Profit Insights is the podcast for Private Equity professionals who want sharper thinking on the decisions that protect and grow enterprise value.
Hosted by Alex Franklin, founder of Ithaca Cyber Security and Penpole, a specialist healthcare digital transformation consultancy, each episode will give actionable takeaways from the worlds of Private Equity, Cyber Security, and Operational Excellence to deliver insight that adds value to your investment decisions and protects portfolio value.
From fractional CISO and DPO strategy to leadership frameworks, hiring decisions, and the business philosophy that separates elite organisations from the rest, Profit Insights covers the full spectrum of what it takes to maximise returns and manage risk in today's environment.
Episodes include in-depth interviews with industry leaders across Private Equity, Cyber Security, the NHS, and the NHS Supply Chain, alongside Penpole & Ithaca’s acclaimed written thought leadership, now brought to life in audio and video.
Whether you are a Operating Partner, Portfolio Company Executive, or investment professional navigating an increasingly complex risk landscape, Profit Insights gives you the frameworks, perspectives, and expert voices you need to make better decisions.
Subscribe now and visit ithacacybersecurity.com (http://ithacacybersecurity.com/) to find out how Alex and his teams can support you and your portfolio.
Profit Insights #10: Private Equity, Healthcare, and the Realities of the Deal with Rob Harvey
"The closer you get to exit, the less predictable it becomes." In this episode Alex Franklin sits down with Rob Harvey, former CFO of EMED Group, one of the UK's largest PE-backed specialist healthcare transport businesses to explore what it really takes to scale, run, and successfully exit a Private Equity backed business in one of the most complex sectors in the UK economy. Rob brings over twenty years of CFO experience in healthcare, transport, and logistics to a conversation that covers t...
13 Aug 2026
Profit Insights #9: Why most cyber security problems are not really cyber security problems with Simon Brownhill of DWL Partners
Most cyber security problems are not really cyber security problems. So what are they? In this episode, Alex Franklin sits down with Simon Brownhill, Director of DWL Partners and a cyber security leader with over thirty years of experience, to explore what genuinely effective security looks like in a mid-market Private Equity environment. Drawing on a career that began as a weapons engineer in the Royal Navy, Simon brings a practitioner's clarity to the questions that matter most to boards, O...
9 Jul 2026
Profit Insights #8: Establish a Compelling Vision. Logotherapy and the Five Whys.
Why do great companies invest time and energy in vision statements, and what does a Holocaust survivor have to teach us about building one? In this episode, Alex Franklin draws on Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy, Nietzsche, Seneca, and Jim Collins' Five Whys framework to make the case that a compelling vision is not philosophical fluff. It is a competitive advantage. With a practical worked example from his own business, this episode gives you the tools to establish your own. Read the full...
2 Jul 2026
Profit Insights #7: First Who Then What
Strategy, vision, and technology all matter. But according to Jim Collins, David Packard, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos, none of it matters more than who you put on your team. In this episode, Alex Franklin builds on his Level 5 Leadership column to examine the single most important factor in organisational success: getting the right people on the bus before you decide where to drive it. Practical, honest, and grounded in hard-won experience. Read the full article: ithacacyberse...
26 Jun 2026
Profit Insights #6: Ode to Entrepreneurship
What does it actually mean to be an entrepreneur? In this episode, Alex Franklin offers a personal and philosophical take on the entrepreneurial mindset drawing on Luke Johnson, James Wise, and John Maynard Keynes to argue that entrepreneurship is not about the yacht or the exit. It is about the willingness to take risk, question the majority, and put capital to work in defiance of the instinct to hoard. Read the full article: ithacacybersecurity.com/ode-to-entreprenuership Work with Alex: it...
18 Jun 2026
Profit Insights #5: How to Become a Level 5 Leader
What separates leaders who build enduring greatness from those who deliver only short-term results? In this episode, Alex Franklin explores Jim Collins' Level 5 Leadership framework, the paradoxical combination of personal humility and professional will that Collins identified as the primary differentiator in companies that sustained extraordinary performance over fifteen years. From Tim Cook quietly negotiating tariff exemptions to David Packard's law on hiring, this episode offers a compell...
11 Jun 2026
Profit Insights #4 The Ancient Art of Setting Limits: A Stoic Approach to Achievement
What if the secret to achieving more wasn't pushing harder, but setting better limits? In this episode of Profit Insights, Alex Franklin draws on the letters of Seneca the Stoic to explore a principle that is almost 2,000 years old. Natural desires have boundaries. Unnatural ones, driven by comparison and the opinions of others, do not. And it is the boundless pursuit of the latter that quietly drains our focus, our relationships, and our effectiveness. Building on the Pareto and Par...
2 Jun 2026
Profit Insights #3: How to Achieve More with Less
Time is our most precious and finite resource, yet most of us squander it without realising. In this episode, Alex Franklin applies two powerful principles in tandem, Pareto's Law and Parkinson's Law, to show how focusing on the right 20% of your effort, with the right deadlines, can unlock dramatically better results in both business and life. Read the full article: ithacacybersecurity.com/how-to-achieve-more-with-less Work with Alex: ithacacybersecurity.com | penpole.co.uk References and...
27 May 2026
Profit Insights #2: Is Your Cyber Posture Costing you at Exit?
In this episode, Alex Franklin applies Moore's Law to the modern threat landscape and makes the case that cyber security is not an IT issue, it's a valuation issue. If you're preparing for investment or exit, this episode is essential listening. Read all Profit Insights: https://www.ithacacybersecurity.com/insights/ Work with Alex: alex@ithacacybersecurity.com penpole.co.uk | ithacacybersecurity.com
15 May 2026
Profit Insights #1: Serendipity or Strategy: BCG’s Growth Share Matrix
Is the success of the world's greatest investors down to brilliance, or were they simply in the right place at the right time? In this inaugural episode of Profit Insights, Alex Franklin examines one of the most uncomfortable questions in business: the role luck plays in investment decisions. Drawing on the work of NYU's Aswath Damodaran, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and BCG founder Bruce Henderson's Growth Share Matrix, Alex makes the case that fortune and strategy are not opposites and th...
Host of Profit Insights?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
