Australia
Belgium
Canada
China
Germany
Hong Kong, China
India
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
New Zealand
Singapore
South Africa
United Kingdom
UAE
USA
Christopher Sparrow In 60 Seconds
Christopher Sparrow is an internationally experienced, commercially focused Chartered Accountant with a successful 35-year career spanning Director, CFO, COO, CIO, and governance roles across both SMEs and global organisations. Known for his strategic acumen and strong commercial mindset, he combines extensive technical expertise with well-honed leadership and people skills. Chris has a proven track record of driving business improvement, mentoring teams, and enabling organisations to achieve their strategic and operational objective.
Specialist Skills
Exit Planning
Business grooming for future exit. Detailed analysis of performance, drivers, motivations and exit structures leading to comprehensive business exit valuations. Information presentation and storyboarding. Develop negotiation and key staff retention strategies. Skills analysis and development of mentoring strategies for succession planning
Strategic Thinker
Idea creating, problem solving and decisive strategic thinker focused on developing tangible macro strategies and devolving them into micro strategies and associated business objectives and measures
Business Planning
Combine vision, tangible strategy, risk profile and competitor analysis to define short and medium term business objectives, and structure the organisation, processes, controls and reporting frameworks to deliver those objectives
Financial Operations
Establish/enhance processes to ensure the efficient delivery of relevant financial and non-financial information to monitor performance and inform decision-making
Profit Improvement
Driving growth in existing and new revenue streams and reducing costs via automation, supplier evaluation and business streamlining in accordance with risk reduction/cost balance and risk appetite
Track Record Highlights
- Steered organisations safely through various internal profit and cashflow issues and also through economic shocks and recessions
- Resolved critical succession planning/retirement issues
- Provided early visibility to boards of substantive crystallising risks that they were unaware of, eg “this application doesn’t have the capacity to handle the business you’re just about to win”, “this outsourcer doesn’t have the capability to handle this strategic initiative”, and potential resolutions.
- Outsourced, offshored and automated finance and operational processes to deliver better performance at significantly lower cost and resolve staffing supply issues
- Frequently requested by Boards for advice and issue resolution – break down barriers between professional teams, recover misappropriated funds, set up a fraud team, intervene with regulators, develop an enterprise-wide risk framework, resolve failing systems implementations or tired board reporting, parachute into critical vacancies
- Implemented new bespoke OCR/workflow/EDMS reducing costs, improving business throughput and removing a significant constraint to business growth.
- Integrated new POS, back-office and surveillance systems resulting in significant growth in revenue and business efficiency together with greater stock and cash protection
Sector Experience
- Banking-financial-services; Retail, corporate and investment banking, equities, bonds, property and venture capital investment management, life and general lines insurance
- Property-real-estate; Tenant management, property enhancement, sales, leasing, valuations and property management and acquisition,
- Hospitality-tourism; Hotels, caravan parks and entertainment businesses including ancillary product lines
- Services; Professional services
- Construction; Innovative building products
- Engineering; Specialised medical equipment