#1

#1

Hello and welcome to AOB

I wanted to start our first post with an introduction and a bit of background on why we decided to start AOB.

We have seen businesses come and go, had plenty of success and our share of failures – learning to fail positively and faster as we go.

We’ve helped companies evolve as they grow and adapt with the times. Even with today’s data driven organisations, there are still fundamentals that need to be applied and decisions to be made. These quite often take place in the setting of a formal meeting.

Now, I never really enjoyed Board meetings in the past, I felt that they were a necessary evil where we were berated and told by investors that we had to do better. It was later that I realised it wasn’t the board’s comments/feedback that served us as much as the preparation, reporting and knowing how to address issues head-on prior to the meeting. With this approach to meetings, the dynamic changes; the Board feel comfortable that the business is under control and their scrutiny turns to support and advice. You then have a group of advisors that you can lean on for their network, wisdom, expertise, and governance.

Working with many scale-up businesses, I have found that by offering support through a combination of structure, reporting and planning on a monthly basis allowed founders to keep the company on track and focus on the tasks that will drive towards the business plan goals. Very often you know what the right course of action is and just need confirmation and advice on how to execute it.

This led us to look at how we can provide a flexible framework to work with a wide range of scale-up companies that are facing their next step-change and would benefit from the support of our experienced team.

Any Other Business is seen as either the catch-all agenda item or the opportunity for someone to launch a grenade at the end of the meeting.

For us, it’s the opportunity to think positively about the business, raise those questions/ideas that one has, but is sometimes not sure who to ask/tell. We believe it’s a forum to listen and share ideas that best serve the organisation. In our meetings, AOB is the first agenda point, not the last.

I have been lucky enough to work alongside close friends in many of the great businesses I have been involved with. While there are occasionally differences of opinion and at times conflict, everything has been handled and conducted in a manner that puts the human relationship first. AOB is no different.

We are all looking forward to working together, building AOB and hope to share our experiences with you here.

Anthony

2 Comments
  • Monty Munford
    Posted at 09:02h, 24 September

    Nice start to your blogging career… the new business looks good and I LOVE the name.

  • Chris Atkinson
    Posted at 12:45h, 02 October

    Good luck team AOB, great initiative! If your clients need support with research material, data, R&D then happy to help, support and collaborate..

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