Tasked with setting up an exciting and rapid growth business within a 50 year old major FTSE 100 business with a £25m cash budget required someone with world class leadership and organisational skills. This involved creating a vision, values, management information and communication system, marketing plan and management team. The mentor was experienced in start ups and acted as a confidential sounding board - understanding the client’s challenges, helping them avoid costly obstacles, empathising with and helping the CEO manage the personal demands of such a high profile role.

Appointed to his first CEO role, the client was the 4th MD of this business unit within 3 years. The previous incumbents had no credibility because they were "professional managers" where only "deal doers" had standing. Whereas the client had credibility as a dealmaker he had no experience as a manager or a leader. Working with his mentor allowed him to "ask dumb questions" in a safe place and receive guidance, tactics, strategies and advice from someone who was objective and disinterested in the politics. The business, which had lost money for 4 years, achieved a profit of £50m in the client's 2nd year of leadership. The client achieved their business objectives in 3 months, rather than the 12 months they had previously defined.