But when you have discovered your purpose (your ‘why’ according to Simon Sinek) then ‘how’ you will accomplish it becomes a whole lot easier to figure out and often results in a change of direction.

Stephen Covey described it like this: you get to the top of the ladder and find that it’s leaning against the wrong wall.

That’s what happened to me; I’d become a partner in a big recruitment firm in my mid 40s,  but increasingly the work I was doing had little meaning. I was meant to be elsewhere.

My journey towards finding my purpose took several years and at first the path was far from clear. There wasn’t much written about purpose back then. Eventually I found ‘Built to Last’ by Collins and Porras, which was instrumental in fuelling my journey and the path started to become clearer.

But I experienced a dawning realisation that if I was to complete my journey I’d have to do so alone. None of my colleagues shared my purpose and the vision I was starting to develop of ‘how’ to achieve it.

Since then I’ve been fortunate in being able to help other people meet the challenge of ‘going alone’. We now have a business that does just that for people who want the flexibility of working from home. I have a great business partner with whom we share a vision of helping people start their own businesses as we did.

When your why is strong enough, the how will take care of itself. It isn’t easy – nothing worthwhile is – and there will be setbacks. But it will never be dull.

So what is our why and what do we do

Every business seeks a way to sustainable business growth driven by a strong and flexible strategy.

At the Alpha Group we take a different view on strategic planning to most. We see it as a dynamic on-going process, constantly flexing and adapting in response to internal and external influences. We provide executive decision-makers with a unique platform for creating and modifying their strategy with pin-point accuracy. We hate the one-size fits all approach.

SME’s lie between a rock and a hard place

SME’s make the largest contribution to most economies but face unique challenges. They tend not to attract the same financial support as start-ups, and they’re not protected by large corporate balance sheets. SME’s don’t have massive head counts providing internal expertise on every technical business speciality. They also don’t have resources to lobby governments to influence political and economic policy. So, how can SME’s raise their game? Well, one thing they can do is stop trying to do it all alone! They can learn to work in teams to increase their collective business radar band-width. The more an executive team can see the more able they are to respond appropriately; it’s what’s known as “cognitive diversity”. In other words tapping in to a group’s diverse perceptions, experience and capability. You suddenly see more of the world, and in full colour and surround sound.

The Alpha Group Executive Boards

The Alpha Group is the fastest growing provider of peer-to-peer Executive Boardrooms. Twenty open-minded CEO’s and MD’s share a willingness to explore new possibilities aimed at solving their key strategic problems. Together they identify new opportunities for themselves, and the organisations they lead.

They gain new and valuable insights into their business, learn from like-minded senior decision-makers and establish trusting relationships with potential high value customers and clients.

David Dean, D & R, Business Development Services tripled his business’s value with the Alpha Group by – “Radically repositioning our core service for our clients to give us high & ongoing revenues”