Leadership Principles for Successful Growth and Scaling of Middle Market Companies

Kevin Poole is the CEO of Newport LLC, a business advisory firm helping middle-market companies grow and exit. He specializes in selling and delivering consulting services and technology-based solutions to Fortune 500 and middle-market companies. With over 30 years of experience, Kevin has held senior leadership roles at General Electric and served as a senior partner at Ernst & Young and Capgemini, where he led major advisory practices and turnaround initiatives.

In this episode…

Scaling a business often requires founders to make tough transitions — from leading with loyalty and enforcing accountability to reacting to problems and planning strategically. Many middle-market CEOs struggle to build teams capable of supporting high growth. How can leaders evolve themselves and their organizations to meet growth demands?

Leadership development and strategic growth expert Kevin Poole emphasizes intentional leadership, building scalable teams, and extending planning times to avoid being trapped in reactive mode. CEOs should identify their ideal clients to establish written profiles and align the business and leadership team around them. Kevin also stresses the importance of making personnel decisions swiftly when cultural or performance issues arise rather than waiting and risking greater organizational damage.

In this week’s episode of Growth + Exit, Heather Bennett talks with Kevin Poole, CEO of Newport LLC, about developing scalable leadership in middle-market companies. Kevin explains how CEOs can shift from emotional to strategic leadership, how to adapt leadership across business models, and how middle-market companies can differentiate themselves.