I hope that you’ve had a great summer. To inspire us into autumn we are kicking off with two fascinating interviews.

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Ken Scott is an accomplished businessman with a rich background in business leadership and commerce whose career began in commercial banking and extended into running the major estate agency chain Hamptons. In 2002 he became CEO of ILX Group Plc, an AIM listed e-learning business in best practice (Prince2, ITIL) and finance training. He has had to rebuild the business, which is now trading strongly with revenues around £15million.

How did you prepare yourself to make the transition? Be honest now!

My preparation was all experiential. In other words, on the job! The only way it worked for me was to immerse myself in the new ILX environment. But because I’d had previous and relevant experience closely managing cash flow, I was ready to hit the ground running.

How do you feel your skills have developed in the different environment of a smaller business?

Initially, everything is so much more hands-on. As such, I have become far more rounded than I ever could have been in large corporate environments where, even general managers are inevitably specialists.

You're a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. How do you think you uncovered your entrepreneurial skills?

Taking over a business like Intellexis when it was a train wreck really focuses the mind. I was forced to take risks often based on nothing more than intuition and this I am certain helped develop me.

In addition, over the past five years or so I have enabled many business owners to realise cash from the businesses they created. What I saw in all these folk was that they had nothing in terms of skills or talents that I couldn’t match in some way. What they did have was desire and determination to succeed in the area they struck out into. I learned a lot from that observation.

Looking back, would you have done anything differently, and is there anything that you would like to have known?

When I started at ILX Group I actually thought that it might only be an interim assignment; such was the poor condition of the business. I think that thought released me to do what was really necessary, rather than playing at the edges.

What are the differences between being successful in a larger organisation and being successful in a smaller business?

As a dear friend has often said; “In a small business, your arse is constantly hanging out of the window". There is very little room for error! That’s the difference.

How do you view your career now, and where might you go with it in the future?

During the 90’s I often felt that I may have lost my way from the heady days running large chunks of commercial banks. Now, I wouldn’t change a thing. I have learned so much about business and about myself and believe I have a far more balanced and fulfilling life to prove it. I know my career is now moving more towards entrepreneurial activity but we will see.

Richard Rundle has been IT Director and CIO of some of this country’s largest businesses in the transport and logistics sector. He has managed and directed high performing teams to deliver valued services in partnership with the business to achieve transformation and commercial results. This also gave him experience of a diversity of other sectors including retail, property, rail and construction. His last two posts, as Group IT Director for BAA (Plc) and Wincanton (Plc) have lent themselves perhaps surprisingly well to developing Richard’s contribution to smaller businesses as a non-executive Director

Typically CIOs and IT Directors, certainly of major corporates, are in fact running businesses within a business anyway – in my case a business unit with a cost base of £150 million and a capital investment programme of some £200 million. All of this requires broad based commercial management skills; a fundamental grasp of finance (profit, margins, cost structures, P&L and Balance sheets, financial ratios and effective KPIs) and of course the ability to lead and motivate significant numbers of people.

And what about the difference in approach that may be required for a smaller business?

Knowing which of your skill sets are required for the situation you find yourself in is key – the large corporate mentality in companies responsible for national infrastructure is almost certainly inappropriate in a small entrepreneurial company where speed, intuition and lightness of touch are often the ingredients for success.

One trait that many CIOs and IT Directors have is an innate analytical approach to business challenges and issues- often assessing situations in a very logical manner and then developing a probing style to elicit the fundamentals of a problem. And we should not underestimate the contribution that can be made by those of us who have been on boards during previous recessions – climates such as these require different approaches to those who have only ever known quarterly compound growth.

What development did you have to go through personally to be ready for the change in career?

The best advice I was given was to treat the transition as a project and deliberately put time aside in the diary – even giving it a project name! This has the effect of protecting some time for yourself in an environment where often your time is never your own. I deliberately sought out people and organisations that I felt could help me such as Critical Eye the leadership networking group. I needed to meet other aspiring non execs and those who already were – listen, discuss and learn - it is a well worn path.

Another key learning point for me was how easy it is when you are employed at a senior level in a major corporate to neglect your contacts that you have made over the years. These need to be nourished, renewed and extended if necessary. This all takes time and effort and you never know when you may need help in the future. And also I remember how effective our discussions were when, in between recruitment assignments, you and I would look at how I could think about and present my experience for this transition in career. That was extremely useful.

How did you go about finding the opportunities to meet with businesses that you could add value to?

To be honest they found me. I guess I am known for a particular market sector (Transport and Logistics) and I have a track record in Technology - both have quite a lot of market appeal even in these difficult times.

That said, before I was approached I had decided that I really wanted to target small cap organisations such as Aim listed or private companies rather than the type of large corporate I had worked for. My reasons? More fun, closer to the business, probably able to make a more direct impact and to be quite honest…there’s more choice of smaller businesses out there prepared to take a chance on an inexperienced NED like me.

With around a year's experience of non-executive roles now, what do you feel have been your greatest areas of contribution?

The capacity to ask difficult questions, to probe, to penetrate, to be persistent, to test and to stimulate debate and change. I feel I have acted as a catalyst and a facilitator earning respect and winning confidence by providing guidance. I believe I have been objective, acted decisively and energetically when problems or opportunities occurred.

In summary a CIO like me can bring a breadth of experience, the ability to assess and comment on a full range of commercial and governance issues; financially savvy, with a strong understanding of business processes and models, and a proven track record in an area of business expertise that touches all other areas.

Would you have done anything differently?

After many years operating at board and senior management level in large organisations it is very difficult standing back and letting the Executive team get on with their work - the key take away for me is not attempting to micro manage but get the balance between being challenging and supportive. Be testing and quizzical but encouraging.

What else do you feel you have to learn?

How involved should I as a non exec be with the company whose board I sit on?

The more time I spend will undoubtedly mean a greater understanding of the issues and the ability to offer more educated opinions when it comes to decision making. The disadvantage, however, is the more time spent within the company, the more chance you stray into a quasi executive director role and that puts a strain on independence and objectivity.

On balance however if you are going to make a good contribution in a strategic way, you need a deep understanding and that means getting involved. Be prepared to read a lot of documents from the company, meeting and getting information from sources across the organisation - not always the CEO.

And where could you see your career going from here?

I am lucky enough to have developed a portfolio of engagements and a couple of non executive roles. Whilst the engagements can be challenging and lucrative, there is no doubt in my mind that I wish to take on more non exec roles possibly outside my industry -

Why, when the personal risks and the potential gaps in personal knowledge and the increasing time needed for corporate governance issues can be very onerous?

Best wishes Janice

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