Unlocking Value
Unlocking Value
Podcast Description
Unlocking Value is designed to give founders and owners of professional services firms more confidence when they're working toward an exit or thinking about taking on investment. Across six episodes, our host John Howard speaks with founders, investors and advisors about the moments that define the transaction journey - how to get ready, what to expect and how to succeed.We cover everything from value drivers and team alignment to investor expectations and life after the deal. You’ll hear from people who’ve sold their firms, taken minority investments, stayed on, exited and started again – and from those who advise or invest in firms like yours every day.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on key themes related to business valuation and exit strategies, with episodes addressing topics such as the emotional dynamics post-deal, buyer expectations, alignment among shareholders, and strategies for effectively preparing for a transaction, featuring real-world insights and expert advice.
Unlocking Value is designed to give founders and owners of professional services firms more confidence when they’re working toward an exit or thinking about taking on investment.
Across six episodes, our host John Howard speaks with founders, investors and advisors about the moments that define the transaction journey – how to get ready, what to expect and how to succeed.
We cover everything from value drivers and team alignment to investor expectations and life after the deal. You’ll hear from people who’ve sold their firms, taken minority investments, stayed on, exited and started again – and from those who advise or invest in firms like yours every day.
Steve Timms is CEO of Diabsolut, a consulting firm that helps organisations get more value from Salesforce and Certinia.
When Steve joined Diabsolut in 2024, he inherited a business whose historic source of success was changing. The large ClickSoftware projects it had relied on were disappearing, and the firm needed to decide what it wanted to become next.
That led to a much broader rethink of the business. Steve has been moving Diabsolut from implementing what clients ask for towards helping them work out what they are actually trying to achieve. More recently, the same thinking has shaped its approach to AI – not asking how AI can make existing work faster, but how it might change the work itself.
Steve and John discuss:
- Why strong channel partnerships depend on behaving as though “we want that deal for them more than they do.”
- What it takes to move from implementing software to advising clients on the outcomes they are trying to achieve.
- How Diabsolut is connecting AI agents across sales, discovery and delivery so knowledge gathered early in a client relationship carries through into the work.
- Why the business deliberately keeps humans involved in its agent processes, both to protect quality and help people become comfortable working differently.
- How AI is pushing Diabsolut towards more fixed-price work – and raising harder questions about what clients should pay when the same outcome takes much less time to deliver.
- Why Steve believes that once you know a decision needs to be made, delaying it rarely makes things better.
If you lead a consulting or professional services firm and are thinking about how AI might change your delivery model, economics or the role you play with clients, this episode is for you.
If you enjoy conversations like this, follow the show so you don’t miss future episodes.
Host: John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth
Guest: Steve Timms, CEO of Diabsolut
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