Nicholas Ledingham has over 30 years of experience in senior leadership roles across various industries. He helped transform underperforming businesses by developing strategic plans and implementing organizational changes. This included recruiting new management teams, establishing sales and training programs, and improving processes. As a result, the businesses experienced substantial revenue growth, increased profitability, and were well-positioned for long-term success.

1. A STATEMENT
OF EQUILIBRIAN
PHILOSOPHY
& CAPABILITY
E X P E C T I N G ?
performancewhat level of
are you

2. The sales performance of any business is a function of every aspect of
strategy, planning, manpower, behavior and culture. This is not just a sales
department role, but one that affects every person within any organization.
You seldom find a business owner / leader that is completely satisfied with
their company’s sales performance.
Seeing the huge opportunity that exists for most businesses to improve in
sales, the owners of Equilibrian left their ‘C’-level and Director level roles in
corporate life and embarked on a mission to deliver independent, confidential
and hands-on support to businesses in a way that makes a real impact.
In careers spanning some 30 years, they have successfully delivered high
performance to employers and now bring together the best skills and
experience in the market, to partner with organizations that want more.

3. Never lower your expectations to
meet your performance. Instead
raise your level of performance to
meet or exceed your expectations.”
“

4. P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E
Nicholas Ledingham
Following 5 years as a military officer with the Royal Navy,
Nicholas Ledingham started his illustrious career in business
management and performance development, which has now
spanned more than 30 years.
Throughout this time, Nick has held CEO and COO positions
in a diverse range of organizations within the automotive,
hospitality, financial services and consultancy sectors both
in Europe and for the last 12 years, in the Middle East and
Africa. Working within start-up, turnaround and rapid-change
environments, successfully achieving sustainable revenue,
profit, and business growth objectives for his employers,
has lead Nick to become the inspirational business leader
he is today.
Nick’s rich business experience includes building, leading
and motivating multi-cultural teams of more than 12,000
employees and leading businesses with revenue exceeding
$800 million.
Highlights of Nick’s career include the rapid development of an
underperforming Middle-Eastern business group with brands
such as Shangri-La, Bentley, Audi, Mitsubishi; developing a
transformational strategy for a large African Family business
with brands such as Wyndham, Ramada, Peugeot, Hyundai,
Tesla, Precision; designing a 10 year strategic plan to re-
establish a family owned group of businesses as the market
leader with brands such as Toyota, Volvo, Michelin; pioneering
the creation of a global business academy for Audi; and
establishing a new leasing and rental business, which achieved
over $200M in it’s first year of operation.
Some of Nick’s key capabilities include strategic business
planning, designing and implementing formal corporate
structures, creating or repositioning company brands,
building market leadership and recruiting exceptional
talent to name just a few.
In 2012 Nick began development of the Business Genetics
Group – an organization dedicated to building an outstanding
portfolio of business offerings, including Equilibrian – which
focus on supporting organizations in various ways to develop
robustness in their sales performance. In 2015 he started to
bring together high-caliber professionals who share the sales
development vision.
Nick’s deep understanding of critical drivers in a multitude
of business environments, his success in building strong
relationships with upper-level decision makers, capability to
seize control of critical problem areas, and his innate capacity
to deliver on customer commitments, uniquely positions him
to take on any performance-related business challenge our
clients may be facing.

5. New horizons, clear direction for Kunech Group’s automotive division
From early stage development as an entrepreneurial enterprise and a future full of uncertainty, to a position
of guaranteed profitability across all operations and assets worth 12 times the value invested, the
transformation of Kunech Group’s automotive operation is a truly unique success story.
The Challenge
With increasing importation regulations, currency exchange
instability, highly competitive markets squeezing profitability
and a sales team failing to grow sustainable revenue streams,
Kunech Group’s various performance issues were quickly
challenging the organization’s outlook.
A family owned business with interests on 4 continents and
operations within the automotive, hospitality, construction, oil
& gas, ICT and import/export sectors, Kunech Group enlisted the
support of Nicholas Ledingham as new Group COO, tasked with
the development of the entire organization.
Following a strategic review, it became clear to Nick that
a multi-level approach would be required to capitalize on
market developments and a 5-year growth plan for the group
automotive interests was designed to diversify risk, increase
ROCE and uniquely position the business in the market to
pursue long-term investor returns.
The Solution
With Nick’s direction and compelling management style, 4 key
areas of activity were undertaken in succession, to deliver a
comprehensive solution to the issues Kunech Group was facing.
Stage 1 – began with the rationalization of the various
automotive offerings, focusing on brands where a competitive
advantage could be leveraged in the short and medium term
through principle relations, market positioning for dominance
and negotiating an investment strategy that enjoined the
principle in the success and profitability of the venture.
This entailed development of new brands in an architecture
that could be franchised in the future, plus the finalization
of negotiations for a master franchise for an international
aftermarket leader.
Stage 2 – saw the development and roll-out of a multi-
site aftermarket repair network, well positioned for future
franchising across Africa and the Levant. This aftermarket
structure enabled diversification outside of the core market,
created opportunity for massive scale in parts and consumables
distribution and provided supplemental income through
franchising revenues and fees. Additionally, positioning
strategies were designed for of each of the core automotive
offerings, followed by integrated brand development programs,
laying the foundation for market leadership for the group.
On the back of this foundation, vehicle sales agencies were
negotiated at preferential terms that would guarantee
government / parastatal volumes which in turn delivers
predictable profitability.
Stage 3 – entailed the recruitment and development of
commercially and culturally aligned management and sales
teams to grow the individual aspects of the organization
in a sustainable manner. Through careful pre-selection, use
of predictive and psychometric assessments, use of group
interview processes and weighted performance related
remuneration, the highest calibre of talent available was
attracted into the African operations to participate in the
venture, affording them substantial opportunity to pursue their
own career & wealth development.
Stage 4 – delivered increased capability to the new teams
through ERP systems, documented policy and procedure as
well as structured training programs designed to empower
staff to act and make the right decisions in pursuing new
business. Through a mix of online and face-to-face sales
training workshops, performances levels sky-rocketed and net
departmental deliverables were able to meet targeted values.
The Outcome
Kunech stakeholders now enjoy IP assets (in brand rights) worth
12x the value invested, a distribution network for automotive
parts and accessories grown from zero to $25M in revenue
in less than 2 years, and a vehicle brand platform that has
a 10 year guaranteed annual revenue of 9x the first year’s
investment – all successfully managed by new teams capable of
the day-to-day leadership of the segments of the business that
did not exist before.
Nicholas Ledingham / Case Study 1 – Automotive

6. Nicholas Ledingham / Case Study 2 – Automotive
New horizons, clear direction for Zubair Corporation
From a disparate collection of showrooms run simply as ‘shops’ for customers to buy cars, to a fully integrated
and aligned automotive group, delivering a unique buying experience and actively selling across an
impressive 17 dealership sites.
The Challenge
Organizationally, Zubair Automotive Group’s showrooms
functioned as individual entities that had a ‘passive’ approach
to serving walk-in customers and missed vital opportunities to
do business and significant margin possibilities as a result of
limiting behaviors and leadership.
The Solution
With Nick’s direction and compelling management style, 4 key
areas of activity were undertaken in succession, to deliver a
comprehensive solution to the issues that Zubair Automotive
Group were facing.
Stage 1 – began with a market review of growth potential
and current provision, such that a suitable Strategy could be
developed. This was developed to consolidate the Group and
provide a 5-year roadmap of progressive development to instil
a culture of Sales performance and the necessary infrastructure
and product architecture to achieve the required market share.
Stage 2 – entailed the recruitment and development of
commercially and culturally aligned management and sales
teams to grow the individual aspects of the organization
in a sustainable manner. Through careful pre-selection, use
of predictive and psychometric assessments, use of group
interview processes and weighted performance related
remuneration, the highest calibre of talent available was
attracted into the business.
Stage 3 – entailed the commissioning and execution of a
training and development academy that motivated, delivered
and supported a transformation to a new sales focused
organization that prioritized customer service excellence.
Acquiring retail and service real estate supported the goals of
growing market share, such that principle brands were satisfied
and supportive. The aftersales infrastructure heightened the
confidence of buyers, resulting in more opportunities to do
business.
Stage 4 – required the implementation of a structured,
common, managed sales process that opened up-sell
opportunities, maximized the profit, delivered management
control and predictability to the sales forecasts. Additionally,
the implementation of an industry specific ERP gave control
to performance measurement, economies of scale, better
stock management and ultimately closer knowledge of the
organization to enable focused growth activity to be defined.
The Outcome
During the roll-out of the strategy, net margin increases of
28% accompanied volume growth of 43% in passenger vehicle
sector. The retail network grew by 7 sites, with renovation
enjoyed by another 12 sites. A new aftermarket brand was
launched to promote tertiary market penetration, plus average
CSi score across 17 brands increased from 52% to 91%
satisfaction.
Ultimately, the organization became aligned and focused to
being a sales-led business that brought great efficiencies of
scale, even through the times of recession.

7. Nicholas Ledingham / Case Study 3 – Hospitality
Building market leadership for Kunech Group’s hospitality venture
From early stage development as an entrepreneurial enterprise and a future full of uncertainty, to a
leadership position in an emerging and fast developing hospitality sector with a pipeline of outstanding
landmark projects.
The Challenge
With a partially built 4-star Hotel property, another closed
3-star motel and a land-bank for future builds, new energy
needed to be brought in to the definition of a robust hospitality
strategy that capitalized on the market opportunity and
positioned the offering for future strength and growth.
The Solution
With Nick’s direction and compelling management style, 5 key
areas of activity were undertaken in succession, to deliver a
comprehensive solution to the issues Kunech Group was facing.
Stage 1 – began with a market review of growth potential
and current provision, such that a suitable strategy could be
developed. The strategy was then developed to re-position the
existing projects and plan future roll-outs to build a strong
platform for growth. The strategy entailed the planning and
build of a portfolio of food & beverage outlets that could be
scaled outside of the hotels, giving economies of scale and
brand presence.
Stage 2 – saw the rationalizing of the relationship with
Wyndham Hotels (Ramada) and Corinthia Hotels to better
position the main project to be a full 5-star resort and re-
working of the project management and planning functions to
produce a tight delivery schedule for the finished product. The
re-planning and re-design allowed the projected yield of the
property to be increased by 125% and de-risk the room revenue
exposure.
Stage 3 – entailed the resolution of interior design and
procurement systems to reduce the cost-base of providing
an increased quality of product, by design and build sub-
contracting to China and employment of specialist contractors
from Europe to deliver on-site in Africa to international
standards.
Stage 4 – delivered the formal positioning, branding and
marketing infrastructure necessary to build the new hotel
resort, establish strong master franchises for the F&B outlets,
plus position the group for the pipeline of complimentary
hotels to follow on strategically important land-bank.
Stage 5 – entailed the recruitment and development of
commercially and culturally aligned management and sales
teams to grow the individual aspects of the organization
in a sustainable manner. Through careful pre-selection, use
of predictive and psychometric assessments, use of group
interview processes and weighted performance related
remuneration, the highest calibre of talent available was
attracted into the African operations to participate in the
venture, affording them substantial opportunity to pursue their
own career & wealth development.
The Outcome
Kunech stakeholders now enjoy IP assets (in brand rights) worth
approximately 22x the value invested, a brand portfolio of
F&B outlets, and an emerging 5-star anchor Hotel project that
has an annual projected revenue that gives a 6-year payback
on funds employed – all successfully managed by new teams
capable of the day-to-day leadership of the business that did
not exist before.
.

8. The highest levels of performance
come to people who are centered,
intuitive, creative, and reflective –
people who know to see a problem
as an opportunity.”
“

9. With almost 30 years of experience, Jo Andrews’ early career
began with a series of sales roles in both B2B and B2C arenas,
moving on to manage regional sales teams in the real estate
and financial services sectors of the UK.
Jo spent the next 10 years in blue chip companies moving on
to manage, and drive development of, client portfolios for GE
Capital and American Express, driving sales and the profitability
of sales functions across EMEA.
During her time at American Express Jo made the move from
a more traditional sales leadership role to a commercial and
operational one, realising that a strong sales background
would be invaluable to the operational decisions businesses
make around sales, and was responsible for driving the viability
and effectiveness of the entire sales function of the commercial
card business across EMEA. Here she developed her passion
and conviction for a principle based sales performance
approach that would benefit organisations across all sizes
and industry types.
Jo furthered her experience driving sales performance in
an IT lead generation company, a global travel services
company and more recently a market leading global
financial services provider.
Jo is a passionate and committed advocate of employing
sales performance practices in todays marketplace and
brings a vast knowledge of building and developing sales
infrastructures across a range of industries in both the B2B
and B2C worlds, driving results and affecting transformational
change in large, complex and multi-disciplinary environments.
P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E
Jo Andrews

10. Developing a cohesive sales strategy for American Express
Improved sales team performance, reduced cost of new business and a signifcant cultural shift towards
higher employee engagement and retention highlight the successful outcomes of a comprehensive and
cohesive sales strategy introduced by Jo Andrews.
Jo Andrews / Case Study 1 – Financial Services
The Challenge
A global blue chip company with an established sales force,
American Express Commercial Card was facing an increasingly
competitive marketplace with a disparate sales infrastructure
across the EMEA region.
An irregular performance distribution across a large sales team
(c500) with a decentralized approach to the sales function was
resulting in missed opportunity, forecasting inaccuracy and lack
of employee engagement.
The senior leaders of the business were convinced of the need
to develop a cohesive sales strategy across the whole region
which included not only the sales team structure but also
all sales operations.
The Solution
Jo had a vision of the Point of Arrival for the sales function and
joined the commercial leadership team to build a roadmap to
achieve this. An improvement in the ROI of the sales function
was achieved via a multi-tiered approach.
Phase 1 – involved building and operationalizing a principle
based targeting methodology ensuring fair and equitable
targets appropriate to the sales conditions and the individuals
market, segment and tenure ultimately resulting in normalised
distribution of performance. Significant stakeholder
management coupled with internal focus group input enabled
the right balance of simplicity and fit for purpose.
Reward and recognition principles were aligned with business
goals to introduce motivational and profitable sales incentive
plans. The natural extension of achieving a fair and equitable
targeting methodology was a motivational yet achievable
variable incentive scheme.
Phase 2 – saw the design and delivery a new sales training
academy, leading to greater focus on personal development.
A commitment to a benchmarked, consistent and aspirational
training program was required to match the continuing
improvement expected in an individual’s performance.
Best practice structures were promoted across the entire EMEA
region resulting in improved team performance, reducing the
cost of new business in 25% of teams by more than 20%.
Phase 3 – promoted the culture of performance management
through introduction of a framework to drive greater focus on
sales performance by spotlight on continual improvement.
Market differences and cultural nuances were addressed
without straying from the principled based approach. Allowing
for cultural and market differences enabled the potential to
be maximized without compromising delivery of an agreed
company structure that fit the product set, commercial
standing, customer demographic and economic outlook.
Phase 4 – centralised the sales operations for the region
resulting in audit and control improvements. Objective gate-
keeping for the large variable pay budget and for escalation
purposes enabled an environment of absolute transparency and
fair dealing, a key pillar of the company’s code of conduct and
in keeping with the integrity of the overall business.
The Outcome
It was clear throughout all stages of the program that there
would be no one solution that would drive the measured
improvements sought, indeed the success of the program
was achieved by a combination of improvements in each
of the interdependent components that make up the sales
infrastructure.
Alongside the improvements in hard numbers, a significant
cultural shift was also achieved whereby the sales teams were
able to align with the company values of having a fair and
equitable performance and remuneration structure, a focus on
continual performance improvement and a considerable shift
in positive communication lines. These improvements not only
resulted in increased return on investment but in increased
employee engagement and retention.

11. Bringing fresh energy to IG Group’s sales function
Faced with a changing competitive landscape and plateauing of sales, market leading IG Group undertook a
complete overhaul of their sales function, leading to renewed momentum in business performance.
Jo Andrews / Case Study 2 – Financial Services
The Challenge
Following years of double digit growth and dominance in the
market, the business leaders acknowledged that their approach
to sales was too passive, without in strategic direction and had
contributed to a complacent sales force. This was exacerbated
by the fact that much of the leadership had brought the
company through its continued successes, with experience
in only one company and while this company was highly
successful, reduced the fresh and market relevant input.
In addition, a heavily regulated environment and reliance on
tax rulings meant that it was critical to maintain their position
as being not only highly respected by, but also a voice for, the
derivative market with the regulatory body.
The Solution
Upon joining the company’s leadership team, Jo was able
to provide a much needed fresh perspective with her sales
performance expertise. Having no background in this particular
niche of the marketplace was a distinct advantage, bringing IG
Group a completely objective view on the business as a whole.
Jo performed an analysis of the business workings and how the
sales function interacts both internally and externally to form
a sales strategy that addressed the desire to scale for growth
and make use of best practice. On observation it was clear that
there were fundamental but simple issues which needed to be
addressed to maintain a path for true north.
Phase 1 – involved defining what sales meant to the
business and what it should be achieving, allowing a common
understanding of what ‘good’ looked like. Definition of
philosophy, targets and the competencies required to achieve
meant standards could be benchmarked and all parties were
working towards common goals.
Additionally, a targeting philosophy was introduced to ensure
that a strategic sales mentality was achieved. Due to the
regulatory restrictions on approaching new clients, the business
had taken a very passive approach to selling. A key driver in
addressing this was to capitalize on brand language and tone,
and balance it with a competitive and competent environment.
Reward and recognition principles were aligned with business
goals to introduce motivational and profitable sales incentive
plans. The structure of the incentive plan was key in driving
the behavioral changes necessary for a forward shift in
performance of the sales team, particularly focused on the first
contact stage of the sales cycle.
Phase 2 – saw the redesign of the structure of the sales and
client development teams to ensure best fit for business needs.
Both the team members and team management were addressed
to ensure leadership hierarchy was effective, resulting in greater
sales but also in better succession planning and an aspirational
team structure.
All business and management reporting was rationalized
to ensure clear, concise and usable data and analysis of
performance. Removal of noise in the data and centralizing
the issuance meant that single data definition and source were
achieved and outputs and actions could be agreed.
A modular-based learning and development framework was
then designed and implemented, followed by the embedding
of a competency framework to enable proper performance
management. A true sales management structure was created
which included personal development together with consequence
for poor performance – a real cultural shift for the business.
The Outcome
Success was driven in a consistent and sustained improvement
program which was an amalgamation of changes to the
different facets of sales with the group. IG Group needed to be
set up for growth, scale and market changes and along with
achieving efficiencies in the sales function it was able to let
sales, and not just product, set them apart from the competion.
The ambition running alongside all these commercial changes
was to give the sales function a voice within the company,
enabling better business and product decision-making and also
improving employee engagement.

12. The salesperson’s job is not to
convince people. The salesperson’s
job is to build an outstanding
buying experience so that they
are convinced on their own.”
“

13. P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E
Maitland Telke
Educated at Auckland University, New Zealand, Maitland
initially joined the team at Van de Roer, one of New Zealand’s
top corporate identity consultancies, where he went on
to become a senior designer working on national identity
programmes, solidifying his knowledge of high-impact
communications methodologies.
He progressed to work for Interbrand as the design director
at Imagination New Zealand, widely recognised as the world’s
leading consultancy for creating and managing brand value,
where he completed major identity, brand positioning and
implementation programmes including Sky City Entertainment,
Mercury Energy, AgResearch, Telecom New Zealand, Cadbury
Pascall and Royal SunAlliance. Through this experience he
saw first hand the value of aligned, holistic communications
throughout an organisation to enable it’s performance.
Maitland left New Zealand in 2001 to pursue his goals of
building a new paradigm creative agency with an educational
focus, working with UK professional service firms to help them
build successful communications strategies, supporting the
growth of their businesses.
Heading up Creativity’s London Bridge office, both creatively
and strategically, Maitland has completed successful rebranding
and positioning communications projects for many mid-tier
professional service firms throughout Europe. He is continuing
to follow his passion for using branding and communications as
a fundamental tool in growing business revenue performance.
Maitland brings to his clients a vast knowledge of
communicating in both consumer and business markets.
He has a strong belief in building long term relationships
with his clients in order to understand their business model
and develop an understanding of the internal and external
communications issues they have, ultimately creating cut-
through communications that enhance organisational value,
awareness and credibility.

14. It is an immutable law in
business that words are words,
explanations are explanations,
promises are promises - but
only performance is reality.”
“

15. Equilibrian
2nd Floor, O14 Tower
Burj Khalifa District, Business Bay
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
04 514 8243
info@equilibrian.com
For a free ‘Performance Discovery’
assessment, contact us today