Martin joined Ayming UK, part of what was then known as Alma Consulting, in November 2011; firstly as Sales Director of both Ayming UK and its sister company – Professional Cost Management Group, a cost recovery business based in the North West. After delivering his initial remit to turn around both businesses to profitability and growth, in 2013 he was promoted to MD of Ayming UK, an innovation incentives and procurement consultancy. His goal has been to create an industry leading provider of research and development tax incentives to UK businesses, as a serious alternative to the “Big Four”.
His previous experience includes time at Achilles Information Ltd as UK and Ireland Sales Director, a global supplier vetting provider. There he spent five years creating a winning sales infrastructure to harness the growth in the market. Prior to Achilles Martin spent 9 years at Dell, where he held a number of senior finance roles in the UK and European HQ, before leading a new tax-based PC sales business generating >$90m of sales in 3 years.
Ayming are a global team whose consultants are business performance experts who combine highly specialised knowledge – across a range of fields – with hands-on collaboration, to enable their clients and their people to go further.
By focusing on innovation, finance, operations and people, Ayming are proven to deliver a return on investment. This might be in the area of RD & Innovation, Tax and Finance, Operations or People.
Being a member is not just about the regular meetings. MD2MD has become an essential part of my business life – helping me focus on improving actions and sharing ideas.
Martin’s brief synopsis above doesn’t fully emphasise his experience across a range of functional roles, company types and market sectors – while being successful in a membership organisation and two corporate players, before leading a successful SME. This is not to mention success in turning round two struggling companies.
One might ask, that with this impressive background, why would he join MD2MD? Martin says, as would most members, that with increasing seniority come not only responsibilities, influence and reward, but also the occasional sense of isolation. This can be as a result of many factors and is a difficult issue to solve on your own.
In 2014 Martin was invited as a guest to a meeting of the London MD2MD group. Since then he has been an active member, finding the format of workshop and confidential peer group exchanges effective and stimulating. To be challenged by business leaders from completely different sectors is, in Martin’s view, something which doesn’t happen anywhere else in his business life.
The peer group concept is not unique to MD2MD. However, the value of membership created for Martin goes way beyond the interaction and support at regular meetings; reminders of actions you have committed to, meeting members of other groups either at Leaderfest or on a retreat and the opportunity to contact fellow members with questions or suggestions. All this adds value to his leadership role and makes membership of MD2MD key in his leadership journey.