Episode #483 - ScaleUp Presentation - with Tom Hughes from Gemba Docs
Release Date: 05/26/2025
Episode #619: ScaleUp Radio Short - Building a Business Worth Selling
ScaleUp Radio
Most business owners spend years building their company, yet very few spend any time building an exit strategy. In this month's ScaleUp Radio Shorts episode, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt explore why exit planning isn't really about leaving your business. It's about creating a stronger, more valuable, and less owner-dependent company today. The reality is sobering. For many founders, their business is their most valuable asset after their home, yet the vast majority have no formal exit plan. Even fewer achieve the outcome they hoped for when they eventually sell. The good news? The same...
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Episode #618: Leaders need to recognise when they’re not the best leader for their business - with Tameron Chappell
ScaleUp Radio
Why do so many businesses hit a ceiling at around 10 employees? Many founders start their business because they're brilliant at what they do. In the early days, decisions are fast, communication is simple, and the founder sits at the centre of everything. Then the business grows. Suddenly, what made the business successful starts to become the thing holding it back. In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent speaks with Tameron Chappell, founder of Athinka, a business psychology consultancy that helps organisations build healthier, higher-performing teams using evidence-based...
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Episode #617: ScaleUp Shorts - Three Experts. One Founder Problem. How people, strategy and Al combine to help founders escape the trap.
ScaleUp Radio
In this special edition of ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt revisit three standout conversations from recent ScaleUp Radio episodes to uncover a common thread running through them all. At first glance, these guests appear to operate in completely different worlds. Maritsa Inglessis specialises in people and HR. Peter Juhasz helps businesses generate growth through AI-powered revenue systems. Simon Bird works with founders on strategy, creativity and mindset. Yet all three are helping business owners solve the same challenge: escaping the founder trap. Whether you're...
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Episode #616: From 100% Staff Turnover to Zero: Building a People Foundation That Scales - with Maritsa Inglessis
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Maritsa, founder of The People Keeper, to explore one of the biggest challenges facing growing businesses: keeping great people. Maritsa shares how her business evolved from offering a single employee retention service into a comprehensive framework that helps companies with between 2 and 50 employees build the people foundations needed for sustainable growth. Together they discuss why staff turnover is rarely a recruitment problem, how founders can overcome the fear of delegation, and why strong people systems create the stability...
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Episode #615: Building Integrated Systems Creates Consistent Opportunities - with Peter Juhasz
ScaleUp Radio
What happens when founders get fed up with fragmented agencies, disconnected marketing tactics, and expensive growth projects that fail to deliver? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent sits down with Peter Juhasz, co-founder of Syrvi.ai, to explore how they are reinventing go-to-market support for SMEs through what they call “Service as Software”. Peter shares the scaling journey behind Syrvi.ai, from bootstrapping a tech platform with no previous software experience to building a 12-person team supporting around 30 active clients across the UK and beyond. The discussion dives...
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Episode #614: Make sure to pause when dealing with issues in your business. Create the space for honest thinking - with Simon Bird
ScaleUp Radio
What happens when the business you built to create freedom starts feeling more like a trap? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent speaks with Simon Bird, founder of SEON, about one of the most common but least discussed challenges facing growing SME owners: the “Owner’s Trap”. Simon shares practical frameworks and diagnostic approaches designed to help founders step back, regain clarity, and reconnect with the purpose and direction of their business. Drawing on more than 25 years in global marketing leadership and seven years advising business owners through SEON, Simon explains...
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Episode #613: ScaleUp Club - "Know Your Hedgehog" - with Jennifer Appleton
ScaleUp Radio
In this special ScaleUp Radio episode, recorded live at our monthly ScaleUp Club Q&A session, Kevin Brent is joined once again by returning ScaleUp Radio guest Jennifer Appleton to explore one of the most powerful strategic concepts for growing businesses: the Hedgehog Concept from Jim Collins’ Good to Great. Alongside the main discussion, members also heard an AI Pulse update from Paul at Green Gorilla Automation, showcasing how agentic AI tools like Claude can move from generic chatbot responses to genuinely useful strategic analysis when given the right business context. The...
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Episode #612: ScaleUp Shorts - The Founder Blind Spot That's Holding Your Business Back
ScaleUp Radio
What happens when you put a brand strategist and a leadership development expert side by side? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt reflect on two recent ScaleUp Radio conversations with Giles Etherington, founder of Brand Satellite, and Meredith Bell, co-founder of Grow Strong Leaders. At first glance, branding and leadership may seem like very different disciplines. But both guests shared remarkably similar lessons about feedback, self-awareness, founder blind spots and the importance of gaining an outside perspective. The central theme running through both...
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Episode #611 - Why self-awareness is critical for effective leadership - with Meredith Bell
ScaleUp Radio
What happens when the founder becomes the bottleneck in their own business? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent speaks with leadership expert and co-founder of Grow Strong Leaders, Meredith Bell, about why leadership is often the hidden constraint preventing businesses from scaling. Meredith shares how founders unintentionally create dependency cultures by solving every problem themselves and explains the mindset shift required to build confident, high-performing teams that can operate independently. She also reveals how Grow Strong Leaders evolved from a consulting business into a...
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Episode #610 - The difference between “brand” and “branding” and why it matters - with Giles Etherington
ScaleUp Radio
What actually makes customers choose your business over a cheaper competitor? For many SMEs, the answer is unclear because their messaging sounds exactly the same as everyone else in the market. In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by brand strategist Giles Etherington to unpack why so many businesses fall into the trap of competing on rational features and services instead of emotional connection and customer transformation. Drawing on experience from global agencies including JWT, Giles shares a practical framework for building a brand strategy that helps scaleup...
info_outlineIn this ScaleUp Club exclusive Q&A edition of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Tom Hughes, CEO of Gemba Docs, for a practical and eye-opening discussion on Lean Thinking for SMEs. Tom brings decades of experience in operational excellence and process improvement and shares how small businesses can adopt lean principles without over-complicating things.
This session breaks down what lean really looks like in a small business context – and it’s not about cutting costs or mimicking manufacturing giants. It’s about reducing struggle, improving value flow, and making work life better for your team. From leadership behaviours to team rituals, Tom shares real-world tactics that any SME can start using today.
Episode Highlights:
- Why the traditional 8 wastes don't always translate to service businesses – and what to focus on instead
- The biggest enabler of lean success? Leadership behaviour and priorities
- How to kickstart a lean journey: Start with yourself, then pull others in
- The power of small wins and team celebrations to build momentum
- Simple tools that make a difference: team huddles, improvement channels, and documenting processes with Gemba Docs
Make sure you don’t miss any future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you like to listen to your podcasts. You can also nominate a guest for ScaleUp Radio if you know someone with an interesting ScaleUp story – you can find how in the shownotes.
For now, continue listening for the full discussion with Tom.
Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.
If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here:
https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/kevin
You can get in touch with Kevin & Granger here:
Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!
Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.
More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/
Tom can be found here:
linkedin.com/in/tom-hughes-7222562
Resources:
2 Second Lean Book by Paul Akers - https://paulakers.net/books/2-second-lean
Lean Made Simple by David Sykes - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/lean-made-simple-creating-pull-and-flow-david-sykes/4914053?ean=9781716549724
Improvement Starts With I by Tom Hughes - https://improvementstartswithi.com/
Ryan Tierney - Lean Mde Simple YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@leanmadesimple