no incentive to buy or trade a car in cheaply. Its all very clear and the differentiator is transparency. 

In this podcast, Aaron shares his insights from starting the business through to its public offering after nine years. He talks about planning and financing the growth, some of the challenges of growth and how he as leader played his part in growing and developing Carlotz and the culture. 

Aaron is no longer full time in the business, but remains its greatest cheerleader. He has since written a book - Suspend Your Beliefs - and is supporting a company called Mission Lane which is company set up to help people find fair credit. 

Aaron's story is an MBA in a nutshell! 

#Start up  #MVP #MinimalViableProduct #TestingAssumptions #Funding #BusinessModelCanvas #FastGrowth #Expansion #Culture #Controls  #Governance #Differentiation #MarketPenetration #CustomerService #Purpose #IPO #Exit #Ansoff #Leadership #EatYourBreakfast #Car #Automotive #PESTEL #BlueOcean #RedOcean