Navigating the Rivers of Cash , livre ebook

Thorogood Publishing - Kevin Uphill

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73 pages

English

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Extrait

Description

Navigating the Rivers of Cash is a practical business book in which the author seeks to inspire ambitious business leaders and entrepreneurs to create and build exceptional businesses with a sustainable purpose in society, whilst also, as leaders, becoming more insightful, strategic, creative, calmer and purposeful. The book takes a mentoring, rather than consulting, approach.The author shares simple ideas and questions with the aim of helping the reader to draw their own conclusions that are unique to their individual personality, environment and objectives in such a way as to enable them to take their business to the next level.

Sujets

Strategic management

Informations

Publié par	Thorogood Publishing
Date de parution	26 mars 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781854188694
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0324€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published in eBook format 2015 Thorogood Publishing Ltd 10-12 Rivington Street London EC2A 3DU Telephone: 020 7749 4748 Email: info@thorogoodpublishing.co.uk Web: www.thorogoodpublishing.co.uk
© Kevin Uphill 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.
No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the author or publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
eBook ISBN (10) 1854188690 (13) 9781854188694
About the author

Kevin Uphill has enjoyed a long and successful career as an entrepreneur, strategist and mergers and acquisitions advisor. Having successfully owned and sold several companies, he has in-depth business expertise. He is currently founder and Chairman of Avondale Group ( www.avondale.co.uk ), a leading international M&A boutique founded in 1991. The practice also has a Business Mentoring and Strategy division specialising in enhancing shareholder value.
In addition, Kevin is a respected speaker and leader on business strategy and journeys, mergers and acquisitions. He enjoys helping individuals and organisations realise their aspirations by sharing his knowledge and experience via mentoring, speaking and writing ( www.madamentor.co.uk ). He is also the author of How to Buy and Sell a Business for Wealth and there is another book due in 2016; please ask for details.
Kevin is married with two children (the best in the world). He is a keen skier, triathlete, charity contributor, and property restorer. He is probably an intellectual, although he is still pondering the definition, so he may simply be compensating for doing badly at school.
About the book

This is a practical business book in which the author seeks to inspire business leaders to create and build exceptional businesses with a sustainable purpose in society whilst themselves becoming more insightful, strategic, creative and purposeful. The author shares simple ideas, outlooks and questions with the aim for the reader to draw conclusions that are unique to their personality, environment and objectives – thus navigating more effective journeys and achieving better understanding and outstanding results.
Introduction

Navigating the Rivers of Cash is a leadership and strategy book to arm ambitious business leaders with inspiration, to accelerate growth, shareholder value and wealth whilst creating a sustainable purpose in society.
It is very easy to be complacent about business as you get more confident, successful or higher up the ladder; but why is it some people seem to find the right direction more easily, and achieve far better results more quickly whilst still enjoying the journey? Conversely, why do some people eventually get ground down, plateau or decline? At its simplest level, success lies in leaders employing the right strategy with the right people, in the right way, in alignment. This is effectively the ‘what’ to do. However, of equal importance to tangible and valuable results, yet less analysed, is the ‘how’ and specifically the influence of the leader’s outlook. That is, the business leader’s ability to listen to, understand, and feel the strategic direction of a business in a positive, clear, energetic and ambitious way. How can business leaders through their own ‘outlook’ and insight personally influence commitment, accelerate growth, purposefulness, profits and shareholder value.
My explorations are not an instructional self-improvement book because, as a business leader or entrepreneur, you hate being told what to do. You are what you are, and are already well informed; also successful leadership does not come from information but from understanding. Understanding both of yourself and of other people creates the ability to motivate, influence and persuade people to move from one idea or place to another. An instruction book would be consultancy, and you know your business and your true strengths, weaknesses and resourcefulness far better than any consultant. My experience with clients has taught me that a successful prescription in one case would just as likely be a spectacular disaster in another. So, as opposed to advice that typically sits ‘persuading’ itself on the shelf, I hope good questions will instead influence and create resonance in new horizons and new ideas. Questions save us both from moralising parables and case studies; besides there is no certainty or set way, so why seek it with set advice?
My title is inspired by the idea of achieving better business flow through increasing clarity in the outlook of leaders. Flow is the ‘enjoyable’ state where the business activities are fully engaged, involved and effective. Flow can be achieved with clear navigation by business leaders, who have understanding and whose emotions are channelled, positive and aligned with the task at hand.
The metaphor of the river is inspired by Herman Hesse’s novel Siddartha , whose eponymous hero ends up as a river boat man. Hesse’s story shares the idea that enlightenment is not attained through intellectual methods, nor through immersing oneself in the carnal pleasures of the world. Instead, that it is the completeness and richness of these experiences that create understanding. The idea here is that as business leaders we only achieve enlightenment if we experiment, if we learn and listen, which all adds to achieving a positive outlook. Every action or event leads to understanding, and it is the richness of this learning process that drives success. In this book, the carnal pleasure is the selfish pursuit of money, Wall Street style. If money is the only driver, then we end up with short-term selfish decision making, reduced sustainability and a failure to align with customers, market trends or our teams.
The river in the title is the global market, and it flows very quickly; therefore, as leaders we must listen and feel it, rather than exhaust ourselves fighting it. In the river metaphor there is also the idea that everything is interlinked and continuous; rivers flow to oceans which turn to rain and replenish rivers. So it is with markets; they are interlinked, cyclical and continuous. Rivers can also only flow forward and so it is with decisions. Past decisions have been made, they either worked or didn’t; but as leaders we must look objectively forward to what are the right decisions today to take advantage of the flow and the market’s direction. I hope the metaphor will bring a visualisation that helps you to navigate further ahead and stay more focused, with a greater freshness, sense of adventure, energy and clarity. Are you and your team learning and changing faster than the market is flowing? What ‘feel’ do you have for the market and how far ahead do you navigate in it?
A key component to the book is the idea that business leaders spend far too much time ‘managing’ day-to-day problems which they don’t enjoy, instead of leading the business to growth and success, which they do enjoy. I examine why this happens and how to create shifts in the leader’s time to encourage greater dedication to research, resolving challenges (not problems) at source, and navigating ahead more effectively with clarity, confidence, and energy. “Is Fred any good at his job?” is a management question. “Where is the market going, and how can we as an organisation catch the ‘flow’ more effectively and with purposefulness?” is a leadership question. How much time do you spend managing as opposed to leading?
In this question I effectively ask what the role and the ‘outlook’ of the Managing Director and the CEO in an organisation should be, in order to increase their effectiveness. To answer this we usually need to start with a firm look at our own personal approach and habits, as well as the second-tier talent in the team and how much they contribute to driving business growth and evolution rather than maintaining the status quo. As rivers only flow forward, I suggest we need to ‘get over’ our past, which reduces agility and stifles growth, and redesign our businesses by looking ahead further. Essentially how can leaders look at strategy and business design anew, so that they increase objectivity and remove preconceptions, in order to innovate and drive positive change? How can they achieve this whilst increasing both profit and shareholder value? How well designed is your business? How much are preconceptions holding you and your team back? How do you grow profits and shareholder value?
Whilst I have posed the questions with – primarily – the professionally employed or self-made CEO reader in mind, I also seek to address senior managers, entrepreneurs and the ambitious. There are a lot of excellent textbooks, business models, organisational theory and toolkits for the role of the CEO already, so instead of replication I have attempted to navigate a different course and examine more the outlook, mindset and time-focus that might help to create better organisations and more valu able results. I believe the normal, or traditional textbook role of the CEO is that it is their responsibility to run the board and liaise with stakeholders whilst leading, setting and overseeing the implementation of the company’s long and short-term plans. To achieve this they must also ensure the right personnel, organisational structure and appropriate cost