Diversity

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Member Profile
A new orbit
From start-up to acquisition, the last
five years have been a roller-coaster
for Red Planet CFO, Claire Fitzpatrick.
First of all, how did you come to be
involved with Red Planet?
I had been working in Telefonica
Ireland (O2 Ireland), leading and
executing on large strategic initiatives,
the last of which was the sale of
Telefonica Ireland to Three Ireland in
2014 – a challenging but exhilarating
learning experience. Wayra, a digital
accelerator funded by Telefonica,
opened in 2012 and I was immediately
interested. I visited Wayra and became
a mentor to one of the investee
companies. One of my colleagues from
O2 had joined one of the start-ups and
was loving it and when Wayra was
seeking a CFO, I jumped at the chance.
Some of my peers were more than
sceptical as it wasn’t a conventional
move, but I loved it from day one.
It was all completely new – the
environment, the people, the cuttingedge
technologies and, the best part,
a chance to use my experience to help
build new businesses while on a steep
learning curve. I was amazed at how
quickly and cost-effectively digital
businesses were being created and
launched into the market.
Despite Wayra’s success, it was closed
in 2015 due to Telefonica withdrawing
from the Irish market. My Wayra
colleagues and I immediately started to
talk about the next chapter. Corporates
were engaging with start-ups, but not
in a structured way that would lead to
revenue growth. With our combined
experience in corporate innovation,
start-up curation and acceleration, Red
Planet set about providing structured
access to digital start-up innovations,
delivering revenue growth for both
start-ups and corporates.
At a high level, what services does Red
Planet provide?
Red Planet delivers revenue-focused
start-up engagement for corporates
who understand that the internet and
digital technology is creating a new
world where traditional corporate
strengths can become weaknesses.
We call it ‘outside-in, start-up-driven’
innovation. Our aim is to create new
value for corporates struggling to
resonate in a digital world and the
young start-ups with the customercentric
solutions but a weak channel to
market.
What can the world of accountancy
learn from Red Planet’s ‘stability
versus agility’ philosophy?
The internet, digital technology and
new human behaviours are enabling
new business models with the power
to disrupt all industries and markets.
Airbnb is a great example. It has access
to more rooms in New York than the
largest hotel chain, but it doesn’t pay
for cleaning or security and it delivers
a unique experience to every customer.
This disruption applies to accountancy
too. The outcome is unknown, but the
certainty is that the profession must
embrace change to take advantage of
opportunity.
As CFO of Red Planet, which was
recently acquired by Deloitte, what
was the hardest part of the acquisition
process?
Being part of the sale of Telefonica
Ireland made me well prepared for the
process, but this time it was a more
emotional journey. As a founder, you
have started and built the company
so you care deeply about the outcome.
The most challenging part was keeping
the day-to-day going, continuing to
develop a pipeline of clients and meet
existing clients’ briefs. It would have
been very easy to get distracted by the
acquisition, but you have to remember
that without clients or a pipeline, there
would be no acquisition.
Do you have any pieces of wisdom to
share with other CFOs who might be
facing acquisition?
Anticipate the information requests
from the acquirer and their advisors.
Accept that you cannot control the
outcome or the process, but you can
be prepared and influence it. And as I
already mentioned, don’t forget about
the day job because as soon as you take
your eye off that, the wheels come off.
On both personal and professional
levels, where do you go from here?
On a personal level, I am really excited
to join Deloitte and to see where we can
take Red Planet. In a short time, I have
already seen the value Deloitte put on
their people and the investment they
are prepared to make in their career
development. With Red Planet, I have
seen the real demand from corporates
for start-up-driven innovation and
Deloitte recognised this opportunity, so
combining their channel and resources
with our ‘outside-in’ innovation process
will be an exciting new chapter for
the future.
CLAIRE FITZPATRICK
Claire Fitzpatrick FCA is Chief Financial
Officer at Red Planet, which was recently
acquired by Deloitte.
ACCOUNTANCY IRELAND
APRIL 2017