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How does a CEO enable innovation? More specifically, how do you create the conditions for innovation in a mid-sized business? 

We tackled this topic in our recent CEO masterclass: growth and innovation in practice. In addition to our own IT leaders, we were delighted to have the expert investor, Aaron Baker from BGF, on the panel.  

BGF provides growth funding for ambitious businesses across the UK and Ireland, so Aaron has wide experience in the connection between innovation and growth. He’s learned to sort innovation into what he refers to as ‘three buckets’: 

• Information: It is critical to have the right information to make informed decisions. That might be internal information like profitability or cycle times, but leaders also need to personally stay in touch with our customers and our market and to understand a changing world. 
• Decision-making: Aaron counsels an approach based on moderation. A business needs checks and balances, and decision-making should be ‘quick but not reckless.’  For example, innovation spending can be split into tranches, each matched to specific outcomes. When broken down like this, stakeholders can make decisions quickly but not recklessly. 
• Culture: As is often the case in our panel discussions, the conversation returns to culture. A CEO needs to foster a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and experimentation. Which means that if CEOs really want innovation, they need to be willing to listen to ideas, and to forgive failure.  

As ever, we invite you to contact us for a no-pressure conversation about fostering innovation and growth in your own business. Even in the quietest days of August, we’re always up for a chat.

We’ve been talking about integration issues and manual work this month, which for some clients will indeed mean sweeping changes to their systems and processes. But not always! Quite often there are tweaks which can have an outsized positive effect on a mid-sized business. 

We asked our CIOs and CTOs for examples of quick fixes that had a big impact. 

• ‘Some of the biggest wins I’ve experienced have come from simply mapping and streamlining business processes before looking at technology.’ 
• ‘A construction client was dealing with an avalanche of paper. Whenever they needed material in the field (which was every day), orders were scribbled down and then sent to the back office to reconcile. We trained an AI to ‘read’ the forms. The staff who once spent hours deciphering some foreman’s handwritten scrawl were liberated to do higher-value tasks.’ 
• ‘I worked with a family-owned food business whose card payment systems were expensive and unreliable. The quick fix was to migrate from legacy card machines to better devices, saving them around 20k yearly and a lot of aggravation.’ 
• ‘An engineering company wanted better metadata around files and work output as a key enabler for AI. The users were trying to categorize their work output. But it wasn’t happening – everything was getting classified as ‘other.’ So we looked at the user interface, cut the number of options in the drop-down menu from 22 to 6, and data quality improved dramatically.’  

What strikes us about these stories is that none of them started with a blank slate or a big budget. They started with someone looking at the friction and considering what could be done about it. 

That’s often the real value a fractional CIO or CTO brings: not just the vision for where a business needs to go, but the leadership to bring people together, the judgment to spot the small opportunities, and the focus to make unglamourous fixes happen. 

Let us know if you’d like to talk through where those opportunities might be hiding in your business. Ps. Our next CEO Masterclass: Growth and Innovation in Practice, takes place this Friday, 17 July. If you can’t join us live, don’t worry – everyone who registers will receive the recording afterwards.

Integration issues and manual work are strongly related topics that keep cropping up among mid-market businesses. This recent story will resonate regardless of the sector you’re in. (The client prefers to remain anonymous, but they didn’t mind me sharing the broad outlines.) 

The CEO of a business poised for growth was finding it impossible to move forward because different directors disagreed on the facts. Different departments presented their own reports, and the data was telling inconsistent stories.  

Too much time was spent arguing – which caused distrust, reinforced departmental boundaries, and created manual reconciliation work. The Board was finding it impossible to make informed decisions or even to know what to believe. 

Our fractional CIO, however, quickly grasped the issue – each manager trusted his or her own systems and spreadsheets. There was no single source of truth for everyone to draw upon. Everyone insisted their reports were correct, and the mistakes were in everyone else’s reports!  

A model had to be created – with support from the leaders – to shared information and cross-company processes. Systems and data could no longer reflect departmental boundaries, and every manager had to draw upon common data for any reporting.  

This took a bit of time, of course, and required changes in the processes, technology, and the company culture. But the end result is reporting the Board can trust, reports that empower managers to make decisions within defined boundaries, and increased cross-company cooperation. It also freed up the Excel-wranglers to spend their time on things that matter to customers! 

And the business is able to move forwards with AI initiatives with a clear eye on ROI. No more throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. The entire business is more prepared for innovation and growth.  

If any of this sounds familiar, I invite you to connect with us for a no-pressure chat. And speaking of innovation and growth, our CEO masterclass: growth and innovation in practice is scheduled for 17 July at 12:30 UK time.  

Watch your inbox for the invite; we’d love to see you there.

Best regards, 
 

Graeme 

I’m writing this just after our Summer Conference in the Midlands, when the team and our partner businesses convened for two days of learning, knowledge-sharing, and perhaps even a little fun. 

The conferences can be a whirlwind. There are so many people to catch up with and so many interesting talks and panels. This time once again our ‘unconferences’ were popular, when our IT leaders pick their own topics for a roundtable chat. 

Since we’ve been talking about growth and innovation this month, I asked a few of our IT leaders for their take on what it is and how it works. The answers were both fascinating and wide-ranging.

Make the impossible into the possible 

One of our CIOs from Wiltshire said that he’s ‘stopped asking how to do something different. Instead, I think about innovation as how we make the impossible into the possible.’ 

For instance, he’s been working with a business that wanted to improve its B2B prospecting – a notoriously time-consuming effort – without increasing the workload. So he’s been using AI to create hyper-personalised messaging for prospects.  

He said, ‘It’s not about using AI to replace the salespeople, but to ensure they have a carefully crafted message for a prospect so we’re not wasting anybody’s time.’ 

Turn useless ideas into something useful 

And one of our CIOs from Yorkshire also had an interesting take. He said innovation is the process of ‘taking ideas that are novel and useless and making them novel and useful.’ 

He had a client who was working to capture more carbon from power plants. The client had a eureka moment as he was changing his youngest’s nappy. He thought, ‘Why not a nappy for a chimney?’  

Of course, this is an oversimplification, but it ended up working, and their chief investor actually acquired the business. From Pampers to PE, as it were. 

Borrow from other sectors 

Our Regional Director from the East Midlands talked about looking at innovation as what one sector might learn from another. 

‘Look at manufacturing,’ he said. ‘Quite often a client will be using Excel for everything, and many businesses are still even paper-based. But then we’ve got retail businesses with nothing but data. It’s common sense to the online retail business, but to the manufacturer it’s quite innovative.’ 

My own takeaway from these conversations is that innovation is not about imposing something different for its own sake. It’s about looking at a business issue and then finding clever ways to solve it. 

One last thought: in this age when everything happens online, it’s energising to see our colleagues in the flesh, to exchange ideas, and simply to share a meal and a chat. Isolation is the enemy of innovation.  

Whilst we are indeed technology experts, Freeman Clarke is about our people and our team, and I’m grateful for the imagination, dedication, and innovative ideas our people bring to their work and to our clients. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the above, contact us for a no-pressure chat. 

Best regards, 

Graeme 

‘Innovation’ is one of the words that can mean everything and nothing. As leaders of mid-sized businesses, we seek out innovative ways of doing business, but the where and how of it can be a bit fuzzy. 

With that in mind, let’s look at 3 specific examples where we helped: 

• Product innovation. PIXL is a leadership network organisation that supports school leaders to improve opportunities and outcomes for young people. Previously, their model involved sending expert advisors into schools alongside delivering events, resources, and strategies. It was a successful approach, but time-intensive. By moving to an online platform, PIXL can provide more flexible, tailored support to school leaders, leading to a huge increase in participation across the network. 
• Process innovation. NEOM Wellbeing is one of the UK’s leading wellness brands, operating across ecommerce, retail stores, and wholesale. Following a period of rapid growth, NEOM experienced operational strain, with friction emerging between their ecommerce, retail, and backend systems. The innovation was a bespoke modernisation effort that supported the operations whilst being scalable for future growth.
• Cultural innovation. Sometimes a business simply needs to be ready when opportunities present themselves. Our client Ecosurety helps businesses comply, optimise, and reduce the impact of their packaging. This is already an innovative business model; however, their data infrastructure lagged behind with manual workarounds making the data cumbersome to ingest and analyse. By establishing a single of source of truth, we streamlined systems and reduced overheads, and at the same time enabled stronger analytics. Ecosurety can better serve their clients and achieve their own growth ambitions.

The takeaways. First, although these are vastly different kinds of businesses, they needed novel ways of moving forward. Our fractional CIOs and CTOs brought a combination of imagination, expertise and independence – ensuring every pound spent was strictly in the interest of the client.

Second, the idea isn’t innovation for its own sake. It starts with a business issue, followed by creative ways to solve it. And in every case, it’s about setting a business up for future innovation and growth. 

If you’re looking to innovate, take a look at our client stories for inspiration. Or consider where the problems are, then invite in a fresh pair of eyes. As ever, we’re always up for a no-strings, no-pressure conversation about innovation in your business, and how our fractional IT leaders might help.

When it comes to compliance, experience has taught us that ultimately, the CEO’s accountable. Not for the technical details of course – the IT teams can batten down the hatches. But it’s up to the CEO to ensure they stay battened.  

Because even the very best techie will not have a full grasp of the business risks, or how things like security and certification can actually support your business goals. 

As a CEO myself, I understand the desire to offload compliance. But as a former working CIO, I also understand where the buck really stops. 

With this in mind, we asked one of our own CISOs to provide us with the basics of compliance for CEOs – as he put it, ‘borne out by every single client we work with.’  

1. Compliance is a selling tool. Enterprise, government, and banking procurement people simply don’t shortlist vendors who can’t pass their security, AI, and data standards questionnaire. Without those answers, you aren’t even in the room. 
2. Certification matters. The contracts that transform a company don’t go to vendors without certs. Again, highly regulated customers – like healthcare, defence, and pharma – bring their compliance requirements with them, and certification is the quickest way to assure them of your security.  
3. Your insurance coverage is simply a compliance audit. Premiums are lower when you meet their compliance standards. Walk in with your Cyber Essentials Plus or ISO 27001 already in hand, premiums go down and red tape falls away. And they will not pay a claim without compliance. 
4. Your breach response planning is only as good as your compliance. When (not if) something cyber goes wrong, the question from your customers, the Board, the regulator, and the press will not be, ‘What happened?’ It will be, ‘What did you have in place?’ The answer you write before the incident is the one that counts. 
5. Due diligence is no place for surprises. Compliance gaps discovered during acquisition are either transaction-killers or leverage for the buyer. Without compliance in your corner, you’re tanking your own valuation. 

If there is one takeaway from the above, it’s that compliance gets you into conversations you might have missed.  

If you need help getting started, have a look at our CEO’s briefing on the Solving cyber security risks: 6 steps to a safer business. Or simply contact us for a conversation about compliance in your mid-sized business. One of our experts will be happy to chat, no-pressure, and in the strictest confidence.

Every CEO knows that cyber security matters. But when we talk to business leaders in the field, they can be a bit vague about CISOs and why they might be necessary. The feeling seems to be, ‘We’ve already got an IT person,’ as if that’s enough. 

Sometimes it is. And often it isn’t. We’re not in the business of selling unnecessary services, but we are in the business of helping CEOs make informed decisions. Especially since, according to government data, SMEs are among the least protected businesses. 

With that in mind, what does a fractional CISO actually do for a mid-sized business? 

1. Build your cyber strategy.  A fractional CISO will create the roadmap for what to protect and how to protect it – without overengineering or overspending. 
2. Translate cyber risk into business risk.  They will cut through the technical noise to communicate the potential commercial, operational, and reputational impact. 
3. Lead incident response. You’ll have a plan for before, during, and after a breach, minimising the expense and the disruption to the business. 
4. Ensure compliance. They will ensure you’re not blindsided by an audit or a fine.  
5. Take care of the techie stuff. A fractional CISO oversees the tech, freeing up the Board to focus on business goals. 
6. Mentor the security team. They will prepare your IT team to handle these issues on their own, so you’re not reliant on one person. 
7. Strengthen resilience, not just prevention. A secure business is one that can detect, respond to, and recover from incidents, not just try to prevent them. 

There are additional advantages to a robust cyber security strategy. For one, it affects valuation – anyone looking to invest in your business will take a very close look at your security profile.  

And in several cases, we’ve seen accreditation like Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001 lead to more business for clients. It seems that people prefer to work with companies whom they know take their security seriously. 

If you’d like to sense-check how prepared your business really is, we’ve pulled together a practical set of questions every CEO should be asking their IT team. It’s a quick read, but it can help highlight gaps and spark the right conversations: Top 10 cyber security questions to ask your IT team or supplier.

We hope the above sheds some light on the issue. If you’ve got further questions about fractional security leadership – or anything else IT-related – do contact us for a no-pressure conversation. We’d be happy to help. 

Legacy systems create ambiguity and paralysis – businesses become locked into them in a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. Breaking away feels too hard. 

But legacy systems can often be made to work well, sometimes relatively easily. To provide more clarity, we went back to our experts to ask how a CEO knows when it is absolutely necessary to invest in newer systems – like it or not. 

1. No more support. When you’re no longer getting updates, security patches, or technical support, your team may tell you they can limp along, but this is an intolerable risk for your business. Tell your team to find support or begin the process to replace the system rather than wait for a catastrophe. 
2. Staff are alienated. If the interface isn’t modern and intuitive, or workarounds are becoming onerous, or simple expansion is difficult, then the old system may be having an insidious and damaging effect. If attracting and retaining top talent is a strategic issue for your business, then providing a first-class systems and tech experience is part of the remedy.  
3. Systems can’t talk to each other. If the gap between the legacy system and your other systems has become an intolerable source of wasted time and effort, then it’s time to move on. An isolated issue may be a sensible compromise, but an obsolete system that holds everything else in its death grip has to be replaced.  
4. Too much specialised knowledge. We often come across situations where there’s just one person in the back who knows the system – and they’re eyeing their pension. Or a business invested in bespoke software and the sole person who knows it well has moved on. If the systems can’t be managed by several people or an external partner, it’s a risk that needs to be addressed before it becomes a crisis. 
5. AI is out of the question. If AI and other modern initiatives are made impossible by the legacy system, it’s time to take it to the tip. 

Old doesn’t always mean useless. But it’s critical to know when it does. If you want help sorting it out, consider booking an IT assessment for growth. It’s an expert discussion about how your specific systems may or may not be supporting your business goals.

A legacy is usually a good thing, especially if it comes from a rich uncle. A legacy system, however, is often a hindrance.  

Startups are uncluttered by the past and are lean enough to pivot. Enterprises can afford upgrades. But mid-sized businesses are sometimes in the middle – dragged down by legacy systems, yet unable to function without them. 

The real question is knowing when a system moves from a manageable compromise to a genuine business constraint. We’ve polled our experts to find out when a business leader might wait another quarter or year, or when it’s time to move on.  

Is growth disproportionately complicated? If launching products, onboarding customers, or adapting to changing markets is too expensive or too slow, then it’s time to turn the page. The drain may affect the bottom line, or it may just quietly strangle the efforts of your best people.  

Have you stopped trusting your data? Are different departments keeping their own numbers, are simple reports becoming difficult, or has ‘just in time’ routinely become ‘just too late?’ When underlying system data is no longer trusted, then the system is the issue. 

Are expenses escalating? If you’re spending to force other systems and processes to work around the current legacy, or training people in outdated ways of working, then you’re already feeding a black hole. And if replacing the system will be more expensive next year, then it’s time to upgrade. 

Are you anticipating exit? If so, the due diligence process will factor in at least double the expected expense of upgrading technology. Put simply, it is far cheaper to replace legacy rather than allow the buyer to reduce their valuation. 

Are you exposed to security threats? Old systems are frequently the target for attacks. If the vendor no longer provides security updates, you’re vulnerable, and your accreditations may be invalid. Complicated legacies are undoubtedly the source of cyber breaches, and the effects can be catastrophic. 

If you want help working through these questions, you might schedule an IT assessment for growth. It’s basically a meaningful discussion about how your systems may or may not be supporting your business goals.  

You’re also welcome to simply ask us a question or schedule a no-pressure chat. 

Either way, we hope your legacies bring the good kind of surprises. 

We love digital transformation, dramatic tech changes to bring about dramatic business improvements. But real innovation is impossible without doing some of the boring stuff first. Your IT plans should also include the simple tactics that can make a real difference, especially in a challenging business environment. 

Perhaps these steps will not make other CEOs seethe with envy. But they will help your business run better and pave the way for more dramatic improvements.  

1. Use what you’ve got to its full potential. Review your IT-related contracts, including your MSP and support agreements, to see if you’re paying too much. Or perhaps they’re not providing agreed-upon services. Is your business using the systems you already have to their full potential? Quite often we see unused functionality, especially in ERP or CRM systems. 
2. Are you paying for things you don’t need? Do your people need Slack, Teams, and Zoom? Are they using the tools they have bought, or do you even have multiple subscriptions to the same SaaS? Aside from bleeding funds, they create security issues.  
3. Automate time- and energy-wasting tasks. Where are the bottlenecks or manual workarounds that create frustration for your people? And, as above, are you already paying for something that can do away with these issues?  
4. Fix the long-standing issues. Legacy ways of working, badly integrated systems, messy data, unclear user permissions, inconsistent backups – these problems can float around for years and will hinder any move towards real transformation. Are people doing things this way because they always have? 

Small things matter. Simple wins create enthusiasm and can make big changes easier. A series of incremental evolutions can have a revolutionary effect. 

If you’re looking for a practical way to understand how AI can support your business growth, join our upcoming webinar. Our experts will share real insights on how organisations are using AI to improve efficiency, innovation and decision-making. Register here: AI for business growth: masterclass for CEOs.