About
NICK BASHFORD is an experienced business leader, author and passionate yachtsman. He has a unique approach to business management, delivering clarity and structure to both individuals and businesses. He has worked as a senior executive director and provides consultancy services through his company – Nyetimber Management. Nick has helped a number of firms to successfully develop and grow and continues to operate as a commercial yacht skipper, providing training on team dynamics and strategic planning.

More about Nick
An extract from the authors preface in his book SHIPSHAPE
‘For the past 40 years, outside the time I spend with my family, I have pursued two other deep passions. They are the sea and the world of business. I have successfully been able to chart a course between the two and, on occasion, I’ve been lucky enough to combine them at the same time. Skippering thousands of miles with various crews and running business teams on a day-to-day basis has contributed to what I believe is a solid and proven style of leadership, as well as a unique understanding of team dynamics.
During my school education, I developed a passion for sailing and at home I had a deep interest in the world of business. Both sets of grandparents and my parents were running successful family enterprises and I enjoyed working with them during my school holidays. To me, it was inevitable that I would go into business and, on leaving school, I entered the world of insurance. Seeing my early promise and drive, and if the truth be told my appetite for having a chat, my first boss moved me from an administrative role into sales, and I was soon developing and heading up my own sales teams. Within 10 years I was running a multi-million-pound salesforce for a national company, designing and delivering communication and sales training courses to hundreds of direct sales personnel. In the mid-1990s, an opportunity to invest in a new start-up company presented itself. The timing was perfect in terms of my experience, and we successfully grew the business, year on year, turning my initial few thousand pounds of investment into a seven-figure sum when I sold my shares some 12 years later.
During this time, and alongside pursuing my business ambitions, I stayed very close to my passion for sailing through volunteering with a branch of the Royal Navy Reserves, as well as spending much of my spare time sailing yachts. Over the years I built up tens of thousands of skippered sea miles, including making offshore passages as a commercial skipper. Plus, over a five-year period, I instructed more than 350 students in the art of skippering and seamanship. More recently I have been a senior director and advisor to a number of businesses, bringing my wealth of experience and unique management approach to the benefit of these organisations’.


