Forged in success

As a business coach, Dominic Monkhouse works with humble, curious CEOs and their leadership teams to scale up their organisations. He knows there is a connection between the professional development of the CEO, their leadership team and business performance. Dominic brings his own experience, expertise and a proven process.

Dominic has a track record of scaling up a series of award-winning technology service businesses as Managing Director, scaling two UK companies from zero revenue to £30 million in just five years.

At Rackspace, the team grew from 4 to 150, and the annual revenue from just a few hundred thousand to £30 million. Dominic is most proud that the company was recognised as an outstanding workplace in Europe, winning several service awards for its results-obsessed customer service and deep technical expertise, Fanatical Support^®. Rackspace is where his hands-on experience running a business mastering the Rockefeller Habits began. In particular, the importance of communication rhythm to align the organisation.

When Dominic joined Rackspace as UK Managing Director, the average lifetime value of their customers was £2,000. When he left five years later, this had shot up to £200,000 – that’s a pretty stratospheric growth curve. Were they doing anything differently? Not dramatically. Mostly, the building blocks of the business were the same. But it was the tools that Dominic used to turn the company into an agile scale up that made his term as MD so successful. It’s this experience that our clients tell us is so valuable to them. For example, one tool Dominic rolled out was a Net Promoter System (NPS) and they used this to track the progress of Fanatical Support^®.

After the herculean effort reversing the fortunes of ITLab, Dominic moved on to Canadian infrastructure services firm, Peer 1 Hosting who had the vision to build “Rackspace’s biggest competitor”. He agreed; but on the condition that they would develop the EMEA HQ in Southampton, Hampshire. When asked: “Why Southampton?” Dominic answered with: “It’s the Vancouver of the UK”… he is still not sure how he pulled that one off, but soon they launched with their own service mantra of “One-Call Promise” and their strapline of “Every Interaction Matters”.

At Peer 1, they built the UK business to £30 million in 5 years, winning several awards for creating a great place to work; and scaling the global business from C$90 million to C$200 million in the same period. Dominic believes that the key to their success was the investment in business coaching for the CEO and the executive team. The business ultimately sold for C$635 million in his fourth year, January 2013. He then left the company in May 2014, wanting to help others.

Since 2014, Dominic has worked as a Certified Business Coach, helping CEOs scale up their operations. He creates impact by delivering his coaching programme, which is a fusion of his broad experience, deep operational expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide. These are the tools and best practices that have already helped thousands of mid-sized businesses scale faster, more profitably and with less drama.

What our clients say about working with Dominic Monkhouse