42 CORPORATE VISION / April 2017 , Sharon Constancon is CEO of Genius Methods. She tells us more about what led to her success and what makes a great CEO following her success inwinning the Board Evaluation CEO of the Month - United Kingdomaward. Top of the Board Genius Methods is a Board evaluation company and has carried out Board development, mentoring, Board reviews and evaluations for businesses ranging from FTSE 100 to SME’s. The firm’s experience includes many industries with particular skills working with regulated organisations, particularly financial services firms regulated by the PRA and FCA. Sharon Constancon is CEO of Genius Methods and provides an insight into her job role, including her experience, expertise and credentials “CEO roles are very varied depending on industry and size of the organisation,” she begins. “I specialise in service delivery companies in niche areas of expertise. Therefore, the company and governance structures I preside over are simple, but as I am passionate for quality service delivery, my role is always to work out how we can do something better, quicker or more suitable for the needs of the customer, whilst focusing on the revenue generation growth to support a sustainable business. “My experience spans governance and treasury services in two countries, my first achieving a listing on the stock exchange. My experience and expertise span finance, accounting, forex, risk management, governance, people behaviour, leadership, technology and operations. “My tertiary education includes being a Chartered Director, a Chartered Secretary and having an MBA.” Sharon has been the CEO of her own businesses, three in total, for 28 years now, with focuses on governance and foreign currency advisory services. Before starting her first business, Sharon was Chief Forex Dealer for Societe Generale, Treasury Manager for Blue Circle and Company Secretary for a number of companies in the JCI Group. “As an entrepreneur, it is less about what I enjoy as CEO, and more about what I enjoy in the business,” she embellishes, speaking about what aspects of the role she particularly values. “I gain huge personal value providing quality, valuable and enlightening board evaluations that truly make a difference to the Board and the Directors from which the company gains immediately too. “As CEO, I define the longer term strategies, run the company, focus on marketing and partner relationships, but the true reason for being and enjoyment comes more from the delivery of quality evaluations that make a real difference.” Sharon’s most recent achievements as CEO involve the delivery of service to customers. She elaborates: “A very recent project has involved a Governance Transformation effort post a Board Evaluation that identified people, structures and behaviour barriers to effectiveness. Another project involved training 15 Non- Executive Directors to bring more value to their Boards, increase their contributions and train them to contribute effectively to competent decision making. I am also running towards the end Company: Genius Methods Ltd Name: Sharon Constancon Email:
[email protected] Web Address: www.geniusmethods.com Address: Cournswood House, Clappins Lane, North Dean Buckinghamshire, HP14 4NW United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (00)1494 565 947 1704CV10 of a six month project mentoring a CFO to step up and contend for a senior CEO role.” Despite these obvious successes, the role of CEO has also been a challenging one for Sharon, with time, cash flow and competent resources all bringing their own issues. However, Sharon goes into depth about the qualities she possesses which she believes have helped make her the successful leader she is today. “It is essential to lead competently – and there are many ways of doing this. Delegation, training and empowering of your team is essential to provide yourself with airtime to get the CEO work completed. “A CEO should listen more than speak, respect and protect staff, hold them to account but take the overall responsibility when times are tough. “A CEO should also know the business, work with the Board and have strategic capabilities to lead the company through growth.” It is these qualities which have helped Sharon receive the prestigious title of Board Evaluation CEO of the Month, an accolade of which she is very proud. “It is always an honour to be recognised either in your personal capacity or as your company brand,” she enthuses. “In my case, as the two do overlap, it is a double benefit to receive this recognition.” With regards to the future, Sharon’s focus is firmly on growth of the firm and its services. “The business has created, over time, a very successful brand which is well known in the governance arena in the UK. I am looking to expand the delivery to gain more customers in each of the many verticals we have gained success. We will be doing more of the same to generate good cash reserves. A degree of marketing will be used to complement the referrals being our main source of new business.”