Staying Ahead of the Hammer

About the Book

Staying Ahead of the Hammer is the first book to look at how high growth impacts the smaller business. The book uses the analogy of a “Hammer Thrower” to help the reader understand how they can successfully manage the relationship between different parts of their business to support growth in sales. The first key premise of the book explains how long-term high growth can only be achieved if sales and the organisation’s ability to support them are in relative balance. The second premise is that the business’s leaders must look forward and plan the future. This can only be achieved by having the right information available. This enables them to make increasingly accurate predictions about future sales, which in turn will indicate the necessary changes in the organisation needed to maintain growth momentum. The book identifies the high growth problem and then looks at seven key areas of a business and explains how each of these areas can prevent or undermine high growth and then goes on to explain what can be done to overcome these challenges. These seven areas are vision, culture, strategy and planning, talent management, financial management and control, organisational efficiency, and business development. The book is written so that each chapter is self-contained, allowing readers to look first at those areas that are causing them the most problems. Nonetheless, the book emphasises that all businesses are highly integrated entities and that improvements in one area will inevitably spill over into others. The book also uses a number of tools and techniques to help the reader address specific problems.

About the Author

This book is based on his experience of working in a business, which grew at over 25 percent every year for eight years. Growth at this level produced extraordinary results, with turnover increasing from £26 million to £170 million in that time and staffing growing from less than 150 to 2,500 in the same period. During that time, he managed a number of businesses, ranging in size from 30 to 300 people. This experience enabled him to understand the importance of embracing change and being agile, something that would prove invaluable in the future. Since 2002, he has successfully provided advice and guidance to small and medium businesses across Southeast England. In 2011 and in the teeth of the recession, he decided to refocus and work only with high growth businesses, i.e., those growing at 20 percent a year or more. This decision was based on the realisation that high growth businesses were poorly served and there were virtually no advisors out there who really understood the high growth environment and what was required to create and manage a long-term high growth business. His understanding of this environment has enabled him to take difficult concepts and break them down into simple, easy-to-understand steps. In order to provide practical value to readers, he has developed a number of tools specifically to help business owners implement his ideas. He has become a recognised expert in his field and, in addition to his advisory work, offers training courses to leadership teams on what to expect and how to succeed in a high growth environment.