GOALS: To free the business owner from the day to day running of his very successful business to enable it to grow, and to facilitate exit in due course

BUSINESS IN PROFILE: A company providing structured cabling and audiovisual equipment to corporate companies and educations establishments alike, although the emphasis is on education

THE CHALLENGES:  Despite that the business had a business development manager and an operations infrastructure, the day to day management of the business laid on the shoulders of the business owner. This prevented the growth of the business and the exit of the business owner himself. As the business owner approached the age at which he wished to retire he found great difficulty in divesting himself of the day to day responsibilities for the business.

THE STRATEGIES: The first step was understand what tasks the client could relinquish to someone else, and to do that roles were developed for each of the managers within the business, and a start was made on defining the responsibilities of each manager and the processes which they would undertake along with the indicators by which progress would be measured. KPIs were defined around marketing, sales and structure and operational efficiencies. These were then divested to each of the managers for them to report on a regular basis, enabling discussion  around the methods to improve efficiencies and ownership of those improvements.

THE OUTCOMES: The business now has a clear direction based around regular management meetings, with the management structure reflecting responsibilities and reporting structures. This gives the business owner the opportunity to divest himself of day to day responsibility, leaving him to develop new market strategies, and to move towards the exit he craves.