Tag Archives: business planning

21st Century thinking, there is no box!

Posted on by

In today’s increasingly difficult economy with uncertainty around political and currency futures, is it any wonder that depression is expected to impose the second biggest health burden globally by 2020?

I have always believed that in order to predict the future it is up to us to create the future we choose and how we want to be in our outlook.  By empowering ourselves and being proactive in our approach to our work life-balance it is really down to us to affect the life we want for ourselves and our environment.  In doing so, we have a better chance of happiness and fulfilment and in avoiding melancholy, frustration and ultimately depression.  In order to avoid these pitfalls we must each begin to think and act outside of the box.  We need to let go of personal insecurities and embrace different and new approaches of achieving our objectives.  We must begin to become mindful of our approaches and actions and indeed mindful of our very selves.  This is harder to do than to talk about, however it is possible.  It is in this way that we introduce a frank and straightforward approach to how we engage with our clients on all levels.  It is only by boldly embracing new and fulfilling mind-sets that we can avoid the ruts and traps of tradition and in potentially becoming a statistic.  It is the fear of change that holds back the change that we so desperately need today and to move forward and create the 21st century we want.

I am constantly amazed that organisations, as well as individuals, continue to do things the same way over and over again and expect different results.  More and more people have said to me recently how difficult and worrying doing business is becoming and how frustrated and unhappy they are beginning to feel.

At Conduit, when we engage with new clients they initially state that ‘we do that ourselves why would we need you? We have been doing it this way for years with reasonable results’.  The fact is they may well do some aspects of what we offer as a business; however they do not specialise the way we do.  They do not have over 12 years’ specific hands on experience of direct commercial engagement over periods of time that have been proven in unlocking value.  They often fail to appreciate that our services may seem familiar on the surface, however they are completely different, we use new and exciting approaches in engagement at all levels in building value.

The Conduit building blocks and our commercial approach is unique, effective and proven. We diagnose businesses that are failing to meet expectations and enhance further those that are demonstrating potential.  Our approach identifies patterns and we unbundle and free up business models that are stuck or failing.  We engage as if part of the management group and work with the team day to day.  We ensure that the focus and alignment of the business is optimised, and that all aspects of the resource are operating in unison to deliver to plan.  We test current beliefs and encourage opportunistic thinking.  We develop together believable and achievable objectives and goals.  Quite simply we enthuse potential.  We mentor the team to choose the future they desire, we then empower them to create it themselves.  We not only think and act outside of the box; we don’t believe there is one. 

For more information on Conduit’s proven approaches please call 01235 831777 or email hollymunns@conduitpartners.co.uk

Communication Breakdown?

Posted on by

We have found that communication in this age of instant communication remains poor.  Companies are often failing to communicate their vision effectively; frequently they then fall short in aligning the workforce behind a common well-articulated vision for the business.  Expectations are often blurred and unclear, or they have a low priority or indeed are ignored completely. This leads to them being open to misinterpretation. Taciturnity should be the scourge of today’s business as it gives birth to ambiguity, there should be no mistake about vision and mission in today’s business and no excuse for failing to have them crystal clear both internally and to the outside world.  Whilst we hear many bosses and business leaders requesting frankness from their staff and to ‘tell it like it is’, how many really mean this and would know how to manage it?  Leaders who invite confidence should be mindful never to violate that confidence.

The first rule I learnt as a CEO was to communicate all expectations with unmistakable clarity; I was keen to ensure that each member of staff took responsibility and remained their own person, in accordance to their own true feelings and objectives. That said I never insisted on loyalty; that would be their personal choice.

Conduit Partners begin any business engagement with a bespoke workshop; in most of the company workshops we facilitate, we insist on all of the senior team being present for the day.  This offers a unique insight into the dynamic of the team, how they relate and interact with each other, the dialogue and vocabulary. We see where the silos are, the loners, the team players and of course the terrorists and saboteurs.

Only a team of strong and independent managers aligned behind a common vision with a true focus can enable a business to succeed.  Irrespective of who is at the helm, a well balanced team, with the appropriate skills and qualities, are essential in supporting an early stage business with ambitions for rapid growth and expansion.

In order to create the bonds of common purpose and enjoy the value of cultivating a trusted and valued team, reviews in communication and purpose should feature regularly and should not be underestimated.  Leadership requires choices, every day.  Many of these choices require value judgments; an effective leader communicates these in a way that inspires.

Conduit Partners workshops are designed to get to the heart of these issues, to evaluate where the communication is strong and where it is failing.  This in turn allows a company to focus on the areas that are productive and generate revenue, to become an effective communication stronghold.

For more information about how to improve the communication in businesses and to unlock the true potential please contact Conduit Partners Ltd on 01235 831777 or email hollymunns@conduitpartners.co.uk

Rigour to drive 11:1 ROI in 3 years but still possible!

Posted on by

We are rigorous in both our assessment of new businesses but more so in the support we provide to the businesses with which we engage to drive value. We believe this is one of the cornerstone reasons for our success in driving an 11:1 return on investments in three years. Many small businesses today are burning cash and having to go back to investors as they are running out of money. In turn investors are having to follow their investments just to prop up companies failing to unlock the value and generate revenue. The big question is how do you know when and if they are going to yield?  Our success comes from over 10 years of working with early stage businesses in the technology sectors mainly taking the guesswork out of this. Conduit Partners run a workshop on each business. The workshops are intensive sessions that put a business into context within Conduit Partners Commercialisation Architecture that enables all stakeholders to visualise the current status of the opportunity. The workshops develop an environment that yields rapid, aligned, powerful team experiences and decisions, and uses proprietary methods and tools in the critical business disciplines of opportunity prioritisation. The workshop days drive an internal consensus from the management team and stakeholders on the business strategy and initiatives designed to deliver both:

  • Commercial Visibility
  • Go to Market Strategy/Viability

During the workshop Conduit produce a bespoke commercialisation map (architecture) to provide the team with a visual representation of the current status, and future vision of the business.

The Strategy Workshops are intense, stimulating and enjoyable days.  They are led by expert facilitators who are skilled at drawing out insights and making sure that the whole team contributes.  Consequently, the environment is informal, with openness and honesty encouraged, creating positive constructive debate.  It is vitally important that one opinion does not dominate the proceedings and that all issues – however unpalatable – are uncovered.

The teams are taken through a series of exercises that address each of the six pillars that make up the Conduit Commercialisation Architecture.  For example:

1)      Customer needs and expectations

2)      Segmentation values, data and trends

3)      Points of pain and market needs

4)      Market sectors, intermediaries, channels and routes to market

5)      Products, core methods systems and infrastructure

6)      Services, added value and support

7)      Value proposition offers and promise

8)      Decision Quality, prioritisation and reduction of risk

9)      Organisation and culture environment and capability

10)   Integrated tactical execution and communication strategy

11)   Business objectives goals and imperatives

We manage the inputs creatively so that the team is stimulated and the group’s energy levels stay high. The discussion, issues, and vocabulary surrounding each of the pillars are captured and presented graphically on the single, flowing “Visual Map”, which acts as the repository of knowledge and a ‘snap-shot’ position of the potential business strategy.

Importantly, the outputs are presented graphically and rapidly in such a way that they provide a planning framework.  This means that insight is gathered-up and can be taken forward, developed, acted upon and used to drive business transformation and inform investor decision making.

The workshops come in various formats and are a cost effective starting point for investors to evaluate whether to follow on or walk away. They are hugely beneficial to the businesses as they are designed to get them to market quicker by highlighting and prioritising the areas that need focus. We regularly reduce the sales cycles of these businesses to weeks rather than months.

To learn more about the low cost of entry to using Conduit services together with information on how our clients receive 11:1 ratio return on their investment please email Holly Munns; hollymunns@conduitpartners.co.uk or telephone 01235 831777.

Business planning: seduce with the executive summary

Posted on by

Pick any book off a shelf in a shop and you’ll expect the blurb on the back to pique your interest, arouse your curiosity, and incite you to buy the book. You may even scan the first few pages to see if the style, tone and topic are to your liking. If a book fails to grab you, you’ll slot it back on the shelf and forget about it – and maybe select one that will transport you on a much more dynamic journey.

As with books, so it is with business plans. You have to excite readers to the extent that they are compelled to read on. Which is why the executive summary has a pivotal role to play. Venture capitalists and investors considering whether to fund your business are known to make their decisions on the strength of an executive summary alone. At the very least, they won’t read any further if the first couple of pages don’t grab them.

Some business plans we’ve reviewed are choc-a-bloc with everything but the kitchen sink, and are hard work to wade through. Investors won’t have time to seek out the key facts and information, so make it easy for them. They want reassurance that they’ll get a return on their investment, so convince them you’re a risk worth taking.

If writing isn’t your strong point, find someone who is, because the executive summary needs to be simply set out and concisely articulated. You need to encapsulate in one page – two at most – what your business is all about.

You need to tell investors how you have the most exciting, unique service or product that is faster, cheaper and better than anything else on the market. You need to show how you plan to generate revenue, when you’ll break even, and how sustainable and scalable your business idea is. In short, you need to show how investors will get a sizeable return on their money within an agreed timeframe.

We’re not talking hype, here; investors will smell that a mile off. But if you don’t seduce them immediately with a compelling proposition, you’ve got no chance of getting to second base.

How aligned is your business to market needs? Take up our challenge and find out

Posted on by

Is your business aligned to market needs? Are your team members subscribing wholeheartedly to a common vision? Is everyone in your company working towards ambitious but achievable objectives?

If you answered YES to all of the above, then we’ve got a challenge for you: take part in one of our diagnostic workshops and, if you can show us that your business is perfectly aligned and you know exactly where you sit in the value chain, then we won’t invoice you for the workshop.

Why thrown down this gauntlet? Because we’re so confident of the value that our interventions offer to early-stage companies – and because we see so many companies which simply lack that alignment.

Over the past 10 years we’ve reviewed hundreds of businesses, run hundreds of business plan diagnostic workshops, and assessed and fundraised for dozens of companies. Examples of what we find wrong during those reviews include:

  • Their products and services aren’t supplied in line with customers’ expectations, needs and points of pain.
  • Their value proposition and pricing are misaligned to market needs.
  • They don’t have the right people doing the right things.
  • Their technical product development may be misaligned with sales and marketing. Their people aren’t aligned behind a common vision.
  • Even if they have a goal, it hasn’t been articulated well to people within the business.
  • And when the business plan evolves – as it should – it doesn’t get articulated to the people who matter.

These are basic but essential factors that can prove to be the downfall of businesses. Don’t be one of them. Call 01235 831 777 to take up our challenge.

Business planning: is your business running to plan?

Posted on by

When was the last time you reviewed your business plan? In companies that are stuck, the business plan either becomes an authoritarian rulebook by which every person in the company must abide – or it begins and ends its life as an unwieldy, unworkable document gathering dust in the archives.

Neither route will carry you to success, because a business plan has to be an organic document that changes and evolves. It can’t possibly stay in the same place because of the huge, uncontrollable variances that can influence the plan.

When sailing through commercial waters, with your business plan as your compass, you can easily get blown off course because you never quite know what the weather will be like, no matter how watertight and comprehensive you think your plan is. And when those market conditions change, so should your plan.

Are you aware of how far your business is running to plan? Or are you scared to review it? Don’t be, because with help and focus you can get back on course.

At Conduit Partners, we carry out a one-day diagnostics process to review your business plan. The management team are involved to make sure the business is realigned, and there is a common vision for all.

We help turn your business plan into a visual representation with timelines and monetary lines that can pinned up on the wall as a working document, which is then reviewed at monthly management meetings.

To discover how a visible, workable business plan can make the difference to your company, email mailto:info@conduitpartners.co.uk call 01235 831777.

Business planning: know your customer

Posted on by

You may have the best business idea in the world, but if there’s no market for it, you may as well put that idea back in your bottom drawer.

The number one question any business needs to ask itself is: who are our customers and what are their needs? The importance of identifying customer needs – and how to meet those needs – is frequently underestimated. Yet it’s not just their needs you have to know: you need to identify where they feel pain. Unless you understand where they hurt, how can you provide them with an antidote to relieve that pain?

You need to empathise and engage with your customers, and know what market they’re in and what products and services they’re already buying, so you can focus on providing a unique solution for their needs.

When setting out, it can be helpful to identify what your ideal customers look like. What information do you have about them demographically, socially and economically that helps you adjust your offering to meet their ever-evolving needs? Where do they live, shop and work? What trends are affecting their buying behaviours?

Not only that, but you need to communicate with your customers regularly to assess how their needs are changing. Markets don’t stand still, and you need to keep up to speed. Often we find that businesses have the wrong offer aimed at the wrong customer with the wrong price and at the wrong time.

Don’t fall into that trap. Build a customer-focused business plan that tracks, anticipates and meets the needs of your clientele.

The Investment Readiness Series offers insight and advice from Conduit Partners – experts in early-stage business building – on preparing your business to raise funds from investors.  For an initial confidential assessment, email info@conduitpartners.co.uk or call 01235 831 777.