This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Leadership


crucial. Asking them if they “were the boss for the day and could only make one change, what would it be?” is always illuminating. Finally, we spend so much time at work, let’s make it fun. These were some of the things which both addressed our staff turnover and also helped us build a great business.


At IRIS, I went in to lead a business with 100 people and grew it to 1,200 people over a 10 year period with phenomenal growth in revenue, profit and ultimate value. Whilst the


experience was very different, many of the lessons learned at Access 24 were highly relevant. The “letting go” was even more crucial to achieve scale as was the predictable business model. I recognised the need to redesign my job as CEO typically every six months to stop doing the things that I could delegate to others and give me capacity to focus on our growth strategy (with 3 year rolling planning cycles) and concentrate on the few big things that have the greatest impact. Early on, some


poor hires, accentuated the need for ensuring I had a superb team and the importance of the role of CEO as both recruiter and coach to get the “right people on the bus and swiftly remove the wrong ones”.


Letting go isn’t easy but is a crucial distinction between leadership and management. I love Guillaume Apollinaire’s famous quote which really says it all: “Come to the edge. And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew”.


41 entrepreneurcountry


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54