Leading a Carve-Out: What It Takes
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerLeading a carve-out means taking a business separated from a larger parent and building it into a capable, standalone company — establishing the functions, systems, and identity it previously drew from the parent, while running and growing the business. It takes leaders who can build […]
The Second-Time CEO: What Changes
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA second-time CEO brings the experience of having done the job before — knowing its realities, having learned from successes and mistakes, and carrying greater confidence and perspective. This experience is valuable, which is why second-time CEOs are sought after. But it comes with caveats: […]
IPO Readiness: The Leadership Dimension
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerIPO readiness includes ensuring the leadership team and board are ready for life as a public company — with the right capabilities (such as a public-company-ready CFO and strong governance), the ability to meet public-market demands, and a board and leadership that can operate under […]
The Remuneration Committee: Role and Purpose
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerThe remuneration committee is a committee of the board — made up of independent non-executive directors — responsible for setting and overseeing the pay of senior executives, particularly the CEO and executive directors. It exists to ensure executive pay is set independently, fairly, and in […]
What Does a Senior Independent Director Do?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA Senior Independent Director (SID) is a non-executive director who serves as a senior, independent point of reference on the board — providing a sounding board for the Chair, a channel for shareholders and other directors when normal routes are inappropriate, and a counterbalance that […]
CFO vs COO: What’s the Difference?
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA CFO leads a business’s finances — financial strategy, management, reporting, and often capital and investor relations; a COO leads its operations — running the day-to-day execution of the business. In short, the CFO owns the financial engine and the COO owns the operational engine. […]
Management Incentive Plans in Private Equity Explained
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerA management incentive plan (MIP) is the equity-based scheme through which a private equity-backed company’s management team shares in the value they help create — aligning leaders’ interests with the investors’ around a successful outcome. It is a central feature of PE-backed businesses, designed to […]
Value Creation in Private Equity: The Role of Leadership
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerValue creation in private equity is how investors grow the value of a business over their ownership — through growth, improvement, and strategic change — to achieve a strong return. Leadership is central to it: the management team executes the value-creation plan, so getting leadership […]
Refillable & Sustainable Beauty: Leadership for the Shift
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerSustainable and refillable beauty reflects the industry’s response to environmental pressure and consumer expectations — reducing packaging waste and environmental impact through refillable formats, better materials, and more responsible practices. For leadership, it demands genuine commitment (not greenwashing), the capability to innovate and operationalise sustainability, […]
Skinification of Beauty: What It Means for Leadership
By Annabel Norman, Managing Partner · Norman Consultants The short answerSkinification is the trend of skincare principles — ingredients, efficacy, and skin-health thinking — spreading across beauty into haircare, body care, makeup, and beyond, as consumers apply a skincare mindset to more categories. For leadership, it raises the importance of ingredient and efficacy credibility, blurs […]
