In this episode of Executive Connect, Melissa Aarskaug sits down with Loic Potjes, global business strategist, former corporate and scale-up CEO, and founder of Disruptive Leap. With experience coaching more than 50 scale-up CEOs across 25 countries, Loic breaks down what it really takes to move from running a business to truly scaling one. He shares why most leaders stay trapped in linear thinking, how to find the few actions that actually move the needle, and where AI can create a real strategic edge instead of just more noise.

This episode is for CEOs, founders, and senior leaders who want to scale faster, think more clearly, and stop wasting time on work that does not matter. Catch the full conversation today.

Chapters
(0:01) Why CEOs must think exponentially
(1:48) The mindset shift from running to scaling
(5:10) Finding the 20% that matters most
(10:06) Scaling across markets and cultures
(15:26) Using AI beyond the hype
(22:12) Making clear decisions under pressure
(28:39) Keeping growth without burnout
(33:22) Final advice for scale-up CEOs

Loic

(0:00) And so you cannot delegate that to your CTO. (0:03) As a CEO, it’s your job to work on that frontier stuff. (0:06) And the good news is it’s not complicated.

(0:09) But stop reading books. (0:11) It’s like reading books about or reading podcasts or going to business school about AI. (0:16) It’s like learning to swim.

(0:18) Stop reading. (0:19) You can’t be an expert by having read the whole library. (0:21) You need to jump in.

(0:22) And yes, you will swallow a little bit of water, but that’s perfectly OK. (0:25) That’s part of the learning. (0:26) But you will get by.

(0:28) It’s really not complicated.

Melissa

(0:29) Scaling a company isn’t just about growth charts and big ideas. (0:35) It’s about knowing exactly which 20% of the actions actually move the needle. (0:42) My guest today, he’s a coach of more than 50 scale-up CEOs across 25 countries from North and South America to Europe to Asia to Africa.

(0:58) Loic Poitras is a global business strategist, a former corporate and scale-up CEO, and the man you call when you want to turn complexity into clarity. (1:11) With 25 years leading companies of up to 4,000 people, managing mergers, launching in emerging markets, and driving innovation with cutting-edge Gen AI strategy, Loic brings a rare mix of high-level vision and tactical precision. (1:30) Today on the Executive Connect podcast, we’re talking about CEO scaling, how to create momentum, make the hard calls, and grow smarter and faster.

(1:41) Welcome, Loic.

Loic

(1:44) Thank you, Melissa. (1:45) Thank you for having me. (1:46) Great to be here.

Melissa

(1:48) Now, you’ve spent decades leading companies and now coaching CEOs literally all over the world. (1:56) Before we get into the strategy and start our discussion today, talk to me a little bit about what’s the mental shift a CEO needs to make when moving from running a business to actually scaling the business.

Loic

(2:13) Right. (2:14) I think the danger for the largest majority of CEOs is that they work in the business and they work in a linear fashion. (2:25) The human mind is done so that we essentially next year, we’re going to do more of the same, just 10% more.

(2:34) And that’s the linear business model, the business plan to one year, to three years. (2:38) But we don’t think differently. (2:41) And when we think the way we think differently, we essentially think about quick hacks, but the core, we fail to reinvent ourselves, especially in existing business.

(2:54) So to truly scale, you need an exponential growth mindset. (3:02) And so that answers to different business ratios than just plain vanilla linear business thinking. (3:11) The first example is you plot a peg three to five years from now, and you ask yourself, how do I 10X my business?

(3:20) How does that look like? (3:22) And then the first realization is to say, hang on a minute, if we keep plotting along, we have no chance to get there. (3:29) And so the definition of insanity is to expect different results, but keep doing more of the same.

(3:35) And so if there’s that gap, but hang on a minute, if I keep doing more of the same, even with a twist, I cannot truly scale my business. (3:44) And then it begs the question of what else, then what? (3:47) What should we do different?

(3:50) And then you create the mindset space to start asking the right questions. (3:55) So the next question is, hang on, if I have competitors, what should I do that is massively different, so that I have a chance to completely outrun them, not to plot along a little bit better than they do. (4:10) And so it begs the question of how differentiated you are.

(4:14) Do you solve a big problem quicker, faster, more economically? (4:19) Is your USP crisp? (4:21) And so it begs the essence of what makes you special.

(4:24) And then you start to have proper business plans and practical plans into, OK, so how do we decline being cost effective or hyper efficient or whatever across the organization? (4:35) And then starts the real molding the claim. (4:39) But it would boil down to a different mindset in terms of, hang on, what does it take to 10x?

(4:47) It can’t be the same and to therefore what makes us vastly different so that we have a chance to scale at that speed.

Melissa

(4:56) Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? (4:59) On the Executive Connect podcast, we unpack executive strategies for wealth and influence. (5:06) Hit the subscribe button now.

(5:08) Don’t just watch, act. (5:10) Yeah, I love that you said that. (5:11) So I think execute, then review, make sure you’re in alignment with the plan.

(5:18) Growing and then stopping, pausing, executing, reviewing, execute and reviewing. (5:23) And I want to talk a little bit about this 20%. (5:26) You often say CEOs should focus on 20% of the activities that deliver the most impact.

(5:35) For someone who is listening to that and buried under 100 priorities, which is, of course, most of the CEOs, how do they start figuring out what 20% actually is for them?

Loic

(5:49) Yeah, there’s two aspects to that. (5:52) There’s the business and then there’s themselves. (5:54) And first, about themselves, you need to understand what you’re uniquely great at.

(6:00) And everyone will think, yeah, I know I’m good at this. (6:03) That’s not the question. (6:04) Nobody’s interested into what you’re good at because there’s a billion people that are equally as good as you are in that field.

(6:12) But there’s a couple of things that you’re uniquely great at, your core talents. (6:17) And so that you have to figure out. (6:19) What makes you special?

(6:20) How did you become a CEO? (6:23) And so if you know what truly makes you special, then what you’re good at, your comfort zone, and you can do a little bit of that. (6:30) And then what you’re crap at.

(6:31) You should be absolutely clear. (6:33) All of us are absolutely crap at a number of things. (6:36) And so that’s the stuff you shouldn’t touch.

(6:39) And it begs the question of the team because you should go where you excel. (6:44) Two examples. (6:45) You have usually the visionary leader entrepreneur who goes and conquers the world.

(6:50) But then they want to come run the business. (6:53) And they are the worst disruptor of their own business. (6:56) You normally should have a COO who’s an absolute expert that’s not as the visionary leader go and evangelize the world and go strike big deals and go and conquer and so on and so forth.

(7:08) But the COO is the guy that will hold the train on the rails methodically, consistently, clinically for the next 100 years at 100 miles an hour. (7:18) And that often isn’t the… (7:19) Two practical examples that people should stick to what they’re uniquely great at.

(7:24) And then it begs the question of your Formula 1 engine. (7:28) Who in your core exec team will complement you so that you have the engine power to go? (7:34) Then you cut your agenda into is 20% of the stuff aligned to what I’m uniquely great at?

(7:43) Then is maximum half of the time something that I should aim for the great stuff but also what I’m good at, it’s okay. (7:53) And the rest, it should be to work on the business. (7:56) You should get out of there.

(7:57) You should cut 40%. (7:59) If you can’t get to your desk next Monday and cut 40% of the noise by delegating, structuring differently, then that’s your first problem. (8:08) You should get to that.

(8:09) And then to make space for what? (8:11) And that’s the other shift, the 20% of the stuff. (8:14) So once you’ve got your exponential thought, once you’re clear of what’s gonna differentiate you as a business, then there are broad brushes planned that needs to, I had an engineering business that I’m accompanying 300 engineers.

(8:28) They were four, three years ago. (8:30) Now they’re 300 and they wanna triple again to a thousand specialized engineer in three years. (8:37) And they said, oh, but we have a plan.

(8:39) And I looked at that and I said, no, that’s a set of numbers. (8:42) You wanna do 10% of that market where it’s just a financial projection. (8:46) It’s completely useless.

(8:48) The plan means what’s the market potential in which region of the globe? (8:53) What does it take to win day? (8:54) Do I need special CVs and expertise and experience?

(8:57) Do I need a local partner with access to blue chip and local credibility? (9:04) Do I need, what are the 20% core things that are gonna time hack your way? (9:10) So your most crucial ratio is time on an exponent.

(9:15) It’s not finances. (9:16) It’s not talent. (9:17) It’s all of that is important.

(9:18) But time is the one currency you, it’s your most scarce resource when you scale rapidly. (9:26) And so the concept of time hacks, you don’t have three years to go open a company somewhere and then recruit execs and then build a bit of a local credibility. (9:35) That takes you three years.

(9:37) You don’t have that. (9:38) So how do you immediate leverage someone else’s credibility through smart partnerships? (9:42) So that’s the 20% of key stuff.

(9:47) Know where you wanna be. (9:49) And then you should be clear of what’s gonna make you win in year three and year two next month this week. (9:56) And if you haven’t done that this week or this month, you’re not gonna get to your three-year plan.

(10:02) The rest, the day-to-day, someone else can manage.

Melissa

(10:06) Yeah, I love it. (10:07) One of the things I wanted to ask you and talk a little bit about scaling across the globe, cross markets. (10:15) I think, I personally think in the casino gaming industry I work in, it’s one of the hardest things.

(10:21) I know you’ve coached many CEOs across 25 countries and multiple time zones how to do this. (10:30) So let’s talk a little bit about how does scaling differ in emerging markets versus mature markets and maybe like the second part of that, what are the common themes, threads you see in no matter what industry you’re in when going from different markets and different cultures?

Loic

(10:53) Yeah, I think first is the cultural difference. (10:56) It sounds obvious, but a few years ago when I was young and beautiful, we were 12 of us to be sent as young expat CEOs between 30 and 45. (11:07) I was 31 at the time.

(11:08) It was my first CEO assignment and we were sent to each open a new country. (11:14) And so the first point was, so 10 of us came back within the year, didn’t work out. (11:20) And it didn’t work out for multiple reasons.

(11:23) There was first, there was a copy paste pitfall. (11:28) We were the leaders in facilities management services in Europe and in the USA. (11:34) So a big board, couple of hundred thousand employees.

(11:37) And so we thought, geez, we come from mature markets. (11:41) We understand the space. (11:42) So surely copy paste what we’ve done and it can only be an amazing success somewhere else.

(11:48) Well, for example, in South Africa, which is the country I had to lead or to create as a subsidiary at the time, we saw that our main business was so fragmented with a deregulated market that actually we couldn’t provide manpower services the market price was below the legislated wage price. (12:11) So in one instance, the entire business model is you can throw it down the tube. (12:17) Then the next question is, what are the pockets of expertise we have somewhere in the world that could make us see this in a different manner?

(12:26) So you can’t have a global strategic plan. (12:29) You have to first understand the complexity and the realities of the local markets and redo your market match. (12:35) What is it you’re solving?

(12:36) That’s different than somewhere else. (12:38) You need the cultural differences. (12:40) I was speaking Flemish at the time, and fluent in Dutch, and one of the languages spoken here.

(12:45) I had lived in Zambia, so I knew a couple of African languages. (12:50) And so culturally, I could understand the spoken, unspoken clues substantially faster than someone who had never set foot in that market. (13:01) And so what you have in emerging markets is solve half a problem correctly and consistently, and you can scale rapidly.

(13:12) Because the market’s being less mature and less sophisticated, half a good solution works. (13:18) And now there’s a limit to your scale in most emerging markets, unless you speak about China, which comes with another set of complexities, or India, or Brazil, or Australia. (13:28) But most emerging markets are small markets.

(13:31) And people go look at Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, excluding India, or Africa, and think, oh, geez, well, that’s a large space. (13:41) And they don’t understand that it’s a myriad of tiny countries with tiny markets, and it will take forever to scale individually. (13:50) And so part of the 80-20s also looking at scale and scale of the sub-market, the problems you solve.

(13:57) But essentially, the learning is, do not anticipate copy-pasting. (14:03) Re-ask yourself the basic fundamentals of your business. (14:07) Go and study whether that market would take it.

(14:09) And then again, time hacks. (14:12) If it took you five to 10 years to be a market leader in your home market, why would you assume that it’s okay to take another 10 years to reach the second and the third country? (14:24) Why can’t you do it in a year?

(14:26) Who’s got access to, if you have clients at our blue-chip companies, and it would take you three years to create that credibility, who has the keys to lower the relationships of 80% of the blue-chip companies with local credibility? (14:41) And that smart partnership could time hack you three years as one practical example.

Melissa

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(15:27) It’s funny, as you’re talking about scaling, I know I’m a big believer in leveraging AI to scale and to outsource things that I don’t want to do, don’t need to do. (15:39) So talk to me a little bit about AI. (15:43) It’s a big, big buzzword.

(15:44) Everybody’s talking about it, but I know you’ve been applying not very obvious tactical ways to drive revenue and profitability using AI. (15:56) What’s one way CEOs can think beyond the hype and actually get into AI and use it in a way that they’re scaling smarter?

Loic

(16:08) Yeah, I think AI means a million things to a million people. (16:12) So it’s like if we’re speaking about management and you ask a CEO, are you busy with management? (16:17) Oh yeah, we do management.

(16:19) But what are you talking about? (16:20) Is it junior management? (16:22) Is it a help desk management?

(16:23) Is it strategic management? (16:24) You can’t just speak about management. (16:28) So in AI, it’s a tool.

(16:30) It’s a tool like we’ve had many tools before. (16:33) We had the horse cars, cars moving to the automobile, then we had the radio, then machine learning and 3D and so. (16:41) It’s just a tool.

(16:42) Now, to make it simple, there are three levels that we can be tackling AI. (16:48) The mundane stuff is how to take meeting notes efficiently, how to create a nice video. (16:56) And so the mundane stuff, 100% of organizations are busy with.

(17:01) We all are, isn’t it? (17:02) It’s quick, it’s simple. (17:03) It’s non-threatening.

(17:05) It’s not huge change management. (17:07) We get there, okay? (17:08) Second level is the continuation of digital transformation.

(17:12) It’s your optimization. (17:14) It’s your efficiency. (17:15) It’s just a bit quicker and more cost effective with AI.

(17:19) But before that, it was your usual digital transformation. (17:23) So same fundamentals apply with quicker tools, more powerful tools. (17:29) In there, you have a number of companies that are, I would say, finding their feet around that.

(17:36) Very few are advanced. (17:38) A lot are trying to scope a first project. (17:41) And the difficulty for human brain is to learn from the future.

(17:44) We learn from experience and because it’s new, we’re thinking, oh my God, it’s going to be complex. (17:49) And, but we forget it’s just the same business rational. (17:53) The simple question is, what can this tool do quicker, more efficiently?

(17:57) And so, and CEOs first shouldn’t be afraid. (18:02) They have the competency to handle this project and they should go big on that digital transformation. (18:08) However, those are twists and tweaks to existing business models, which are useful.

(18:15) It is not transformational. (18:17) The true transformational is the frontier AI. (18:21) It’s the third level.

(18:24) And let me take one example. (18:26) You used to look at strategy. (18:28) You used to have, let’s say for a medium size, a small company, let’s say with 15 to 100 million euros or dollars of annual revenue, they might be 50 to 500 employees.

(18:41) And then they think, okay, let’s hire consultants. (18:45) A set of three consultants for a few weeks, strategy guys, maybe it costs you $50,000. (18:52) And then they have a pink, blue and wonderful slides and it looks very clever.

(18:56) Now that you can achieve in 90 minutes with AI at no cost, essentially. (19:04) And so what we do is, it’s the art of dancing with AI, the art of the prompt of the context to go and look for none of just practical tactical strategies. (19:16) What could be an example?

(19:19) An example is you’re busy with fuel commodities. (19:23) That’s your business. (19:24) Now you’re a mid-size operator.

(19:26) The big guys change the prices largely twice a month. (19:31) And then if you could predict when they’re going to do that and estimate by how much you could. (19:37) And the CEO says, yeah, that we can reasonably do because we have lots of experience with the team and so that.

(19:42) But then if you can estimate that, you know just before how to have a special or how to leverage your stocks or get rid of your… (19:52) And so AI calculates that you can have a 5% differential. (19:56) Now in that industry with extremely low margin, that tactical thing can double up your profit.

(20:03) So it’s an extraordinary impact. (20:05) But then cut a long story short, we get to that non-tactical, non-obvious strategy, practical stuff. (20:12) And then the CEO says, no, that’s amazing.

(20:14) Let me talk to my SAP ERP guys and deep integration. (20:18) In nine months, we can start doing that. (20:22) And I said, are you mad?

(20:24) The question is, what can you use to get started with this next Monday? (20:30) Oh, well, you could code something in AI through Python, which would be a quick model, quick and dirty, let’s call it. (20:37) But you could still extract the data on a CSV format from your ERP manually.

(20:44) Plot it in there. (20:45) And then you’d have enough of a dashboard to take a meaningful decision. (20:49) And if it ends up not being perfectly right, but you get to 3% additional margin instead of 5%, at least you’re starting next week, Monday.

(20:56) And so that thought about… (20:58) So it’s exponential strategy, exponential thinking. (21:02) But you’ve got to think and work on your business.

(21:05) And not just keeping the same with a twist and a tweak. (21:09) And thinking that you’re good to go because you’re doing AI. (21:12) Oh, yes, I’m busy with management.

(21:14) I’m OK. (21:14) No, if you’re not doing the frontier stuff, you’re behind. (21:19) And that behind is going to get accelerated more and more.

(21:23) And so you cannot delegate that to your CTO. (21:26) As a CEO, it’s your job to work on that frontier stuff. (21:29) And the good news is, it’s not complicated, but stop reading books.

(21:34) It’s like reading books about… (21:36) or reading podcasts or going to business school about AI. (21:40) It’s like learning to swim.

(21:42) Stop reading. (21:43) You can’t be an expert by having read the whole library. (21:45) You need to jump in.

(21:47) And yes, you will swallow a little bit of water, but that’s perfectly OK. (21:50) That’s part of learning. (21:51) But you will get by.

(21:52) It’s really not complicated.

Melissa

(21:55) Yeah, I love that you said dance with AI. (21:58) I’m going to use that. (22:00) I’m going to give you the credit, Loic, but I’m going to use that.

(22:02) It’s so true. (22:03) I think it’s using it and getting in there and tuning and dancing and figuring it out. (22:10) Such good advice.

(22:12) I want to switch gears a little bit and talk. (22:15) I think I feel like so much of the world is in decision making. (22:21) They’re trying to get clear on things.

(22:23) Do I stay? (22:24) Do I go? (22:24) Do I buy a business?

(22:26) Do I move out of state? (22:28) It seems like decisions are on the mind for everyone right now. (22:32) So you’re known for helping leaders get clarity and simplicity in their decision making.

(22:39) And high stakes, high pressure moments when everything feels like 9-1-1, what’s your approach to cutting through the noise and actually making a decision with clarity?

Loic

(22:53) I think to get to the root causes of things and scenario planning, as in you talk about your core business, what is at stake? (23:02) And so, for example, one of the tools we use, which is a normal, absolutely usual, it’s a risk matrix. (23:08) On your core business, you should have anticipated the core risks and mitigation plan.

(23:14) If that happens, then we will do this and Jack will do that and Paul and John will do that. (23:19) And so it’s pre-thought. (23:20) And so that needs to be reviewed each time you have disruptive events that could be a black swan or Donald Trump outburst or a ship in the Panama Canal or whatever may happen on this happy planet.

(23:37) But so then you rethink that. (23:39) But normally 80% of that should have been thought through in terms of disruption. (23:43) The beauty about that is you’re not in panic mode when you think ahead, clinically, about the right way to react.

(23:53) And then when it gets to the panic mode, you don’t have to go into panic because now you have a plan and you can just test it quickly. (24:02) And so you can go and execute that plan. (24:04) That’s for the core business.

(24:06) So thinking ahead is key. (24:11) Then the next steps, planning the immediate future in a time of crisis, you need, it’s best to take an external person. (24:22) The external person could be a non-exec.

(24:24) It’s someone who’s less emotionally attached. (24:27) It could be a non-executive chairman. (24:29) It shouldn’t be an investor because they go mad basically.

(24:34) They’ve got lots to lose, the CEO and the team as well. (24:37) So it’s good to have a fresh, clear mind. (24:40) And if actually, to be blunt, the company goes down, they remain unaffected.

(24:44) Now, it gives them the power of clarity, perspective and unbiased judgment. (24:51) So that’s always a good call. (24:52) Is there someone you trust, a mentor, a non-exec chairman, an experienced coach, whatever it is that you can trust in this moment to ask you and poke you with the right questions.

(25:03) And the key questions are what’s at stake? (25:06) What are the cash reserves? (25:07) What’s the runway?

(25:08) How do we plot this along? (25:10) How can we normal questions, downsizing and all of that so that I won’t go there. (25:17) But also looking at a different lens, what’s the opportunity for whom and where?

(25:22) How much time do we have to seize that opportunity? (25:26) What would make us win in that opportunity? (25:28) What is it that we have of that win, winnable factors?

(25:34) Where else could we smart and quickly partner with? (25:37) And all of a sudden, the crisis can be transformed into an opportunity. (25:42) I’ll take one quick example.

(25:43) So I’ll go back to that change of business plan. (25:48) Once I had 4,000 employees in South Africa and all of a sudden, the market price is below the basic legislative wage. (25:55) So boom, no future.

(25:57) We can literally close the company because non-compliance and underpaying people is non-ethical and so not an option. (26:06) But then it begs the question of what else? (26:08) Cut a long story short, we found that high tech, high margin tech leasing to replace partially demand power into abundant solutions, blah, blah, blah.

(26:17) And our learning curve, the strategy is spot on. (26:21) Our learning isn’t quick enough for de-learning. (26:24) And I found a company, an SME with four guys, four entrepreneurs, small company, 50 employees.

(26:30) They had everything right, not least of which the mindset, the USP, the approach to market, the methodology, the internal processes. (26:40) I bought them 90% on an earn out saying, hey, come do it at a bigger scale and reap the fruits of your knowledge. (26:47) And instead of the large corporation swallowing the small fish with the best of intentions, I said, now you’re going to swallow the whale.

(26:54) The four of you come on my Exco, the one, two-headed sales. (26:59) The one became, the other guy became my CFO. (27:01) The third one, the fourth one, my COO.

(27:04) And overnight we changed the business model. (27:08) We quadrupled the EBIT of the group of companies from an existential threat. (27:16) But it was thinking on the business and it was absolute clarity as well, not the Kodak syndrome, you know, that, oh, surely this is not gonna, surely there’s a sense of security when we’re in the cave that will be protected forever.

(27:33) But the cave doesn’t protect you from an earthquake. (27:35) And so, so you got to have that clinical look on the, and that’s probably the biggest threat. (27:40) Hence the guy from outside that’s going to ask you the stupid but hard questions.

Melissa

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(28:23) To learn more and get a free white paper, oil and gas demystified, just visit www.summitven.com forward slash executive connect. (28:39) So true, so true. (28:42) I want to kind of thinking about, you know, kind of what we started with scaling, building momentum, but I kind of want to tie it back to like flow in your workday.

(28:53) So scaling isn’t just the right moves. (28:57) It’s really about keeping the momentum as you’re growing, building on that momentum. (29:03) I’m curious, what are some ways that CEOs can keep pace without burning themselves out or their team out?

(29:12) It’s a high pressure, go, go, go. (29:15) Like what are the tips? (29:16) What are the tricks?

(29:18) Burnouts high, burnouts common these days. (29:20) Give us the inside scoop.

Loic

(29:24) Yeah, I think there would be a lot to be said for that. (29:27) So it makes me think of a friend he’s a French guy. (29:31) He comes from the military.

(29:32) He was a general there and then a prefect, which is essentially someone running a state in France. (29:39) And so he’s now running a multinational and he finds times for golf. (29:48) He finds time for meaningful connections.

(29:51) He’s completely chuffed. (29:53) No, no stress or anything, but that’s really why does it work? (29:57) And he said, hey, I didn’t do all these leadership courses to go do the detail in my career.

(30:02) It’s not my job. (30:03) I pay other people to do that. (30:05) And so what he had and he teaches leadership at a couple of the top business schools in Europe.

(30:12) And so he’s a smart brain. (30:14) But his point was, I’m actually paid to work on the business, to animate the team, choosing the right talent, clarifying the core plan. (30:24) And he’s clarified the 80-20.

(30:29) He’s clarified the 20 and he keeps a closed tab on the 20% that are, the rest can be, we cannot be perfect. (30:37) That’s perfectly fine. (30:37) So you need to have clarity of the plan.

(30:40) You need to have clarity in your own agenda on the 20% that are gonna move the needle. (30:45) You need to declutter at least 40%. (30:47) This 40% of your agenda, that’s completely, completely is a big word, but it’s largely useless.

(30:56) It does not move the needle. (30:57) And if you stop doing that, there’s enough people that could do in a simplified manner and so on and so forth. (31:03) It sounds a bit basic, but it’s profoundly true.

Melissa

(31:06) It is.

Loic

(31:07) And so then you need to have the right engine in the room in terms of talent that’s complimentary. (31:14) So that’s your, so it’s like a Formula One race. (31:17) You need to know the course.

(31:20) Is it straight lines? (31:21) Is it lots of curves? (31:22) Then you need the plan.

(31:24) Are we gonna go strong in the beginning and lead or will we go from there? (31:27) So you need where you are, where you play, the plan, and then the team. (31:33) That’s your core talent.

(31:34) Once these three things are properly aligned and the plan needs to be this week, this month, this quarter, this year, three years from now on the core things, on the core steps. (31:44) Once we do that, and then there’s a frequent check on the core stuff. (31:50) Are we still aligned?

(31:51) And that’s what I do in coaching. (31:52) Once we’ve got these things in place, the flow happens and you get a natural sense of perspective. (32:00) And then twice a month, I get to say, guys, leave it.

(32:03) That’s not a, but about this essential point, what happened? (32:06) Where are we? (32:07) What blocks us?

(32:08) How do we remove that log so that the river can keep flowing and streaming? (32:14) That’s that. (32:14) That’s not, a lot of people do more of the same and they look at perfection and do 14 hours a day.

(32:23) It doesn’t work.

Melissa

(32:24) Yeah. (32:25) And I love that you used F1 because I’m a car kind of gal, a fast car kind of gal. (32:30) But I think of a CEO as the conductor of the orchestra.

(32:34) They’re listening. (32:36) They’re watching. (32:37) If the strings are off, they fix it.

(32:40) You know, they tune it and then they go away and work on something else. (32:44) If you’re doing the strings job, you’re not doing the CEO job and somebody else is doing it. (32:51) And so you’re, you’re either leaning into stepping in to helping your CEOs or your CFOs, your strings or whatever you’re playing.

(33:00) And I love that you used Formula One because there are going to be these twists and turns and things are going to happen, but you step in, you support the CFO, you step back out and you get back on that path. (33:12) And I think, you know, you’ve shared so much with us today. (33:15) I love the focus on 20% of the actions because you’ll be able to deliver 80% of the results.

(33:22) I think that’s so, so true. (33:25) AI for scaling. (33:27) Any, I guess in closing, any final thoughts that you want to touch on or anything that you want to leave with the listeners before we close up and then kind of second, share the best way for our listeners to connect with you if they want to learn more about what you do and Disruptive Leap as well.

Loic

(33:48) Yes. (33:50) So the thought that comes to mind is, for anyone who’s listened to this and who is into a scale-up mode, I would have that question. (33:59) Does it resonate?

(34:01) If it does, if you see yourself managing the business and not working on the business, if there’s any of those steps missing, then the one question is, where are you going to find the first step to think or do differently? (34:19) What are you going to do next week, Monday, that starts a different chain of thoughts? (34:25) And where would you find the help to do that?

(34:29) Is it a colleague? (34:30) Is it your chairman? (34:31) Is it one of the investors where you have a good connection?

(34:34) Where are you going to, you need to create that sense of perspective. (34:38) Where are you going to get that? (34:40) And so then to the, and the first step is, is you need to dip that toe and that foot in the water.

(34:46) That the first step is key and then you’ll get to swim. (34:50) The next thing in terms of Disruptive Leap, if anyone wants to contact us, so two things. (34:55) So you do that on disruptiveleap.com.

(34:59) So disruptiveleap.com. (35:01) And you can book a chat, you can send an email, a message, we’ll happily engage. (35:07) And there’s something I do for scale-up CEOs.

(35:10) It’s two things. (35:12) It’s either a coaching, a complimentary coaching session. (35:17) If there’s that core issue that troubles you or that bottleneck or if you, and you need clarity on one point.

(35:25) It’s always great to get to know each other. (35:28) And so I offer the first one. (35:31) I also do that 90 minute AI workshop on exponential strategy.

(35:38) If people want to have a toe in the water in terms of where to start with AI, that might be a good thought as well. (35:46) And for scale-up CEOs, I offer the first session as well, complimentary. (35:49) It’s a small way to help and it’s always a great interaction.

Melissa

(35:55) That’s great. (35:56) I appreciate your time and your knowledge and all the information you unpacked here today with us on the Executive Connect podcast. (36:06) Thank you so much, Loic.

Loic

(36:09) Thank you for having me. (36:10) It was great to chat. (36:11) Thank you, Melissa.