What a time to go it alone!

So if you have got this far, thank you, and welcome to Kingsclere Advisory.

It has been on my mind for a few years but it took being made redundant for the second year in a row, along with the current Coronavirus-dampened job market, to actually do something about setting up my own business. As my old boss at Greene King used to say, and with a nod to Plato, 'necessity is the mother of invention'. But what a time to go it alone!

Setting up a business is a whole new world for me. Who would have thought things like naming the company, designing a logo and producing a website would be so challenging? In many respects, knowing what I wanted to do and how I would position the company were the easiest elements of setting up.

So why choose Kingsclere? The initial impetus for the name comes from a little piece of heaven on earth so please humour me while a tell a quick tale.

When I was very small, my grandmother used to babysit on a Saturday afternoon while my parents played sport. She liked a bet and we would each bet a penny on every race in the ITV7...although apparently this did not last too long as I learnt quite quickly how to pick the winner a couple of furlongs out and kept changing my selection to ensure victory! What it did do though was give me a love for horse racing that might have ebbed and flowed over the years but remains to this day.

At around that time, there was a horse called Mill Reef who won most of the big races in 1971, including the Derby, and he became my favourite horse. As I grew older, I learnt all I could about Mill Reef, which led me to the village of Kingsclere, midway between Basingstoke and Newbury in North Hampshire, where Mill Reef was trained. In the summer holidays, at the crack of dawn my father would take me to Kingsclere from our home in London to watch the horses train across Watership Down (yes that Watership Down) and so formed an attachment to the area which exists to this day.

I also thought there were other signs that this was a good name for my company. Having spent 12 years at Greene King, it was nice to have part of its name in my company name, while 'Clere' is old English for 'bright' or 'clearing' according to Wikipedia. I choose to use it to represent the clarity of thought that I can bring to my clients.

Kingsclere Advisory does what it says on the tin. I have spent a decent part of my career to date advising, from fund managers to CEO's to divisional boards. It is where I am confident I can add most value to businesses, boards and C-Suite executives. But it is more than an advisory business. Kingsclere can also support businesses and executives across strategy and communications, which have I been doing for the last 13 years as a salaried employee.

There are four areas that I think I can be of help to businesses and executives.

1. Strategic advisory. I was able to practice the theory I learnt on my Cranfield MBA over my 12 years at Greene King. It has stood me in good stead to offer strategic planning support, lead or support M&A activities, lead or support on business development opportunities and manage projects. I also hope to set up a proprietary small business and individual pub/restaurant health check service. If I can help hospitality venues to survive the pandemic and thrive in the aftermath, then I feel I will have given something back to an industry very close to my heart.

2. Investor relations advisory. I have been on both sides of the IR divide over the last 20 years having spent over seven years as an equity analyst at Merrill Lynch and 13 years doing corporate IR at Greene King and Pepco Group. This experience enables me to offer a tailored and independent waterfront service of IR support and advice to companies across all sectors.

3. C-Suite advisory. It is tough at the top and it can be difficult for C-Suite executives to express doubt or show weakness to the board, to their teams or to their peers. Having performed a chief-of-staff role throughout my time at Greene King, I believe I have the knowledge, experience and understanding to provide a value added service to C-Suite executives. I also think there is a mismatch between the talent that resides within C-Suites and the quality of communication that they deliver to their boards, their peers and their teams. I can write or help to improve speeches and presentations, and I can proof read documents before they are presented.

4. NED. As well as seeing the NEDs at Greene King in action (seen a few over 12 years!) I was fortunate to have a CEO who 'encouraged' me to join the management boards of its three main divisions (Managed Pubs, Tenanted Pubs, Brewing) as a NED at different times during my Greene King career. Those experiences have given me a solid knowledge base about how boards work and how to create value for a board.

If you think I might be able to help then please do get in touch. Details are on the website.

I have already managed to pick up some work and have a number of leads to follow up on so I am encouraged by what I have experienced so far, although not seeing a monthly salary hitting the personal P&L and not getting all the extras that comes with being a salaried employee is taking some time to get used to. It is exciting, it is daunting but it has already been rewarding.