In conversation with
“I needed a framework to help businesses grow and achieve their goals.”
Mark Neilan, Investor @ Dare Recruit
We asked Mark~ ‘What was it that lead you to seek our services? What was your challenge’?
“I invest in start-up recruitment businesses and I needed a framework to help them grow their businesses and achieve their goals. I had looked into OKRs and read John Doerr’s ‘Measure What Matters’. I understood the concept, I just didn’t have the knowledge and experience to implement OKRs strategically into a business. I was chatting to Peter Brzezinka at Org3D who knows Roger and he introduced us.
I’ve owned very successful recruitment businesses. I didn’t want to make the mistake of giving the businesses I invest in ‘my’ answers. I wanted them to figure out their own, settle on their own objectives and own them. I do believe that ‘having a go’ myself did help, but I also realised that I needed to deal with an expert so that I was getting it right for everyone concerned”.
We asked Mark~ ‘What work did we do together’?
““Roger helped me to install OKRs into two businesses that I’ve invested in and taught me how to do this myself so that I can now install OKRs with future investment businesses. I guess you could say he was a coach and mentor. I always say ~ if you want to learn how to do something teach it.”
We asked Mark~ ‘What outcomes were achieved? What was the impact on growth’?
“Going in to 2020 I will now have the knowledge to support new investment businesses with a business plan that will include OKRs ~ annual objectives, with tactical quarterly objectives and key results, that will help them feel more in control, more empowered to drive their own unique plans forward. Something tangible that will reflect their personalities and objectives.
If you’re going into business and want that business to grow, then in my opinion you need to have the best possible plans in place. What Roger helped me with was how to coach my investment businesses on how to write great OKRs, how to implement them and how to get them to understand what it meant to them in achieving their goals.”
We asked Mark~ ‘What would you say to someone like yourself, facing the same challenge you had’?
“JFDI … I’m a big believer in taking action! I’m glad that I had a go myself at OKRs because when the time came to work with Roger I got to extend my understanding and knowledge and build on what I had learned.
If you want to do something really well I would always advocate that you work with the experts, someone who’s been there and done it before.
If you’re currently in the process of installing OKRs then I’d recommend getting in the experts. They add a level of confidence in how get to grips with writing great OKRs, how to get the most out of the early stages. I certainly wouldn’t have got this far this quickly without the experts in.”