Blog: Leading with Insight

The business hasn't stopped growing. But it's definitely slowed and you can't quite put your finger on why. The market is there, the team is decent, the product still works. But the momentum that used to feel effortless now feels forced and the growth that used to happen naturally now requires you to push harder for smaller returns. However, the problem might not be your business... it might be you. That's really not a criticism - it's a pattern we've seen in over 300 SMB leaders across 27 cohorts of LEAD™. The business reaches a certain point and the leadership that got it there struggles to take it further. …

As the new financial year gets underway, thousands of SMB leaders across Britain will sit down with their accountants and go through the numbers. Revenue, costs, margins, tax liability. They'll look at what the business did this year and start thinking about what it needs to do next. They'll scrutinise every line on the P&L. Challenge every cost. Ask hard questions about underperforming products, slow-paying clients, and whether the marketing spend actually delivered anything. What they won't do is apply even a fraction of that rigour to themselves.…

Every year, Earth Day prompts a global conversation about the kind of world we're building. For businesses, that conversation is becoming harder to sidestep - and for those of us who believe that business can and should be a force for good, it's also one of the most energising conversations to be part of. At QuoLux™, Earth Day feels like a natural moment to reflect on what we've been working towards and to share our 2025 Positive Impact Report. Our third since becoming a B Corp, it tells the story of a year shaped by one central idea: Good Growth.…

The title of this blog isn't something we wrote. It's a direct quote from a LEAD™ graduate, and it's one we hear, in different forms, from almost every cohort: the delegates join largely expecting business development but they leave with something bigger. "I Wasn't Alone. Other Business Owners Felt Exactly Like I Did." This is the one that comes up first, almost always during the Overnight Experiential. The moment when a room full of accomplished, successful business leaders …

People ask us this all the time. They've read the statistics. They've seen the testimonials. They know the programme runs for ten months. But what they actually want to know is: what happens in the room? It's a fair question, and surprisingly hard to answer because LEAD™ isn't a course with a fixed syllabus. It's a leadership and business development programme for senior leaders and it adapts to the people in it. No two cohorts are the same.…

Most leadership development looks good on paper, but the real test of it comes on a Monday morning. We've been working with a Head of Operations at a manufacturing business - someone who oversees ten departments and has absorbed a colleague's responsibilities on top of his own. He's not short of things to deal with so when he started our How-To SkillBuild programme, he wasn't looking for theory. He wanted things he could actually use. This is what happened next.…

From modest beginnings two men have forged one of the county's most successful family business partnerships. Now they're preparing to pass it on to the next generation. Don Robins, pictured tells a story about arriving at a client’s offices wearing a suit, doing the deal to dispose of their wastepaper, then returning to his van to get into his overalls to go back into the business as the removal man. That was going back years. Brothers Don and Geof Robins were in the early days of establishing their business and did everything themselves. …

Every World Book Day, we're reminded that the right book at the right time can truly change the way you see the world. This year, we want to share one that we think every business leader should read. Realising Good Growth: A Practical Guide for Business Leaders by Professor Steve Kempster and Dr Stewart Barnes opens not with a business framework or a growth strategy, but with a question that stops you in your tracks. Our children - and certainly our children's children - may one day ask: why did you let this happen?…