CFO PE Backed E-commerce

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I’m the Finance Director at Westmill Foods, a business with a very diverse portfolio of products and customers that primarily focuses on authentic Indian and Chinese Foods. We are based in Enfield and have three factories in the UK and an office in Amsterdam.   September is a particularly busy time for me, as the end of our financial year is in mid-September. As we approach year end, I need to ensure that we are tracking our expected performance especially carefully, so that we can deliver our profit commitment for the year. Thankfully, as we reach year end, everything goes as expected and we deliver another good performance. We are going after a particularly significant profit target this year, but I am pretty confident in our ability to reach this as we’ve developed some great commercial plans and initiatives, and it feels like we have some momentum behind us. In particular, this year will see work commence on a large expansion of one of our factories, and I continue to be heavily involved in the key decisions behind this.   Year-end also means additional reporting to ABF, and a visit from our external auditors (who, like policemen, seem to get younger every year!). My team have ensured that they have prepared the information requested so that the audit can be as efficient and cause as little disruption as possible.   People issues and management also takes up a good deal of my time. As September is the start of our financial year, I’ve had sessions with each of my direct reports to agree their objectives for the year, as well as reviewing their performance for the previous year. I ensure that we talk about their development needs and career plans as this is also very important. Finally, I have spent a lot of time on recruitment this month, as one of my reports is moving to another grocery company to take up a role that will give her the experience she needs to take on an FD role in the future.   So, it’s been another busy month, with lots of variety, satisfaction at hitting our target (again), and then pushing / challenging the business so that we can keep on improving our performance in this coming year.    If you would like to learn more about ABF and our career opportunities, please visit the microsite here.   Guest author: Jonathan Willis, Finance and IT Director at Westmill Foods

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In the modern competitive business environment simply being an accomplished accountant won’t cut it, with new-age professionals needing to show strong ‘soft’ skills in addition to vocational excellence.Being an effective leader is crucial for anyone managing colleagues, but an ability to lead others is different from simply being able to manage a workload and delegate. A leader is able to get the best out of the colleagues they manage by listening to their needs, concerns and aspirations. However, they also have an insatiable appetite for continued learning and seek constructive feedback from colleagues to further their own personal and career development. Outstanding leaders secure their team’s buy-in to their business strategy and goals by communicating the plan effectively and ensuring each team member feels they are an important element of that overall plan. Excellent leaders will allow people to reason their way to a conclusion on individual tasks via their own preferred route while being available to provide sound advice and guidance. Leadership skills are of course necessary for accountants across the board, but they are particularly key for those looking to progress into positions outside accountancy. A significant proportion of CEOs started their careers as accountants, which goes to show that those who are able to perfect the blend of a comprehensive business understanding with outstanding leadership can reach the very highest echelons of business.

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A Marks Sattin Principal Associate Director based in Yorkshire wrote a piece for The Insider sharing his views on the role of a private equity- backed CFO.  "Given the multiple stakeholders involved, the ability to communicate performance, plans, and objectives is paramount – private equity investors rely on their CFOs to give them a clear picture of what’s going on inside the business." Read the full article here.