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From spreadsheet to C-suite

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24th Mar 2016
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Tom Herbert takes a look at some of the key skills required to make the journey from accountant to finance director.

Responsible for leading a key business function and often the chief executive's key adviser, the FD role is often seen as the ultimate finance position.

However, with the FD role shifting to adapt to new technologies and ways of working, the roadmap to becoming a FD can seem more than a little opaque. Every company has its own way of working, and even the most dedicated finance professionals sometimes struggle to climb the ladder.

Andy Wilkes, tutor on CIMA’s dedicated ‘management accountant to FD’ programme, told AccountingWEB that on top of their core accounting skills, accountants now need a span of commercial skills, from business understanding to strategic thinking and soft or people skills from influencing to leadership.

“It’s what CIMA call the T-shaped accountant. The modern FD needs a range of skills: You need to know your international accounting standards, but you also have to have a whole range of other skills as well.”

To examine some of the key skills required to successfully make that journey, AccountingWEB spoke to Wilkes and a number of prominent FDs, CEOs and accountants to find out what they felt propelled finance professionals from spreadsheet to C-suite.

Make their business your business

According to AccountingWEB contributor and member FD on the edge, finance director is a special role: “You are a technical person but you must have a broad range. If you think about it there are very few roles that actually cover the entire business.

“Most other positions are focussed on one aspect – sales, marketing etc. – but finance is across the whole piece. You deal with all departments and all managers; in one way or another you deal with most of the staff. Everything that’s business-focussed you touch base with.”

Bridget McIntyre, former CEO at Royal Sun Alliance, FD at Volvo and now owner of coaching company dream on, recommends taking time to really understand your business by volunteering for extra projects and ensuring you develop your wider commercial skills.

“You also need to find a business that you are interested in”, said McIntyre, “and also, importantly, a place where your skills and personality match.”

Communicate, communicate, communicate

“Communications skills aren’t really something you touch on working in an accounting practice, and you’ve got to learn quickly”, commented Glenn Martin of Avery Martin Accountants, who has worked on both sides of the business-practice divide.

“In industry your supplier base could be a whole range of people, from corporate PLCs to small family businesses”, said Martin, “so you’ve got to gauge the people you’re meeting. You’ve got to engage with multi-million pound companies down to one-man bands so it’s learning how to handle them and what makes each one tick in order to keep your costs down.”

While the stereotypical accountant often wants to talk more to a spreadsheet than to others in the business, Andy Wilkes feels that the move towards finance department business partnering has been successful in building up the communication skills of many accountants.

“The good thing about business partnering is that you can almost see it as an intermediary where you can develop those softer skills, which become more essential when you become a FD. A lot of people potentially have those soft skills and are dying to take over as FD to use them.”

'Tell the story' of the financials

A key part of making the jump to FD is to be able to 'tell the story' of the financials, according to Bridget McIntyre. “Drop the technical jargon and create your own way of communicating, and make sure you do it with confidence and authority”, she said. “Gaining this type of individuality is the first step in developing those all-important leadership skills”

It’s also important to consider the best methods of delivery to get a clear message to an audience that may not always understand or be on your side.

“If you’re in a corporate environment like BT it’s probably a lot more structured”, said Glenn Martin, “whereas I always worked with entrepreneurs and you had to adjust to their way of working. 

“They’re often not finance people and might be eccentric, so you’ve got to present the information in a way that makes them tick. A lot of these self-made guys like an A4 sheet of paper with everything they need to know on. Entrepreneurs are often not bothered about seeing a 30-page report that accountants love producing.”

Take the lead

“I think about my time in the public sector”, said Andy Wilkes, “and if you were a really good accountant they would promote you to be a really bad manager. The skill set is so different. It’s the Peter Principle if you’re not careful – you reward people for doing a good accounting job by making them a really bad FD because they haven’t got the skills to fulfil it.

According to AccountingWEB member 'FD on the edge' the transition from accountant to FD is a gradual, slow evolution into a business leader. “When you become that person in charge of the whole finance team your role changes. You become a leader and all those skills – leadership, ability to negotiate, communication – become key.”

“There’s a shift”, added Wilkes. “No longer will you be managing a spreadsheet, what you may well be managing now is an accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger function. However tempting it is you’ve got to leave the spreadsheets behind, you’ve got someone else to do that for you.

“What you now need to do is represent the organisation and think strategically, take the organisation forward.”

Have you made the switch from accountant to FD? How was it for you, and what skills do you think can make a difference in the role?

Replies (1)

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By thegreatgrumbleduke
25th Mar 2016 13:09

Fair enough advice one and all, but you've got to remember that pretty much every business large or small does things differently and you've got to adapt

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