Hi all,
I’ve recently started as a Sr. Financial Analyst reporting to the CFO of a global business unit, which does $300M in sales. At the moment it’s just me and the CFO. He is also fairly new to the role (previously Controller in another BU). I have the opportunity to build out the previously neglected functions of this group, and wanted to ask some of the more senior CF folks on here where they would prioritize their energies to get the most impact in growing headcount and expanding the depth of our responsibilities.
Our team sits separate from the Accounting group, so thankfully I don’t have to worry about the nuts-and-bolts accounting that usually comes with some lower-level CF jobs. My current responsibilities are split in 2 main functions: FP&A & Strategy. So far, most of my projects have been in the realm of Strategy/CorpDev (modeling out proposed strategic relationships, evaluating M&A opportunities, looking at the impact of divesting core assets, etc.). However, at some point the FP&A and Reporting tasks that come with the job will need to take a larger focus. Our FP&A and Reporting infrastructure is non-existent, and both the CEO and department heads recognize the dire need for metrics. It will fall to me to collaborate with dept. heads to understand and create the reporting tools (financial and operational) that would help them run their depts.
So, my boss doesn’t have the time beyond his day-to-day to tackle this stuff, and is looking to me to spearhead the build-out of these systems and ultimately lead the analysts that would join our team as it becomes more sophisticated. Ideally, he would like for me to spend most of my “production” time on the Strategy/CorpDev aspect, rather than FP&A. Given that my background is in IB and start-ups, I have a strong preference for this trajectory as well, and want to avoid getting pigeonholed into a vanilla FP&A role.
My current medium term goal is to focus on creating financial metrics (consolidated financial statement analysis, and more granular per-location reporting), then make the case that all of my time is taken up with these reports and that we need to hire someone more junior to come in and drive them. From there I could maybe start zeroing in on per-location operational metrics. My longer-term vision would be to segment the analyst pool by geography, and have some supporting select strategic relationships (> $25M/yr.).
So how would you go about making the largest impact in a situation like this? To get the ball rolling, what areas of reporting should I first start laying out? Thanks for reading!
Bump. I know it's a bit of a convoluted topic for a simple message board response.
Good luck, sounds interesting.
if they are willing to use headhunters, meet with a few to see there thoughts, and it could be used as a "pitch" for them to potentially get exclusivity or preference for future recruiting.
I'm not in CF but I've overseen the set up of CF departments a few times and I took an operational role about 10 years ago and basically set one up from scratch (long story, bought a great company from an old timer who was only one step beyond a physical spreadsheet that he filled in with a pencil, and that one step was that he hired a kid to data entry his hand done spreadsheet into excel, and it was a euro co when IFRS had just come out so no one knew what they were doing to begin with). So take this with a grain of salt because I haven't personally done it for over 10 years and I usually just get to tell people to make X, and expect X to happen.
The first things you really need to look at is the accounting/finance software and systems already in place, what it currently can do and if there are any off the shelf modules you can buy to make it do what you want at a keystroke. Figure out what reports and functions you and the div CFO want (from daily flash reports to quarterly/annual projections), talk to the accts/controllers and figure out what they can output, and talk to other divisions that have established FP&A functions and see what they need, use and already have set up (assuming you're on the same systems and that you're in the same general line of business and you just differ in geography). I'd take it to that level-really determine what you have in place, what can easily be put in place and what you need and want that will take some work-and step back and figure out what you can do. Maybe it's all stuff you can do in house with some help from IT. More likely you'll need to bring consultants in to greatly varying degrees. I'm not talking MBB as much as tech type of consultants, maybe that's Big 4 or smaller consultants who specialize in the type of systems you have. Ask the other divisions how they got it set up and IT about approved consultants (and whomever you need to get approval from to spend on consultants) and bring them in. Have a concrete plan when you meet with them. You could start to look at the type of humans you want at this point, and as you start this process, and I'd most likely lean towards a finance person with a high degree of tech literacy in your system.
This could be a relatively small project where you or consultants just need to add on some crystal report type of things or be pretty involved and take a deep dive and reconfiguring of your systems. As you're doing it and once you get the system set up, I'd continually evaluate the human resources you need as you identify specific roles.
In my experience it's best to be pretty fluid with these types of implementations. You want a plan up front but you need to be willing to alter it because you'll determine that X function is easily automated whereas you thought it was going to have to be a human but that Y is going to be a human when you previously thought that was easily automatable.
Maybe some consultants can chime in here.
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