I first met OXNED Non Execs some years ago when I was looking for help (in a previous professional Intellectual Property law practice business) in developing the reach of our business. We realised we needed assistance in developing a strategy for managing the business development function of our business. The fine gentleman from OXNED Non Execs was able to bring his substantial expertise and experience to our discussions and helped us to frame, manage, implement and measure the project.

Our said OXNED Non Exec clearly had significant experience of dealing with the ways businesses are and how they should be managed, and with a real focus on a practical, common sense approach. This experience was invaluable to us and helped us to clear the way in which we approached the project and particularly the way in which we challenged assumptions that had continued to afflict our previous efforts.

Thanks in no small part to the guidance which we received from our OXNED Non Exec, we were able to manage a successful business development project, and the lessons we learned helped us with other management challenges within the business. In addition, OXNED Non Execs had a large network of helpful professional network contacts which also proved of great help.

Rouse & Co / Willoughby & Partners - Hugh Tebay – Partner

All of the Directors and Senior Managers at Zen Office Group benefit greatly from the thoughtful and incisive inputs and contributions of our appointed OXNED Non Exec.

The experience, structure and discipline which he has brought to the Board, and including all of the fine detail which has been involved with all of that, has proven to be essential in enabling us to look and plan forward like never before, and many of our “bigger” decisions have been made on the back of consulting with him and I don’t think that we would be the £20m plus business we are today without his wisdom and guidance.

The period of 2010 through 2016 has seen much to be proud of and also presented many challenges in terms of accurate targeting and of course reliable delivering. I think there have been many lessons learned between us and it is very exciting indeed looking at what might be possible over the next three to four years.

One thing is for sure, I most definitely need the experience and support within the business and alongside me of my OXNED Non Exec so as to ensure that we at Zen Office continue to deliver my dreams and ambitions for the business as a whole for years to come.

Zen Office Group - Les Kerr, Group Chairman & Chief Executive

Our OXNED Non Exec came to us at a time when our business was relatively newly-formed, but was going through some profound changes, and not least with one of the founding partners leaving.

This caused us to ask two questions: Did we have a viable business? And what did we need to do to make it better?

On the basis that “we didn’t know what we didn’t know” the decision was made to find an expert who could show us what we needed to do to make it work.

We found or were recommended a number of Non Execs and we short-listed and met three. Whilst the other two were very good their focus was too much around finance whereas the OXNED Non Exec stood out as having both financial and operational skills.

The first thing he got us to do was prepare a brief, and very much to the point Five Year strategic growth plan. Up to that point we had focused on annual budgets and cash flow projections only. By forcing us to look further ahead, our OXNED Non Exec helped us to see that this was (critically) an issue of building for the future as well as managing the present.

After getting the operational and financial strategy in order we moved on to developing the strategic marketing plan that would enable us to deliver the results. This covered everything from high-level market position to tactical issues like “get a new website”. He also helped to turn the strategic goals into operational objectives.

The result was that we moved from being a business that went from year-to-year to one that had a strategic, long-term focus

Within two years we had almost doubled our turnover and increased our staff resulting in a move to larger offices. A key point is that many of the systems and procedures we put in place back then are still in use today.

Jermyn Consulting - George Hall - Director

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