Chief Executive Officer PE backed tech / manufacturing business

Our client is a high growth, niche designer and manufacturer of technology products to the retail, hospitality, leisure and travel industries.  The business has recently received private equity funding which will enable significant investment in the business to help support its already impressive growth as it expands globally. With revenues of circa £10m and with a 100% growth rate, our client is looking to drive revenues to £50m and beyond in this investment cycle.

Based in Dorset, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will have responsibility for all aspects of the business, including the operational and financial performance of the company. The CEO will initially focus on professionalising the business, and refining the vision and the strategic plan. The CEO will build a strong team around them, and leverage the talents of the founders, ensuring a relentless focus on execution and results to deliver on the business’ undoubted potential.

 The CEO will be an execution-focused individual, with a commercial and strategic mind-set, capable of building strong teams, processes and systems, and delivering scale at pace.

 Key responsibilities:

 The CEO will be responsible for the following:

•                     Help shape the vision, long-term strategic plan and financial forecast;

 

•                     Drive company performance to ensure the successful delivery of the plan and budget, setting clear and measurable KPIs and goals;

 

•                     Build, lead, coach and mentor the senior executive team, driving exceptional performance within their respective operations;

 

•                     Deliver a significant exit and returns to shareholders over a 4-7 year period;

 

•                     Work closely with the Founder to develop the product vision – from concept through to new product introduction and market entry strategy;

 

•                     Work with the CFO to put effective financial process, systems, reporting and controls in place, to support the business as it scales;

 

•                     Optimise company-wide financial and operational KPIs;

 

•                     Develop the sales and marketing strategy, including identifying the key target use cases, geographies and verticals, and the routes to market within each;

 

•                     Recruit a Sales Director (potentially based in North America), to build out the sales and marketing team;

 

•                     Recruit any other critical senior hires and oversee the creation of an effective, efficient and scalable, supply chain and logistics machine, which delivers to time and cost, and delights customers.

 

The ideal CEO candidate will have most, if not all, of the following:

•                     Proven general manager and strong operator (whether CEO, MD, COO, GM) within businesses with revenues of £5-100m revenue;

 

•                     Will have had full P&L responsibility and broad, cross-functional team management experience (ideally across commercial, product, marketing, manufacturing and supply chain/operations);

 

•                     Significant experience operating within a product/light manufacturing environment, with international supply chains (ideally including the Far East), where they have built an understanding of best-in-class operations;

 

•                     Will have experience of operating in high-growth environments and will have been part of a similar journey, for example, taking a business from £5m to £50m+ revenue (albeit perhaps not in the CEO role);

 

•                     Will have a strategic mindset, with exceptional clarity of thought, whilst being very results-oriented;

 

•                     Will display ruthless focus on the key strategic value drivers and relentlessly deliver against targets;

 

•                     Will adopt a hands-on approach, and be close to the detail, as needed, whilst knowing how to ‘look up’ and focus on the bigger strategic picture;

 

•                     Will be highly analytical with a structured problem-solving approach;

 

•                     Will be able to drive revenues, oversee commercial teams and devise
strategic go to market plans across products/geographies – open as to whether they have directly managed sales teams, or whether they just have strong commercial instincts;

 

•                     An outstanding operator and leader, skilled in managing cross-functional teams, building optimal systems, process and cultures, and delivering against KPIs;

 

•                     Will be an inspiring and engaging people leader, and an outstanding communicator, with a proven ability to mentor and coach teams and create a high-performance culture;

 

•                     Internationally mobile, and willing to get around the business, as well as spending a significant proportion (most of their time) at the company HQ in Dorset.

 

We expect the candidate to demonstrate the following characteristics:

•                     Pace: a sense of urgency, action oriented, a hands on leader who is able to make significant impact outside of a large corporate structure. Able to balance decisiveness with diligence and make considered decisions under time pressure;

 

•                     Rigorous: strongly analytical and detail oriented, with a relentless drive to get to the best outcome;

 

•                     Entrepreneurial: pragmatic and innovative, open to new ideas and always looking for ways to develop and improve both themselves, their function and the business overall;

 

•                     Trust: unwavering personal and business integrity;

 

•                     Low ego: not afraid to roll their sleeves up, and someone who is more concerned about the business’ success than their own personal impact. Someone who is able to work well with the founders;

 

•                     Relentless: highly-resilient, driven and determined;

 

•                     Leader: able to get buy-in from all levels and all across the business. High levels of charisma, credibility and gravitas.