Patron of
YOUR STRATEGIC PARTNER
SUMMIT Non-Exec
COMMERCIALLY FOCUSED. STRAIGHT-TALKING.
Here to help you make better decisions, faster.
Most non-exec relationships follow a familiar pattern. A quarterly board meeting. A governance checklist. Plenty of process but very little impact on the decisions that matter day to day.
The SUMMIT Non-Exec is different. This is a thinking partner. Someone who makes your thinking easier, validates the calls you’re already leaning towards, challenges the ones that need challenging, and helps you move faster with more confidence.
Commercially focused. Practically involved. Built around getting the right decisions made and executed, not around paperwork.
DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
The real problem
Most business owners are surrounded by people. Staff, advisors, accountants, suppliers. And yet when it comes to the decisions that matter most, they’re on their own.
The team only sees part of the picture. The accountant sees the numbers. The coach asks how you feel about it. None of them sit where you sit.
So you carry it. You weigh things up alone. You second-guess yourself on the big calls and postpone the ones that feel uncomfortable. And the business moves, but it moves slower than it should.
Sound familiar?
What changes when you have the right person in your corner
Imagine having someone you can call before you make the decision, not after.
Someone who has sat in senior leadership roles and understands what it costs to get things wrong. Someone who will listen properly, ask the questions you’ve been avoiding, and help you see the thing you’re too close to see yourself.
That’s what a SUMMIT Non-Exec provides.
We don’t arrive with a methodology or a personality test. We arrive with experience, commercial instinct, and the willingness to have honest conversations that most people around you won’t. Your thinking gets validated where it’s strong and challenged where it needs to be. Decisions get made properly and they get made quickly.
Who this is for
This works best for owners and MDs of businesses turning over between £1m and £10m.
That feeling of making it up as you go along is more common than you think. It doesn’t mean you’re doing it badly. It means you’re doing it alone. And that’s the bit that changes.
This works best for owners and MDs of businesses turning over between £1m and £10m who:
Ideal for owners and MDS who:
Carry most of the strategic thinking themselves and quietly feel like they’re winging it more than they’d ever admit
Make decisions every day that affect the whole business, with nobody around them who sees the full picture
Know the business could move faster if the thinking was sharper and the big calls were made with more confidence
Want someone who will challenge them commercially, not just agree with them or wrap everything in process
What it looks like in practice
Every relationship is different, but the shape tends to follow a similar pattern.
A monthly deep-dive session where we focus on whatever matters most.
The decisions sitting on your desk. The direction of the business. The people challenges you haven’t resolved yet.
Regular check-ins between sessions.
Not scheduled for the sake of it, but available when you need a sounding board before something important.
And responsive access for the moments that can’t wait.
A quick call before a difficult conversation. A second opinion before you commit to something significant.
The emphasis is on the relationship, not the structure. We stay close enough to be useful and far enough back to see clearly.
The investment is a monthly retainer, typically between £1,000 and £2,000 depending on the level of access and involvement that suits you.
A different kind of non-exec
Traditional non-exec directors often come with a lot of structure and not much impact.
Board packs, governance frameworks, quarterly appearances. Useful in some contexts, but rarely what a £1m to £10m business owner needs when they’re trying to grow.
The SUMMIT Non-Exec is closer to the action. We’re involved in the real decisions, not reviewing them three months later. We think alongside you, not above you. And we measure our value by whether the business is moving, not by whether the minutes were filed.
We’re a thinking partner who stays close enough to help you act on what we work out together.
What happens when the thinking improves
The results speak for themselves
Working with SUMMIT has been a genuinely valuable part of our journey. We see them very much as an extension of our team rather than an external coach.
Over the past 18 months we have seen revenue increase and our gross margin has improved. This hasn’t come from one single change, but from improved strategic planning, better preparation and clearer focus.
Over the past 18 months we have seen revenue increase and our gross margin has improved. This hasn’t come from one single change, but from improved strategic planning, better preparation and clearer focus.
David Doughty, Managing Director
Love the guys at SUMMIT. When you work with them you really feel as though they care about you and your business. Very relational and very knowledgeable. SUMMIT have transformed how we’re perceived in the market, our marketing and creative consistently make us stand out in a noisy crowd, driving real business results through strong case studies and testimonials that resonate with our target audience.
Marc McLoughlin, MD/Chief Orca
Working with SUMMIT has been revolutionary for our business. The team have helped us to develop our skills in business and people management, build a strong value proposition, and develop a clearly defined roadmap to get us to our five year goal. By sharpening our brand and messaging we have already seen huge impact specifically with our key suppliers who now consider us as a major part of the future success in the UK market.
Will Doherty, Founder & Managing Director
Working with SUMMIT was great from start to finish. It made us think clearly about our clients and how to position ourselves in the market. The rebrand and positioning above competitors gained new clients and more work with existing ones, driving a 15% increase in profit and 30% boost in visibility. The feedback on our rebrand, including new logo, strapline, van signage and website, has been amazing and definitely secured new business.
Anthony Hamlett, Director
We partnered with SUMMIT to improve our marketing efforts, and the experience exceeded our expectations. Their team was strategic, responsive, and genuinely invested in our success. Since working with them, we’ve had lots of traction regarding new clients and a genuine interest in the business model. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to any business looking to grow.
Andrea Barnes, Head of Business Rates
Since working with SUMMIT we’re now a focussed, professional Senior Leadership Team, leading our business with a clear understanding of what it has to offer, a plan we’re all bought in to, energy, momentum and confidence. I’m staggered by the growth we’ve achieved this year and the quality of work, year 1 we grew sales by 13.2%, in Year 2 we’re a further 38.6% up. It’s extraordinary what can be achieved if everyone is pulling in the same direction.
Dave Gallagher, Managing Director
When business owners start thinking more clearly, the effects show up quickly. Decisions that were deferred for months get resolved in weeks. Pricing conversations become more confident. Team issues that had been quietly tolerated get addressed. The business moves because the person leading it is moving with more purpose.
