Our Clients
Our Business Coaching Clients come from all sectors. What they all have in common is that they recognise they want to be even better than they are now and are ambitious for fast results. They recognise that working with Notion’s Business Coaches will help accelerate their success.
Our business coaching clients are typically either MD’s or Directors themselves, running their own businesses, or members of their Senior Management teams who they wish to groom to take on even greater responsibilities.
All of our clients are already successful in their own right and are interested in growing and improving both themselves and the bottom line of their businesses further.
Are you ready to go further? Contact us now and arrange to meet with one of our senior business coaches
Case Studies
We have selected the following case studies from the many we could have chosen, to give you an idea of the diversity of work that we do with our clients.
Are you ready to go further? Contact us now and arrange to meet with one of our senior business coaches
Case Studies 1-4: Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
Polly worked with the owner of a soft furnishings manufacturer and retail shop. The business was dependent on the owner for all new business development AND for project managing all work within the company. This meant that growth was limited as it was dependent on the knowledge and skills of one person.
By working with the business owner, we were able to clarify what skills the MD brought to the business and what responsibilities could be delegated elsewhere.
The business owner also reviewed both her costings and her internal systems, correcting both her prices and her business systems. She was helped to review where her most profitable business came from and which business she couldn't afford to take on.
As a result, the right people started doing the right tasks, the business systems worked and the right prices were being charged. Turnover increased, costs reduced and the business owner got back her life.
Case Study 2 - Recruitment Company
Laura worked with the joint MD of a small city based recruitment and training company who was looking to structure and grow his business at a fast rate to allow him to take a less hands on role and in doing so establish other new businesses.
His first task was to get his partner to buy into his vision, so that there was no conflict to our client working on his other goals at the same time as growing his primary business. This was achieved with focus on communication skills, role-play and taking time to understand and meet his partners needs. The win for our client was the ability to almost immediately agree a 4-day week in London to allow him a day a week to work on other projects.
Over the year we worked together our client grew his primary business, brought in a team of recruitment professionals, developed great customer relationships, added loyalty schemes and a host of other marketing techniques. In addition he set up a property development company and another internet business which went a long way to meeting his core personal goals.
Two years later, following some “maintenance” business coaching sessions he no longer needs to spend any time in the London office and has set up another specialist company closer to home with massive benefits to his work life balance.
Laura worked with an entrepreneurial Midlands based Corporate Lawyer who was eager to finally walk away from the security of a big city law firm and set up his own law firm.
One of his biggest obstacles to overcome was his fear of taking any major risks and his lack of broader business skills.
We worked on putting together a stepping stone strategy over an 18-month period which took him though some interim support options prior to setting up his own firm. This included gaining clarity on his real goals and the vision for the business, understanding his values and what he wanted from his work life, very structured budgeting and client revenue targets, marketing and networking skills training and action plans, time management, and developing business systems.
To ease the transition and to provide immediate income our client worked for the first 12 months with a virtual law firm on an associate basis whist he build his independent client base. 18 months into the programme his revenue, income, skills and confidence were such that he could drop this “step” and invest in his own premises and business and start to recruit his own team.
Case Study 4 - Marketing Consultancy
Laura worked with the MD of a design and marketing company who had recently lost a major client and was struggling to build the required new business. As a result the turnover was down and profitability was poor. The MD was working long hours, was stressed and in effect was just working to cover his staff salaries. He was neglecting himself and his family.
We worked on a number of areas across the business over a 12-month period. Firstly we assessed the cost base and found ways to immediately reduce overheads. This included renegotiating the lease and renting out excess space.
We also looked at the role of the MD. He realised that he was a cost to the business and we worked on ways to turn this around to become a profit centre. His marketing expertise could be used on a consultancy basis to bring in additional revenue whilst he also worked on business development. Various strategies were put in place to attract new clients on an ongoing basis with action plans and structured targets. This area had been previously neglected.
Finally we did a staff review – false loyalty to some well-paid employees was creating the need for an expensive London location. The MD’s family was 2 hrs outside London. We reviewed the staffing needs of the business and set up a new Head Office, locally to the MDs home. This allowed a dramatic improvement to his work / life balance (the ability to spend more time with his family whilst still putting in similar hours to the business) as well as significantly reducing his overheads. He was also able to recruit talented staff at reduced rates. The London address was retained on a “virtual basis”.
Within 12 months the overall cost base of the business was dramatically reduced and revenues increased. The company was in a much stronger position for ongoing growth with clear business development strategies in place. More importantly the MD was less stressed, more motivated and enjoying more time with his family.
Case Studies 5-8: Established Medium Size Organisations
Case Study 5 - Software Company
Cathy was engaged by a sales driven software company that needed more from its customer service team. Their situation was complicated by an unhealthy internal competitiveness and poor team working.
We started with raising self-awareness, based on the non-threatening Myers-Briggs personality type indicator, and then provided a framework for and facilitated a series of workshops over several months, to develop a commonly-accepted ‘customer service’ approach.
Through this work it became evident that there were a number of individuals who were struggling to adopt the changes the company was demanding. We provided additional 1-2-1 coaching support to these individuals over 6 months.
The outcome: relationships and communications within the customer service team were markedly improved, and the team was able to provide more effective business partnerships with its revenue-producing counterparts.
Case Study 6 - Management Consultancy
Cathy worked with the founder owner of a consultancy that provided leadership and management development to large organisations. The business was growing very quickly, and the owner was faced with some difficult decisions about the future of her business. In the first instance she wanted help in clarifying her personal goals in order to align her business plans with her personal objectives.
When we began working together, she was enjoying her work, but she no longer needed to rely on the income from the business. At the same time she was considering the possibility of devoting a significant amount of time to working in the non-for-profit sector and considering the possibility of doing charitable work overseas.
Through business coaching we helped her manage the growth of her business, the building of a strong managerial team, and the challenges of balancing her own roles as founder director, leader of the business and key account manager.
Through our work she was able to clarify her personal goals, and determine that the business outcome she most wanted was a profitable sale of the business as a going concern.
These goals were achieved and she now has a personally fulfilling life, which includes 6 months of travelling every year and 6 months of volunteer working in the not-for-profit sector in the UK.
Case Study 7 - Property Development
We worked with a large property development company who had identified a talented individual who they believed had significant potential. The MD was frustrated that the individual was not as motivated as they had been in the past and had lost a degree of confidence.
We worked 1-2-1 with this executive to understand the underlying reasons for her change in performance. She was basically frustrated at not being taken seriously, felt undermined in a male dominated environment and had a range of limiting beliefs that held her back.
With a renewed level of motivation and direct communication with the MD we established a clear action plan to achieve a Directorship. Our Client was invited onto the Board within 6 months.
After a 6-month gap we worked together again, this time with the mind set of learning to become a “Great Board Member” and growing the areas of the Business she had direct accountability for. This was coupled with some other personal goals. By the end of the second 6-month period of 1-2-1 coaching our client was promoted again, to Managing Director of Asia, surpassing both her goals and timescales and becoming a direct peer to her original sponsor.
Case Study 8 - Internet Marketing
Laura worked with the dynamic owner of a fast growing Internet marketing company. He had already achieved significant successes and now wanted his company to become the no 1 business in their field in the UK. Whilst this was a very aggressive goal it was achievable.
To make this happen we had to look at the company structure. The business was diversifying and the current structure was limiting the contribution of the MD. He was in a heavily operational role that had hardly changed since the company’s launch.
Through our 1-2-1 coaching he realised that he needed to learn to delegate and put in place a senior management team. This in turn gave him the time to take a much more strategic role which in turn accelerated the success and growth of the company.
During the year we worked together an operational management structure was put in place, a retail based marketing timetable was implemented, a complimentary internet business was launched and grown, a Polish office was set up and a site was bought to build a new commercial office (this later point was part of a personal goal to own a revenue generating property portfolio).
The company continues to go from strength to strength and they have now moved into their own state of the art office.
Case Studies 9-12: Larger Organisations
Case Study 9 - High Street Bank
Pete was engaged by The Royal Bank of Scotland to work with a low performing team of senior managers within the business development sector. The purpose of the project was to identify team and individual performance issues and create a strategy for development and performance improvement.
After completing a range of team and individual assessments we identified a number of weaknesses within the team structure.
As a result we clarified each individual role within the team and redefined the team’s future objectives and actions so that they were congruent with the overall mission of the Bank.
As a result the team’s performance improved to the point of them becoming one of the top performers within the Region.
A further spin off was that one member of the team received one-to-one coaching which led him to achieving his annual targets within three months, moving to within the top five performers table within the Bank.
Case Study 10 - High Street Bank
Martin was engaged by Barclays Bank to work with one of their regional managers. This manager had been a high performer in more than one previous role with the bank but was now struggling to meet the required performance targets.
The objective of the intervention was to improve the manager’s performance and help that person make whatever changes were necessary to reach the targets.
After completing a series of stakeholder interviews (the purpose of which was to gain candid feedback on all aspects of the managers performance), a number of issues were identified that had become barriers to the achievement of the required business performance.
A series of regular coaching sessions (with appropriate intervals to allow for actions to be taken) were applied during which the manager effected some significant changes in behaviour. These changes resulted in a significant improvement in team performance (and ranking) and an improvement in new business generation.
Case Study 11 - Multinational Manufacturer
Cathy was engaged as a business coach to a managing director of the UK subsidiary of a multinational manufacturing company. The UK company was under threat of closure by the parent for underperformance. Our Client, the UK MD, said he wanted help to figure out how to ‘kick the staff into shape’ so that the business could be saved.
In fear of losing his own job the MD was unable to motivate and inspire his team. This resulted in tension, little creative problem solving or inspirational thinking, and very little chance of saving the UK operation.
The stress of carrying the responsibility for the future of 500 employees and the personal implications of any ‘failure’ was overwhelming for the MD. He found himself unable to sleep, unable to think, unable to respond appropriately.
We worked on two areas. The first was to consider how he could better resource himself. Following a self-audit of his current resourcefulness across various areas e.g. emotional, physical, intellectual he discovered that he was under-resourced in many of them. We developed an action plan and a programme to address these shortfalls. This had nearly immediate positive benefits on his resilience levels, and he was able to think much more clearly and relate much more positively to others.
We then were able to begin to work on the issues. We first worked to discriminate between areas he could control and those he couldn’t, and between those he could influence and those he couldn’t.
The outcome: He was able to see more clearly what actions he needed to take, and in what order. He overcame his earlier panic, was able to access to his own inspirational thinking and start to inspire others again.
He made cutbacks and revised the business strategy. Within 6 months the operation was out from under the threat of closure. Two years later, still under the same executive’s leadership, the operation was upgraded yet again.
Case Study 12 - Premier Football Club
Developing Board Directors
Are you ready to go further? Contact us now and arrange to meet with one of our senior business coaches |
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