A good friend, a natural musician, ‘just plays’ the piano. I have no idea how he does it and he recounts that, to begin with, he could not understand why others could not do what he could do. He has a gift, which he has subsequently worked at all his life. In much the same way as I can shout out ‘Sinnerman’ or ‘Sultans of Swing’ (or anything else I may have heard on the radio that day) to my keyboard wizard buddy and he ‘just plays it’, I can see and decode a business, its strengths and weaknesses, its threats and opportunities …in minutes, whatever its nature, size and sector. Try me.
I literally could not wait to leave school to start a business – I started one in my early teens. I was at board level in a diverse group of companies by the age of 21 and left to form my own company two years later, a marketing services agency. The physical output of the agency was great advertising and other marketing tools, but the bit that stood us apart was how we guided our clients to streamline processes and evolve their organisations, products and practices to reliably outperform their peers. We – my team and our clients – climbed many metaphorical mountains together, such as reversing industry-wide downward price spirals, turning basket case situations into exciting enterprises and spotting opportunities to take from zero to hero.
I did this for almost 15 years which I reflect on as ‘my apprenticeship for anything’. I then decided to start some more businesses, exit them and then go on to straighten out other people’s problem investments. My instincts are sharper than ever, reinforced by three decades of experience. To give you a flavour of it, I have recounted some stories.
I have an insatiable curiosity about everything. Starting in the 1980s, every business I encountered was a new subject to immerse myself in. As time went by immersion took less and less time for two reasons:
- all businesses interrelate with others (so I already knew at least half the equation); and
- patterns emerged.
Some of my earliest exposure to business was in electronics, the music industry, hotels, property development, import and export of antiquities, industrial automation, cable television, licensed merchandise, toy manufacturing, distribution transport, publishing and print. The list has grown considerably since, including building trades, fuel distribution, luxury furniture, architecture, paint and boats. This is by no means an exhaustive list!
The benefit of all this to you is that whatever challenge you are facing, I will have seen similar elsewhere and can draw on a deep well of experience to help you navigate confidently to a better position.
I have pondered starting another company, or finding another to run, but I can make more difference, and derive more satisfaction from, working with a select few – a ‘virtual group’. As one of my old clients once wrote in a testimonial: “Find him before your competitors do!”
Funnily enough, Virtual Chairman was not my idea – it started as an off-the-cuff remark from an old friend and colleague. “It’s what you do”, he said. Indeed it is.