"The closer you get to exit, the less predictable it becomes."

In this episode Alex Franklin sits down with Rob Harvey, former CFO of EMED Group, one of the UK's largest PE-backed specialist healthcare transport businesses to explore what it really takes to scale, run, and successfully exit a Private Equity backed business in one of the most complex sectors in the UK economy.

Rob brings over twenty years of CFO experience in healthcare, transport, and logistics to a conversation that covers the full arc of the PE journey from getting the right team in place and managing leverage responsibly, to navigating the final months of a transaction process that rarely goes exactly to plan.

In this episode:

→ The role of private enterprise within the NHS and where it goes from here
→ Why failing fast leads to greater success within Private Equity
→ Why you cannot scale a business on spreadsheets alone
→ When leverage stops being a growth multiplier and starts destroying value
→ What the final months before exit actually feel like from the inside

Work with Alex: ithacacybersecurity.com | penpole.co.uk
Connect with Rob: linkedin.com/in/robjharvey

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

penpole.co.uk | ithacacybersecurity.com

Most cyber security problems are not really cyber security problems. So what are they?

In this episode, Alex Franklin sits down with Simon Brownhill, Director of DWL Partners and a cyber security leader with over thirty years of experience, to explore what genuinely effective security looks like in a mid-market Private Equity environment. Drawing on a career that began as a weapons engineer in the Royal Navy, Simon brings a practitioner's clarity to the questions that matter most to boards, Operating Partners, and portfolio company executives, from quantifying risk in pounds and multiples to the triggers that cause businesses to engage too late.

Work with Alex: ithacacybersecurity.com | penpole.co.uk

Connect with Simon: linkedin.com/in/simonbrownhill | dwlpartners.com

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

penpole.co.uk | ithacacybersecurity.com

Why do great companies invest time and energy in vision statements, and what does a Holocaust survivor have to teach us about building one?

In this episode, Alex Franklin draws on Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy, Nietzsche, Seneca, and Jim Collins' Five Whys framework to make the case that a compelling vision is not philosophical fluff. It is a competitive advantage. With a practical worked example from his own business, this episode gives you the tools to establish your own.

Read the full article: ithacacybersecurity.com/establish-a-compelling-vision-logotherapy-and-the-five-whys

Work with Alex: ithacacybersecurity.com | penpole.co.uk

References and Further Reading

Frankl, V. E. (1992). Man's Search for Meaning. Blackstone Publishing. (Original work published 1946)
Seneca. (2016). Letters from a Stoic, Letter No. LXI. (R. Gummere, Trans.). Dover Publications. (Original work published ca. 65 CE)
Collins, J. & Lazier, B. (2020). BE 2.0. Penguin Random House UK.

Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/

Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com

penpole.co.uk | ithacacybersecurity.com