Mark Davis

An experienced Finance Director working in both privately owned and listed companies. In addition to strategic and operational responsibilities, he has experience in reorganisations, financial management, financial analysis, process redesign, fundraising and employee education.

As a Chartered Management Accountant, he can apply his experience and analytical skills to a wide range of business situations and sectors. One example being maintaining margins during a period of 20% year on year growth over a three-year period.

“Assisting SMEs to achieve success with Management Accounts Preparation, Cash Flow Management and Strategic Planning”

Mark worked for several private, public and limited organisations before he qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in the United Kingdom and held several positions after qualification before joining EFM. His 25-year career in finance, has been in varied industries across the North West, but has worked on assignments throughout the UK. His last permanent position before joining EFM was as a financial controller and then promoted to financial director for a subsidiary of a global thread manufacture. Over the last 6 years, since joining EFM, he has provided finance director services to various SME’s in the North West, ranging from £0.8m turnover up to £18m, mainly in the service, travel, retail and manufacturing sectors.

He is flexible and a resilient self-starter, working well either alone or as an effective team player. He is a goal-driven individual, action-orientated with a can-do attitude and a fine eye for detail.

Over the course of his career as a Finance Director he has:

• Cashflow Forecasting – developed short- and medium-term cash-flow models, to enable businesses to understand their cashflow shortfalls and working capital demands. Identified potential cash shortages or surpluses, allowing for adjustments to be made in advance to avoid financial difficulties. Produced strategies to help business owners make informed decisions about how to allocate resources, manage debt, and invest for the future.
• Business Planning – helped business owners create a roadmap to achieve specific strategic goals and identified the target market, analysed competition, set financial projections, and developed strategies to achieve their desired outcomes.
•  Management Reporting – redesigned, introduced and presented new monthly management reporting in the form of meaningful management accountants, KPI’s and commentaries to help drive their business forward and make informed management decisions.
• Finance System Implementation – involved in project managing of new financial ERP systems, from planning, analysis, design, development, cleansing old system, testing of the new system, training, and launch.
• Budgeting & Forecasting- production, education and redesign of annual budgets and regular forecasting throughout the year, enabling business owners to make effective decisions, help identify potential financial risks and opportunities.

Testimonial:

“I have liked everything about EFM, from the initial contact with the head of the North West. It’s just been very good all the way through. The company has benefited extremely from working with them. Mark has brought a new focus in, relieved pressure from me, and brought lots of new ideas in. I was a bit hesitant at first with new ideas in the organisation, but my 3 fellow directors have embraced it completely. We’ve been using EFM since February, so for 4 months now. I don’t think they could do anything better.”

“Mark’s not just a Finance Director, he’s coming up with sales ideas; ways to record sales, and how to bring in new clients. It is financial management but it’s also a business process change.”

Robert Bullock,  Bullock & Co Ltd

Background:

The business was going through a period of rapid growth and pressure was being applied to reduce overhead costs to maintain margins. The situation was made worse because this growth wasn’t forecast by sales, causing increased pressure on all departments. This meant we had to be selective on which overheads we targeted.

Challenge:

The challenge was to try and reduce overhead costs, but continue to keep the same level of support to production and maintain customer expectations. This meant the solution had to come from somewhere that didn’t impact production directly or effect our customers experience. In addition, the savings had to be big enough to make a difference.