How could business mentoring improve your company’s performance?
Does your business suffer from any of the following?
- Lack of profitable organic growth
- Inadequate systems and processes
- Questions about executive director appointments or remuneration levels
- Poor decision-making caused by groupthink
- A business model that no longer works
- Products or services that don’t contribute to sustainable development
- Declining trust in your company’s brand
- Slow adoption of the digital imperative
- Little appreciation of the increasing importance of environment, social and governance (ESG) issues
- Pressure from shareholder activists
- Difficulties in raising finance
- Lacklustre communication of values and culture
- A dearth of connections who can introduce your business to relevant networks, organisations or people.
Business mentoring can deal with all those issues and put your company firmly on the road to profitable, sustainable growth.
Whom can I help?
I mentor company boards and individual board directors who want to grow profitable revenue, sustainably.
I also support newly promoted board directors, helping them to:
- transition successfully into their new role
- establish positive relationships
- become effective quickly.
Why engage an external company mentor?
An external mentor will do what no internal adviser can. As well as offering access to insights and know-how gained from working with a range of organisations, an external mentor will act as a confidential but independent sounding board and facilitate fruitful meetings.
In the case of strategic planning meetings, for example, a good external company mentor will:
- challenge participants to prepare themselves properly for the meeting
- create a safe environment where participants can contribute their views candidly, without fear of censure
- act as a buffer between the more vocal individuals and the rest, ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to be heard
- keep your meeting on track and on point
- offer an independent, unbiased perspective
- provide helpful tools and resources
- keep track of key deliverables and takeaways
- hold the board members accountable.
Why choose me to mentor your organisation?
If you want to reap the full benefits of company mentoring, you need to find a mentor or non-executive director (NED) with the right mix of experience, knowledge and communication skills.
My mentoring abilities flow from my 25-plus years in the commercial world, helping businesses grow both organically and via mergers and acquisitions (M&A). I have worked with both global and smaller organisations in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the Russian Federation.
In 2021 alone, I have mentored more than 20 board directors, with a particular focus on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the early 90s I have served as a director, board adviser or NED to companies such as:
- Aestimo Technologies, Cirkularis 8, Hine Legal, Dixons Carphone GM and the Lakethorne Group, all based in London
- Greenfisher in Reading, Holt Lloyd in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and European Business Groups – Brent International in Iver, Buckinghamshire
- Henkel Russia in St Petersburg and Moscow
- Henkel South-East Asia in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok
To help clients achieve their aims, I focus my mentoring on three themes: foresight, insight and oversight.
- Foresight allows us to envision what is ahead and how it connects our present to our future. All boards need to carve out time each month specifically for foresight.
- Insight is like viewing the business through a microscope. It helps us to understand why things happen, and to identify the people and tools we need to deliver our desired outcomes.
- Oversight means constantly monitoring and reviewing the organisation and its policies, plans, programmes and projects, to ensure that they:
- are achieving expected results
- represent good value for money
- comply with applicable laws, regulations and ethical standards.
How does the company mentoring process work?
I mentor my clients via any or all of the following:
- telephone calls
- virtual communication platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams
- face-to-face meetings where practical and COVID-safe.
I usually attend board meetings either formally as a non-executive director or informally as a strategic adviser. I offer my mentoring services for between 12 and 35 days a year, depending on company size and the board’s requirements.
Confidentiality is essential to both trust and success, so I always sign a confidentiality agreement in advance.
Although the process is well structured, it is flexible enough to adapt to individual challenges.
What now?
Would you like to know more about how I can help your business achieve profitable, sustainable growth? Then contact me now to discuss your needs.