Steven Smith

Management Consultant to businesses throughout Spain.

SDS Business Partners Ltd is a coaching and consulting company which helps small businesses to grow profitably. We work with small business owners who want to grow their business but do not necessarily have the expertise, experience or resources to be able to achieve this. We also partner small business owners who would like to sell their business in the next 5 years, to help them increase the value of their business for sale.

Responsible for Finance for the 3 Swiss Branches and 4 Dutch Holding Companies. Improvement within the Internal Controls and Risk Management of the business (confirmed by the high Internal Audit Score achieved). - Optimisation of business processes which has led to headcount and cost reductions. - Treasury Management for Europe. - Management of the European Head Office Costs and subsequent recharge. - Facilitated Strategy and Vision Workshops within the Senior European Management Team Conferences

As CFO, I was responsible For Finance and cost reduction projects. I was also Head of HR and I defined and implemented HR strategy incorporating the four HR strategic areas of, Resourcing & Skilling, Learning & Development, Performance Management and Strategic Awareness & Alignment. Implemented a complete Balanced Scorecard Performance Measurement System. - Implemented an SAP system (FI/CO/MM/SD) - Management of the Export Department

- Sales and Marketing of Powerjog running machines throughout Europe. - Successfully managing UK and European distributor base, key accounts and direct sales staff. - Conducted market research to define customer needs and then defined and implemented a marketing and sales pricing strategy to increase revenues.

Improved the timeliness and accuracy of the monthly management accounting, the year end reporting requirements and the internal controls. - As customer service manager, I conducted a thorough market research program with our customer base, restructured the service department and processes and response times were significantly improved from 9% to 64% within 1 year. - Human Resource Management incorporating the selection, recruitment, appraisal and dismissal of personnel.