Chief Executive (Sales b'ground only) - PE-backed Manufacturing business

Our client is a high growth, designer and bespoke manufacturer of technology oriented products to the international retail, hospitality, leisure and travel industries. The business is private equity backed which has enabled significant investment in the business to help support its already impressive growth as it expands globally. With revenues of circa £10m, 45 employees and a high growth rate in a nascent sector, our client is looking to drive revenues to £50m and beyond in this investment cycle.

Based in Dorset, the (CEO) will have responsibility for all aspects of the business, including the operational and financial performance of the company. However, the CEO’s primary focus will be to drive the commercial efforts of the business (and must be from a sales background), whilst supporting and refining the vision and the strategic plan to date. The CEO will inherit a senior team (including CFO, Ops Director, Innovation Director and MD North America), which they develop where appropriate, as well as leverage the talents of the founders, ensuring a relentless focus on execution and results to deliver on the business’ undoubted potential.

The business is fully funded, with an enviable client base of household names in numerous consumer facing sectors, and a strong team in place. The CEO’s role will be to take this foundation and create an effective sales and marketing engine to scale the company, ensuring the business achieves their scale-up goals. The CEO will be an execution-focused individual, with a sales / commercial background and strategic mindset, capable of building strong teams, processes and systems, and delivering scale at pace. Operational or financial backgrounds will not be considered.

Responsibilities:

•     Execute the Sales and Marketing strategy. Create and develop the commercial engine to drive company top-line. This will be an international sales machine across multiple channels and routes to market

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

•   Lead, coach, mentor and create alignment across the senior executive team, driving exceptional performance within their respective operations

•      Take accountability for developing the executive team with support from the PE investor

•      Deliver a significant exit and returns to shareholders over a 4-5 year period

•      Work closely with the Founder and Innovation Director 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

•        Assess talent requirements across the business and recruit any other critical senior hires

Experience:

•    Proven general manager and strong operator (whether CEO, MD, CRO, GM or similar) within businesses with revenues of £10-100m revenue

• With a strong commercial background (ESSENTIAL), you will be able to drive revenues, oversee commercial teams and devise strategic go to market plans across products/geographies

•   Will have experience of operating in scale-up/high-growth environments and will have been part of a similar journey, for example, taking a business from £10m 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 and 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

•    Internationally experienced (particularly the US) and geographically mobile (willing to travel to see clients). Willing to get around the business, as well as spending time at the company HQ in Dorset

•    Ideally some experience operating within a product/light manufacturing environment with the ability to speak the same ‘language’ as the wider SMT. They would have ideally sold physical product and have a workable understanding of selling manufactured products

Characteristics:

•     High EQ: ability to work collaboratively with the team, and adept at dealing with conflict across a diverse SMT

•    Low ego: not afraid to roll their sleeves up, and someone who is more concerned about the business’ success than their own personal impact

•    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

•       Relentless: highly resilient, driven and determined

•      Leader: 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.

• High levels of charisma, credibility, and gravitas