Business Strategy

£322M in revenue. £120M cash in the bank. And still family-owned after 130 years. That’s Barbour. Most fashion brands chase growth at all costs. Barbour never has. A century-old and quietly spinning out £30m+ profit every year. The antithesis of the modern fashion playbook. → Revenue: £322m last year – compounding at 7% a year over 5 years → Gross margin: ~50%, among the strongest in fashion → Profit after tax of : £34m last year → Cash: £120m in the bank, balance sheet strength unrivalled They call themselves a Premium Niche. Jackets built to last decades, not seasons. So what’s the playbook? 1️⃣ Brand without dilution → Barbour does not discount — not online, not abroad → Instead they push sales via story-led branding 2️⃣ Heritage with a future → Same CEO for 25 years. Dame Margaret Barbour as Chair for 50. Jackets still made in South Shields since 1894 → Paired with reinvention: collabs with Erdem, Alexa Chung, Ganni. → Wax for Life, repairs and eco-materials - before Patagonia made it cool. 3️⃣ Global appeal → 130th anniversary campaign hit 1B impressions in 10 days across Asia → Early into China, Japan and the US - leveraging British heritage abroad → But adapted for local climates (eg. a 52-week summer range in the Gulf) Fashion loves disruption. Barbour proves discipline disrupts harder. If “boring” means £30M+ profit and £120M in cash… Maybe more brands should try being boring. -- I’m John - a CFO who loves brand and co-owner of Traction. Follow for insights on how - and why - brand building belongs on the balance sheet.

Africa’s biggest creative exit began with one phone call. In 2017, legendary Nigerian music producer Don Jazzy had a successful record label. But he knew something was missing. While Afrobeats was exploding globally, African labels were still operating like it was 2005 - no data analytics, no proper structure, no international distribution deals. Then came an unexpected call from Kupanda Capital, not your regular investor but a business-building platform focused on emerging markets. 🎯 Kupanda told Don Jazzy: "We see Afrobeats going global. Let's rebuild Mavin Records from the ground up to capture that opportunity." What happened next became the blueprint for scaling African creative businesses internationally. The transformation was radical: Kupanda moved two senior executives to Lagos to work alongside Don Jazzy's team (poke Mavin COO Peter Tega Oghenejobo). Together, they didn't just add capital - they rebuilt everything: 🎤 An artist development academy: Training talent for the digital age 📊 Data-driven A&R: Using analytics to predict hits before they happen 🌍 A global distribution network: International contracts from day one 🏢 A proper corporate structure: a 70-person team with defined roles and responsibilities Only THEN did Kupanda bring in TPG to invest $10M+ in Mavin. Then came the proof of concept... 🚀 Rema's "Calm Down" (featuring Selena Gomez) became the first song by an African artist to hit 1 billion Spotify streams. The numbers tell the rest of the story: - 60x growth in overall revenue over 5 years  - 100x growth in digital revenue 🔥 In 2024, Universal Music Group acquired a majority stake in Mavin at a $150-200M valuation, in the largest deal in African Creative Industries history. When I said that Mavin’s success had become the blueprint for scaling creative ventures in Africa, this is why: 1️⃣ Partnership beats pure capital. Creative companies often need a lot more than just cash. Operational expertise + local creative knowledge = magic 2️⃣ Structure unlocks creativity. You can’t grow on shaky foundations. Proper systems amplify business AND artistic potential. 3️⃣ Bet on data not gut feelings. Creative companies are yet to fully adopt digital tools, and that’s stifling their growth. Mavin shows how analytics can enable global success. Few investors are ready to be as hands-on as Kupanda, and few founders can be as collaborative as Don Jazzy and his team. EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW IT WORKS. Think about that. Mavin Records is one of the 12 African companies profiled in my latest study for Proparco's CREA Fund. Read the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/diAwWrXe ------ Want more business insights on the African Creative and Sports space? Join the 9,500+ other professionals who subscribe to my monthly newsletter HUSTLE & FLOW: https://lnkd.in/drBY8jnz

Amazon kept getting complaints – but the executive team didn’t know why, so Jeff Bezos called customer services on speaker in front of everyone… In the late 1990’s, Amazon was growing fast. Every week, Jeff Bezos gathered his leadership team for their most important ritual: the Weekly Business Review. One day, the head of customer service proudly presented a slide: “Average phone wait times: 59 seconds.” Tick - move on to the next item. Jeff paused. A number of Amazon’s customers were not happy. He knew this because he maintained and read a public email account. Customers would email him directly, Jeff would forward on to the appropriate executive with a simple “?” for follow up. But his customer service leader was saying everything was rosy. Something didn’t add up… So right there, in the middle of the meeting, Jeff did something radical: Placing the call on speaker, with the entire executive team watching, he picked up the phone and called Amazon’s customer support line… The room went silent. 60 seconds passed. Then 2 minutes. Then 5 minutes. Still no answer. After 10 minutes of hold music - still nothing. “It was a really long time,” Jeff recalled. “More than 10 minutes.” In a flash, the metric they’d been using to reassure investors and guide operations collapsed. The problem? The data wasn’t wrong – but it was measuring the wrong thing. The metric measured average wait time for answered calls, ignoring the calls that never got picked up. That one moment rewired Amazon’s entire approach to measurement, feedback, and truth. Jeff didn’t just want favorable data, he wanted reality. The result? Amazon rebuilt its customer service from the ground up - and made customer service a core part of its moat. Reflecting on that meeting, Jeff said: “When the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right.” 👉 Enjoyed this story? Subscribe for one great real life finance story a week: BizStory.co

A very easy way to improve your Amazon ads efficiency by at least 10% Let’s say you’re spending ₹4–5 lakhs/month on Amazon ads. Your ACoS looks okay. Conversion rate seems fine. But your gut tells you—you’re still wasting some money on irrelevant traffic You’re not wrong At Atomberg, we had found that some of our Amazon spend was going toward search terms that had no business seeing our ads: - “cheap fan” -“rechargeable fan” - “usb fan under 1000” None of these users were in-market for a ₹3,000+ BLDC ceiling fan. But we were still showing up. And paying for those clicks. And it’s not just us. I’ve seen 6–7 brands' Amazon ad accounts across categories over the last few years—same problem, every single time The fix? N-gram analysis Takes less than an hour. You don’t need to be a performance marketing expert. But the results compound What’s N-gram analysis? It’s breaking down every search term into its word components—1-grams, 2-grams, 3-grams—and then identifying patterns that consistently drive waste… or conversion. Example: “cheap rechargeable fan for hostel room” turns into: 1-grams: cheap, rechargeable, fan, hostel, room 2-grams: rechargeable fan, hostel room 3-grams: fan for hostel, etc. When you do this across all your search terms, you start seeing the real picture. Why this matters more than just checking your search term report: Search terms ≠ keywords a) One keyword can trigger 100s of different queries. Some convert. Most don’t. You need to find the patterns. b) Waste is diluted across low-volume terms. Maybe “rechargeable fan for hostel” spent ₹300. You ignore it. But what if 12 other queries with “rechargeable” spent ₹6,000 in total with zero conversions? c) Long-tail is infinite. N-grams are finite. You can’t negate every bad search. But you can block the core terms—“cheap”, “usb”, “mini”—once and be done with it. d) It helps you scale campaigns too. You can find goldmine phrases like “white ceiling fan”, “silent BLDC fan”, “fan for living room”—with 5x+ ROAS. Those became exact match campaigns What you should do: a) Pull last 3 months of search term data b) Break them into unigrams, bigrams, trigrams c) Create a pivot with spend, orders, ROAS by N-gram d) Negate high-spend, low-conversion N-grams (e.g., “cheap”, “rechargeable”) e) Boost high-ROAS ones (e.g., “bldc”, “ceiling fan white”) f) Add exact match campaigns g) Rinse and repeat monthly Try it. Guaranteed to improve efficiency at whatever scale you are operating If you want to read an expanded version of the post, link is in the first comment

LinkedIn Ads are often misjudged as being expensive. But that’s only when you don’t see the ROI C-level execs are asking marketers to justify budgets every month, yet: - 87% of B2B marketers say that it’s getting harder to measure the long-term impact of campaigns. On the flip side: - 34% of companies are increasing their Linkedin ad spend! Here is why: - Conversions API (CAPI) helps marketers optimize campaigns for high-value leads (MQLs & SQLs), leading to a 39% decrease in cost per qualified lead. - Revenue Attribution Report (RAR) enables marketers to tie campaigns directly to revenue with a new 365-day lookback window for deeper insights into long-term impact. - AI-powered optimization is improving ROI for 9 in 10 B2B marketers (you need to be that marketer!) If you haven’t tested CAPI + RAR, now is the time. Start proving the true ROI of your LinkedIn for Marketing LinkedIn Ads. #B2BMarketing #MarketingMeasurement #Sponsored

In the U.S., you can grab coffee with a CEO in two weeks. In Europe, it might take two years to get that meeting. I ’ve spent years building relationships across both U.S. and European markets, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: networking looks completely different depending on where you are. The way people connect, build trust, and create opportunities is shaped by culture-and if you don’t adapt your approach, you’ll hit walls fast. So, if you're an executive expanding globally, a leader hiring across regions, or a professional trying to break into a new market-this post is for you. The U.S.: Fast, Open, and High-Volume Americans love to network. Connections are made quickly, introductions flow freely, and saying "let's grab coffee" isn’t just polite—it’s expected. - Cold outreach is normal—you can message a top executive on LinkedIn, and they just might say yes. - Speed matters. Business moves fast, so meetings, interviews, and hiring decisions happen quickly. But here’s the catch: Just because you had a great chat doesn’t mean you’ve built a deep relationship. Trust takes follow-ups, consistency, and results. I’ve seen European executives struggle with this—mistaking initial enthusiasm for long-term commitment. In the U.S., networking is about momentum—you have to keep showing up, adding value, and staying top of mind. In Europe, networking is a long game. If you don’t have an introduction, it’s much harder to get in the door. - Warm introductions matter. Cold outreach? Much tougher. Senior leaders prefer to meet through trusted referrals—someone who can vouch for you. - Fewer, deeper relationships. Once trust is built, it’s strong and lasting—but it takes time to get there. - Decisions take longer. Whether it’s hiring, partnerships, or leadership moves, things don’t happen overnight—expect a longer courtship period. I’ve seen U.S. executives enter the European market and get frustrated fast—wondering why it’s taking months (or years!) to break into leadership circles. But that’s how the market works. The key to winning in Europe? Patience, credibility, and long-term thinking. So, What Does This Mean for Global Leaders? If you’re an American executive expanding into Europe… 📌 Be patient. One meeting won’t seal the deal—you have to earn trust over time. 📌 Get introductions. A warm referral is worth more than 100 cold emails. 📌 Don’t push too hard. European business culture favors depth over speed—respect the process. If you’re a European leader entering the U.S. market… 📌 Don’t wait for permission—reach out. People expect direct outreach and initiative. 📌 Follow up fast. If you’re slow to respond, the opportunity moves on without you. 📌 Be ready to show value quickly. Americans won’t wait months to see if you’re a fit. Networking isn’t just about who you know—it’s about how you build relationships. #Networking #Leadership #ExecutiveSearch #CareerGrowth #GlobalBusiness #US #Europe

We analyzed over 13,600 investor portfolios and ranked the largest 250 PE investors in Europe (300+ hours of research) Congratulations to all the leaders: 🥇 CVC (managing a total enterprise value of €70bn across Europe) 🥈 KKR (€66bn) 🥉 EQT Group (€61bn) Other investors in the top 10 include Blackstone (€58bn), Cinven (€45bn), Ardian (€41bn), The Carlyle Group (€33bn), TDR Capital (€32bn), Advent (€32bn) and Bain Capital (€31bn). Collectively, the top 250 private equity firms manage an EV of €1.7tn in Europe. A few other insights from the data: 1. Investors established in the 1990s or before manage 77% of the total EV 2. The top 25 investors manage roughly the same EV as the next 225 combined 3. Europe 250 investors have an avg. EBITDA of €94m and manage 26 companies each 4. German HQ’d investors are underrepresented in the ranking with just 3% of total EV 5. London is home to 50 of the top 250 investors, followed by Paris (32) and New York (21) 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 - Hg (TMT) - CVC (Services and Industrials) - EQT Group (Science & Health) - KKR (Energy & Materials)  - Cinven (Financial Services) - TDR Capital (Consumer) Services, Consumer, and TMT are the largest PE markets by sector. Notably, Hg in TMT and TDR Capital in Consumer predominantly target those sectors, representing 71% and 69% of their portfolio, respectively. Compared to European investors, North American investors overweight TMT, Financial Services and Energy & Materials. They underallocate to Services, Industrials and Healthcare. 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 Hg, Cinven and Astorg stand out with high-growth, high-margin portfolios. CD&R, TDR Capital and PAI Partners rank among the largest employers in Europe given their large retail/consumer portfolio. Waterland Private Equity stands out as a big buyer of family-owned businesses. ________ 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 Tons of more insights and charts in the full analysis: 💡List of top 250 investors 💡Sector and Regional rankings 💡Portfolio insights (Growth, holding periods, and more) 💡Detailed methodology Get it here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ezekm4MJ #investors #pe #europe #insights

The shift from seats to agents pressures SaaS margins. At the same time, the longstanding practice of getting enterprise customers to pre-commit and also prepay for functionality they may never deploy will get harder as CIOs look to free budget for their own LLM costs. To weather the storm, some SaaS companies have increased prices. This boosts revenue and margins in the short-term but can't be done repeatedly and creates even greater scrutiny over shelfware as procurement teams right-size and shift contracts to "pay as you go." To achieve sustainable growth, SaaS companies need to become hyperefficient at sales and marketing. Here are common ways to do so and who's doing it well: 1. PLG. Shopify and Atlassian exemplify efficient go-to-market based on product-led growth with free trials, low-friction upgrades and upsells. Their sales teams only need to get involved in the biggest opportunities at the largest accounts; every other step in acquisition, commercial transaction, activation, onboarding, and growth is self-service and automated. 2. Vertical SaaS. Guidewire Software and Veeva Systems are laser-focused on insurance and life sciences, respectively. Rather than casting a wide net, they spear-fish with deep domain knowledge and purpose-built solutions for that industry's specific workflows and regulatory requirements. Guidewire doesn't need to buy Super Bowl ads– their annual customer conference is the Super Bowl for property & casualty insurance executives. Nearly zero GTM effort is wasted– unsurprisingly they're the two most efficient on the list. We modeled Hearsay Systems after both these companies, and this focus allowed us to win incredible market share among Fortune 500 banks & insurers despite only raising $60M in totality. 3. Relocate operations to lower-cost regions and AI. This is private equity's favorite playbook to take costs out of companies they buy. Field sales continues to shift more to Zoom, which means you can hire AEs anywhere. Inside sales contributes a greater % of revenue as PLG motions are established. AI handles top-of-funnel leads qualification and generating marketing content and campaigns. 4. Focus on gross revenue retention. Because of high customer acquisition costs in #SaaS, leaky buckets are margin killers. Use LLMs to help customer success teams analyze product usage, segment cohorts, and identify opportunities to increase value realization. Put in guardrails to prevent sales reps from overselling an account, as doing so only creates churn in the next renewal cycle. 5. Introduce another product line. This only works if your new product has the same buyer as your existing products. Many SaaS acquisition pro formas fail to actualize for this reason, as it's not actually feasible to have the same AE sell both old and new products. Every SaaS company right now needs to double down on one or more of these levers in the AI era.

I interviewed 20 sustainability managers 🎙️ That's their #1 pain point 🤕 ➡️ "Reporting is 1st. Impact is 2nd". Challenges that I can see with sustainability in companies: ❌ Competing frameworks confuse. ❌ Data collection becomes more important than actual impact ❌ Disconnect between reporting teams and operational teams ❌ Excessive time spent on documentation. ❌ Risk of greenwashing through selective reporting (I am sure you have your observations to add🙄) 5 secrets to turn this into the biggest opportunity for change: ✅ Use reporting to clarify sustainability vision 100%. ✅ Identify in-company 'spoilers' - and engage them! ✅ Change sustainability reporting from 'a burden' for all, to an 'invitation to do good' for each individual. ✅ Turn deadlines into celebration moments for internal change. ✅ Use data requirements as opportunities to understand the entire value chain (and opportunities for change). You know the pain ?🧐 📲 Ping me to re-write the script on your sustainability reporting ♻️ #circulareconomy #zerowaste #sustainability

The amount of times people have told me I "could" raise money for my business... 🥱 In my view... Most businesses raise money unnecessarily. They've been sold: 💭 Hockey-stick growth 💭 Fancy office spaces 💭 All star team And told: “This is the only way to do grow.” But as someone that’s built the UK’s fastest growing food business, without raising a single penny… I can tell you, you don’t HAVE to raise money. Here are 5 questions to ask yourself before raising: 1. Have you proven product-market fit? ↳ Not "we think." Not "maybe." ↳ Proven. With real customers. Real revenue. 2. Are you profitable yet? ↳ If not, why do you think more money will fix that? ↳ Capital doesn't solve core business problems. 3. Have you maximised organic growth? ↳ Most businesses haven't scratched the surface. ↳ There's always untapped potential. 4. Could you achieve your goals without funding? ↳ Slower? Maybe. ↳ But sustainably? Definitely. 5. Are you ready to answer to investors? ↳ Because investors will become your new bosses. ↳ And their questions never stop. Remember: Funding isn't validation ❌ ✅ Revenue is validation. ✅ Real profit is validation. ✅ Happy customers are validation. Agree? 👇 ♻️ Repost to help an aspiring entrepreneur. _ 🧡 Follow me, Simmy Dhillon, for daily motivation, inspiration and insight, as I scale the UK’s fastest growing food business.