Been there, bought the T-Shirt…
30 years as a founder, CEO and MD of different companies, in BtoB as well as BtoC environments, brought me a wealth of experiences closely related to the digital transformation and/or transition of businesses. I had the opportunity to experience the roller coaster of entrepreneurship emotions, from the Stock Market listing of one company to the Receivership of another, and all the other stages in between including heavy restructuring as well as different funding phases and schemes.
Training as an executive business coach turned out to be a natural move, keen to share my experience in a sparring partner mode with a special focus, for business leaders, to daily assert their leadership while fulfilling their objectives. Thanks to a broad education (Engineering degree in Computer Science, Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and HEC MBA), I have developed a very strong adaptability favoured by a natural curiosity to discover and understand the specifics of very different types of businesses.
Post Brexit / COVID
With the dust slowly settling down after the lengthy BREXIT process, a new business landscape is being unveiled with a serious reality check on some topics. For different reasons, the outcome of the COVID crisis has the same impact on the challenges for any leaders to assess the “back to normal”. For each market, in UK and France, some significant changes have already or are taking place. It is already impacting the business environment to an extent still to be fully assessed and the “rules of engagement” with customers, partners and team alike.
In any crisis, transition or uncertain situations as well as growth phases, for any executive, the opportunity to fully assert their leadership is real. It starts with the courage to embrace the unknown, explore new territories – including anti-conformism if needed – and experiment with confidence overcoming the risk of failure.
Be IPO (fund raising) ready
Moving fast on the growth motorway, raisings funds and contemplating an IPO as a goal, seems a more “normal” way to run the development of most businesses these days. Beyond the strategy challenges to keep the vision and trajectory in line with these specific objectives and requirements, the main topic for many CEO / Founder(s) is to adapt their governance and leadership to align their ambition with a successful outcome for them and the company.
Going through the IPO (as well as fund raising) process for any leader/founder is an exciting experience but also a challenging one, to address and to deal with the different aspects needed to take on board to stay ahead of the game. Bringing in (early enough) a sparring partner who has been there could definitely facilitate the whole process.
Transition management
Any SME is inevitably faced with transition situations, ranging across operational or financial crisis management, external or organic growth, restructuring/reorganisation, fundraising… In order to be truly effective, the coach can capitalise on a wealth of diverse experience, his neutrality and genuine understanding of SMEs, to be at your side and provide a wide spectrum of operational support, taking into account, without taboos, the valuation of (your) the company in the process.
Adapting to any situations with an entrepreneurial spirit at heart, as well as empathy and humility, your sparring partner can help to manage critical situations in a practical way, with measurable results to help support you through any challenges that may arises
CEO’s business coaching (and valuation) with the company at heart
The diversity, novelty and multiplicity of challenges facing SMEs’, Start-up and Sclae-up leaders highlight the difficulty of always being prepared or armed, especially to often (re)act quickly. Through my experience and the essential sharing of strong values and « multi-faceted » actionable experiences/expertise, I effectively support executives/shareholders by taking this essential height to broaden the perspectives, independently, while being able, if necessary, to enter the operating issues in details.
It is at this price, with my questions, that the answers and therefore the most effective and sustainable actions emerge, promoting their implementation and the support of all stakeholders, taking into account, without taboos, the valuation of (your) the company in the process.