Make the most of your critical friends

Oct 16th

It’s good for SMEs to have a number of people that they can call upon for advice and support.

A few years ago when my business was reviewing its proposition and strategy, we realised that we’d reach that age – and growth stage – when we would benefit from a fresh, external perspective: people who were prepared to challenge our thinking and help us reach sound market-based decisions.

We didn’t want people who would take on the formal roles of non-executives (though that of course may be the best option for many larger businesses); we needed people with whom we could share our strategic dilemmas, so they could provide us with an objective steer. Our solution was to set up an informal advisory panel of three or four ‘critical friends’…

Read the full article in the October issue of MT Entrepreneur Weekly

This article is filed under: leadership, strategy process