With over 20 years of executive management experience at MD and CEO level, Sean is well placed to mentor you and achieve optimal growth. Sean has mentored people throughout his career and mentorship is his passion.
He was the MD and COO of iTouch SA (part of iTouch PLC) for 5 years and then CEO of Cash Crusaders Franchising for 15 years. He was part of the listing of iTouch on the LSE in 2001 and took Cash Crusaders Franchising, a highly entrepreneurial company, to new heights.
When he joined Cash Crusaders in 2007, the average store turnover was R350 000 per month. In 2022, this was R1 million per month. He increased profits by more than tenfold and grew total group turnover to 2, 5 billion per annum. He grew the store footprint from ±100 stores to 260 stores with 80 stores being company-owned. Year on year comparisons showed that the 80 company-owned stores outperformed the Franchise stores which was a great achievement given a Franchise model of being “owner-operated”
How did he do it? He believes that evolution and change is the only certainty in business, and this is achieved through trial and error, failure and learning from one’s mistakes. He takes a disruptive approach to business that bends the culture towards becoming a learning organization; one that understand the nature of learning as the path to success. While strategy is critical, it is the cultural alignment of people and incremental advancements of pushing through challenges, that determine long-term success.
His strengths are in aligning the organization, putting technology center stage and getting people to do great things. It is through adaptive disruption that he outperformed the competition. The principles he applied at Cash Crusaders are ubiquitous and apply across a range of businesses.
He has researched many authors and found profound insights from 7 of them that validated his successful approach in Cash Crusaders. These are:
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek
- Multipliers by Liz Wiseman
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Principles by Ray Dalio
- The Ultimate Question 2.0 by Fred Reichheld
- Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Organisations by Nicole Forsgren
- Fierce Leadership by Susan Scott.
These authors provided insights and models which Sean highly recommends for your growth and development.
Sean’s varied background ranges from Electrical Engineering to Sales, to Project Management to General Management. He thinks of himself as a seeker of knowledge and looks for better ways to do business – a Betterprenuer. He recently retired from Cash Crusaders to fulfill his passion to Mentor and Coach through Coach Matching.
[Disclosure: He is still a shareholder in Cash Crusaders]