EPISODE · Dec 7, 2023 · 37 MIN
George Morris: Scaling Up Ventures
from Scouting for Growth · host Sabine VdL
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to George Morris, a lifelong entrepreneur and business coach who has not only weathered the storms of the entrepreneurial journey but has emerged as a guiding light for others on their path to success. KEY TAKEAWAYS My biggest mistake was abdicating responsibility when I should have delegated responsibility. Towards the later stage of one of my companies I was going through a divorce. I thought that everything was good & didn’t see myself as integral in the company anymore, so I turned everything over to my business development lead & the team while I checked out to deal with my personal problems. About 18 months later I didn’t know what decisions had been made & what direction the company had gone. I couldn’t blame them, I was accountable. I should have taken the time to delegate and clarify all the things that needed to be done and check in on people. If I come across an owner or CEO that’s frustrated or overwhelmed, I have them create 3 columns: Love, Loathe, Indifferent. I get them to write down everything about their business into these columns and get them to focus on the ‘indifferent column to figure out how committed they are to do these things to help the organisation and get them to get help for the things they aren’t committed to so they get done. Startups tend to want to look for unicorns, the person who is an expert in a particular skillset, hiring for talent rather than fit – the ability to trust or even have conflict with each other. All these talented individuals butt heads, don’t see eye-to-eye, aren’t committed to the same outcomes. For me it’s a bout the team, getting the right people in the right seats and getting things right. This is the first things companies should do. I am equally as excited about AI as I am terrified of it. It’s going to impact every single job in the next few years. To what degree, I don’t really know, but if we can get to a point of AGI (artificial general intelligence) that will be game-changing because it will be very human-like. It’s tool that we need to incorporate, bring into our skillset and adapt to it but right now we can’t quite see where it’s going to go, in terms of strategy & how it’s going to impact our companies. But, it would be remiss of us to ignore it. BEST MOMENTS ‘I go into companies and give them a framework to work with that they adapt & make their own & we build it from there so that they have a system that they can run on.’ ‘Richard Branson is very good at figuring out what he’s great at, delegating everything else & letting people do what they can go do, he doesn’t seem like a micro-managing leader.’ ‘Make sure you’re developing the rich culture in your team & getting the right ethos in your culture.’ ‘I use AI to help teams accelerate different elements within their companies.’ ABOUT THE GUEST George Morris is a lifelong entrepreneur and business coach, known for his unwavering commitment to helping individuals and organizations reach their full potential. As a single father of two, he embodies dedication and perseverance in both his personal and professional life. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]
What this episode covers
In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL sits down with George Morris—lifelong entrepreneur, business coach, and someone who has learned leadership the hard way. This is not a polished success story. It’s a conversation about accountability, culture, and the moments leaders quietly lose the plot—often when life intervenes. George shares one of his biggest entrepreneurial mistakes: confusing delegation with abdication. During a deeply personal period, he stepped back from leadership without creating clarity, structure, or guardrails. The result? Eighteen months later, the business had drifted in a direction he no longer recognised. The lesson is blunt and boardroom-relevant: leaders are always accountable—even when they’re absent. From there, the conversation turns practical. George introduces a deceptively simple but powerful diagnostic he uses with overwhelmed founders and CEOs: Love, Loathe, Indifferent. By mapping every responsibility across these three columns, leaders quickly see where commitment is real—and where it’s performative. The “indifferent” column, he argues, is where growth stalls. If you’re not committed, get help. Don’t let inertia masquerade as leadership. Hiring is another pressure point. Startups, George observes, often chase unicorn talent while ignoring something far more fragile: team fit. High performers without trust, shared values, or healthy conflict don’t scale—they collide. Sustainable growth starts with the unglamorous work of putting the right people in the right seats, aligned around outcomes, not egos. The episode also tackles the tension many leaders feel right now around AI. George is candid: he’s both excited and uneasy. AI will touch every role, every function, every organisation. While the path to AGI remains uncertain, ignoring AI is not an option. Used intentionally, it can accelerate execution, sharpen decision-making, and free teams to focus on what humans do best. Used blindly, it becomes another unmanaged risk. Throughout the conversation, one theme keeps resurfacing: systems beat heroics. Culture doesn’t happen by accident. Delegation requires clarity. Innovation without structure creates chaos. And leadership isn’t about doing everything—it’s about designing a business that can run, adapt, and grow without burning out its people. This episode is for founders, CEOs, and enterprise leaders who feel the weight of growth—and know that scaling responsibly means facing uncomfortable truths before the market forces you to. The real question isn’t whether your company is growing. It’s whether your leadership system can grow with it.
NOW PLAYING
George Morris: Scaling Up Ventures
No transcript for this episode yet
Similar Episodes
Mar 26, 2026 ·1m
Jan 2, 2026 ·47m
Dec 21, 2025 ·46m