At ECI, we’ve met 1000s of CEOs and Founders and have partnered with over 250 of them. In that time, there are traits that we’ve seen which tend to be indicators of a successful partnership. These aren’t the sort of checklists you’ll see in management DD, but from our experience, these are common traits that we look for in the people we back.
1. Integrity and honesty
Transparency is a non-negotiable in business, and the most likely indicator that a partnership will fail is when trust breaks down.
CEOs might fear sharing bad news with their investor, but they really shouldn’t. We know from our experience that it’s a very rare investment that has a straight-line trajectory – we’re backing growth, and that can mean growing pains! The priority is that we solve problems together with the teams we’re working with – part of our role as a supportive investor is to help you navigate challenges.
We’re putting millions of pounds (of our investors’ capital) in the trust that a leader is telling us the truth, and that we can trust them to deliver what they say. That means we need to have faith in their integrity to justify that conviction. When we interview CEOs about what is important to them, we often see this sentiment reflected back to us. They need to trust people in their team, and they need to trust their investor to back them and their plan. It’s the bedrock of successful growth.
2. Quietly ambitious
It will be unsurprising that ambition is a must-have for CEOs and Founders, but one thing that might surprise people who don’t work in business is that it probably looks different to how you expect. We rarely see the bell-ringing, self-congratulatory, champagne and personal brand-building type of ambition. Instead, while CEOs might like to celebrate milestones, a common trait we see is that as soon as a milestone is hit, they’re asking, “What’s next?”
This is important, as often when we invest, CEOs become millionaires overnight. The type of people we back tend to immediately refocus on how they can go on to double the size of their business, rather than taking their eye off the ball. It’s the vision of what you can achieve that is exciting. When we interviewed John-Paul Savant, CEO of ATG, about what motivates him, he said, “The motivation is building something that encompasses the fullness of what I envisage and turning it into a reality.”
3. Empowering leadership
Micromanagers rarely scale – empowering others is key to growth. This is something we see time and time again: the best leaders focus on finding people they can trust and allowing them to deliver. As an investor, this is super important, as if you’re in the weeds, it’s very hard to keep an eye on the more strategic parts of the role. But also, an empowering leader has a laser-like focus on the best talent, and that means we know they are going to build a team with exceptional people.
When we talked with Jesper With-Fogstrup, Group CEO at Moneypenny, at our recent ECI Unlocked Digital Growth Summit about the role of leadership in technological change, he described his role as CEO as a ‘Chief Unblocking Officer’. His role is to understand where there are roadblocks in the business and clear the path for individuals to deliver.
4. Curiosity and breadth of thinking
At ECI, we always like to spend time with leaders ahead of a deal, to really get to know them. These one-to-one conversations are more revealing as to what motivates them as CEO – it’s often family, a wider purpose, certain goals they’re keen to achieve.
These conversations also reveal something else – the types of questions they ask. And what we often see is an innate curiosity, whether that’s in our motivations, in tech change, in how industries are transforming, in other leaders and how they’ve delivered their own goals.
Mark Eastham, CEO of Avantia, puts this best when he says, “I believe a good leader is someone who asks the right questions rather than always having the right answers. It’s through curiosity and challenging assumptions that you drive progress and empower your team to find solutions.”
5. Decisiveness
Perfect decisions don’t exist. In fast-growth businesses, operating in a fast-evolving sector in a technologically changing world, waiting for the perfect decision can cost you.
The worst outcome? Leaders who feel like they need endless analysis to justify the route forward – this can lead to internal paralysis while competitors move ahead. On the other end of the spectrum, a leader who solely bases decisions on gut instinct is likely to fall foul of too many bad decisions, but strong CEOs balance data obsession with the confidence to cut through the noise and set a clear direction.
