Growth is exciting. Making it work? That’s the hard part.

Growth is exciting. Making it work? That’s the hard part.

I’ve run my own small business, more than once, and spent years helping other people grow theirs. So I know that mixture of excitement and mild panic rather well.

Growth is brilliant, especially when it’s hard-won. But it has a habit of shining a very bright light on the bits of a business that aren’t quite working.

These days, as an interim, that’s usually where I come in.

Where I’m coming from

I’m an engineer by training, and I started out on the factory shopfloor. From there I moved through R&D, marketing and sales, before taking on operations and supply chain director roles. I’m now five years into an interim career, and still enjoy getting close to how a business really works.

Most of my work happens where ambition meets reality: start-ups trying to scale, growing businesses whose systems or teams haven’t kept up, and owners, including PE firms, who know something isn’t right but are too far away from the day-to-day detail to put their finger on it.

A few examples

> At one start-up manufacturer, we were making to order and struggling to keep pace. Within six months, we’d increased capacity by 400%. Along the way, we relocated the whole business because it had become clear that something fundamental needed to change. The destination was obvious; the route wasn’t. The team leaders worked that out with me, which is exactly why the changes stuck.

> A fast-growing installation business had expanded quickly and no real control over its “people processes”. Staff turnover was running at just over 100%. By putting proper contracts in place, making pay clearer and improving management, we brought it below 30%, while contracted headcount rose by 80%.

> At a specialist engineering firm, we replaced weekly orders with bulk orders and call-offs. It sounds like a small change, but it improved the margin on one product range by 25%.

None of that took a flash of genius. Mostly, it took someone being willing to ask, “Why do we do it this way?” and then working with the team to develop a better solution.

Which of these keeps you awake at night?
> Your sales forecast and production plan never quite seem to agree.

> You’re growing, but somehow cash feels tighter than ever.

> There’s stock everywhere, yet never quite the thing the customer wants.

> Good people keep leaving, so recruitment feels never-ending.

> Every decision, even the small ones, still lands on your desk.

> The plan looks great on a spreadsheet. The real world has other ideas.

If one or two of those made you wince, you’re in good company. Almost every growing business runs into them at some point.

Why the YVB model

The good news is that these problems rarely call for a full-time operations director. More often, they need the right experience at the right moment, and for as long as it takes to get things moving.

That’s what appeals to me about Your Virtual Board. Owners can bring in commercial, financial, people and operational expertise when they need it, not all at once and not forever.

My part in that is pretty straightforward: I help make sure the engine room can keep up with the ambition. In practice, that means realistic plans, a firmer grip on stock and cash, and teams that genuinely own their results.

I’ve always believed growth should feel exciting more often than it feels exhausting.

Get the right people around the table, and it usually does.

By Dave Mosscrop
Leadership & Transformational Specialist and Associate at Your Virtual Board

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If any of this sounds familiar, Kim would be glad to talk. Find out more about her at https://yourvirtualboard.co/dave-mosscrop

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmosscrop/