FIND
30-minute call. We identify the two people, then the jobs that depend on them. Their hours on those jobs are the baseline.
FOR BUSINESS OWNERS WHO DEPEND ON TWO KEY PEOPLE
I fix both. Guaranteed.
You’ll leave knowing which job I’d take off them first, how many hours it would free, and what fixing it would cost. No obligation.
“He’s on holiday. You’ll have to wait until next week.”
“She’s already working flat out. I can’t put anything else on her.”
“If either one walks out, I have a problem. A real one.”
You can add people around a key person and make the problem worse. If the new people only get individual tasks, they still go back to the same person for decisions, exceptions, checks and what happens next. More people, more questions, same bottleneck. What changes it is handing over complete sections of work. A section someone else can run from start to finish. Tasks. Decisions. Checks. Rules. Exceptions. What happens when something goes wrong. That gives you both: protection if they leave, and more capacity while they’re still there.
The method is simple. The questions aren’t.
I’ve spent 25 years with my sleeves rolled up and in boardrooms, from small businesses and FMCG to public companies and a systemic bank with billions in deposits. So when your key people walk me through how the work actually happens, I know what to ask. And I often see things sitting inside those chains that go beyond dependence on two people: bottlenecks, wasted work, steps that can be automated, margin being left behind, unused capacity, commercial opportunities nobody has time for. Once the work is visible, the opportunities are too.
30-minute call. We identify the two people, then the jobs that depend on them. Their hours on those jobs are the baseline.
Your key people show me how the jobs really work. I write down what they decide, what they check, the exceptions, and what happens when something goes wrong.
Other team members run the jobs from what’s on paper. Anything that goes back to the key people gets fixed until it no longer does.
Two tests. Hours back against the baseline. Someone else runs each job start to finish without them.
Not a template. Not a software project. Not a plan to replace your key people: it takes the routine off them so they can do the work only they can do. Most become its biggest supporters once they see it.
International trading company
€9m
of revenue depended on two people, both maxed out
20 hrs
a week back, each, now spent on more profit per client and new clients
Start to finish
support team ran deal matching without going back to either key person
Nothing was on paper. When either key person was unavailable, deals stopped.
Missed opportunities and a €20 million exit target at risk. Hiring wouldn’t help: every new hire would still depend on the same two people.
With 20+ hours back each, they already close double the deals every week. The deal-making and matching jobs went on paper: how they decide, what they check, what they do when something goes wrong. Handed to the support team to run.
7 out of 10 clients ask me to stay on with them for at least 12 months.
69
people. A sales function built from nothing.
I left. It kept running.
That’s the test.
25 years as owner and C-level executive, running businesses and divisions from 10 people to hundreds, across banking, retail, real estate, FMCG and trading. Former CMO and ExCo member of Hellenic Bank. Built, turned around and exited businesses. Every business I’ve run had people it couldn’t afford to lose. I’ve fixed that from the inside, more than once.
IMMEDIATELY
IN THE BUSINESS
LONG TERM
30 minutes. No obligation. You leave with the job I’d take off them first, the hours it would free, and what fixing it would cost.