I will never forget that conversation….. I had a successful career in investment banking and engineering. In a meeting with the MD of the large utility in the southern hemisphere, Water Corporation, he said “I want to hire you to explore privatisation and lead cultural change.” I asked him why. “Why me, I don’t have water or waste water experience, I don’t even know if wastewater is one word or two.”
He replied “I have three thousand employees who know everything about water and waste water and, by the way, wastewater is one word. Technically they are the best in the world but what I want is someone who can bring different perspectives, different business experiences, out of the box strategic thinking, someone to challenge the status quo. Business as usual with incremental growth isn’t going to cut it in today’s brave new world.”
Well, 4 years later I bought that out of the box thinking to pioneer desalination and alliance contracting and now 20+ years later and 20+ boards in different industries later I am a serial advisory board advocate, experienced company director and trusted adviser who loves helping companies grow.
Being a company director and advisory board chairman has taught me many valuable lessons. Some of the most memorable include:
- Boards should be 80% strategy, 20% compliance/governance
- If your business isn’t growing, its dying
- The right choice is never the easiest one
My goal is putting these and many other lessons I’ve learned from the deep experiences in many different industries to good use and to make a diffrence. There are great companies out there. Full of promises and the ability to make a huge impact. However, those businesses are usually lacking three things to get them to their next stage of growth.
- Ability to scale the business
- Understanding the next-stage phase of growth best practices
- Fresh eyes on their business
So, if you are reading this and are part of, or know of a company in need where I could help, contact me. I’d be happy to have conversation with them.
The value of fresh eyes can be found in the example of one of the most efficient airlines in the world: SouthWest Airlines.
“Southwest Airlines used to have a problem. Most of its aircraft were on the ground between flights for an average of 40 – expensive – minutes. Although it had benchmarked its refuelling processes against other airlines, it found it was already one of the leaders. Some sort of quantum leap for improvement was needed, a new perspective, outside the box thinking. So, it was advised to look outside the airline industry for the most efficient refuellers in the world. This was Formula One car racing. Adopting the turnaround processes used during pit stops, Southwest Airlines can now refuel an aeroplane in 12 minutes, a saving of a huge 28minutes”
I would like to help, please CLICK HERE to contact me for a free ‘head to toe’ assessment of your current and future needs and requirements.
