Avoiding Ambushes: Leading Change Effectively
In private equity-backed businesses, change isn’t just a part of the job — it is the job. Delivering a value creation plan inevitably requires rapid evolution: new systems, restructured teams, revised strategies, and different ways of working. The challenge isn’t whether change is necessary — it’s how to execute it in a way that sticks.…
Discipline Wins: How Leading Measures Drive Performance
When I was going through Royal Marines training, the Physical Training Instructors had a mantra: “Give 100%, trust the process.” There was no talk of passing the Commando Course. No discussion about the final test or what it would feel like to wear the green beret. Just relentless focus on the next hill sprint, the…
Are You Building a Team of ‘A Players’?
In Private Equity, execution is everything. Strategy provides direction, but it’s people who turn ideas into outcomes. Without the right leaders in place, value creation plans stall, complexity compounds, and momentum fades. That’s why the question every CEO should be asking is not just “Do I have good people?” but “Do I have enough A…
You Can’t Win From Losing: Execution Self-Assessment
Premise: You Can’t Win From Losing In sport, business, and private equity alike, the scoreboard doesn’t always reflect talent—it reflects discipline. As Bill Belichick puts it: “You can’t win from losing.” It’s a deceptively simple phrase, but it captures something every high-performance team eventually learns the hard way: you don’t get to win until you…
4 Lessons Private Equity Leaders Can Learn from Boeing’s Leadership Failures
In the early 2010s, Boeing was locked in a fierce commercial dogfight. Airbus had just launched the A320neo, a sleek, fuel-efficient aircraft that sent shockwaves through the airline industry. The response from customers was immediate and emphatic—billions of dollars in orders poured in, leaving Boeing scrambling to respond. Time was the enemy. Designing an entirely…
The Vital Role of Executive Coaching in Private Equity
Introduction In the fast-paced world of private equity, the significance of exemplary leadership cannot be overstated. As firms navigate complex investment landscapes and strive for sustainable growth, the role of leadership becomes pivotal in determining success. This article explores the transformative impact of executive coaching in driving value creation within private equity firms. By enhancing…
The Cobra Effect; Incentives and Unintended Consequences.
In the annals of governance and public policy, few stories illustrate the law of unintended consequences better than the infamous “Cobra Effect” in India. This cautionary tale offers profound lessons for leaders, especially those at the helm of private equity-backed portfolio companies, where the alignment of incentives is paramount. The story begins with a well-intentioned…
In Defence of Micromanagement
This article is meant to generate a reaction, something that surprises the reader and makes them think. Hopefully I have made my case effectively but please comment and let me know if you think differently – all respectful opinions are valued! Leadership is not just about empowering people and letting them get on with…
Communicating Uncertainty: Facts vs Opinions in Decisions
Leaders create the conditions for execution. They nurture people and the environment to make it easier for them to perform. If you want to understand why someone is or isn’t performing, it often helps to look at the environment and ask the question, ‘is it easy or difficult to perform here?’ I believe that nearly…
The Space Shuttle and the Horse’s Backside: How context shapes everything.
If you read any articles on LinkedIn, the majority of them will simplify leadership. One of my favourite lines is that “Leadership is all about empowering people and just letting them get on with it”. I thought about this and asked myself the question, “why do we have command and control then?” If leadership is…
Stop Plan and Implement – Start Experiment and Learn
I have been taught that in order to achieve something you have to have a clear goal and a plan to get from A to B. This has worked for the majority of goals I have set over the course of my life. It was the approach I used when I applied to join the Corps and the one I used to plan my career. But I am starting to challenge this assumption based on recent events and what I have learnt over the past couple of years.
The Danger of Blindly Trusting the Data
It was just after midnight on 26 September 1983, Stanislav Petrov, poured himself another cup of coffee and sat back in his chair in front of series of bulky computer screens. He was preparing himself for another night on duty in the Serpukhov-15 bunker just outside of Moscow. His responsibilities included the monitoring of the early warning satellite system which warned the Soviet Union of an impending nuclear missile attack.
What is Organisational Culture?
What is Organisational Culture? Culture is defined as ’the ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or a society’. Put simply, it’s how people behave when they don’t think that they’re being watched. There are a number of models that can be used to help understand organisational culture. There are three that are…
The Spectrums of Leadership
In the last article we talked about the Foundations of Leadership. These are the basic skills that you must have in place before you can start thinking about the spectrums. If you lack self-awareness or fail to understand the context of the situation you are in, then it’s hard to think about adjusting your behaviour. Leadership is all about behaviour but behaviour is based…
