Curious Leadership with Dominic Monkhouse

• 338| Private Equity Exposed: Myths, Realities, and Winning Strategies with Mike Hicks from Catalysis

  Mike Hicks' connection to investing in mid-market companies dates back to 1994, when he worked at the EBRD, contributing to the creation of the first private equity fund in Romania. After overseeing a joint venture between Creditanstalt Investment Bank and Advent International, he developed a keen interest in enhancing investor-management interactions, dedicating over 20 years to this pursuit.In 2010, Mike founded Catalysis, following several years of leading a similar practice at Grant Thornton. With the support of skilled colleagues, he has managed over 375 projects since the company's inception, Mike advocates the importance of coachability and partnership in navigating the complex landscape of mid-market firms.In this episode, Dominic explores the myths and realities of private equity as Mike dismantles common misconceptions about management and investment partnerships. Highlighting the nuanced dynamics between investors and business leaders, he explains that in smaller companies, collaboration often trumps the fear of management changes. Discover The Role of Private Equity in Business Growth: Private equity plays a crucial role in providing funding for businesses, particularly those lacking tangible assets for traditional bank loans, such as tech companies. It serves as an alternative to the UK's shrinking bank funding market by offering equity, facilitating business growth, and providing management teams a pathway to personal wealth.Misconceptions About Private Equity: Management teams often face misconceptions about private equity investment. Some assume operations will continue unchanged, while others fear losing control to investors. In truth, investors aim to add value and collaborate for improvements without seizing control of the business.Team and Organisational Alignment: Aligning the management team’s capabilities with the business's needs is crucial. This match depends on the business model's complexity, market conditions, and growth goals. Businesses often require guidance to optimise their leadership teams to effectively meet these demands.Governance and Strategy in Management: Effective governance should balance strategy formulation and operational execution without overwhelming management. Boards should prioritise maintaining this balance to ensure alignment with value creation rather than focusing solely on financial oversight. Keeping boards small and focused helps avoid operational inefficiencies.Mistakes in Scaling Businesses with Private Equity: Common mistakes in scaling businesses post-private equity deal include neglecting due diligence insights, misunderstanding strategy, underestimating organisational inertia, confusing change activity with results, hastily making key personnel decisions, and suffering from unbalanced governance. Avoiding these pitfalls is essential for the success of private-equity-backed ventures.Higher Multiples with Demonstrated Scalability: Businesses that can demonstrate scalability, such as sustainable growth and robust operational capacity, are more likely to attract higher multiples and favourable responses from investors during deals, highlighting the importance of long-term strategic planning.Book recommendations:Rory Sutherland - Alchemy

  --------  

  54:41
• 337 | Health, Habits & High Performance: Redefining Work Life Balance with Kat Thorne

  Kat Thorne is a positive habits international keynote speaker, teacher and consultant. Her life story of workaholism, breakdown and burnout inspires global audiences to make one small habit change. Former Global Commercial Director & CEO, after losing everything in 2016 due to a health scare, she had no choice but to start again. Kat now works with organisations, leaders and individuals around the world to create one small positive habit change that actually results in increased well-being & resilience. Kat says “Burnout, anxiety, and stress are at an all-time high. People are the most important asset. The better people look after themselves, the better they perform in all areas of life. The result? A healthier, happier and high-performing work and home life”.In this episode, Dominic explores how small changes can have a monumental impact on our personal and professional lives, with Kat challenging the outdated notion of separating work from home life, emphasising how intertwined they really are. An advocate of how quality rest shapes his energy levels and daily performance choices, Dom explains the impact of technology on his mood and productivity, highlighting the delicate balance between connectivity and wellbeing. We also explore how positive habits can transform work environments, and the power of how small yet consistent changes can improve team dynamics, health, and productivity. From breaking the cycle of multitasking in meetings to achieve genuine engagement, this episode provides actionable insights for both personal and professional growth. Whether it's encouraging kids to embrace creativity without screens or finding simple ways to be present, you'll come away with a toolkit for fostering meaningful change in every area of your life.DiscoverThe Power of Morning Routines: Establishing a positive morning routine, like waking up early and dedicating time to self-care, can lead to significant improvements in both personal well-being and professional performance. Starting your day with intention sets a positive tone for everything that follows.Small Changes, Big Impact: Implementing small, positive habits - such as engaging in just 10 minutes of physical activity each day - can be transformative. These manageable changes can lead to increased energy, improved mood, and greater productivity in both personal and work life.Integrating Personal and Professional Life: Recognising the interconnection between personal habits and professional success is key. By fostering positive habits in your personal life, you can enhance your performance, satisfaction, and effectiveness at work.Mindful Technology Use: Be mindful of how and when you consume information, especially through technology. Checking your phone or emails immediately upon waking can inject unnecessary stress and negativity into your day. Instead, create a morning practice that supports a positive mindset.Overcoming Resistance to Change: While making positive changes, you may encounter resistance or negativity from others. Understand that this is a common challenge, and focus on the long-term benefits of your new habits. Staying committed despite external pressures can lead to profound personal growth and transformation.Book recommendations:Dominic’s book Mind Your F**king Business is out now

  --------  

  55:58
• E336 | Transforming Leadership: The Shift to Teamship with Keith Ferrazzi

  Keith Ferrazzi, founder of Ferrazzi Greenlight, is a pioneering executive coach, thought leader, and New York Times #1 bestselling author. For over two decades, he’s transformed Fortune 500 companies, unicorn startups, and governments by challenging teams to break silos and embrace "teamship" over leadership. As the leader of the Greenlight Research Institute, Keith drives innovation in team performance and collaboration. His Radical Innovators Collaborative unites bold thinkers for groundbreaking ideas and best practices. A prolific writer featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and more, Keith’s books include Never Eat Alone, Leading Without Authority, and the cutting-edge Never Lead Alone. In 2024, he received the prestigious Coaches 50 Award, honouring the world’s top executive coaches. Beyond coaching, he’s a philanthropist and strategic investor committed to driving meaningful social impact.In this episode, Dominic explores innovative collaboration methods such as co-elevation and constructive conflict, the need for a shift from individual resilience to collective team resilience and the potential of AI in shaping future team structures. Keith shares anecdotes from coaching executive teams and the insights gained from his research on high-performing teams, highlighting the importance of collaboration, feedback, and a culture of candour in achieving team success. Hear his thoughts about moving away from traditional hierarchical models to more fluid, self-managed teams, advocating for a culture of openness and shared responsibility.DiscoverShift from Leadership to Teamship - Leaders are encouraged to empower their teams to self-manage rather than controlling or micromanaging by transitioning from a traditional leadership model to "teamship" - where responsibility is shared across the team. This helps dismantle silos within organisations, fostering collective accountability and better performance.Candour Over Conflict Avoidance - Radical transparency and open feedback are critical for high-performing teams. Avoiding conflict often leads to mediocrity, while embracing candid and constructive feedback leads to innovation and trust. Practical tools like "candour breaks" and stress testing enable teams to comfortably critique ideas and improve collaboration.Asynchronous Collaboration and Agile Practices - Traditional meeting-centric collaboration methods are inefficient. Harnessing asynchronous collaboration (e.g., collecting input via shared documents) and agile sprints can make decision-making faster and more inclusive. This modern approach aligns team efforts around Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and prevents siloed working.Redefining Teams Beyond Org Charts - Teams aren’t merely those on the organisational chart. Instead, they should be built dynamically around specific goals or KPIs. For example, solving a sales issue may require involvement from marketing, product, and finance—not just the sales department. This approach reduces finger-pointing and fosters cross-functional ownership.Practices for Building Resilient and Celebratory Teams - High-performing teams focus not only on achieving results but also on maintaining team well-being. Practices like monthly "energy checks" ensure team members support one another during challenging times. Additionally, celebrating successes creates a culture of positivity and enhances morale. Peer-to-peer recognition is particularly impactful and energising.Book recommendations:Andrew McAfee - The Geek Way

  --------  

  41:46
• E335 | Turning up the Saas: How productising helped David Hart create an 8 figure business

  It was a daily grind of ‘win the work, do the work, get paid for the work, only to have to find more work to replace the work’ that led David Hart (known as the ‘Agency to SaaS guy’) to sell his agency and embark on a new SaaS business.After founding digital agency Codegent in 2004, by 2014, after acquiring another agency, Thin Martian, David felt like he was on the treadmill to nowhere. In 2016, he launched SaaS business, ScreenCloud, which hit 8 figures in ARR after only six years and continues to see strong growth year-on-year. The switch has created significant financial value for him and his co-founders, investors and staff. David now advises other agencies and early-stage SaaS founders on scaling their own products, He sits on five boards as a NED and is the author of Productized: Stop Selling Time and Transition to Selling SaaS. In this episode, Dominic uncovers the strategies and mindset shifts necessary to transform a service-oriented business into a thriving SaaS company. We explore the contrasting dynamics of hiring and growth between the agency and SaaS models and the critical role of building an experienced team to achieve rapid expansion. David lays bare the exhilarating yet daunting task of burning through investment to scale revenue, the importance of aligning with market needs and avoiding the pitfalls of launching products without demand. DiscoverStart by Testing Your Idea: Before creating a product, it's important to make sure people actually need it. You can do this by asking potential customers questions that get to the heart of their problems. A good product should either help people make money, save money, or solve an important issue they worry about.Moving from Services to Products: David transitioned from running a company offering services to selling a product. This shift allowed his business to grow faster and become easier to scale compared to offering services.Spending Money to Grow: To grow a software business like ScreenCloud, David had to spend money up front, especially to get new customers. Investors encouraged him to spend boldly to grow quickly, even if the business wasn’t immediately profitable.Focusing on One Thing Is Key: David realised that trying to create multiple products at once made it hard to succeed. Instead, focusing on creating one strong product helped him and his team direct their time, energy, and resources more effectively.Learning from Early Failures: Before ScreenCloud, David worked on many products that didn’t succeed. He learned that talking to potential customers early on and finding out if they’d actually pay for a solution are critical steps to avoid wasting time and money on ideas that won't work.Book recommendations:April Dunford - Sales Pitch & Obviously AwesomeRob Fitzpatrick - The Mom TestDavid’s book Productized is out nowDominic’s book Mind Your F**king Business is out now

  --------  

  44:10
• E334 | Respond, don't react! Empathy: a strategic advantage for leaders with Maria Ross

  Maria Ross, a keynote speaker, author, strategist, and empathy advocate, believes cash flow, creativity, and compassion can coexist. Founder of Red Slice, she advises organisations on leveraging empathy for better engagement. She authored ‘The Empathy Dilemma: How Successful Leaders Balance Performance, People, and Personal Boundaries’ and hosts ‘The Empathy Edge’ podcast. A dynamic speaker, Maria has addressed top conferences like TEDx, The 3% Conference, and Salesforce, with her insights featured in outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, Forbes, and Huffington Post.In this episode, Dominic explores empathy's role in leadership and business success. With Maria explaining how empathy can be cultivated, especially in education, and addresses the challenge of balancing empathy with performance. Maria introduces the five pillars of empathetic leadership - self-awareness, self-care, clarity, decisiveness, and joy - offering a framework to enhance empathy while ensuring high performance. They explore effective leadership, the role of decisiveness, joy, and empathy in workplace culture, and how leaders can make tough decisions without causing team stress.DiscoverBalance Empathy with Action: Empathy doesn’t mean avoiding tough decisions. Instead, it’s about acting compassionately while staying focused on goals. Gathering different perspectives helps make thoughtful choices, but avoid overthinking - decisiveness keeps progress on track.Clarity and Transparency Build Trust: Clear communication is essential. Whether setting boundaries, making decisions, or solving problems, being explicit about your intentions reduces misunderstandings and creates trust. Explaining your rationale helps others feel heard and valued, even if they don’t agree with your decisions.Empathy Can Be Learned and Strengthened: Empathy is a skill that can grow with practice. Similar to building a muscle, environments that promote listening, curiosity, and collaboration can nurture this ability. Making an effort to understand others’ experiences leads to stronger connections and better outcomes in every aspect of life.Empathy Drives Problem-Solving and Innovation: Empathy allows you to understand others' needs, fears, and motivations, which can lead to better solutions in any situation. Empathy isn’t just about relationships - it’s also a catalyst for better decision-making and innovation.Book recommendations:Rob Volpe - Tell Me More About ThatDr. Adam Dorsay - Super PsychedRobin Dreeke - Unbreakable AlliancesAnna Liotta - Unlocking Generational CodesMaria’s books The Empathy Dilemma &

  --------  

  43:52

Więcej Biznes podcastów

Trendy w podcaście Biznes

O Curious Leadership with Dominic Monkhouse