War Stories

Marc's War Stories

Real situations I've navigated. Here's what happened and what I learned. For now I offer one story for financial markets, one from business leadership, and one from coaching. In the coming weeks and months I will share my stories across written and video posts, through my LinkedIn and newsletter, and here. Follow me for more!

When Markets Collapsed & Everyone Lost Their Heads

It's August 2011. The US has just lost its AAA credit rating for the first time in history. London's burning - literally. Riots spreading across the city. I'm sitting in a Swiss bank watching Bloomberg terminals turn blood red. Markets are in freefall. The Dow drops 634 points in a single day. Sixth largest drop in history.

I'm an investment consultant working with ultra-high-net-worth clients. These are people who've built fortunes over decades. Right now, they're watching those fortunes evaporate in real time. Their advisors are panicking. The news is screaming Armageddon. Every instinct is telling them to sell everything and hide.

My job isn't just analysis. It's holding people's hands through terror.

So I call client after client. We walk through the fundamentals versus panic-driven pricing. I show them historical parallels - times when markets felt like the end of the world but weren't. I explain why their gut reaction - sell now, ask questions later - is exactly wrong.

It's not easy. Every fibre of their being is screaming at them to run.

Markets bounced back. The clients who trusted the process, who kept their heads whilst everyone else lost theirs, used the crisis to buy at bargain prices. They made money on the rebound. Real money.

What I learned: When crisis hits, rational analysis matters. But so does the ability to hold your nerve and guide others through their fear. Numbers tell you what to do. Experience tells you when to act. Emotional intelligence helps others do what's right when everything feels wrong.

That combination is rare. It's also invaluable.

COVID Hit and Everything Stopped

March 2020. Revenue goes to zero overnight. Sales pipeline? Gone. Supply chain? Frozen. The business I'd been running for over a decade was suddenly fighting for survival.

Most leaders would panic. Some freeze. I'd been through enough to know neither works.

But COVID wasn't a single crisis. It was a cascade. Just when you thought you'd stabilised one thing, another bomb dropped. Shipping costs spiked. Chemical plants shut down - suddenly we couldn't get foam components. Metal prices shot through the roof. Then Russia invaded Ukraine and timber prices went vertical.

Every quarter brought a new existential threat.

Here's what I had to do: confront the brutal truth early. No self-deception about how bad things were. Create an aggressive plan and execute at pace. Have the difficult conversations - with suppliers, clients, the team - about pricing, supply, long-term relationships. Restructure the team whilst balancing cost management with responsibility to people whose livelihoods depended on us.

And then the hardest decision: hiving off parts of the business. Putting them into administration rather than letting them drag everything down. It's like chopping off a limb when gangrene sets in. You don't want to do it. But if you don't, the whole body dies.

The business survived. We preserved core capability. We positioned ourselves to go again rather than face total failure.

What I learned: Self-awareness and brutal honesty are everything. You have to act fast enough with aggressive enough plans. You have to make the tough decisions - even when they hurt - because waiting makes it worse. And you have to thrive psychologically in the chaos whilst others are panicking.

That's what crisis leadership actually is.

Making a 16-Year-Old Believe He Belonged

March 2018. Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire. Tom Canning is about to become the youngest driver in British GT history. He's 16 years and 35 days old. He's strapping into a 400 brake horsepower monster.

The field is stacked. McLaren works drivers. Ferrari. Aston Martin. Men with years of experience. Tom has one season of Junior Ginetta racing under his belt.

He looks at them and sees men. He looks at himself and sees a boy.

My job is simple but not easy: make him feel in control. Make him believe he deserves to be there. That he has the right to compete.

This is what I love. Watching exceptional people let their emotions rise and pass. Helping them make the right choices, then execute step by step.

I didn't just work with Tom at the circuit. I supported the broader life surrounding his race programmes. The mental transition from karting to cars - it's almost like entering a new sport. The pressure. The self-doubt. The voice that says you're not ready.

Tom later said: "Marc had a huge impact on me during this time by not only focusing on the 'at the circuit' areas but also supporting the broader life surrounding my race programmes."

The following year, Tom dragged his Aston Martin to the British GT4 title. Beat everyone in the process. Today he's a professional Aston Martin racing driver. He travels the world to test and race. He was signed by Aston Martin for something most racing drivers overlook: soft skills.

What I learned: Technical ability gets you in the room. The psychological side - managing pressure, belief, decision-making under stress - determines who wins. Elite performers need support on both fronts. The human side isn't soft. It's what makes the difference between good and great.