Insights
Keep up-to-date with our latest news, events and business insights
Coaching for Connection, Clarity & Confidence
Small group coaching can be an incredibly effective tool for both business and personal growth and development. At the Alchemists Forum, our coaching enables members to build meaningful connections, resulting in clarity and confidence. However, coaching is not without its challenges.
Supercharge Your Growth with High Performance Business Coaching
Gaining insight into your own growth and development can be a daunting task. It's often hard to see yourself objectively and find solutions to your own issues.
Member News: Dominic Walsh, Hospital Services Limited
Belfast and Dublin-based health technology company Hospital Services Limited (HSL), led by Alchemists Forum member, CEO Dominic Walsh, announces expansion into England with a new £1.7m East Midlands HQ.
Why adventuring could be your answer to achieving an agile, successful business
This month the Alchemists Forum had the pleasure of welcoming Neil Laughton to our in-person speaker session. Neil Laughton is a successful business entrepreneur, multiple Guinness World Record breaking adventurer and a former Royal Marine Commando, helicopter pilot and Special Forces Officer.
An Audience with Russell Kelly, Managing Director, Fuelwise
In a world increasingly dominated by corporations (and wealthy individuals) owning businesses in the private sector and public utilities controlled by faceless venture capitalists, seemingly only answerable to shareholders, many employees and customers are unhappy that profits aren’t being used in a way that benefits everyone.
The Work Life Balance Conundrum
“Work-life balance may become an antiquated term soon. Framing our work, life, interests, family, friends, and everything else we do in ‘My Lifestyle’ is a far more realistic way to view it.” Jim Collins (2020)
How to Handle an Unsolicited Offer
When an acquisition offer turns up out of the blue, knowing what to do is a huge call – and business owners need to get organised fast. The Alchemists Forum are collaborating with international specialists CapEQ to give a quick guide to understanding the opportunities and pitfalls of discussing your business exit with others.
Three Biggest Changes in Business and Leadership Coaching
Business leaders are becoming more aware that they need to see their enterprises as separate entities rather than an extension of themselves. Whether that’s because there’s just been a lot more written about “Building an enduring business”, I’m not sure. But reading about what you should do and putting it into practice, are two very different things.
Business exit strategies: five ways to sell your company
Business exit strategies: five ways to sell your company
The decision to sell your business is a big call – and can seem drastic and final. Outlining a vision of how and when to exit will help you with later decisions like choosing the right advisor and pre-sale preparations. The Alchemists Forum are collaborating with international specialists CapEQ to give a few pointers to help you through the process.
Pro and Cons of Raising Capital
The challenge of securing capital to grow a company can be both exhilarating and daunting. Get it right and those scale-up dreams are likely to come to fruition. Get it wrong and your plans can be seriously derailed. Entrepreneurs cannot escape these challenges but, by knowing what they are, can at least prepare for them. The Alchemists Forum are collaborating with international specialists CapEQ to give a few pointers to help you through the process.
Alchemist INside Forum - Stuart Harvey, CEO, Datactics
Datactics, a fast-growing Belfast-based tech company, providing data quality and matching software to a growing number of international banks and Government departments, has seen its team double in size over the last 18 months, creating many new teams and leaders.
Neuroscience and “8D Audio” – the key to stressbusting your business?
Stress is dominating the workplace, costing employers huge sums in absenteeism and reduced productivity, never mind the longer-term mental health implications on management teams and their staff. A 2020 ONS survey reported that mental health issues represented the fourth largest contributor to work absences at 11.6% with 57% of total employee absence due to stress, anxiety and depression.
But what can already struggling organisations do to help resolve the situation quickly and cost-effectively and get their businesses back on track in these challenging times?
How to Acquire Businesses Successfully
M&A is notoriously difficult to get right, but increasingly is still the best option for seizing opportunities by scaling up. It’s not just why and where to acquire, but how that matters. The Alchemists Forum is collaborating with international specialists CapEQ to give a few pointers to help you get your acquisition approach right.
Engaging Employees through Change
While change is essential to the growth and success of any organisation, it often creates fear and anxiety among a workforce. Employees who feel they have no control over the process or the impact it will have upon them can become uncooperative, demotivated, and unproductive. So how can you, as a leader, overcome these obstacles and sustain employee engagement to achieve meaningful and productive transformational change?
Leading Change within an Organisation
Change in business is inevitable. It can happen internally or as a result of industry change, and it can be planned or reactive. Leading change within organisations is necessary for business leaders to build an enduring company and maintain a competitive advantage.
Preparing for change and anticipating the road ahead
The only constant in the world of business is the certainty of change.
It is imperative as a business leader who strives for success, that you prepare for change. If you don’t, your business may just fall behind the competition who are committed to strategic innovation.
The ultimate morning routine for success
To create the levels of personal, professional, and financial success you desire, you must first dedicate time each day to becoming the person you need to be, one who is qualified and capable of consistently attracting, creating, and sustaining the levels of success you want.
How the coming togetherness of people will help you reach new business heights
Over the past decade, Owen Eastwood, author of ‘Belonging - The Ancient Art of Togetherness’ has worked with some of the most elite teams and groups across the globe, including Gareth Southgate's England Football team, the Command Group of NATO, the South African Cricket Team, corporate leadership teams, elite ballet and the British Olympic team to name just a few – and at the Alchemists Forum, we place huge emphasis on coming together as equals to build greater enduring companies.
Do I really have the time to devote to a peer group?
For many of us, the past 18 months has been an extremely challenging time on both a personal and professional level. As a an individual, you will have no doubt overcome unprecedented obstacles. However, the later part of 2021 is looking much brighter, with a road to recovery in place, we can all see light at the end of what has been an uncertain and dark tunnel.
Why the success of your business depends on multiple intelligences
Intelligence is one of the most talked about subjects in psychology and despite this, there is no one definition of what intelligence is.
Howard Gardner, an American developmental psychologist is renowned for his theory of multiple intelligences.