There’s No substitute for experience
I’m founder and MD Gary Weston, I’m passionate about business, about the often unrealised potential that companies and their staffs have lurking just under the surface, waiting for a catalyst to send them on a journey of discovery and growth. I developed my approach to helping and working with SME’s as the continuation of a highly successful career which saw me operate in several continents (including North America, Asia and Europe) and across a wide range of industries (including heavy engineering, electronics, print and electronic directories, telecoms cabling, FMCG, software development, digital media, wholesale/retail operations and CG animation to name but a few). The scale of these businesses ranges from start-up revenues of less than £150K to multi-nationals shipping products in excess of £2.5B per annum and everything in between. I’ve been involved in 4 start-ups and in 3 closures but the learning in each situation has been profound.
For the past 6 years I have been delivering business coaching through Vistage International, and Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce. I have also provided interim management at board level for a number of SME companies and most recently developed a methodology for creating and implementing growth strategies. In other words I’ve been there, seen that and got the t-shirt, and continue to use that experience to help others. I continue to learn and guide my clients on their journey to achieve sustainable improvements and growth they only ever dreamed to be possible.
My focus, as it always has been, is to help businesses to grow and to assist them by a range of means – to find that way of SYMBIOTIC working which best suits your company and helps resolve those issues keeping you awake at night. That could vary from coaching and mentoring to strategic planning and execution, from short full-time bursts of activity to longer-term part-time support or any combination in between. The most important thing is that there is a good fit both in terms of personality and culture. I hate being called a consultant (I blame HMRC for that label) and prefer to think of myself as your business partner, confidant and trusted ally whose experience can stop you from making the mistakes I and others have made and replace that by delivering innovative solutions to the challenges you may currently be facing alone.
Symbiotic Management Ltd has access to a vast network of advisors and influencers across numerous business sectors, we bring a great eye for potential to the table – seeing where your business could most effectively grow and developing and EXECUTING the strategies to get you there in a realistic time.
We offer help to ‘think out of the box’, to stretch your boundaries, push you to achieve things you never thought achievable, to realise your dream, but through it all to ensure we get to that vision by laying out a detailed and pragmatic road map, measuring performance and plotting where we are at each stage of our journey.
To paraphrase Mao Tse-Tung, ‘the longest journey starts with a single step’, but it’s helpful to know where you’re going and when you expect to arrive!
Why Symbiotic?
It’s a lovely sounding word but it is also the best descriptor of what we try to achieve with our clients, to be interdependent, to complement each other’s skills, to work closely together, to be reliant on each other and to be almost as one. If we can achieve this state then we will have forged a long lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.
