by Guy | 12 Nov, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Structural Authority, Governance & Operating Design
“All plans of government, which suppose great reformation in the manners of mankind, are plainly imaginary.” – David Hume, “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth”, Political Discourses (1752) It’s the second week of November, and the familiar year-end pressures are...
by Guy | 5 Nov, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“Everywhere means nowhere.” – Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter II (trans. Richard M. Gummere, 1917) A Reasonable Year, and Nothing Left It’s the first week of November, and the founder of a distribution business is working through the October figures ahead...
by Guy | 29 Oct, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“We are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss.” – Isaiah Berlin, “The Pursuit of the Ideal” (1988) An order comes in from exactly the kind of customer the business decided some time ago to move away from. The month has been...
by Guy | 15 Oct, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“If I beg and pray you to set me free, then bind me more tightly still.” – Homer, The Odyssey, Book XII, trans. Samuel Butler (1900) Picture two owners of established specialist engineering businesses, a composite of several I’ve known, a few...
by Guy | 24 Sep, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” – Thomas Paine, Common Sense, Introduction (1776) Item seven on the monthly management agenda is an update on something launched about eighteen months...
by Guy | 17 Sep, 2026 | BusinessFitness, Scalable Margin, Value & Founder Independence, Strategic Value Direction
“What is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit.” – Francis Bacon, “Of Innovations”, Essays, 1625 A manager puts her head round the door on a Wednesday afternoon with a problem and a recommendation. She knows...
