Grant Stanley Consulting

Venture capital funding is a great tool for entrepreneurs, but its implications are often not fully understood. Here's what VC-seekers need to know. Nearly £15 billion pounds was invested by venture capitalists in the UK in 2012. That £15 billion was invested across 3,723 deals, making the average deal hover at a little over £4.029 Million. While that number may seem staggering to many people, it's about average for VC investments made since the dot com bubble burst between 2000 and 2001, according to the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Yes, the economic impact of the dot com bubble was horrendous, but it did spawn a renewed sense of innovation in start-up development. Companies are running leaner than ever, and because of that VCs are more willing to invest in companies who don't pride themselves on their burn rate. Still, raising venture capital funding can be a risky business if you aren't realistic about what to expect. Here are some things t...

10 Reasons Why your Boss shouldn’t be Your Friend Is it ever OK for a manager to be friends with their employees? Believe me, this isn’t just a question brand new manager’s struggle with (and most of them do). It’s an issue a lot of experienced managers are questioned about as well, and many of them don’t think it’s a problem at all. The issue of “buddy to boss” might not be as black and white as you might think. Conventional management and HR 101 wisdom would tell you it’s absolutely not OK. In fact, some companies might even try to outlaw it through “cronyism” policies. However, in the real world of work, emotions and relationships can’t be governed by policy. Workplace relationships are can be extremely tricky, just as personal or family relationships can be. Managers are not robots – they have feelings and emotions. Sometimes you can’t help but like one employee more than another. Sometimes workplace romances blossom between managers and employees (that’s a whol...

Between 2002 and 2008 I was employed by British Telecom as the Central Regional Sales Director.   This afforded me the ability to influence, coach, mentor and deliver results through a staff of over 300; across 2 call centres and Field based consultants.   I wrote this article a few years ago but never published it, but I feel it is relevant now as the increase in the economy generally increases attrition rates. Just to set the scene, my call centres had an attrition rate of almost 37% when I took responsibility in 2006, but following the following principles below, I was able to reduce my annual attrition to below 15% with less than 4% annual absence records.   This may sound high to some but for a Call centre environment this is fantastic! Recruitment – getting it right from the start It is essential when recruiting that the correct competencies and behaviours are defined in order to deliver your business’s requirements.  Once the potential applicant’s...

This is a deviation from my normal genre of posting but relevant nonetheless. Whilst we compare the two contrasting theories of population growth, there are similarities in the business world that we can prepare for and prevent. The first is from Malthus, who was writing at the end of the 18th century. He believed that only bad could come from population growth. Population he said grows faster than food supply. This he said was because food supply can only grow arithmetically, for example, 1 then 2 then 3-4-5-6-7-8 but, population grows geometrically 2-4-8-16-32-64. Consequently, there is no way food supply can keep up with population growth. Therefore, population will inevitably exceed food supply. He then went on two say that there are two possible outcomes. Firstly, he said population could exceed food supply only to be positively "checked" (reduced) by famine, war, and disease.   Population exceeds food supply and is kept in check b...

Customer Service in 2015   As 2014 wound down, I took the time to pause, and look ahead to what top customer service trends will surface in 2015 and beyond. Good service — whether it's to answer a customer's question prior to purchase, or help a customer resolve an issue post-purchase should be pain-free, proactive at a minimum and pre-emptive at best, deeply personalised, and delivered with maximum productivity. Here are 6 top trends - out of a total of 10 - that I am keeping my eye on! Trend 1: Customers Embrace Emerging Channels to Reduce Friction. In a recent survey, we found that web self-service was the most widely used communication channel for customer service, surpassing use of the voice channel for the first time. In 2015, I predict that customers will continue to demand effortless interactions over web and mobile self-service channels. They will also explore new communication channels such as video chat with screen sharing and annotation. Trend ...

Big Data. It’s a buzzword uttered by both industry experts and business professionals; a marketing term and industry description bandied about by techies and creative types alike. Everyone acknowledges how important it is and its unlimited potential in affecting how decisions are made in various areas of our lives. However, that’s all it has actually been thus far: potential . Big Data gives us the ability to gather and access data online, regardless of whether that information comes from open sources or behind layers of cyber-security. But we have yet to maximise this data and harness it to its fullest capacity. That will change in the years to come. Many say we are at a tipping point. The ubiquity of mobile devices, cloud computing, and digital technology permeating every aspect of our lives will affect how all these volumes of information will be used and processed. Here’s how 2015 will prove to be big data’s break out year. 1.        The De...

The greatest salespeople aren’t always the greatest CRM experts… and it doesn’t always matter. Every sales department has one. And, sadly, new recruits born into a world of web often sneer at them. The experienced sales executive who prefers landlines to telepresence, remembers the birthdays of his clients’ children and writes stuff down on paper. Yes, that guy. The guy who’s kept three £250k accounts loyal for a decade! Salespeople who started work in a different decade aren’t always familiar with CRM technology and, sometimes, it frustrates their (often younger) colleagues charged with getting the most from their IT investment. To the point where our traditionalist hero – let’s call this hero Geoff – ends up excluded from departmental strategy, with the millions of business pounds he brings in, ignored. Can I change your perspective a little? Geoff isn’t anti-CRM. In fact, he’s the most pro-CRM guy you’ll ever meet. (He just doesn’t always do it through software.) ...