Results: Problems Solved with Leadership Teams

100%→about20–25%

CEO involvement in closed deals

B2B SaaS · £5m ARR

about40%→48%

Gross margin

B2B SaaS · £5m ARR

roughly60→40–45

Founder hours a week

E-commerce · £2.2m revenue

8–12

Measures in place of informal monitoring

E-commerce · £2.2m revenue

B2B SaaS · £5m ARR

Revenue was growing. But every deal still depended on the CEO.

Situation

The company had reached approximately £5m ARR and looked, from the outside, like a successful commercial organisation. But the CEO was still involved in every meaningful sales opportunity, and no deal closed without them. Gross margin was approximately 40%.

The sales team could create opportunities and progress conversations. When a deal became important, complicated or reached the point of commitment, the CEO came back into the process.

Constraint

Commercial capability was concentrated in one person. The business hadn't captured what the CEO was doing differently: how opportunities were qualified, how value was articulated, how objections were handled, how commercial decisions were made and when to walk away. The CEO had become part of the sales process.

What changed

The commercial process was rebuilt around clearer qualification, deal stages, pricing parameters, ownership and escalation rules. A regular pipeline and deal-review cadence gave the team a consistent way to challenge opportunities without CEO intervention. Pricing and delivery economics were brought into the commercial process rather than considered after the sale.

Outcome

CEO involvement in closed deals moved from 100% to approximately 20–25%, focused on genuinely strategic opportunities. The sales organisation kept the ability to progress and close the rest. The company became less dependent on the CEO's personal commercial capability to produce revenue.

Gross margin from approximately 40% to 48%. CEO involvement in closed deals from 100% to approximately 20–25%.

E-commerce · £2.2m revenue

The business had grown. The founder's workload had grown with it.

Situation

The company was generating approximately £2.2m in annual revenue. The founder was working around sixty hours a week and remained involved across almost every important operating process, with little useful KPI visibility across the business.

Questions, exceptions and problems all came back to the founder. Because there was no reliable management view, intervention depended on what the founder personally noticed.

Constraint

The problem wasn't simply workload. Reducing the founder's hours without changing how the business operated would have treated the symptom. Ownership, operating processes and management information hadn't developed at the same rate as revenue.

What changed

The critical recurring activities were mapped and ownership clarified. A small set of operating KPIs was introduced across revenue, margin, inventory, fulfilment, customer acquisition and cash. A weekly operating cadence gave exceptions, performance and decisions a defined place, instead of the founder checking activity continuously. Processes that existed through habit or founder knowledge were documented and handed to the right owners.

Outcome

Founder involvement reduced from roughly 60 hours a week towards 40–45, with fewer routine decisions needing intervention. Leadership worked from 8–12 critical operating measures instead of informal monitoring, and the founder stopped being the main way the different parts of the business stayed connected.

Founder hours from roughly 60 a week towards 40–45. 8–12 operating measures in place of informal monitoring.

Technology services · £8m revenue

Three months from its first board meeting. Almost nothing to put in front of the board.

Situation

The founders had built an £8m technology services business. Its first formal board meeting was three months away, and management reporting beyond the accounting package was extremely limited.

The founders knew the business intimately. The problem appeared when that knowledge needed to become something another person could examine.

Constraint

The company had financial records. What it lacked was the management and governance capability around them. Important information existed, but it wasn't structured into a view of performance, risk, forward outlook and the decisions required.

What changed

A board and management reporting structure was created covering financial performance, forecast, pipeline, delivery, customers, people, cash and material risks. Leadership moved to a defined monthly management pack of approximately 10–15 core measures, with clear ownership of the underlying information. A board calendar and reporting timetable meant information wasn't assembled from scratch before each meeting.

Outcome

Within the three-month window, the business moved from no structured board-level reporting to a repeatable monthly reporting and governance cadence. The first board could examine the business through information held by the organisation, not only a verbal download from the founders.

Repeatable monthly board reporting in place within three months.

B2B platform · £3.5m revenue

The company had created managers. It hadn't yet built management capability.

Situation

The company had grown to approximately £3.5m revenue. Strong individual contributors had been promoted into management as the team expanded, but management capability hadn't developed with the titles. Culture was beginning to fracture, and customer acquisition cost wasn't clearly visible.

Some new managers still behaved as individual contributors. Others were unclear what they could decide. Performance conversations were inconsistent, and issues travelled upwards instead of being resolved at the right level.

Constraint

The company hadn't necessarily promoted the wrong people. It had assumed that putting capable people into management roles would create management capability. Responsibility had moved faster than the structures, expectations, information and support needed to exercise it.

What changed

Management responsibilities and expectations were clarified, alongside decision ownership and a consistent management cadence. Managers were given clearer accountability for team performance rather than only their own output. Core commercial measures, including CAC, were made visible. 5–7 newly promoted managers moved through the new management structure.

Outcome

Management meetings, performance conversations and decision ownership moved onto a defined operating rhythm instead of depending on individual style. CAC went from effectively invisible to a routinely reviewed commercial measure.

CAC from invisible to routinely reviewed. 5–7 newly promoted managers working to a defined management rhythm.

Client engagements are confidential by default and anonymised with permission where shared. Figures are as reported by the businesses concerned. I don't claim sole credit for commercial outcomes. Ask about any of them when we speak.

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