Share in success

November 2010

Chris Sellars
Corporate Finance Partner

I have recently had the pleasure of hearing Steve Cram MBE, speak to an audience of business leaders and advisers. He has taken on the role of Yorkshire Bank Ambassador.

Following a fantastic win by Kelly Holmes in the 2004 Olympics in the 800m in which she won by the narrowest of margins, just 0.08 of a second, Steve told us how he asked Kelly what had made the difference in relation to the preparation for this performance in comparison with previous years.

She said over many years, she had trained hard, had been focused, had always been committed to the process, but felt that over the last 18 months, the real difference in her performance, had come from her support team. Lottery funds had enabled her to have the right team supporting her including coaches, management, dieticians, physio’s, medical professionals, masseuse etc; and although she wasn’t clear exactly which one made the difference between the silver and gold medal, she was clear that without the additional support, she wouldn’t have been able to perform at the same level.

Parallels are often drawn between sport and business, so surely we can make the difference to our client’s business as coaches, mentors and advisors to ensure they achieve peak performance. Whether spending time to focus them on a clear vision, specific work on making key decisions or driving improvement of part of their business or a strategy for an exit, we can make the difference in their performance.

Having spent the last year developing the consulting services at Hart Shaw, I have clear evidence that consulting services has a significant impact on client performance. However, it is important that we move from the generic term of business advisors to clearly setting out the consulting services that we provide. As one of my colleagues very succinctly put it the other day “we have moved from giving it away to charging for our valuable advice”. Once we charge for it our clients value it and hold us to account for delivering improved results.

I am sure all of the team that supported Kelly Holmes took great delight in sharing in her success in 2004; similarly we can share in our client’s success.

Chris Sellars, Corporate Finance Partner, T: 0114 251 8850, Email: chris.sellars@hartshaw.co.uk.