About Us

We know from our website statistics that our 'About Us' page on our website is one of the most highly viewed, but what exactly would you like to know about us to help you make the decision to pick up the phone (01926 889885) and talk to us? Which is, of course, what we would like you to do!

Common advice is to keep it personal, with no jargon, and we are happy to oblige although we don't mean to disappoint you but we tend not to harp on about the hardships we suffered in our youth...I'm sure if we did some research we'd find our fair share of broken homes, struggles and disappointments, but we promise to be a psychobabble free zone, unusual in the coaching sector, so we'd rather not go there!

Instead, what we hope you will find as you read on, is a small insight into the people behind Notion, what we stand for, what we're trying to achieve and hopefully pick up the phone!

Notion started in 2000 on a kitchen table in a Warwickshire barn with an idea to change momentum. The company was founded by our MD, Dominic Ashley-Timms and Laura Ashley-Timms. The story behind the launch was simple! Dominic was completing an Executive MBA at IMD in Switzerland at the time, working for a major Consultancy firm in London and living (newly married) in Warwick... logistics were a slight problem... coupled with a desire to finally become the entrepreneur he knew he was, he abandoned the daily 4 hour train commute and established Notion, which in the very early days did include consultancy and training.

In 2002 Laura joined Notion full time to further develop the Business Coaching division (which now accounts for our entire focus) and in 2006 we were fortunate enough to acquire BusinessCoaching.co.uk which was the catalyst to develop the website into the most extensive Business Coaching Portal in the UK.

Around this time we also set out to find the most experienced business coaches in the UK to join our team. We set exceptionally high hurdles (as detailed in meet our business coaches) and made our job extremely difficult (one of our bad habits) and time consuming, but it was worth it to assemble the excellent people that now form the Notion team. The last time we invited the UK's top Business Coaches to apply to join our team, out of 80 applicants who described themselves as 'World Class', only 2 actually met our rigorous standards!

A few years ago, out of curiosity mostly, we started to compile the joint experience within the team and when we pulled it together we shocked even ourselves! We have included the team highlights below, and there are also full biographies of the whole team in the meet our business coaches section of the website.

Team highlights:

• We have invested over £1.25 million in our professional development and have read over 3500 business and personal development books between us
• We have mentored and coached over 5200 business owners and senior managers on a 1-to-1 basis and worked with over 112,000 individuals
• These business owners and senior managers cover just about every industry and scale of business you can imagine and include:
  o  Members of No. 10 Downing Street and the American Senate
  o  International celebrities, Radio presenters and other media personalities
  o  Board members from FTSE 100 companies
  o  Directors from Public Authorities
  o  An Olympic medalist
  o  A “Dragon” from the Den and a “Secret Millionaire” from the TV series
• We have been invited as expert guests on a broad variety of Radio and TV shows on the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV as well as supporting entire series of several TV reality shows.
• Most of us are published authors and columnists, and several are also invited to deliver motivational keynote addresses, there are even 3 international sportsmen and women in the team as well as semi-professional singers and actors and a stand up comic!
• As professional experts and coaches we have also been worked for an impressive roster of clients including: Mattel, BBC, Glaxo, Cable & Wireless, Channel 4, Diagio, HSBC, Sainsbury, Co-Op, Airbus, The Financial Times, Royal Sun Alliance, Tube Lines, Birmingham, Reading and Derby City Councils, Hays, Wrigley, KPMG, BT, Barclays, AonHewitt and Swift Engineering to name just a few of the 5200!

We have evolved from the kitchen table and now have a dedicated office in Leamington Spa (which is a bit too messy to include a photo) run by Julia Robinson, who keeps us sane, and includes Aleksandra, Jessica and Nicola.  We also have 11 regional offices around the UK where our coaches are based.

In 2008 our desire to bring our quality of coaching to a broader audience led to the development of our innovative and outrageously affordable Business Success Strategies programme and our frustration at the lack of services to support other coaches in the market, and our desire to continue to raise standards in the sector, has also led us to develop the CPD for Coaches programme.

In order for you to get to know us better we have added videos and audio clips around the site, none of which have been airbrushed, and there are no body doubles, so you can really see what we look and sound like!  We have also created dedicated areas so if you are a Business Owner, HR Professional, Business Executive looking for Executive Coaching, interested in Coaching within the Public Sector, or a Coach yourself, we hope you will find the content helpful.

In summary, we set out to be approachable, direct, no-fluff, psychobabble free coaches who are committed to delivering a measurable return on investment for all our clients. We work hard to match the best coach to each client, and add extra value services where they are helpful, be it special reports, on line surveys or access to our vast resources.

We also believe in enjoying the process, and whilst we are challenging, we make sure both we, and our clients, have fun in the process.

Whatever we write here the acid test is to talk to us or meet us, so please do pick up the phone and call 0845 456 8217.

Thank you for reading,

Dominic

“I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their full potential.”
Bob Nardelli, CEO, Home Depot

“Recent studies show business coaching and executive coaching to be the most effective means for achieving sustainable growth, change and development in the individual, group and organisation.”
HR Monthly