Growth for Good Insight: Leading for Capital Efficiency
In the Highlands and Islands, small teams often get great results. Still, securing funding can be challenging. Business growth doesn’t come from doing more; it comes from leading better.
This isn’t about borrowing money. It’s about unlocking the capital, time, and capacity already in your business.
From Operator to Capital Activator and, no apologies here, there is some ground to go over a few times to make the points on scaling up that need to be discussed and addressed.
Many founders remain overly involved in the action. They get stuck in delivery, decisions, and details. The key change occurs when you stop being the engine and begin to build the machine.
Every hour you spend on low-leverage work is a poor investment. Leadership that focuses on clarity, delegation, and decision systems can turn time into capital.
There are some straightforward questions to ask yourself:
Start with – “What am I doing that no longer scales?” then “Where is the money or momentum stalled?” and, most importantly, “What have I normalised that I need to correct?”
Where Capital Hides
You may not need external funding to grow, but you do need to be mindful of what’s inside. In a past Growth for Good insight, we showed that fixed stock ties up cash. However, remember to review your invoices as well: late payments can harm your business. In meetings, we spend time updating rather than making decisions. In People, the founder relies too much on a few, leaving capable staff underused.
Leadership can change this. A clear operating model and trust-based delegation can turn stuck value into flow.
Lead Systems, Not Tasks
The best businesses in the Highlands aren’t busy; they’re focused. They:
- Build simple processes that don’t need constant fixing.
- Define success for every team member.
- Create weekly meetings for solving problems, not for reporting them.
In a recent insight, we gave more detail on getting processes right
This week, why not try these things? Cancel one recurring meeting and replace it with a written update. Chase or restructure your three oldest unpaid invoices. Select one team member to take complete responsibility for a repeated task. Then, allocate 90 minutes for strategy—do not include any admin tasks.
Leadership is capital. Time is capital. Focus is capital. Growth happens when you start treating them that way, that’s Leading for Capital Efficiency
Should you like one, there is a good reference article from McKinsey here
