David’s impact on my life was immediate. Our retreat enabled me to understand clearly, my opportunities as CEO and his support right from this start enabled me to overachieve what I set out to do.
I chose David to mentor me because I wanted to learn. I wanted to understand. I wanted someone I could fire ideas at allowing them to be structured into plans when great, but shot down fast when bad. David’s diverse and in-depth background made me confident that he knew the difference between a great idea and a bad idea. And his honesty meant that I knew he would not pander to anyone, especially his Clients, and would tell them how he thinks it is even if that’s not always what they want to hear!
The mentors I passed over to work with David had some impressive ‘alphabet soup’ behind their names, but their ‘wisdom’ was rooted in text books. David, on the other hand, had built, run, grown, bought and sold businesses. He had succeeded, he had come very close to failing, he had made money and lost money. There is no substitute for experience. It was an easy choice. A no-brainer.
I worked with David through what was one of the toughest years in our business, when the crash happened late 2008. David was working with others who were also navigating their businesses around the wreckage brought on by the crash. These companies were all employing different strategies and David’s knowledge of the various efforts proved to be invaluable for me.
David helped us devise and execute a CVA in early 2009 and it was brilliant. The company liked it, we got really interesting results from our different offices, we used those results, we learned from them and we tackled the problems we had head-on. Combining the CVA results with “case studies” on how companies were reacting to the crash, my team were able to react quickly to focus the business on what mattered, defined new methodologies and hired the very best talent. Result: a more productive organisation and a springboard to leap forward with revenue growth at over 40% in a six month period alone from October 2009. We had recovered well ahead of the competition and enjoyed increased marketshare in domestic markets and strong foothold in new markets around the world.
David is fun, a joy to be around. He is constantly moving forward. He is dynamic. He’s entrepreneurial. He is sensitive and empathetic. He understands people. He’s invaluable as a mentor (though beware; he’s a hustler on the golf course!).
David has helped me to learn to appreciate life and business much more. He’s enlightened me in a lot of different areas and probably more than he will ever know. He’s made me look at things differently and made me want to do more.
If you have David in your arsenal you’re doing well. It’s a privilege to have David want to work with you. I feel very lucky to have had David as a mentor, but more so now as a friend.
