Failing to Scale | The Portfolio Partnership

Why Investment Banks Fail To Sell Businesses

by Ian Smith | Nov 29, 2023 | Exiting your business, Scaling

As a sell side Investment Banker (I was one for 15 years in London) you will probably specialize in certain sectors after being a generalist. Over time you might have done five or six semiconductor supply chain deals or sold 10 recruitment businesses but to be...

Why Companies Grow But Fail to Scale

by Ian Smith | Mar 25, 2014 | Scaling

I’ve been delivering some presentations in February and March about scaling private companies. I’ve had great positive feedback from attendees. I thought it would be useful summarizing 10 quick reasons companies are failing to scale and what to do about...

10 Symptoms of a Business Struggling to Scale

by Ian Smith | Aug 25, 2013 | CEO, Leadership, Management

As the CEO of a business you will suffer some or even most of these symptoms. You could be flat lining on the sales front or aggressively growing but if you notice these symptoms you’re probably not scaling. If you are not scaling then you are not building a...