Welcome to Scale-Up Sessions, your roadmap to scaling your business. Joined by expert guests, Martin Kennington brings you the smartest, most up-to-date ways of making smart financial decisions to confidently take your business to the next level. Whether you’re chasing your next round of funding, a business loan, or simply building a smarter growth plan, this is your guide to scaling with confidence.
Sustainability as a business accelerator: Building resilience, relevance and long-term growth | Mark Shayler
Sustainability is not simply about compliance or reducing environmental impact. When it is embedded into innovation, business models and decision-making, it can help growing businesses become more resilient and commercially successful.
In this episode of Scale-Up Sessions, we explore how scale-ups can move beyond superficial quick fixes and use sustainability to strengthen their business. From identifying where environmental impact overlaps with cost, risk and reputation to embedding sustainability into budgets and growth opportunities, we unpack how businesses can turn sustainability into a source of long-term competitive advantage.
Joining us is Mark Shayler, CEO of Ape Sustainability and author of Do Disrupt (https://www.markshayler.com/do-disrupt) and You Can’t Make Money From a Dead Planet (https://www.markshayler.com/deadplanet). With 35 years of experience, Mark Shayler helps businesses move beyond short-term initiatives to develop more profitable, sustainable and regenerative models.
● Follow Martin Kennington on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinkennington/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinkennington/)
● Follow Mark Shayler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-shayler-778ab64/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-shayler-778ab64/)
Scale-Up Sessions is brought to you by Cynergy Bank. To learn more about Cynergy Bank, visit https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/ (https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/)
This episode was produced by Flamingo Media. If you want to create a chart-topping podcast visit www.flamingo-media.co.uk
16 Sept 2026
How to build a business to sell: Creating value, resilience and exit optionality | Rachel Murphy
Scaling a business is not just about increasing revenue. If key relationships, decisions, processes and knowledge remain dependent on the founder, growth can make a business more fragile and ultimately more difficult to sell.
In this episode of Scale-Up Sessions, we explore what it takes to build a business that is valuable, transferable and ready for an eventual exit. From reducing founder dependency and documenting the way the business operates to creating a data room and understanding potential buyers, we unpack how founders can build resilience today while creating more options for the future.
Joining us is Rachel Murphy, founder of The Grafter, an advisory firm supporting leaders as they scale, raise investment and exit their businesses. Her 25-year career has included turnaround and transformation work across the public and private sectors, as well as leading the launch of the NHS App. She has also built and sold two companies and is now building her third.
● Follow Martin Kennington on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinkennington/
● Follow Rachel Murphy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachthegrafter/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachthegrafter/)
Scale-Up Sessions is brought to you by Cynergy Bank. To learn more about Cynergy Bank, visit https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/ (https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/)
This episode was produced by Flamingo Media. If you want to create a chart-topping podcast visit www.flamingo-media.co.uk
2 Sept 2026
How to build cyber resilience and protect your business from cyber attacks | Jenny Pirault
Cyber attacks are an increasing risk for growing businesses, but protecting your organisation isn't simply an IT responsibility. Cyber resilience means being able to prepare for, respond to and recover from incidents while keeping your business running and maintaining customer trust.
In this episode of Scale-Up Sessions, we explore how growing businesses can build cyber resilience, prepare for the critical first hours of an incident, manage third-party risk and respond effectively when things go wrong.
Joining us is Jenny Pirault, Cyber Risk and Resilience Manager at Sodali & Co. Jenny works with organisations and leadership teams to prepare for cyber incidents, strengthen resilience and recover from disruption.
Jenny shares practical insights, including:
Why cyber resilience needs to be built into business strategy as an organisation grows, including procurement, contracts, suppliers, technology and critical business processes.
How to prepare for a cyber incident before it happens, from establishing strong cyber hygiene and identifying your business's “crown jewels” to mapping third-party dependencies and testing an incident response plan.
How AI is changing the cyber threat landscape, including the rise of “shadow AI”, increasingly sophisticated attacks and the need for businesses to combine AI governance with employee education and AI literacy.
● Follow Martin on LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinkennington/)https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinkennington/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinkennington/)
● Follow Jenny on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jennypiraultcv (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jennypiraultcv)
Scale-Up Sessions is brought to you by Cynergy Bank. To learn more about Cynergy Bank, visit (https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/)https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/ (https://www.cynergybank.co.uk/)
This episode was produced by Flamingo Media. If you want to create a chart-topping podcast visit (http://www.flamingo-media.co.uk)www.flamingo-media.co.uk (http://www.flamingo-media.co.uk)
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