Profile: Chris Spencer

Chris Spencer has been on a rollercoaster ride over the last few months.

Following the shock news in February that Emis’s charismatic chief executive Sean Riddell was retiring in March due to family commitments, Spencer was catapulted in to take on the role on an interim basis.

Riddell, who joined Leeds-based Emis in 1989 soon after its inception, helped develop it into a pivotal player in plans to modernise computing in the NHS.

Following the news, the group’s shares fell eight per cent and analysts described his departure as a “great loss”.

This was a month after a surprise profits warning that took some of the gilt off the stock market darling.

So, did Spencer feel the pressure?

“The last few months have been exciting and challenging in equal measure,” he admits.

“I’m not a stranger to this business. There are some exciting opportunities. We’ve had to recalibrate the city’s views on our performance.

“You call it a profits warning, but it was more a readjustment to a realistic figure than a profits warning.

“In 2012 we increased profits by 12 per cent to £24.1m. That’s not a bad profit. We had net cash of £8m in 2011 and £7.7m in 2012. We bought new corporate headquarters and refurbished them.

“The city doesn’t like uncertainty and we had a consensus miss, a CFO retirement and the departure of the CEO.

“It was a good set of results in difficult circumstances.”

Spencer welcomes the share price “correction” from an “excitable price of £9” to a more sensible £7.30.

He admits that Riddell’s decision to step down was difficult.

“We had to make sure the business was not too affected and the city adjusted to it.”

He adds that yes, it was hard to fill Riddell’s shoes.

“Sean is a very big and different act to follow. He’s been here for 20 years. I’ve been here 13 years.

“My approach is more classical. I’m a thinker and a planner and then a doer. He’s more romantic in his approach. He feels instinctively where to go. That’s a very different style. People had to adjust to it.”

At the time, analysts at Peel Hunt said: “We believe Sean has put in place sufficient depth and breadth of management, such that this should have minimal operational impact on the business, although Sean’s drive and enthusiasm will be a great loss.”

Two months in, Spencer says he would like the top job on a permanent basis.

“I’ve thrown my hat into the ring. I’d like the CEO’s role if I’m the right person for the job,” he says.

Spencer has good credentials. He has led all of the group’s mergers and acquisitions and he also oversaw the MBO and the IPO in 2010.

He joined Emis in 1999 and has been a member of its senior management team since then. A qualified solicitor, he was previously a general manager and head of IT for Markgraaf Patents.

The company has whittled the candidate list down to six and second interviews will be held at the end of this month.

In its latest annual results, the medical software group reported an 18 per cent increase in annual revenues to £86.3m, largely driven by the roll-out of its new system which shares patients’ records.

The software, called Emis Web, links healthcare professionals, from GPs to neurosurgeons, allowing them to share patients’ cradle-to-grave medical records.

Emis believes it has an exciting decade ahead as it helps the NHS to become more efficient.

By the year end, Emis Web was live in 1,635 GP practices, up from 360 in 2011, with 1,252 unfulfilled orders.

Emis recently launched its Patient Access smartphone application through its health website Patient.co.uk, which Spencer says has gone down very well.

Emis claims it is the UK’s first GP appointment booking app. It will also allow patients to order repeat prescriptions, securely contact their practice and update their personal details.

Emis blamed its 2012 profits shortfall on delays with an Australian defence contract, its decision to chase market share after the exit of a competitor and the higher costs from the faster roll-out of its Emis Web system.

The software was the main reason for its flotation on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in March 2010.

Emis, formed by two North Yorkshire GPs who wanted software to prevent mistakes when writing prescriptions, now has a market share of more than 50 per cent of GP surgeries.

Over 70 per cent of the group’s customers have been with Emis for over 10 years.

The group operates in Australia and has “bits and pieces” in Jersey and the Middle East, but Spencer said the group has huge opportunities in the UK, particularly in the Child Health, Community and Mental Health markets (CCMH).

“I’ve got an 87-year-old dad who has cardiovascular memory weakness and there is a lot of involvement with district carers,” he says.

“Having access to dad’s GP record is utterly crucial. Does he have a history of this, has he had a stroke?”

Emis’s move into CCMH reflects the demographic trend towards an older population and will open up some exciting avenues for the company.

“Long-term conditions such as diabetes are hugely expensive for the NHS,” says Spencer.

“How do you improve patient outcomes? How do we treat people as quickly and cheaply as possible?

“By knowing patients and who will need treatment. To some extent we’re forecasting who will become ill.”

The idea is to monitor changes to patients’ health using Emis’s software and predict the likelihood of a patient suffering a life-threatening event such as a heart attack and thereby prevent it, saving the NHS millions of pounds.

On the day of our interview, Spencer’s day started at 6.45am with the “execcy brekkie” which consists of a sandwich and a coffee and an opportunity to discuss “what’s bothering us today”.

This is held every Thursday and the group holds a more formal meeting once a month.

“We have this weekly meeting to make sure we’re on top of events,” says Spencer.

His then had a 10am meeting to look at how to cut out waste.

“Do we really need 15 different printers with 15 different cartridges?”

The next meeting was with the firm’s legal counsel to sort out some legal issues, followed by a meeting with a new employee, then a working lunch, our interview, appraisals of board members and he has a meeting about the leadership team in the evening.

“I work a 12-hour day most days. It’s a habit. I enjoy it.

“I don’t sleep very much and I like to be up and about,” he says.

When he’s not at work Spencer spends time at the family home in Thirsk with his wife, who is a judge.

He has six children aged between 21 and 31, including a maths teacher, an English teacher, a student who wants to be a solicitor, a former physicist who now works on risk calculation software and a former mathematician who is now a barrister.

His predecessor Riddell claimed that: “An awful lot of people who work within Emis do so because they like the difference they can make in healthcare.”

It’s a statement that Spencer agrees with.

“We’re helping 39 million patients – that’s something worth getting up for.”

Chris Spencer Factfile

Date of birth: July 3, 1956

Place of birth: Halifax

Education: Archbishop Grammar School, Barnsley

Further education: Leeds University (Law)

First job: Nurse – geriatrics and terminal care

Favourite band: Dire Straits

Car driven: Mercedes CLS

Favourite film: Casablanca

Favourite holiday destination: Canada

Last book read: Alan Turing by Andrew Hodges

What I am most proud of: My family