Sep 17, 2026 · 54 min · 13 segments
Helen Johnson (Fluxium Consulting) unpacks why businesses rarely fail from a lack of ideas - they fail to execute. From founder bottlenecks to change management to metrics nobody actually reads, Helen…
Helen JohnsonGuestBen EdwardsHostAnd the results of that, if you can share, because that sounds probably something that plenty of our audience are getting towards or considering, because you probably built the business to a certain point, got some operational muscle, and then really need to embed.
There's a few things in there that make me think about the different stages of a consultancy's growth and hitting that... a bit more sophisticated level of maturity, you then need those.
And so if you can share some insights into that, that would be really interesting.
I think what gets you to a £2 million turnover business doesn't get you to 10.
And businesses, particularly founder-led organizations, they build quickly and they add a lot of exciting things in, they do a lot of different things.
And I think when you come to put in an operating model that has some more formality to it, it gives you an opportunity to really look on it and say, what do we need now? And what do we need for the future? So it's saying, how are we doing those things? And I think what this particular organization has seen through the process is gone.
I think that's one of the big things is when you actually go to write something down and say, okay, how do we operate? you write it and you go, well, I wish we did that.
And that actually is the future-proofing piece because that's going, well, if we did that, that and that, we could do this quicker.
Or if that joined in with what they're doing over here, we could do it that much quicker.
The beauty of going through that process is saying, what's worked so far? What are the bits that, you mean, have potentially got a bit clunky or we've started repeating? And also a biggie is what information is sat with particular people? And I'll wang on about this all day, but it's that SPOF thing, single points of failure.
And I think you don't realise as you grow in a business how much info is just sat in people's heads.
um and you mean they're great heads and they are you mean valuable parts of your business but if you want to scale people need to know that stuff that that information needs to be locked down it needs to be owned by the business not by the people in it necessarily so it's it's getting that continuity of information to flow through a business and i think that's that comes at a point you mean and i think on reflection in the businesses that I've been in, that's sometimes been the blocker that there's been, it's bottlenecked around particular people, be that the founder, be that the operations director, it's that they know what they're doing and they haven't necessarily disseminated that knowledge and information to the rest of the team.
So bringing in an operating model that's got a bit more structure is a real opportunity to do that and put some focus on it.
We find that a lot because these businesses have grown through some of that ambition, founder spirit that gets you to a great place.
And therefore, everything operationally is almost followed in their wake, but moved along organically rather than maybe being looked at with a level of intentionality.
How difficult is it, though, for you when you're working with a firm to... bring the attention and shed some light on some of these things that maybe they feel are like core parts of almost their culture.
Because operations can be like a little scary, particularly to very creative or fast moving people because they just think barriers, process, roadblocks.
Yeah, and I think it's helping them understand that link between strategy and execution because leadership teams know where they want to go and they know what they're trying to achieve.
And it's all those millions of decisions, the behaviours, the structure that will stop them getting there.
And the results of that, if you can share, because that sounds probably something that plenty of our audience are getting towards or considering, because you probably built the business to a certain point, got some operational muscle, and then really need to embed.
There's a few things in there that make me think about the different stages of a consultancy's growth and hitting that... a bit more sophisticated level of maturity, you then need those.
And so if you can share some insights into that, that would be really interesting.
I think what gets you to a £2 million turnover business doesn't get you to 10.
And businesses, particularly founder-led organizations, they build quickly and they add a lot of exciting things in, they do a lot of different things.
And I think when you come to put in an operating model that has some more formality to it, it gives you an opportunity to really look on it and say, what do we need now? And what do we need for the future? So it's saying, how are we doing those things? And I think what this particular organization has seen through the process is gone.
I think that's one of the big things is when you actually go to write something down and say, okay, how do we operate? you write it and you go, well, I wish we did that.
And that actually is the future-proofing piece because that's going, well, if we did that, that and that, we could do this quicker.
Or if that joined in with what they're doing over here, we could do it that much quicker.
The beauty of going through that process is saying, what's worked so far? What are the bits that, you mean, have potentially got a bit clunky or we've started repeating? And also a biggie is what information is sat with particular people? And I'll wang on about this all day, but it's that SPOF thing, single points of failure.
And I think you don't realise as you grow in a business how much info is just sat in people's heads.
um and you mean they're great heads and they are you mean valuable parts of your business but if you want to scale people need to know that stuff that that information needs to be locked down it needs to be owned by the business not by the people in it necessarily so it's it's getting that continuity of information to flow through a business and i think that's that comes at a point you mean and i think on reflection in the businesses that I've been in, that's sometimes been the blocker that there's been, it's bottlenecked around particular people, be that the founder, be that the operations director, it's that they know what they're doing and they haven't necessarily disseminated that knowledge and information to the rest of the team.
So bringing in an operating model that's got a bit more structure is a real opportunity to do that and put some focus on it.
We find that a lot because these businesses have grown through some of that ambition, founder spirit that gets you to a great place.
And therefore, everything operationally is almost followed in their wake, but moved along organically rather than maybe being looked at with a level of intentionality.
How difficult is it, though, for you when you're working with a firm to... bring the attention and shed some light on some of these things that maybe they feel are like core parts of almost their culture.
Because operations can be like a little scary, particularly to very creative or fast moving people because they just think barriers, process, roadblocks.
Yeah, and I think it's helping them understand that link between strategy and execution because leadership teams know where they want to go and they know what they're trying to achieve.
And it's all those millions of decisions, the behaviours, the structure that will stop them getting there.
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