Notes from the field.
Writing on leadership succession, exit readiness, engineering recruitment and hiring strategy for owner-led businesses.
- 02 Oct 2026·7 min read
Hiring a non-family CEO for a family business
Appointing the first CEO from outside the family: what the family must settle first, the board around the role, where candidates come from and why it fails.
Read - 02 Oct 2026·6 min read
COO or managing director: which to hire first
For an owner stepping back, the first senior hire is usually a COO or an MD. How to tell which the business needs, and what goes wrong with each.
Read - 02 Oct 2026·6 min read
Hiring a finance director before selling your business
What a sale asks of the finance function, where due diligence finds the gaps, and when to hire a financial controller, a finance director or a part-time FD.
Read - 21 Sept 2026·6 min read
Hiring a managing director so you can step back
What to decide before recruiting an MD for an owner-led business: the scope of the handover, internal versus external, equity, and timing against an exit.
Read - 21 Sept 2026·5 min read
Owner dependency: why buyers pay less and how to fix it
How buyers price key-person risk in founder-led businesses, what they test in diligence, and the senior hires that reduce the discount before a sale.
Read - 21 Sept 2026·6 min read
Succession planning before an employee ownership trust sale
In an EOT sale the founder is paid from future profits, so the leadership team left behind matters. The hires, governance and timing to plan for.
Read - 12 Apr 2026·4 min read
Why precision matters more than volume in engineering search
Sending ten close-enough CVs is not a shortlist. A short, well-calibrated brief is the most important deliverable of any search.
Read - 03 Mar 2026·6 min read
Hiring senior engineers: the questions that actually matter
Most senior engineering interviews test the wrong thing. Here is the small set of questions that consistently separate strong leaders from polished talkers.
Read - 22 Jan 2026·5 min read
When retained search is worth it — and when it isn't
Retained is the right model for some roles and the wrong model for others. A clear-eyed look at when each engagement model earns its keep.
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