I took over from my father 4 years ago, under the pressure of being the sixth generation to run the business.

Meanwhile, the funeral industry has been undergoing significant change. Direct cremations, prepaid plans and commoditisation are rising, increasing price pressure and threatening personalised care.

My father, recognising this shift, knew it was time to step aside and trusted me to drive the business forward.

The challenge was that, while I knew the day-to-day operations inside out, I had never been responsible for leading the business strategically. I had a clear vision and ambitious plans for where we needed to go, but the challenge was modernising and transforming the heart of the business whilst keeping it effective and functional.

Alongside that, change is never easy, especially when a team is familiar with a particular way of doing things. A big part of the challenge was taking people with me, modernising without losing the essence of who we are. And some of our longest-standing team members feared that’s exactly what we might do.

Around this time, I met Martin at a local networking event. Two of his clients (and key suppliers of mine) spoke extremely highly of him, giving me the confidence to meet for a coffee. It was immediately clear he was the right person to help us through this transition.

He clearly understood our challenges, he also had personal experience of our service, having recently entrusted us with his late father’s funeral.

Our initial diagnosis with Martin confirmed that key roles had to be filled to take the load off myself and our Ops Manager Olly, particularly in accounting and HR.

He helped us overhaul our hiring process, ensuring we brought in only the very best. His approach was extremely thorough, taking more time and effort than usual but the results spoke for themselves. By following his method, we secured two exceptional hires who are now central to our leadership team.

Alongside hiring, Martin helped us identify the order and sequence in which we needed to improve, with a top priority being to strengthen our leadership team and create a common language and approach that would be critical to bringing the wider team with us.

Alongside our visionary projects, Martin has helped keep us grounded, improving leadership at every level and streamlining our day-to-day processes in a logical order.

His structured approach, combined with regular meetings, has been instrumental in helping us think more cohesively and strategically. We have accomplished difficult tasks, ticked them off and step by step aligned the business with our new direction.

Above all, our biggest challenge has been bringing people with us. Not everyone likes change, which is why we developed a parallel leadership programme to support the team, give them a voice, grow their leadership skills and face the future stronger and better together!