Agile Is On The Ball
Former FAI finance director Tony Dignam’s ‘fractional executive’ firm places professionals with firms on a part-time basis. He tells George Morahan how the company’s new video platform will enhance its services
Accountant Tony Dignam decided early on that a career in practice wasn’t for him. After four years in the audit department at PwC, Dignam moved into industry, and a career spanning multiple senior finance roles, including three years as FAI finance director.
Dignam then moved into the FD role at catering company Compass Group Ireland where, by his own admission, he was under-employed. “I was frustrated that probably 80% of the time I was doing work that could be done by somebody more junior,” he recalls. “When the company wanted to restructure the finance department, I suggested that I would move on in nine months and went part-time to two days a week. That showed me that even a big organisation doesn’t necessarily need a finance director full-time.”
Dignam (57) went on to do accountancy work on a contract basis, which he still does. But rather than just stick at being an independent contractor, Dignam also saw opportunity in setting up a business that provides a route to market for other solo operators.
Agile Executives launched in January 2019 to match companies with ‘fractional executives’ who can cover skills gaps in finance, sales, procurement marketing, and operations. Dignam says he meets with customer to get a feel for their business before deciding which of Agile’s consultants will fit their needs in terms of skills and personality.
Consultants on the Agile Executives roster are typically experienced business people who want to work on a part-time basis. The Agile lineup includes consultants who know their way around the small business grants bureaucracy. “For one of our first clients, we managed to get them
€300,000 in grants,” says Dignam. “The company had been in business for 30 years and never got a penny in grants. They didn’t even know they were entitled to them. We have developed a real expertise in helping small businesses to access grants.”
The business model has proved to be sustainable. Agile Executives Ltd, with four employees, had turnover of €1.2m in 2023, an improvement of 15% on the previous year. Directors Tony and
Katherine Dignam shared €104,000 remuneration and the company paid a €60,000 dividend to another company where the couple are the sole shareholders.
The service was recently expanded online with the launch of Agile Connect, where available consultants are showcased in a short piece to camera video. There are about 80 consultants currently on the Agile Connect platform, and Dignam envisages that it will enable the company, and clients using Agile Connect, to scale internationally.
“If a client is looking to set up a US subsidiary we can introduce them to a fractional CFO in the US who can help them figure out the best place to locate, or source marketing expertise,” he explains. “Traditionally this type of platform is open to anybody to sign up to. To maintain our quality, we interview consultants for Agile Connect and conduct reference checks in the same way you would if you were hiring an employee.”
Dignam says only a couple of the fractional executives Agile has sourced for clients haven’t worked out. “If there is negative feedback about a consultant, we can either mentor them on how to be better at their role, or decide that they are not suited to our network.”
Agile has also developed a number of diagnostic tools for the platform, including a questionnaire that generates a spider graph that highlights a company’s weaknesses. “Many Agile clients who told me ‘I wish you guys had been around 20 years ago when I was setting up a business and trying to figure it all out myself ’. They would have reached their end goal earlier with access to our skills.”
‘The service has expanded online with the launch of Agile Connect’