Navigate Private Equity’s Glass Ceiling
Investors supporting entrepreneurs to realise their visions
Glass Ceiling
You will have a portfolio of companies with a considerable stake invested in them, but one or more of the companies in your portfolio is not performing as anticipated or promised. The management team running the company are either enthusiastic amatuers, but now need to operate as seasoned professionals, Or they are ex-corporate middle/senior leaders who have forgotten how to solve problems without throwing money at them and/or delegating to more junior people doing the actual work rather than doing the work themselves.
In either case they likely have a poor understanding of how to strategise and manage expectations. i.e Understand what the problem is they intend to solve, what they think the solution is, create a plan to move from A to B and how to convey this meaningfully to their shareholders.
If they have a creative temperament it’s entirely possible they are caught in a cycle of ideation, endlessly refining their ideas and avoid taking action. If lacking in theses key skills and trapped in the creative cycle it will be near impossible to get anything across the start line, never mind finish line.
If they are overly action orientated it’s likely they will commit resources to act on partially formed thoughts and poor decisions, inadvertently draining your financial investment. This follows the Peter Principle, represented below: People are promoted based on their success in previous roles until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one role do not necessarily transfer to another.
“I worked with Kenny on an individual basis and as part of my senior leadership team to help overcome some challenges around change. The results have been excellent and it's no coincidence the overall performance accelerated in the period Kenny was working with us.”
Nick Cohen, Founder and CEO of PCR (Acquired by Arrow Communications)
Mission Ready
Ideally, your management team will have an intimate understanding of the problem in the marketplace they are expecting to solve for their future/growing customer base as well as the solution they’ve developed to do so. They will also have a deep understanding of strategy, i.e. How to convert an aspiration to action through clearly defined long and short term objectives and steps to achieving them, which they have also articulated clearly to their peers, direct reports and shareholders.
When one of the management team bumps up against a problem in pursuit of their objective they roll their sleeves up, get down in the mud and persevere until the outcome is achieved. As the company grows they will nurture a culture of strategic thinking and autonomy in those that come to work by coaching their direct reports to solve problems for themselves, so they can increasingly work on the business instead of in it. My job, as your Operating Partner, is to nudge your struggling management team, step by step, through their glass ceiling to mission ready.
“Kenny has been working with our young people on business opportunities and our budding entrepreneurs have been able to apply a real-time business perspective. Working with everyone from start-ups to heavy-hitters, Kenny draws on this experience without ego. His personable approach and energy are infectious.”
Adele Armour - Teacher of Art & Design and Enterprise Co-ordinator, Hutchesons’ Grammar School
Work with me
Would you, your team or organisation benefit from an objective perspective to catch your blindspots?
I work exclusively with highly motivated individuals and teams who’ve hit a glass ceiling, are aware they’ve hit a glass ceiling and unable to move forward. If this describes your situation then lets discuss your options.
“The world we created is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. No problem can be solved with the same level of consciousness that created it”
Albert Einstein - Theoretical Physicist & Nobel Laureate
Stay ahead of the curve
Performance
35% growth in first 12 months of supporting tech company CEO
Successful merger and acquisition of £1.2million turnover company
Finance function of 274 achieved World Class status, 0.7% turnover
People
100% staff retention during redundancy and off-shoring process
36% sickness absence reduction across 300 staff in 9 months
15% engagement flipped to 80% across 241 people in 12 months
Process
50% reduction in Shared Service Centre operating costs, £5million
Re-engineered operational strategy for life sciences company in 8hrs
Re-engineered Multi-£Million Invalid Deduction Finance process in 16 hrs
Navigate The Private Equity Glass Ceiling
Investors supporting entrepreneurs to realise their visions
Glass Ceiling
You will have a portfolio of companies with a considerable stake invested in them, but one or more of the companies in your portfolio is not performing as anticipated or promised. The management team running the company are either enthusiastic amatuers, but now need to operate as seasoned professionals, Or they are ex-corporate middle/senior leaders who have forgotten how to solve problems without throwing money at them and/or delegating to more junior people doing the actual work rather than doing the work themselves.
In either case they likely have a poor understanding of how to strategise and manage expectations. i.e Understand what the problem is they intend to solve, what they think the solution is, create a plan to move from A to B and how to convey this meaningfully to their shareholders.
If they have a creative temperament it’s entirely possible they are caught in a cycle of ideation, endlessly refining their ideas and avoid taking action. If lacking in theses key skills and trapped in the creative cycle it will be near impossible to get anything across the start line, never mind finish line.
If they are overly action orientated it’s likely they will commit resources to act on partially formed thoughts and poor decisions, inadvertently draining your financial investment. This follows the Peter Principle, represented below: People are promoted based on their success in previous roles until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one role do not necessarily transfer to another.
“I've worked with Kenny both on an individual basis and as part of my senior leadership team to help overcome some challenges around change. The results have been excellent and it's no coincidence the overall performance accelerated in the period Kenny was working with us.”
Nick Cohen, Founder and CEO of PCR (Acquired by Arrow Communications)
Mission Ready
Ideally, your management team will have an intimate understanding of the problem in the marketplace they are expecting to solve for their future/growing customer base as well as the solution they’ve developed to do so. They will also have a deep understanding of strategy, i.e. How to convert an aspiration to action through clearly defined long and short term objectives and steps to achieving them, which they have also articulated clearly to their peers, direct reports and shareholders.
When one of the management team bumps up against a problem in pursuit of their objective they roll their sleeves up, get down in the mud and persevere until the outcome is achieved. As the company grows they will nurture a culture of strategic thinking and autonomy in those that come to work by coaching their direct reports to solve problems for themselves, so they can increasingly work on the business instead of in it. My job, as your Operating Partner, is to nudge your struggling management team through their glass ceilings, step by step, from how it is to how it should be.
“Kenny has been working with our young people on business opportunities and our budding entrepreneurs have been able to apply a real-time business perspective. Working with everyone from start-ups to heavy-hitters, Kenny draws on this experience without ego. His personable approach and energy are infectious.”
Adele Armour - Teacher of Art & Design and Enterprise Co-ordinator, Hutchesons’ Grammar School
Work with me
Would you, your team or organisation benefit from an objective perspective to catch your blindspots?
I work exclusively with highly motivated individuals and teams who’ve hit a glass ceiling, are aware they’ve hit a glass ceiling and unable to move forward. If this describes your situation then lets discuss your options.
“The world we created is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. No problem can be solved with the same level of consciousness that created it”
Albert Einstein - Theoretical Physicist & Nobel Laureate
Stay ahead of the curve
Notable outcomes
-
35% growth in first 12 months of supporting tech company CEO
Successful merger and acquisition of £1.2million turnover company
Finance function of 274 achieved World Class status, 0.7% turnover
-
100% staff retention during redundancy and off-shoring process
36% sickness absence reduction across 300 staff in 9 months
15% engagement flipped to 80% across 241 people in 12 months
-
50% reduction in Shared Service Centre operating costs, £5million
Re-engineered operational strategy for life sciences company in 8hrs
Re-engineered Multi-£Million Invalid Deduction Finance process in 16 hrs