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This week Nick talks to Charles Skinner
Charles Skinner is a leading authority on Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA). As CEO, he transformed a £3m business into a £100m exit and grew another company’s value 30-fold to £300m, earning AIM Company of the Year in 2016. He is currently the CEO of Restore PLC, and the author of Buy, Run, Build: A Guide to Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. Charles also advises the ETA search fund Mentmore Associates and chairs four private companies.
Charles Skinner is a leading authority on Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA). As CEO, he transformed a £3m business into a £100m exit and grew another company’s value 30-fold to £300m, earning AIM Company of the Year in 2016. He is currently the CEO of Restore PLC, and the author of Buy, Run, Build: A Guide to Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. Charles also advises the ETA search fund Mentmore Associates and chairs four private companies.
Nick and Charles discuss Charles Skinner’s unconventional career path, beginning in investment banking before moving into venture capital, journalism and ultimately discovering his strengths in running and improving real businesses. Charles reflects on how he gradually shifted away from finance-led roles towards hands-on leadership, realising he was far more interested in building companies than simply analysing them. He and Nick explore the early stages of his journey, including lessons learned from missteps, the appeal of smaller operational businesses, and the importance of understanding people, staying humble and learning from failure.
They then turn to the rise, challenges and rebuilding of Restore, the company most associated with Charles’s leadership. Nick and Charles also explore themes such as entrepreneurship through acquisition, decentralised leadership, motivating teams, and managing crises with transparency and decisiveness. Charles illustrates these ideas with candid stories about leadership errors, boardroom politics and the importance of “running towards the gunfire” when problems arise.
Charles’s book choices were:
The Practice of Management by Peter F Drucker
https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/practice-of-management-the-book-peter-f-drucker-9780434903894
Parkinson's Law by C Northcote Parkinson
https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/parkinson-s-law-book-c-northcote-parkinson-9780140023664
Charles’s music choice was:
Bach: The Goldberg Variations played by Glenn Gould
https://open.spotify.com/album/1aCpHSQE5ghxibsQ5gkBe0
Charles' Book - Buy, Run, Build: A Guide to Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition - is available here
This content is issued by Zeus Capital Limited (“Zeus”) (Incorporated in England & Wales No. 4417845), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) for designated investment business, (Reg No. 224621) and is a member firm of the London Stock Exchange. This content is for information purposes only and neither the information contained, nor the opinions expressed within, constitute or are to be construed as an offer or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities or other instruments mentioned in it. Zeus shall not be liable for any direct or indirect damages, including lost profits arising in any way from the information contained in this material. This material is for the use of intended recipients only.
Creators and Guests
What is A Different Perspective?
A Different Perspective is a Zeus podcast, hosted by Nick Searle, Co-Head of Equity Sales. In the different perspective podcast we speak to interesting characters within finance and business to understand more about their personal journey and ambitions. This is co-mingled with a discussion about their business. It’s more about the formation of the individual than the business per se; thus trying to gain that different perspective.
This content is issued by Zeus Capital Limited (“Zeus”) (Incorporated in England & Wales No. 4417845), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) for designated investment business, (Reg No. 224621) and is a member firm of the London Stock Exchange. This content is for information purposes only and neither the information contained, nor the opinions expressed within, constitute or are to be construed as an offer or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities or other instruments mentioned in it. Zeus shall not be liable for any direct or indirect damages, including lost profits arising in any way from the information contained in this material. This material is for the use of intended recipients only.