Our CEO on Growth, Culture, and the Future of Littlefish Group

When our CEO, Ursula Morgenstern, appeared on TechMarketView’s View from the Top podcast with Georgina O’Toole, she outlined our company’s strategic priorities and reflected on the experiences that shaped her leadership approach. The discussion was lively, covering growth ambitions, cultural direction, sector strategy and Littlefish Group’s ever-evolving position in the UK Technology services market (to name a few topics!).

Ursula, who has previously spent nearly two decades in senior roles at global IT services organisations, began by speaking about the period she spent away from corporate life, before joining Littlefish. During this time, she reassessed her long-term career goals and sought an organisation that combined pace, purpose and a people focused culture. The rest is history and, Littlefish Group, with its 800strong workforce, strong UK and Ireland footprint, and established reputation for end-user-centric services, met those criteria – ultimately becoming the platform for her next phase of leadership.

What follows is a summary of the core insights shared during the podcast discussion.

A new leadership philosophy

Here, Ursula outlines how her leadership style has evolved following a period away from executive life, during which she completed a formal coaching qualification. She explains how the training had a significant impact on how she conducts conversations internally, emphasising active listening, open questioning, and allowing greater space for colleagues to contribute.

According to Ursula, these techniques have made her more deliberate and measured in her interactions, with “holding back” in meetings representing one of the most significant behavioural shifts in her approach (especially for a natural extrovert!).

Commitment to supporting women in business

Ursula also highlights her longstanding involvement in supporting women founders and women-led investment initiatives, including her work with Hive Founders and WomenKind Ventures. She notes how these experiences offered clear insight into the barriers female entrepreneurs face when seeking investment. However, rather than relying on formal diversity initiatives, she emphasised the importance of building teams in which varied thinking styles can operate effectively, arguing that diversity only creates value when it influences how organisations function, rather than existing as a numerical target.

Growth ambitions

Ursula reaffirms Littlefish Group’s intention to grow revenue from approximately £80m to £150m within three years and describes the target as ambitious but grounded in the company’s long-term trajectory (which has already seen us expand from £1m in 2012 to our current scale). She mentions that Littlefish Group’s next phase of growth will depend on a more scalable sales engine, continued organic momentum and selective acquisitions.

Culture as a strategic asset

Culture also features prominently in Ursula’s remarks and she characterises Littlefish Group, positively, as a low ego, low politics organisation that has a strong emphasis on action and collaboration.

She emphasises that this cultural profile directly informs internal decisions and external partnerships, adding that the leadership team will not pursue acquisitions where cultural alignment is questionable. In an organisation of Littlefish Group’s size, maintaining cultural clarity is essential to preserving momentum and operational cohesion.

Brand evolution and strategy

Ursula was pleased to reaffirm our company’s recent evolution from Littlefish to Littlefish Group, which reflects our organisation’s expanded service offering. While we were historically best known for managed IT services, we now operate across four service pillars: managed services, cyber security, digital solutions, and data and AI.

Ursula describes this development as a clarification rather than a full rebrand, noting how the Littlefish ‘recognisable’ orange palette has remained, but has been updated to meet modern accessibility and design standards for the website, in particular.

It’s worth noting also that a key element of our organisation’s rebrand and new strategy is a stronger focus on three verticals: health, energy and utilities, and financial services as these sectors align closely with Littlefish Group’s service strengths (particularly in areas requiring secure, UK-centric delivery).

Defining true sector expertise

Ursula clarifies that sector expertise at Littlefish Group extends far beyond our branding, pointing to distinct operational requirements across different industries. For example, hospital service desks have significantly different user profiles, device behaviours and shift patterns compared with office environments. This is an understanding that shapes how we here at Littlefish Group approach digital transformation, regulatory demands, and AI implementation, for example.

AI strategy and foundational readiness

On the topic of AI, Ursula describes the technology as a major opportunity but emphasises the importance of foundational readiness. To that end, Littlefish Group is pursuing a three tiered approach: improving its internal operations with AI, integrating AI into existing service lines, and expanding its dedicated data and AI team.

At Littlefish Group, we understand that organisations that bypass the groundwork – clean data, simplified processes and baseline automation – will struggle to realise any substantial value from advanced AI.

One message to take away

Asked for the one thing she’d like listeners to take away, Ursula doesn’t hesitate:

“Littlefish Group is, at its heart, a people-centric company that excels at end-user service. That remains the thread connecting its culture, its growth strategy, its investments, and its future vision.”

For a fuller exploration of these themes, from leadership philosophy to market strategy, you can hear the full conversation here and listen to Ursula outline the future of Littlefish Group first-hand.