Today's Boardroom Issue 5

ISSUE 5 • WWW.TODAYSBOARDROOM.CO.UK 

IN THIS EDITION: 

WE LOOK AT THE CHALLENGES OF RUNNING 

A BUSINESS IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY, THE 

IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL PLANNING, AND WHAT 

BUSINESSES CAN EXPECT OF THE NEW PRIME MINISTER 

Today’s Boardroom • Issue 5 

1

8 FINANCIAL PLANNING 

IN THIS EDITION: 

16 What business leaders can 

learn from Boris 

20 Audit and Accounting: 

where does the problem lie? 

We’ll keep your fleet 

26 The three big skills needed 

to succeed in the c-suite 

working for you 

From 24-hour breakdown cover to accident assistance, 

with mobile technical services and connected solutions 

that help keep your wheels in motion. 

18 FINANCIAL PLANNING 

14 LEADERSHIP SKILLS 

47 ERP 

30 Looking beyond the numbers 

32 Getting a single version of 

the truth with financial 

software 

34 Work-related stress 

common in the UK 

36 The Importance of 

Accounting Software in 

Financial Planning 

28 BUSINESS PLANNING 

38 Everything CFOs need to 

know about workforce 

planning 

42 Running a business in a time 

of great uncertainty 

50 Why three’s not a crowd 

when it comes to data mining 

54 Five ways to futureproof 

your organisation 

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Today’s Boardroom is a unique 

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development and success of British 

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3

est for your fleet. Remember, the 

AA can advise you if you get stuck. 

WORRIED ABOUT ULEZ? THE AA 

IS HERE TO HELP 

As many of you will be aware, the ULEZ charge is now 

in force in central London. With potential charges of as 

much as £100 a day, it’s important that you check the 

current emission status of your fleet and ensure that 

any high-polluting vehicles are scrapped and swapped 

for greener alternatives. 

If you’re a bit unsure of the details, 

here’s a quick refresh. ULEZ, which 

stands for Ultra-Low Emission 

Zone, operates in the same area as 

the congestion charge and applies 

24/7. Don’t get the two confused, 

though: the congestion charge only 

applies from 7am to 6pm, Monday 

to Friday. Under ULEZ, the following 

charges will apply: 

• £12.50 a day for vehicles under 

3.5 tonnes (e.g. cars, motorcycles 

and vans) 

• £100 a day for vehicles over 

3.5 tonnes (e.g. lorries and buses) 

• £100 a day for coaches over 

5 tonnes. 

Even if you don’t operate in London, 

you still need to be aware of clean 

air zone (CAZ) charges and plan 

accordingly. Birmingham and Leeds 

have already received the green light 

for their own CAZ charges, and I’m 

sure cities such as Manchester and 

Liverpool won’t be far behind them. 

It’s understandable that many 

fleets are worried about the impact 

of ULEZ. The AA’s Operational Fleet 

Insight Report has revealed that 

19% of fleets cannot afford to buy 

or lease new vehicles, while 68% 

are more convinced by the quality 

and functionality of electric cars, 

than they are by larger or heavier 

electric vehicles. 

Remember, though, that the 

introduction of ULEZ won’t force 

you to switch immediately to an 

electric-based fleet. ULEZ charges 

will be enforced based on a vehicle’s 

declared emissions, rather than its 

age. This means petrol cars registered 

after 2005 are likely to meet 

emissions standards, as are diesel 

vehicles sold after September 2016. 

That being said, with only 49% of 

fleets believed to be compliant with 

January 2020 emissions regulations 

(the targets for which are 95g CO2/ 

km for passenger cars and 147g CO2/ 

km for light commercial vehicles), it’s 

worth implementing changes now to 

avoid higher charges in the future. 

As a starting point, consider auditing 

your fleet to identify the worst 

offenders. Transport for London has 

a useful compliance checker tool to 

help you do this – simply input your 

vehicle’s number plate. 

If you want to make the transition 

to alternative fuels, such as electric, 

hydrogen or bio-fuel, make sure you 

research your options first. You need 

to consider a number of variables, 

such as average journey durations 

or payload weights, to decide what’s 

Many fleet managers will also be 

concerned by the costs of both ULEZ 

charges and any necessary fleet 

upgrades. Financial support is available 

for certain fleet sizes, including the 

Mayor of London’s scrappage scheme 

and the cleaner vehicle discount, but 

you’ll need to check your eligibility 

before applying. For larger fleets, 

consider making small changes in the 

most high-risk areas of your fleet – 

the results of your audit will help you 

prioritise in this respect. 

At the AA, we’re working hard to make 

sure that alternatively-fuelled fleets 

can benefit from the same standard 

of service as petrol and diesel fleets. 

Our hybrid training rig, for example, 

is helping more patrols fix hybrid 

vehicles at the roadside. We’ve also 

implemented support services to 

keep our electric vehicle customers 

moving, including the Zap Map app 

and the Polar network card. 

When it comes to avoiding unexpected 

charges, preparation is key. If you 

do decide to make the switch to a 

low-emission fleet, the AA has you 

covered. And if you’re not sure what 

to do next? We’re also here to help. 

Get in touch today and start your 

journey towards a greener fleet. 

4 Today’s Boardroom • Issue 5 Today’s Boardroom • Issue 5 5

FLEXIBLE WORKING HAS INCREASED 

DRAMATICALLY OVER PAST 20 YEARS 

BUSINESSES ADVISED TO IMPROVE 

AWARENESS AGAINST CYBERCRIME 

Companies must offer training and various 

development strategies to protect against cybercrime 

in the recruitment sector. 

A leading talent management 

consultancy has undertaken 

analysis, carried out by its Global 

Compliance Function. 

It found that cybercrime is one of the 

leading risks facing RPO firms and the 

wider sector over the next 12 months. 

Awareness is absolutely paramount 

given the fact that, since 2016, the 

cost of cybercrime across all sectors 

has increased by a third. 

Moreover, the analysis says 

‘human-enabled insider threats’ are 

accounting for more than nine in 10 

of all incidents. 

Businesses, and SMEs in 

particular have been warned 

previously that they must do 

more to protect from breaches 

associated with cyber security, 

with a ‘worrying’ lack of planning 

for any potential hacking cited. 

Paul Watters is the Global Head 

of Compliance at Alexander Mann 

Solutions. He believes the rise in 

digital makes it ever more crucial to 

protect data. 

And he says strong strategies are key 

to improving organisational health 

and protecting business revenue. 

He commented: “The recent boom 

in digital adoption and technological 

innovation means that opportunities 

to infiltrate company systems and 

data are increasing. 

“Given the nature of our sector, 

and the volume of candidate 

information processed, it is 

crucial that we ensure that this 

data is well protected. 

“However, while technology, of 

course, plays a significant role in 

defending against cyber attacks, 

staff training and development 

is crucial to success and 

education is key to preventing 

such occurrences. 

“There’s no doubt that the world 

of global talent acquisition 

and management is becoming 

increasingly complex and cyber 

threats are just one of a number 

of risks that companies delivering 

in this space face. 

“However, with strong strategies 

in place, businesses can 

improve their organisational 

health while protecting 

objectives, reputation and 

revenues.” 

By adopting awareness, a 

company’s health could be vastly 

improved in the long term. 

People working flexible hours has increased 

greatly over the last 20 years. 

Figures and analysis show that those 

working flexible hours has increased 

five-fold, illustrating the growing 

change in working patterns as CEOs 

take into account the needs of their 

staff more; the upshot should be 

improved productivity too. 

The 1999 Labour Force Survey from 

the Office for National Statistics 

(ONS) revealed that 9.5% of the 

workforce took advantage of flexible 

working in the UK back then. 

However, the Chartered Institute 

of Personnel and Development – a 

professional association for human 

resource management professionals 

– has found that this figure has 

increased dramatically. 

Now, 54% of workers have the 

option from their employers to work 

flexibly, and out of the traditional 

nine-to-five hours associated with 

working in an office. 

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of 

the Association of Professional 

Staffing Companies (APSCo) 

puts this down to advances in 

technology making working 

remotely much easier. 

She also pointed out how crucial 

this type of working is for those 

who are depended upon for care. 

She said: “It’s great to see that 

employees are being offered 

greater flexibility and autonomy 

over their work. This certainly 

is a step in the right direction 

in ensuring that the workforce 

is motivated and engaged in 

meaningful work. 

“The advancements of technology 

over the past 20 years have no 

doubt played a significant part 

in making this possible. The 

collaborative software now available 

means that team members can 

communicate and work remotely 

with ease. 

“Flexible working also pays an 

important role in bringing equality 

to the workplace. 

“People with disabilities or caring 

responsibilities for example, often 

are unable to commute to the 

office or work conventional hours, 

therefore the option to work parttime, 

compressed hours or remotely 

is a necessity. 

“As more employers begin to see 

the opportunities associated with 

flexible working, we can both boost 

diversity and inclusion and help end 

the dire skills shortages which are 

impacting many sectors.” 


expense receipts that can be 

easily lost long before the selfassessment 

date. 

CHANGES TO ACCOUNTS 

REPORTING 

WHY ARE SO MANY BUSINESSES 

STILL MANAGING THEIR FINANCES 

WITH A SPREADSHEET? 

Self-employment is rising every year in the UK - the 

latest data shows that the number of people who were 

self-employed in the first calendar quarter of 2019 

(January to March) increased by 90,000 on the quarter 

to reach a record high of 4.93 million. 

Philip Brennan, 

Managing Director of 

BusinessComparison 

Some suggest that this is attributed 

to a difficulty in finding well-paid 

employed roles, other theories are 

that companies are more keen than 

ever to outsource functions such 

as marketing, HR, sales and admin 

in an attempt to side-step onerous 

employment obligations such as 

pensions, holiday, health and safety 

and rising wages. 

Whatever the real reason – the result 

is a growing number of people who 

have never ran their own business 

before, suddenly responsible for 

submitting tax returns and financial 

record keeping – but why do so 

many still do this using basic excel? 

AWARENESS OF CLOUD-BASED 

ACCOUNTING 

Although many people seem 

to have heard of the most 

popular pay-monthly accounting 

subscriptions, few really 

appreciate the impact they have 

on the management and growth of 

their business. Seeing it as simply 

an unnecessary ‘added cost’ where 

there is a cost-free alternative. 

However, this is short-sighted; at 

the very least, the cost of this sort 

of software would easily offset itself 

in accounting fees pertaining to the 

reduced administration of handling 

paper receipts and reconciling 

transactions manually. But more 

crucially it gives businesses visibility 

of their income and expenditure in 

a granular way that simply is not 

possible with a spreadsheet. 

The ability to compare spending in 

certain areas, such as marketing, 

payroll, cost of sales etc between 

weeks, months, quarters and years 

is powerful data when it comes to 

scrutinising the management of 

your business and looking at ways to 

increase profitability. Although this 

can be achieved with a spreadsheet, if 

you have plenty of complex formulas 

and filtering within the document, 

it is much easier and more user 

friendly to run a report comparing 

the relevant periods you want to take 

a closer look at. 

EASY RECONCILIATION 

Not everyone is aware that 

accounting systems (which are 

relatively inexpensive, typically 

ranging from £10-40 per month) 

automatically import transactions 

from your business bank account 

after the first initial set-up. 

They are compatible with most 

UK bank accounts. The data is 

updated in real-time, meaning that 

you can log into your software 

portal and see your current bank 

balance (often saving the hassle 

of logging into your bank account 

separately to see if a payment has 

been made). Being able to reconcile 

those transactions by simply 

tapping a button to indicated what 

category of spending it falls into – 

marketing, rent, travel expenses, 

make record keeping simple and 

you can of course attach receipt to 

each transaction. This is especially 

handy for business owners who 

accumulate lots of petrol and 

Some will be aware that the 

government is planning quarterly 

reporting for non-VAT registered 

sole traders and SME’s, and 

although it has been pushed from 

April 2020 to 2021 at present 

(possibly pushed out further) it is 

more than likely going to come to 

fruition at some point over the next 

few years. 

When this happens, it will be a 

straightforward transition for 

businesses using accounting 

software as the information is 

already prepared and reconciled for 

submission at the touch of a button 

– but those operating with ledgers 

and spreadsheets will find the 

changes to be quite overwhelming 

in their administration, with many 

struggling to get their accounts in 

order once per year let alone every 

three months. 

Businesses are advised to embrace 

and adopt new technologies as 

early as possible to reduce the 

burden further down the line, 

as Britain looks to become more 

digitally enabled in its collection 

of financial information from 

businesses in the future. 


working with repetition, but there is a 

transition required to manager level. 

The definition of leadership was 

explored – different to both 

technicians and managers, as 

Andy explained: “It (leadership) is 

different, and the core difference 

we came up with is that they weren’t 

about applying skills and knowledge 

that we know already works to a 

particular task or project. 

“Leadership is primarily asking the 

question of the future, which we 

don’t know. It’s even more important 

as a leader that you’re not at 

managerial or technical level.” 

It means that the teachings of the 

High Performance Leadership 

programme are underpinned by 

the fact that leadership requires 

a completely different skill set to 

managers and technicians – the 

former’s purpose is to prepare the 

latter two in a way that enables a 

company to ultimately succeed. 

HIGH PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP: 

PROMOTING EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP 

For almost two decades, Cranfield’s High 

Performance Leadership programme has 

revolutionised the way leaders achieve results 

within their organisations. 

It fits neatly in with the values of 

the Praxis Centre for Personal 

Leadership Development; all 

programmes here work differently 

than their industry contemporaries. 

A crucial element of the High 

Performance Leadership 

programme is its acknowledgement 

that the job of a leader is profoundly 

different to that of a manager 

or technician – the programme 

therefore uses a holistic approach 

that allows individuals to put theory 

into practice. 

ORIGINS OF HIGH 

PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP 

The programme has run 

successfully since the turn of the 

century, with leaders originally 

invited on the programme to talk 

philosophically about their roles; 

they were asked questions that 

explored what they didn’t know and 

how to remedy that. 

However, the Praxis Centre’s 

approach changed when 

Andy Logan was invited to lead 

the programme. With the help of 

highly-regarded colleagues, the 

now-Programme Director sought 

to make changes to the leadership 

programme to promote 

executive leadership in all types 

of industry. 

One of the major findings was that it 

was hard to find an adequate model 

that fit the needs of leaders in all 

businesses. 

All performance, Andy points out, is 

context dependent. The challenges 

faced by a leader in one particular 

sector will be completely different to 

those in another. 

Because of this, the Programme 

Director knew that a mode of 

teaching had to be designed that had 

a meta pattern, so that it enables 

people in any context to be able 

to deal with what is going on as a 

leader. 

Andy explained: “High performance 

leadership is not based on models 

that say if you do one thing, another 

will happen, and when that does, you 

will be successful. 

“It’s based on one thing which is 

learning to read the context you’re 

in, above all else.” 

When designing the programme, 

the importance of the transitions 

required to move into leadership 

were also explored; Andy and his 

team worked with ‘technicians’ from 

a range of sectors – those employees 

who have the technical knowledge 

and skills to undertake work. 

The recognition of the role of a 

manager followed this – you may still be 

a technician from time to time, but you 

have the additional role of managing; 

both have relatively identifiable 

solutions that you can prove are 

When exploring what the programme 

should be, another important finding 

identified how differently leaders are 

judged in terms of achieving success. 

Technicians and managers are 

primarily judged on what Andy called 

‘programmable work’. 

For leaders, they are judged on ‘nonprogrammable 

work’, whereby the 

answers for any given task are not 

immediately obvious. 

Andy said: “The very process of being 

a leader is to have most of your time, 

effort and significance attached to 

non-programmable situations. You 

don’t know what is going to work and 

what the answer might be.” 

Technicians and managers are 

scored on what they know and they 

know what the answer to tasks 

look like – moving into leadership 

is “profoundly different,” because a 

leader’s behaviour isn’t being scored 

– it is that of the technicians and 

managers who are being led. 


Cranfield’s High Performance 

Leadership programme seeks to 

help professionals on this journey 

to look differently at how they are 

leading technicians and managers. 

It is an intensive process, but one that 

challenges conventional methods. 

WHAT DOES THE 

PROGRAMME OFFER? 

The three-stage programme 

challenges its cohorts to face the 

way they currently work, breaking 

down any barriers to successful 

leadership, ensuring discovery of 

the best way to influence others. 

The High Performance Leadership 

programme at the Praxis Centre 

lasts for four months and includes 

three modules throughout the 

“initiation journey.” 

Andy Logan has designed the 

programme so that it puts those 

leaders in attendance in a context 

where they are “free not to know,” 

and are given space in which they 

are free to explore, experiment 

and be challenged. 

The first module is a five-day 

residential stage that helps cohorts 

build on existing strengths and 

uncover a unique leadership core. 

It is intensive and encourages people 

to look deeply at themselves and 

their existing methods; leaders are 

given time and space to explore what 

it is they have to face in themselves, 

the situations at work that hold them 

back, that they need to find a way 

past to become a leader. 

Andy describes the first 

“experiential” module as “the 

hero’s journey.” The course goes 

through a deep and profound selfexamination 

process throughout 

the week, where attendees come 

face-to-face with whatever it is 

holding them back. 

Through the support of tutors, the 

programme takes its attendees 

through a process of selfconfrontation 

of their issue, which 

leads to solutions regarding what 

people need to do differently at work. 

It really is a deeper way of looking 

at leadership and executive 

development; throughout the first 

module, the course succeeds in 

helping leaders look differently at 

their work processes. 

Andy explains: “On that journey 

somewhere, they are going to come 

across a bit where they can’t get 

any further doing what they have 

done. That’s when they have to 

look backwards as to why they get 

stuck there.” 

When this is discovered, cohorts have 

to explore solutions to these problems 

and how they will be enacted back in 

the working environment. 

This leads to module 2: the 

leadership journey, involving eight 

weeks back in work to apply these 

lessons in a practical environment. 

But Cranfield’s High Performance 

Leadership programme ensures 

professionals are assisted on every step 

of the way by setting goals that will help 

to embed new leadership practices. 

The first module equips those on the 

course with practices and models for 

looking at the world and themselves 

in a different way, ready for reintegration 

into work. 

In those following eight weeks, 

Cranfield set up phone calls and 

webinars, ensuring one-to-one and 

group sessions to monitor how the 

lessons learned on the hero’s journey 

are being applied. 

Finally, module 3 takes place: Galvanise 

leadership growth – stepping forward. 

This is a three-day residential module 

which celebrates the success of the 

preceding eight weeks and refines 

leadership challenges. 

Andy Logan says that these three days 

look at the organisational context and 

give cohorts “practises to rewire the 

brain, as it were, to be able to perceive 

and act with complexity, ambiguity, 

uncertainty and volatility.” 

282mm x 120mm 

It helps leaders to remain confident 

on what they know and what they can 

predict what will happen in their own 

working environments. 

Andy explains: “From the healing 

process, we go to a resilience process 

and a mindset-changing process. How 

to look at the world differently, and 

what practises have I got that keep 

me resilient and able to withstand the 

inner and outer pressure of managing 

in uncertainty.” 

Cranfield are intent on ensuring 

that the people who attend each of 

their courses and programmes do 

so because it is suitable for their 

needs; the team vet applications 

and if it is deemed they aren’t 

suitable for the High Performance 

Leadership programme, they are 

directed to the programme that will 

benefit them the most. 

But for those who are in leadership 

positions, senior executives, 

directors and heads of functions 

that would like to inspire and 

motivate their teams, this is the 

perfect programme. 

The success of the tutor-intensive 

programme is apparent by the fact 

that people who have been on the 

course have recommended it to 

others within their organisation. 

Described as “profound and deep” 

by those who have been through 

the course, the High Performance 

Leadership programme has changed 

the way that leaders think and look 

at themselves and the world around 

them, helping their leadership skills 

to evolve with each promotion. 

FURTHER INFORMATION 

We’d love to discuss your 

individual or organisational 

development needs with you. 

Please contact: 

T: +44 (0)1234 754500 

E: execdev@cranfield.ac.uk 


WHY COACHING WILL MAKE 

YOU A BETTER LEADER 

There are few, if any, perfect all-rounders. Successful 

leaders share a series of traits – agility, resilience, 

positivity, the ability to influence – but the most 

important is recognising your own limits. 

Susy Roberts, 

executive coach and 

founder of people 

development consultancy 

Hunter Roberts 

When we close ourselves off to 

external influences, we are limiting 

the realms of our knowledge to 

our own life experiences. Even the 

most travelled, read and learned 

among us can’t say with any honesty 

that we’ve reached the pinnacle of 

wisdom. Change is the only constant 

in life, and keeping abreast of it is a 

team effort. 

An SME may have a board containing 

experts in finance, marketing, 

operations and HR. But leaders, 

just like their teams, need to 

undergo continuous personal and 

professional development in order 

to remain at the pinnacle of mental 

agility. To paraphrase the Dalai 

Lama, education increases our ability 

to employ our own intelligence. 

Luckily, it is possible to develop 

leadership skills. As leadership 

coaching expert Warren Bennis said, 

“leaders are made rather than born.” 

Bennis was an authoritative voice on 

leadership coaching, and his book 

‘On Becoming a Leader’ is widely 

considered essential reading for 

anyone in leadership. He also noted 

that: “It is the capacity to develop and 

improve their skills that distinguishes 

leaders from followers.” 

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT 

In 2006, The Cambridge 

Handbook of Expertise and Expert 

Performance (updated and reissued 

in June 2018), analysed 16 major 

domains of expertise, including 

business. Researchers looked 

at various aspects of expertise 

including general and practical 

intelligence, differences in brain 

activity, self-regulated learning, 

deliberate practice, knowledge 

management and creativity. 

They showed -“consistently and 

overwhelmingly” according to one 

of the book’s authors in this Harvard 

Business Review article written 

at the time of the books’ original 

release - that experts are always 

made, not born. 

In other words, learning to be 

a successful leader is the same 

as learning to play the piano or 

mastering a sporting activity – the 

more you practice, the better 

you will become. Novice runners 

can’t take on a marathon – they 

require months of training, with 

plans developed by experts that 

cover nutrition, muscle groups and 

endurance building. 

It’s the same for leaders: whether 

you’ve inherited the family business 

or are running a start-up because 

you’re an expert in your field, 

coaching from experts is essential if 

you want to lead your SME to success. 

An executive leadership coach can 

help you to identify the skills you need 

to get the best out of your workforce, 

to conduct intricate negotiations, 

to navigate cultural differences in 

international deals, to deliver change 

and to make difficult choices. These 

are all skills that can be learned, and 

improved upon, with regular, ongoing 

professional coaching. 

A COACHING CULTURE IMPROVES 

PERFORMANCE 

It’s a fact that leading by positive 

example gets the best results, and 

this is particularly relevant when it 

comes to coaching. The culture of 

an organisation should always filter 

down from the very top, and an SME 

leader who is open about the benefits 

of learning will find themselves with 

a workforce that is open to being 

stretched – not pushed – to enhance 

performance. 

A business can’t grow if its people 

are constantly pushed towards a 

rigid set of requirements. Traditional 

performance objectives that are 

measured year in year out may 

have no relevance to current 

organisational goals. What may be 

a perfectly reasonable target one 

day could be impossible the next, 

thanks to anything from external 

markets to internal software faults. 

Leaders need coaching to recognise 

that there are myriad factors that 

affect how an individual performs 

and what they can achieve, and then 

apply that to ongoing performance. 

Coaching helps leaders to connect 

people to the objectives of the 

organisation and gives them the 

emotional intelligence to be able to 

adapt to individual circumstances. 

What are the goals of the 

organisation? What are the goals 

of the individual? What issues are 

they facing in that moment? How 

can those issues be overcome? How 

can overcoming those issues be 

measured and rewarded? 

These are all questions that should 

be asked regularly – not just during 

annual performance appraisals. A 

good coach will help leaders to hone 

in on the issues that need attention, 

and guide their teams towards a 

resolution that will ultimately benefit 

the organisation. 

ADMITTING YOU’RE WRONG 

TURNS NEGATIVES INTO POSITIVES 

A leader who bullishly insists on 

implementing their own ideas 

despite negative performance 

or unpopular reactions can stifle 

growth or even bring about the 

end of an SME. You can’t please all 

of the people all of the time and 

unpopular decisions for the good of 

the company are part and parcel of 

leadership. But knowing where to 

draw the line and admit something 

isn’t working requires a level of 

insight that not everyone possesses. 

For a leader in an SME, there’s often 

a much higher level of personal 

investment into success. Leading a 

business that has been built from 

scratch, been in a family for generations 

or is the main employer in a small 

community can result in personal 

feelings clouding business issues and 

losing sight of the bigger picture. 

Coaching can help leaders to 

identify potential problem areas 

and fix them before they get out of 

control. An impartial observer who 

can help a leader to reflect, admit 

when things aren’t working and 

then identify potential solutions can 

help keep a business and its leaders 

healthy and growing – not imploding 

under pressure. 

In an SME, where there will naturally 

be fewer leaders, coaching provides 

an opportunity to take time out of 

day to day operations and reflect on 

our contributions to the organisation 

and its people. It allows us to 

celebrate our successes, examine 

areas which may need improvement 

and create tangible connections with 

our goals. 

Coaching doesn’t just make you a 

better leader – it lays the foundations 

for organisational growth. 


WHAT BUSINESS LEADERS CAN 

LEARN FROM BORIS 

In our current turbulent political environment, 

uncertainty has reigned. UK politics is now in a 

crisis situation. 

Carl Reader, 

Founder of the 

#BeYourOwnBoss 

movement and 

chairman of d&t 

There’s no denying that our new 

Prime Minister is a controversial 

figure. Whether you agree with his 

politics or not, I believe that in his first 

few days in the job, Boris Johnson 

has already demonstrated some 

key attributes that all leaders of 

businesses should have. 

Firstly, Boris has a completely crystal 

clear vision of where he’s going – he 

is going to deliver Brexit by 31st 

October. Again, whether you agree 

with the direction he’s heading in or 

not, that absolute clarity of vision 

is something that has been missing 

from government for some time. 

Many businesses float along rather 

aimlessly, just doing what they’ve 

done before, without a “biggerpicture” 

vision of their goal. Whether 

they’re focused on benefiting direct 

stakeholders, such as employees 

. 

and shareholders, or even how they 

want to affect change within the 

planet – whatever it is, a business 

needs to put their vision at the heart 

of their business, and let it flow 

through and be clear in everything 

they do. 

Many businesses believe they’ve 

got a vision, but when you tap into 

it, they really haven’t: it’s just same 

old, same old, rehashed. It’s crucial 

to have an actual, true vision of what 

you want your business to be/where 

you want it to go. It’ll then spread – 

not only through vision statements 

shared on a website etc, but through 

everything you and your business 

do. That vision should permeate 

through every pore of your being, 

and be a trail that you leave behind 

you, as well as something you 

explicitly state. This is absolutely 

what Boris is doing right now. He is 

consistently and unfailing absolutely 

clear on what he’s trying to do – 

deliver Brexit. A crystal clear vision 

is essential for any government, and 

indeed any business. 

The next strength Boris has shown in 

his new role is decisiveness. Theresa 

May’s attempts to get individuals 

from each faction within her party to 

agree and to make decisions, rather 

than having a clear plan of where 

they’re going, totally failed. On the flip 

side, you also had a lack of leadership 

and strength from Jeremy Corbyn. 

Both the previous Government 

and the Opposition have really led 

the country to what is now a crisis 

situation – and Boris’s approach to fix 

this is clear, refreshing and actually 

very simple. 

In business, and in government, 

we come across crisis times where 

we need to make decisions, rather 

than try and manage by consensus. 

Sometimes, of course, it’s really 

useful to get views from across your 

business, and across the spectrum 

of perspectives. However, this isn’t 

always possible – or realistic – when 

a decision needs to be made almost 

instantly. We’ve already established 

the consensus approach failed under 

the previous government – at the 

moment, we’re in a crisis situation, 

and Boris’s confident decisiveness 

is necessary. He has done a really 

good job of understanding what is 

needed to actually achieve his big 

picture, and has set the wheels in 

motion by making the decisions that 

contribute to his vision – just look at 

his wholesale changes of the Cabinet, 

for example. 

This leads me neatly to the next 

strength - Boris is surrounding himself 

with people who are smarter than 

himself. That may seem a flippant 

comment. However, Boris is actually 

probably one of the most intelligent 

politicians in the House of Commons. 

The reason for that is simple: he 

knows his own weaknesses. If 

you again look at recent political 

leaders: we’ve had the leader of 

the SNP, focused on a sole issue 

(Independence) rather than wider 

issues. Jeremy Corbyn is leading the 

Opposition solely, it seems, with the 

purpose of opposition for the sake of 

it. Theresa May had begun to believe 

her own popularity, despite being 

voted in in a beauty parade of…one. 

Everyone has their own weaknesses. 

The important thing is to be aware of 

them, and act accordingly. Contrary 

to popular opinion, I believe Boris has 

a strong understanding of his own 

weaknesses. That’s been signalled 

by his appointment of Dominic 

Cummings as a senior advisor, and 

bringing in some very intelligent 

advisors and Government ministers 

around him. 

My belief is that Boris will not 

look to control the detail in every 

area – he’s certainly not shown 

an inclination for that in the past 

– but instead to allow those who 

are experts in their own individual 

areas to give him the feedback and 

information that he needs to make 

decisions where appropriate. Using 

this technique, Boris will be able to 

approach government with more of a 

leadership than a micromanagement 

approach. Despite the “buffoon” 

image of his persona that he likes to 

portray, this is actually a very smart 

move by Boris. 

This links to another key lesson - 

make sure that your leadership team 

are singing off the same hymn sheet. 

We’ve seen where it fell down before 

– Theresa May tried to arrange a 

coalition of leavers and remainers 

from all different angles of her party. 

They all had different messages, 

much in the way that Keir Starmer, 

Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn 

have had very different messages 

within the Labour party. Boris has a 

group of people who are all united 

behind his vision. For an effective 

leadership team in a Government 

or in a business, they all need to be 

aligned to the vision and where you 

are going. 

Many see Boris as a buffoon, but 

actually, he’s a smart cookie, who has 

taken a very different approach. If 

we were comparing the businesses 

of Boris and the other leaders in the 

House of Commons, I believe that 

from a business perspective, Boris’s 

approach would probably be best 

(even though you might not agree 

with some of the phrases he comes 

out with). These key points – crystal 

clear vision of where he’s going, 

decisiveness to ensure the boat is 

steered down the right path, and 

having a united, capable team all 

pulling in the same direction – are 

what sets Boris apart from other 

current UK political figures. Whether 

we agree with his vision or not, the 

fact that he’s chosen a path is more 

than others have done, and it’s what 

businesses need to do. 

I fully expect that, from 1st November 

onwards, or when we are out of this 

sticky mess, Boris’s government will 

look very different. Rather than try 

to be an autocratic leader, Boris will 

likely look to change course, and we’ll 

see a change in the vision, which 

will need to become much broader 

about the whole of society (rather 

than just focusing on a particular 

issue). The individuals involved will 

probably change at that point as well. 

But certainly up to the 31st October 

crunch point, we’ve got to pick a lane 

and stick in it – and that Boris has 

done, with true Boris gusto. 


THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL 

PLANNING IN BUSINESS – BUT IT’S NOT 

JUST ABOUT THE MONEY! 

In business money is important. Benjamin Franklin 

said, “Without continual growth and progress, such 

words as improvement, achievement and success 

have no meaning.” 

Jacqueline Lockie CFP 

Chartered FCSI, 

head of financial planning 

at Chartered Institute for 

Securities & Investment 

But when we plan to grow, perhaps 

by merger or innovation, the 

importance of financial planning 

comes to life. I have found in my 

time advising businesses in the 

past that control over the planning 

part is the most important part; 

the financials then take care of 

themselves. Let me explain further 

and along the way I will suggest 

some questions to ask and tasks to 

undertake to make your business 

a more rewarding place to work 

in and, of course, to improve and 

achieve success through growth. 

Increasing profitability might mean 

becoming more efficient, expanding 

with a new product line, or merging 

with a competitor. The following 

considerations apply, regardless of 

which aspect you choose. 

1. ANY IDEA SHOULD HAVE A 

WHY (AS WELL AS A WHAT, 

AND HOW) 

Any actionable business idea, 

no matter where it comes from, 

whether it is the chief executive, 

managing director or a new 

administrator in their first week 

at work; must be presented in 

writing, with a considered case put 

forward about WHY the company 

should carry out this action. Just 

“to increase profitability” is not 

enough. The information must 

have specifics. For example, 

how much will it increase 

profitability? How long with it take 

to implement? What are the costs 

of implementation? Not just the 

monetary costs, think about costs 

of labour. Has proper research 

been carried out? What are any 

competitors doing? Your workforce 

is your greatest asset. What 

changes will need to take place and 

how will that impact them? 

2. MAKE NO INDECISIONS 

Every time you have a meeting 

ensure that you know exactly 

what is being asked. What are 

you required to discuss and make 

decisions on? Ensure you make 

decisions at these meetings. If they 

are early planning meetings, then 

the decisions might be that a team 

or specific member(s) of staff are 

tasked to research specific areas 

and report back. But do not go into 

meetings and have a chat. Many, 

many hours are wasted in the 

business world having meetings 

where no decisions are made and 

what you thought was a planning 

meeting has no actions. The 

result is that you have not moved 

the business forward towards 

increasing that bottom line or 

meeting that goal. 

3. CLIENTS, PEOPLE AND GROWTH 

In business we tend to focus on growth 

to increase profitability. Growth will 

take care of itself if we concentrate on 

our clients (consumers) and our people 

(workforce). Your business clients and 

your workforce are your two biggest 

advocates, so think about how you are 

going to cater for them. What is best 

for your clients? What do they like and 

dislike? Without the buy-in and support 

of your people, your workforce, you 

will not achieve success. Think about 

how you are going to communicate 

the business plans and engage them 

in formulating the processes and 

innovations if you can. People love to 

feel involved and a happy workforce is 

a healthy, stable workforce. 

4. EMBED NEW IDEAS PROPERLY 

Ensure you share the business’s vision 

with your people. I know a business in 

the US where the managing director, 

Floyd Green, a self-confessed micro 

manager, was hit by a car while out 

cycling. He woke up after two weeks 

in a coma, alive but so badly injured 

that he had to learn to walk again, 

and so tired that he couldn’t even 

contemplate going back to work for 

six months. When he did, he eased 

himself back in and worked part-time 

in the business for many months. He 

had built his business up from scratch 

to be an employer of around twenty 

people, but had controlled everything 

in that business for years. 

So, what happened to his business? 

How did the staff manage in his 

absence? Floyd was concerned for 

them and their families’ financial 

security. Well, in his absence his staff 

discussed all the jobs that needed 

to be done to keep the business 

running. They realised after some 

discussion that everyone was doing 

jobs they hated, and not doing some 

of the other jobs they loved and 

were good at. They redistributed the 

jobs so that everyone was doing the 

jobs they loved. After all, we know 

that if we love what we do, then we 

are much more likely to do it well. 

When Floyd returned to work, his 

business was thriving and running 

smoothly. The importance of your 

people and ensuring they are on 

board to help embed any decisions 

is of paramount importance. You 

should plan time to explain and 

listen to them. And, as in Floyd’s 

case, they might be able to help you. 

5. MANAGEMENT AND PEOPLE 

PHILOSOPHIES 

Does your business have a clear 

management philosophy? This 

should be in addition to your 

business vision. How will your 

management team manage its 

people? How will you communicate, 

share ideas, ask for feedback and 

implement changes in your business? 

What are your people philosophies? 

There are four key areas to ensure 

you have philosophies for: attracting 

and recruiting; engaging and 

onboarding; developing and growing; 

and retaining and rewarding your 

people. Everyone is an advocate of 

your business. 

6. DIVIDE EXPENDITURE INTO 

TWO AREAS: PROJECTS AND 

BUSINESS AS NORMAL 

When your business looks to 

implement new plans, identify and 

allocate the required expenditure 

into projects and business as 

normal. Projects should be paid 

for out of capital expenditure and 

business as normal expenditure 

should be paid for from cashflow. 

Projects need to be costed properly 

though, and you should always 

add in at least a 10% contingency 

for unforeseen costs. Time spent 

planning and the execution of the 

project for existing people in the 

business should all be included. 

Very often I used to see key 

members of a business sucked 

into days, weeks and months of 

planning which had a detrimental 

effect on the short-term 

profitability of the business. Ensure 

you keep your existing business 

running efficiently while you plan – 

don’t take your eye off the ball! 

7. PLAN, TAKE ACTION, REVIEW, 

LEARN FROM IT AND REPEAT 

Many of us are quite capable 

of making plans and carrying 

them out, but how many of us 

in business stop to review the 

relative success of the change? 

How many of us learn from 

those experiences and make 

further plans for further change 

to improve things further? My 

experience suggests that not 

many of us do much past the first 

two steps. But we should review 

and learn from the changes we 

make and improve the business 

around us. We must have the 

courage to self-critique and to 

move forward. 

If we can do all these things, 

then growth and improvement to 

profitability will come. 


AUDIT AND ACCOUNTING: 

WHERE DOES THE PROBLEM LIE? 

The Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) recent Audit 

Quality Review has clearly highlighted the shortcomings 

of the audit industry. Its findings have also placed a 

number of firms under close scrutiny following recent 

scandals, including KPMG’s botched audit of Carillion 

and Grant Thornton’s role in Patisserie Valerie’s ability 

to hide a £20m black hole in its funding. 

Simon Bittlestone, 

CEO of financial analytics 

firm Metapraxis 

The suggested solution for 

improving the quality of these 

audits is to split up the Big Four and 

separate their other services more 

distinctly from their audits, similar 

to the way that changes were made 

to banks’ ringfencing rules following 

the financial crash. 

However, it would be wrong 

to lay all the blame solely on 

the auditors’ shoulders here. 

Management and finance teams 

also have a part to play, and only 

by bringing all parties together 

can businesses start to get a full 

picture of why and how errors 

are being made, and therefore 

understand how to stop them. 

COMPLEXITY OF ACCOUNTING 

STANDARDS 

With the spotlight falling so heavily 

on the standard of work produced 

by auditors, the industry clearly 

needs some level of reform to make 

sure that firms probe further and 

dig deeper when examining their 

clients’ accounts. 

This is likely to require technology, 

and in particular the application of 

intelligent algorithms on a real time 

basis so that firms are able to spot 

issues far earlier, and with much 

greater accuracy. But we’re certainly 

not there yet. 

The purpose of accounting in the first 

place is to accurately represent the 

financial performance of the business, 

both for shareholders and for internal 

management teams, where it can be 

used to inform strategic decisions. 

However, somewhere along the way, 

accounting treatments have become 

so complex that they are obscuring 

the very thing they are trying to 

provide clarity on – the underlying 

business performance. 

FOCUSING ON UNDERLYING 

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE 

This obfuscation is making it harder 

for management to test the accounts 

to reveal errors in good time, let alone 

plan effectively for the future. Taking 

Patisserie Valerie as a recent example, 

if the Executive Chairman claimed to 

have been entirely unaware of the 

funding gap - which amounted to the 

equivalent of nearly an entire year’s 

worth of pre-tax profits - there must 

be much wider issues than the failings 

of Grant Thornton to do so too. 

Metro Bank’s accounting error on the 

valuation of its commercial property 

and buy-to-let loans back in February 

was so significant that it led to a 

near 70% drop in its capital value. 

Again, this discovery suggests that 

its management information just 

wasn’t up to scratch. And by the time 

the issue was spotted during a PRA 

review, it was too late. 

Both of these issues may have been 

avoided if the accounting complexities 

had not clouded management’s 

understanding of true business 

performance. Indeed, if management 

information had cut through the noise 

and provided the executive teams with 

a clear understanding of true business 

performance, leadership could have 

seen that the numbers weren’t adding 

up far earlier and tackled the issue 

before it was too late. 

The use of intelligent algorithms 

will undoubtedly play a big part in 

addressing issues like these, since 

finance teams and auditors will be able 

to see, in real-time, how the business 

is performing, and any issues or 

errors will be brought to the surface 

more quickly and easily. This use of 

technology will also allow for significant 

integration of the management and 

financial accounts, which will also 

make it harder for problems to remain 

hidden for so long. 

BETTER INTEGRATION OF 

REPORTING 

The problem at the moment, however, 

is that the integration between 

internal and external accounts is often 

very poor. Not only that, but audit 

is currently treated as an entirely 

separate process. With three often 

siloed processes running at different 

times to produce management 

information, statutory reports and 

assurance that the numbers are 

correct, no wonder problems become 

engrained and harder to unravel. It 

takes real bravery to raise a material 

issue after the event; by that point 

nothing can even be done about it. 

Improving audit does not just involve 

improving an auditor’s tools, it involves 

integrating the process of management 

information, statutory reporting and 

assurance so that issues are resolved 

as and when they arise. 

Without a doubt, the increase in 

accounting errors like those seen 

at Patisserie Valerie, Metro Bank, 

Carillion and Conviviality uncover 

audit failings, but they also show that 

management did not have a good 

enough grasp of underlying business 

performance to test the accounts. 

This is exacerbated by increasingly 

complex accounting treatments and 

poor integration of reporting. The 

problem, therefore, doesn’t start and 

end with audit. We cannot absolve it 

of any blame entirely, but, with ever 

more complex accounting standards, 

auditors need a more powerful way 

of analysing issues ahead of time. 

Technologies will help finance teams 

focus on providing management with 

valuable insights, since sophisticated 

algorithms will do the ‘bean counting’ 

for them. It and will also enable 

auditors to spot issues before they 

develop further. 

When firms can achieve this, 

they’ll be far less likely to fall foul 

of the sort of issues that have led 

to several high-profile company 

administrations. But if the industry 

continues to ignore these problems, 

history will only repeat itself. 


Assessing trade risk means seeing 

the complete picture 

Risk tends to be in the eye of the beholder. We all use 

a mix of instinct and personal experience to decide 

whether to take a risk or defer major decisions 

until a better time. 

Andrew Share, Commercial Director, Coface UK 

How often have we looked back ruefully on 

a business decision and thought “if only I 

had known that at the time”? 

Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing and 

there is no such thing as a risk-free decision. And 

yet, there are also some disturbing examples 

of companies whose wilful blindness made 

them the author of their own downfall, from 

RBS’s disastrous decision to acquire ABN Amro 

at an inflated price which left it dangerously 

overstreched, to Carillion’s strategy of debtfunded 

acquitisions and overseas expansion 

which was later described as “reckless in the 

pursuit of growth”. 

While these are extreme cases, they highlight the 

danger of making tough financial calls without 

considering the bigger picture. Company 

decision-makers therefore have a responsibility 

to shareholders, staff and suppliers to ensure 

they have a reliable source of accurate and upto-date 

information about trade risk so they can 

steer their business in the right direction. 

Assessing Sector Risk 

The most immediate concern for any business 

will be what is happening in their own and 

associated sectors. Levels of sectoral risk tend 

to fluctuate in line with factors such as the cost 

of raw materials, consumer demand, production 

capacity and confidence. 

But they need to be seen in conjunction with 

global economic trends and even geopolitical 

developments, which can have a positive 

or negative impact on payment default or 

insolvencies in a particular sector or market. 

The automotive industry is an example of a 

sector where trade risk needs to be viewed 

within the context of the wider economy. 

Manufacturers in the automotive industry are 

operating under a number of constraints which 

has prompted Coface to downgrade its sector 

risk assessments across Western Europe, Central 

and Eastern Europe, Latin America and North 

America. These include the need to adapt 

to new environmental pollution standards; 

changing consumer tastes (e.g. concerns about 

diesel) and the need to invest in new electric 

and driverless technology to keep pace with 

new entrants in the market. 

In the UK, the automotive sector had been seen 

as a manufacturing success story in 2016, when 

the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders 

(SMMT) revealed that new car registrations had 

hit a record annual high of 2.69million. But by 

January 2019, the SMMT warned that British car 

production in the previous year was at a fiveyear 

low and inward investment had fallen by 

46.5%. Commentators have been quick to blame 

Brexit for the downturn in the UK automotive 

sector but businesses should understand that it 

is not the only risk factor. 

We all use a mix of instinct and personal Adapting experience to risk to decide whether 

to take a risk or defer major decisions until a better time. Sometimes our 

A better understanding of wider risks is critical 

risk decisions pay off, but there is also a chance we will fall back to earth 

with a bump. 

Global Risk 

Coface’s latest analysis of country and sector risks 

predicts global economic growth to slow to 3% 

in 2019 because of a number of factors, including 

volatile commodity prices, supply constraints in 

advanced economies and the drag-effect of the 

continued slowdown in China, where household 

consumption is faltering. While this may sound 

like a modest downturn, it will still have an impact 

on business credit risk: Coface forecasts that 

corporate insolvencies will increase in 24 of the 39 

countries for which this data is available, including 

the UK. 

Another continuing concern is the trend towards 

protectionist policies. In the first three quarters 

of 2018, trade restrictions were placed on 12% 

of US imports, while 8% of US exports were hit 

by retaliatory measures. An all-out trade war 

between the US and China may yet be averted 

by a trade deal but the protectionist rhetoric 

from the White House is still having an impact 

on business confidence, particularly in Europe 

where there has been a decline in new orders. 

And closer to home, leading figures within the 

manufacturing and services sectors have voiced 

concern about the uncertainty surrounding 

Britain’s post-Brexit trading relationships. 

to trading safely as it enables financial decisionmakers 

to be proactive and measured in 

reducing their exposure to payment default and 

customer insolvency. This is likely to include 

practical steps such as beefing-up due diligence 

checks on prospects, reviewing customer 

credit limits and could also extend to obtaining 

credit insurance protection, particularly for 

strategically important clients. 

As this brief overview shows, there are always 

a number of interplaying risk factors to take 

into account when making big decisions. It 

therefore makes sense for companies to work 

with a reputable specialist who can provide an 

insight into the financial health of individual 

customers and a broader perspective on 

economic and sectoral risk. 

And even when the risk environment is 

challenging, businesses that get the big picture 

are best placed to target their resources on the 

most promising markets and prospects and 

grow sustainably. 

A world leader in credit insurance for more than 70 years, 

Coface’s value comes from its ability to proactively 

provide its clients with detailed risk analyses, 

allowing them to make the right decisions 

at the right time in order to manage 

their credit risks. 

For more information, visit 

www.coface.uk 

Coface is authorised in France by the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution. In the UK Coface is subject to limited 

regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and in Ireland Coface is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. 


DELOITTE CFO SURVEY REVEALS 

ECONOMIC FEARS SURROUNDING BREXIT 

LONDON JOB GROWTH HAS INCREASED 

DESPITE BREXIT UNCERTAINTY 

New research from the Association of Professional 

Staffing Companies (APSCo) has revealed job 

growth in London is thriving, despite ongoing 

Brexit uncertainties. 

The data found that employment 

in London is, contrary to opinion, 

showing no signs of slowing up, 

despite the Brexit deadline of 31 

October looming. 

Statistics from APSCo found that 

vacancies across London increased by 

almost a quarter (23%) year-on-year – 

based on research from Vacancysoft. 

The data shows that a thriving 

job market isn’t the case across 

all sectors; for example, banking 

vacancies remain flat, in part due to 

the relocation of financial services 

firms outside of London. 

That aside, there are encouraging 

signs, with the technology sector the 

largest and fastest growing, enjoying 

a 44% increase in hiring activity. 

Data from APSCo shows, perhaps 

unsurprisingly in the context of 

technology interest, that demand 

for professionals in the IT industry 

has increased by 25% year-onyear 

too, making up 37% of all 

advertised positions. 

Elsewhere, there is significant 

demand for HR professionals, 

placements for whom increased by 

a third, while business to business 

development & sales professionals 

positions rose by 37%. 

Unsurprisingly, technology, 

media & telecoms (TMT) positions 

enjoyed a rise in 32% for talent 

– something that is expected 

given that BBC, Sky and Facebook 

all hold positions in the top 20 

companies for hiring in the capital. 

Rina Durban, Membership 

Relations Manager at APSo, 

labelled the data as “fantastic,” 

in light of the doom and gloom 

surrounding Brexit. 

“It’s fantastic to see that the capital 

is withstanding Brexit pressure and 

that the job market is still strong. 

“London’s rich talent pool, particularly 

in the technology sector continues 

to draw in leading companies to 

encourage market growth. 

“Demand in this area is now 

particularly high as London has 

successfully pivoted into becoming 

one of the leading global hubs for 

technology.” 

Accounting & consulting 

positions also enjoyed a “notable” 

rise of 20%. 

The latest Deloitte CFO Survey reveals fears and 

concerns surrounding Brexit. 

According to the survey, 83% of 

those CFOs canvassed expect the 

long-term business environment to 

deteriorate once the UK leaves the 

EU – a reading not seen since the 

June 2016 referendum. 

Deloitte’s Chief Economist, Ian 

Stewart, said that the uncertainty is 

dragging on sentiment and spending. 

He said: “Events in the last three 

years, and recent news suggesting 

the economy shrank in the second 

quarter, have added to worries 

about the impact of Brexit. 

“This is not solely a question of the 

long-term outlook. Brexit has not 

happened, but it is acting as a drag on 

corporate sentiment and spending. 

“Almost two thirds (62%) of CFOs 

expect to reduce hiring in the next 

three years as a result of Brexit and 

almost half (47%) expect to reduce 

capital spending, suggesting a 

cautious approach from businesses. 

“Ironically, risk appetite in the 

corporate sector has slumped just 

as it has taken off in the equity 

market. Measures of financial market 

volatility have declined, even though 

a majority of CFOs rate uncertainty 

as being at high or very high levels.” 

The UK’s largest businesses are 

canvassed in the Deloitte CFO 

Survey, gauging sentiment and 

confidence; those whose results are 

part of the survey include FTSE 350 

companies, and the total market 

value of the listed companies 

participating in the survey stands at 

£345 billion – approximately 15% of 

the UK quoted equity market. 

Elsewhere in the Deloitte CFO 

Survey, despite the fact CFOs expect 

to reduce capital spending and 

employment as a result of Brexit, 

confidence of investors is surging; 

indeed, the FTSE passed 7,600 in July. 

Ian Stewart explains the difference 

in approach between CFOs and 

investors. 

He said: “Equity valuations imply 

that investors believe central banks 

will save the day but the downbeat 

mood of UK CFOs suggests 

corporates are less sanguine.” 

24 Today’s Boardroom • Issue 5 


25

THE THREE BIG SKILLS NEEDED 

TO SUCCEED IN THE C-SUITE 

Success in an executive role requires honing three 

core skills. These are universal and apply no matter 

what industry you’re working in. 

Peter Gbedemah 

Computer scientist and 

telecoms entrepreneur 

LEADERSHIP 

Any organisations’ senior members 

must be able to manage and build 

robust working relationships with 

others. Particularly in order to make 

sure employees feel recognised for 

their efforts, so they’re motivated 

to perform over the long-term. 

It sounds obvious, but it’s often 

forgotten as organisations get more 

complex and hierarchical. 

Executives must remember too that 

leadership is not a static concept. It 

adapts as the organisation develops. 

A hands-on, direct approach 

might work well for the founder 

of a company of five. But the 

CEO of a multi-national company 

with several offices and layers of 

management must learn to lead 

while being comfortable delegating 

and accepting the existence of other 

poles of experience within their 

organisation. 

The final aspect of leadership is 

mentoring. It’s something busy 

leaders find hardest to incorporate 

into their timetable but remains 

essential to the sustainability of any 

enterprise, since it allows others to 

step into positions of responsibility 

and enhances their commitment to 

the company. 

STRATEGIC THINKING 

Company culture is born in the 

c-suite, but it’s important that 

your business mission doesn’t 

die there. Establishing a business 

vision and a defining mission helps 

maintain momentum and overcome 

roadblocks. 

Perseverance is key. When I was 

CEO of Gateway Communications, 

I instituted a vision and values 

programme to ensure everybody 

was on the same page. 

Implementing it did not happen 

overnight – there was constant 

refining. But the core mission of the 

company remained the same and, in 

time, the results did appear. 

Strategic direction is especially relevant 

when jumping into the c-suite of an 

existing business, where historic values 

are often engrained but, equally, may 

well need to change (indeed, that may 

well be why you’re there). Change 

is daunting for many and pockets 

of resistance are likely to present 

themselves. Nevertheless, keep going 

and focused on the big picture. 

COMMUNICATION 

Closely allied to strategic thinking 

is the ability to communicate a 

vision in a way your organisation 

can understand. Much ink has 

been spilled on the subject and 

for good reason: modern history 

demonstrates communication is 

arguably the most important skill 

needed to be a successful leader. 

It’s also one of the most subtle skills, 

since there’s no immediate pay-back 

or obvious cost which is saved as 

a result of strong communication. 

However, over time, the benefits 

to employee engagement are 

considerable, as each member 

of staff is made to feel informed 

enough to be integral to the 

organisation’s welfare. This, in turn, 

comes back to benefit the c-suite: 

a recent study confirmed what’s 

been common knowledge for some 

time – employee satisfaction had a 

considerable positive correlation with 

higher productivity and profitability 

and helped reduce staff turnover. 

Communication was my top priority 

at Gateway Communications. 

For instance, when we acquired 

smaller telecoms outfits, I ensured 

we hosted events and workshops 

where employees could see how 

important their job was. The 

message was clear: everybody was 

important, part of a bigger, ongoing 

enterprise and each employee was 

equally important to the success 

of the company. This approach 

brought benefit to the company, 

to the community and to the 

employees personally. 

Peter Gbedemah is a computer scientist 

and telecoms entrepreneur, who became 

a multi-millionaire after his telecoms 

business, Gateway Communications, 

was bought by Vodacom (a subsidiary of 

Vodafone) for $700m. 


Today’s Boardroom • Issue 5 27

WILL THE NEW PRIME MINISTER BE 

AN ASSET FOR BUSINESSES? 

Jamie Martin believes Britain’s new Prime Minister 

could place the UK in the top three economies in the 

world providing major opportunities for businesses. 

Jamie Martin, 

CEO 

Ideal Shopping Direct 

“Boris isn’t your standard politician. 

However, he is a decision maker, he’s 

determined and I firmly believe he 

will secure Brexit as a promise while 

supporting our nation’s businesses. 

There is always a sense of 

nervousness and excitement 

associated with change and leading 

the UK at such a pivotal time is 

not going to come without its 

challenges. There’s certainly a lot on 

his plate in terms of reviewing our 

projected North-South transport 

links, making key decisions in 

relation to protecting a split nation 

from Eastern threats and uniting the 

divisions in his own party. 

Yet unlike his predecessors, he 

brings a lot more positivity to 

Westminster and so my predictions 

are that any negatives surrounding 

Boris Johnston’s appointment as 

Prime Minister will be short-lived. 

My experience within retail has 

shown that being able to take risks 

and innovate is the only way the 

sector is going to thrive. It’s the 

same in Parliament. Those that 

play safe and have no commercial 

backbone don’t actually achieve a 

great deal. 

Some people are unable to see 15 

chess moves ahead but he, like so 

many entrepreneurial business 

leaders in this country, can certainly 

see a brighter future. 

For the next few months our 

thoughts will all turn towards 

Brexit and how Boris will approach 

the negotiating table. The prospect 

of ‘no deal’ is viewed by some as 

detrimental for business and our 

sector. But, what people aren’t really 

acknowledging, is that we are the fifth 

highest performing economy in the 

world and the captains of industry will 

put immense pressure on the likes of 

France and Germany to ensure that 

Britain is kept open for business. 

In fact, leaving the EU could signal 

immense change and rank us higher, 

attaining the third largest economy 

in the world and an absolute 

powerhouse. I’ll explain why. 

Brexit doesn’t prevent growth. In 

terms of Ideal Shopping Direct, we 

are already projecting a 6.5% rise in 

turnover this year, despite the damage 

done by uncertainty and chaos 

surrounding Brexit. I think we are likely 

to see a good-feel factor surrounding 

a decision regarding Brexit. The clever 

people will start moving and spending 

their money in order to take control of 

new opportunities. This will stimulate 

the economy. 

Back in 1972 it was a good idea to 

have trade agreements, yet over 

the last 45 years we’ve reached a 

point where one glove doesn’t fit 

across 28 different countries with 

differing infrastructure. The EU itself 

is like a twisted set of deep-rooted 

vines with ideology formed from 

older generations. Britain could 

walk away, make sufficient changes 

and inward investments to drive 

the economy but it would take the 

EU around 20 years to untangle 

themselves. The EU needs us more 

than we need them. 

I would urge all retail businesses 

to see the positives and prepare 

wisely. Here at Ideal Shopping 

Direct, we have ensured we have 

sufficient stock to withstand any 

partial disruption but we are also 

buying product outside of Europe 

so it can be business as usual for 

our customers. Businesses need to 

understand that it could be a case of 

short-term pain for long-term gain, 

seeing the positives and acting on 

them. Our shopping channel, Ideal 

World, is already planning a huge 

price reduction for a Brexit event 

across its broadcast and online 

channels to celebrate the EU tariff 

being lifted and we are confident 

sales will boom as a result. 

This new era with Boris Johnston as 

our Prime Minister is about nerve 

and conviction. It’s not about making 

a saving of 2p for every loaf of bread, 

the stakes are much, much higher. 

The UK under Boris needs to put 

task forces in place to support failing 

businesses, lift taxes, and power 

through with innovation.” 


whether it be around sustainability, 

diversity, due diligence or areas like 

data security can achieve a lot both 

internally and externally. 

LOOKING BEYOND THE NUMBERS 

Sitting in today’s boardroom, you might be forgiven for 

thinking that life has changed. While the financial metrics - 

the profit and loss, balance sheet and cashflow statement - 

remain core considerations, a growing number of nonfinancial 

issues beyond those invested in debt or equity cry 

out for an ever-increasing share of board time - both inside 

the boardroom itself and outside. 

Neil Kirton, 

Managing Director, 

Business Intelligence and 

Investigations, Kroll, 

a division of Duff & Phelps 

Adapting to this new and evolving 

environment looks to be one of 

the defining characteristics of a 

successful executive and nonexecutive 

board member in listed 

and unlisted companies. 

As companies respond to the new 

environment, it is also likely the 

composition and make up of boards 

will change. 

SO, WHAT ARE THESE 

“NON-FINANCIAL” ISSUES? 

In a media report last year two 

pension funds were reported to be 

questioning their allocations to a 

global asset manager. The problem? 

In both cases, the concerns were 

non-financial. The asset manager 

had delivered double digit growth 

per annum. Rather than the returns 

themselves, the pension funds were 

concerned about the ethics of how 

the returns were achieved. 

In the listed company arena, there 

are a number of recent examples 

of non-financial issues exposing 

the shortcomings of corporate 

culture, poor ethical behaviour and 

corporate governance weaknesses. 

As a board member, the 

reputational consequences of these 

shortcomings occurring on your 

watch can be significant - at one 

level, career limiting, and at another 

level inviting scrutiny from both 

regulatory and law enforcement 

bodies. The non-financial issues can 

have a direct impact on the financial. 

In today’s world, a scandal can make 

an already cautious buy-side more 

nervous and feel pressurised to sell 

down equity. The pool of investors 

potentially interested in acquiring 

stock reduces and the rating placed 

on the shares could fall. The growing 

army of advisors available to assist 

in a crisis costs time and money to 

manage, leaving aside the impact on 

the morale of the staff. Add to this a 

heightened level of engagement by 

your shareholders and a scandal can 

create a full timetable for a board. 

If you do sit in a boardroom - a word 

to the wise. Issues such as your 

lingering concerns about a CEO’s 

behaviour and approach to the staff; 

the company’s internal controls; 

the handling of a whistleblower; 

the actions you took to integrate 

an acquisition; the reputation and 

possible actions of the buyer of your 

business or subsidiary that’s for sale; 

your management of a conflict or 

even a potential conflict; or the leak 

of information from your boardroom, 

are likely to be worthy of your 

focussed attention. This is hardly 

news to the informed board member 

but what may be less obvious is the 

extent to which these issues are 

being considered and processed by 

other parties when constructing the 

investment case. 

Certainly, if those parties have hostile 

intent, get ready. At the “extreme” 

end, the growing instances of short 

selling attacks can play hard to 

the non-financial issue tune. The 

hostile aggressor knows this, as 

does the army of advisors, who 

have likely been consulting a wide 

range of sources, not just investment 

banks, to identify extra leverage to 

undermine the management. 

In short, money still talks but it’s 

speaking a more nuanced language. 

If the house isn’t in order, investors 

will get harder to court and fewer 

pools of capital will want to invest. 

So, recognising and embracing this 

at board level is key. A response 

could come in various ways 

depending on the context of your 

situation. Elevating and sustaining 

the debate at board level first 

requires a recognition that this 

is actually an issue but second, 

requires a level of understanding 

and board level sponsorship that 

may be different. The virtues 

of reviewing or investigating 

sensitive issues independently is 

growing. Allowing yourself to be 

benchmarked against best practise 

Understanding the culture of a 

business - the working environment, 

ethics, core values - and the board’s 

commitment to these non-financial 

issues represents a rapidly growing 

area of both pre-acquisition spend 

and ongoing management for 

acquirers. Investors increasingly 

demand high standards and 

tangible evidence of commitment 

and consistency. While the value 

proposition centres on the financials, 

an increasingly large group of 

professional investors believe 

businesses are easier to sell with 

these attributes embedded in them 

and perhaps also the earnings these 

businesses can generate can be 

rated more highly. 

Returning to the boardroom, the list 

of items on the agenda is undeniably 

getting longer. Forbes believes 60% 

of assets managed for EU investors 

now incorporate sustainable 

investment strategies. In a recent 

survey, leading asset manager 

Schroders suggests investors hold 

ESG investments for on average of 

two years longer than their usual 

investments. The London Stock 

Exchange ESG report in January 2018 

indicates millennials - presumably 

the investors of tomorrow - rank 

some of the non-financial issues as 

equally important as investment 

outcomes in terms of investment 

decision making. 

It seems inescapable that a board’s 

objective is to build long-term 

stable ownership that supports 

development and growth. There are 

several component parts to creating 

this, but an understanding at the 

highest level in an organisation that 

an increasing proportion of the capital 

pools are configuring around these 

non-financial issues will continue to 

shape the board agenda. 


GETTING A SINGLE VERSION OF THE 

TRUTH WITH FINANCIAL SOFTWARE 

Having an accurate oversight of your company’s 

finances is the most important thing for any business. 

Neil Robertson, 

Executive chairman, 

Compleat 

Without a clear picture of what money 

is coming in, what money is going 

out and how your future payment 

commitments match up against your 

projected income, planning for your 

company’s future is impossible. 

Unfortunately, too many businesses 

struggle to get a handle on their 

finances because they rely on 

outdated, cumbersome and siloed 

accounting practices. 

Others are using accounting software 

which is collecting all the data they 

need to do better financial planning, 

the data is just locked away within 

inaccessible or undecipherable 

data structures and is operationally 

backwards looking, rather than 

looking ahead. 

There is also the problem that the 

data usually within accounting 

software tends to be retrospective 

and deals with historical 

transactions, rather than looking at 

what is to come or helping provide 

insights into opportunities or even 

future threats. 

The key to using accounting 

software is to make sure it is making 

the best use of the data it has. 

TO DO THIS YOU NEED: 

• Historical data to use as a 

benchmark or baseline against 

future activity 

• The ability to easily capture 

future business plans in a 

financial context 

You also need to be able to 

present information which gives 

a single view of the truth of your 

financial situation which can be 

used by budget holders and senior 

operational management, rather 

than just the accounting team. 

PREDICTING THE FUTURE WITH 

HISTORICAL DATA 

One of the keys to being able to 

effectively plan your company’s 

future finances is to understand your 

cashflow and understand what this 

is going to look like three, six or 12 

months from now. 

Using accounting software to use 

the historical data businesses are 

collecting through the course of a 

normal year and presenting it in a 

way which can provide guidance and 

insight into future performance is the 

key to effective financial planning. 

By combining this historical data within 

accounting software with upcoming 

known events business can make their 

planning and forecasting much more 

accurate and based on intelligence and 

data – rather than guesswork. 

But then we come to the problem 

that in most businesses, cashflow 

and finances are often not managed 

centrally by one team, but rather by 

different departments, often each 

with their own budget and cashflow 

sheets, and reporting methods. 

For any accounting software to 

accurately assist with financial planning it 

must be accessible from a single source. 

Using accounting software businesses 

and finance teams can achieve full 

visibility of their financial position, and 

use this to plan, from a single point. 

This “single version of the truth” is the 

primary benefit that the right accounting 

software can provide to a company. 

Using accounting software to capture, 

view and interpret spending data in 

real-time as it happens on one platform, 

and with live dashboards, users can view 

both historical and future spending data 

side-by-side and ensure they are making 

data based decisions at all times. 

FREEING YOUR FINANCE TIME TO 

PLAN FOR THE FUTURE 

Ask anyone who works in a finance 

team which still deploys manual 

processes and the one thing they 

will all tell you is how much of a time 

burden processing invoices and 

payments is – it takes a lot of time. 

And this is another area which 

accounting software can help businesses 

improve their financial planning. 

Simply by freeing their finance team 

up from the shackles of data entry and 

filing, they can spend more time actually 

analysing a business’ performance, 

opportunities and possible weaknesses. 

These business critical insights are, 

after all, what a business employs a 

finance team for, so giving them the 

tools to be of value is a no brainer. 

Accounting software, for instance, 

which can automatically capture invoice 

data when it comes in, identify who the 

document needs to go, send it to them 

for approval and then be digitally stored 

can be of great value. 

Rather than manually printing 

information off, manually checking 

the details are correct, sending it to 

the right person to sign off, chasing 

that it’s been signed off and then 

dealing with any mistakes that are 

made a finance team can just spend 

time dealing with exceptions. 

The rest of the time they can be 

analysing a business’ performance 

and using accounting software in a 

way we’ve already described to plan 

ahead and ensure a business always 

has one eye on the future, rather 

than both eyes looking back. 

What is certain is that without the 

right accounting software, finance 

teams face a future of time intensive, 

soul destroying days of data entry 

and filing. 

And for businesses, they face a future 

of never seeing the opportunities that 

may come up while being constantly 

susceptible to the risks of not 

planning their finances effectively. 


WORK-RELATED STRESS 

COMMON IN THE UK 

Education has, perhaps 

unsurprisingly, the highest rates 

of stress reported by employees; 

figures show 82,000 reports of stress, 

depression or anxiety that have 

found to be exacerbated by work. 

Almost all employees in the UK have experienced 

work-related stress. 

This is according to data and 

analysis by The Office Group (TOG), 

who calculated a stress score for 12 

of the UK’s industries. 

Public data was used on a number 

of self-reported stress cases, whilst 

average full-time hours, number of 

days lost to self-reported stress, and 

the likelihood of future automation 

all taken into consideration. 

Overall, when investigating wellbeing 

in the workplace, TOG found that 

91% of people in the UK have 

experienced work-related stress. 

Mental wellbeing in the workplace, 

if left unrecognised and untreated, 

can have a devastating impact on 

health and productivity. 

Most organisations are aware of this 

and yet, stress levels continue to 

rise, revealing a need to tackle this 

most pressing of issues. 

Worryingly, despite the prevalence 

of mental health issues, there 

is an apparent lack of support 

surrounding stress at work according 

to TOG, the awareness of which is 

starting to become more prevalent. 

This places pressure on companies 

to change these behaviours, while 

allowing the powers that be to 

investigate just what employers are 

doing to ensure its employees are 

safe and well, and their mental and 

emotional needs are being tended to. 

The data and subsequent statistics 

from TOG highlight reasons behind 

workplace stress, as well as those 

sectors where this is happening the 

most, as well as what businesses 

and employees can do to encourage 

and foster a happier, healthier 

working situation. 

TOG collected data that highlights a 

number of UK industries; data was 

used to compare working hours, 

incidences of stress and the number 

of working days lost to illness. 

This allowed TOG to calculate the 

percentage difference against 

national averages for each industry 

– which in turn meant the ranking 

table could be created, revealing the 

highest and lowest levels of stress 

per industry. 

According to the data, health and social 

care is the most stressful industry to 

work in, with health and social care 

workers generally working longer 

hours; distressingly, there are more 

cases of work-related stress, depression 

and anxiety reported in this profession. 

The stress score was at 83.3%. 

Approximately 2,320 of health and 

social workers per 100,000 employees 

(2.32%) report cases of work-related 

stress, depression or anxiety. 

Overall, 0.92 days are lost per 

worker, which is almost double the 

average of 0.46 days a year. 

Alessa McNally is Head of Member 

Experience at TOG. She said 

that employers must put stress 

management practices in place and 

called for flexibility. 

282mm x 120mm 

“All employers can put stress 

management practices in place to keep 

their employees as healthy as possible. 

“We believe flexibility is 

fundamental to workplace 

wellbeing. That’s why our office 

members can work from all 35 of 

our locations. We provide a variety 

of spaces to work and recharge 

from, including meditation rooms, 

libraries, fitness gyms and roof 

terraces. We also provide a range 

of wellness services, such as 

nutrition workshops, yoga and 

meditation mornings.” 

The top three sectors with the 

highest stress score are the human 

health and social work industry; 

this is followed by financial and 

insurance activities; and public 

administration and defence. 

These affect 2,370 employers per 

100,000 (2.37%); this is compared 

to the average rate of 1.39%, which 

suggests real potential for problems 

in this industry. 

Indeed, the strain on education is 

well known, with mounting class sizes 

and budget cuts. The wellbeing of 

staff is more important than ever, at 

a time when added workplace stress 

could leave people more vulnerable. 

Data has found that women are 

more likely to speak up than men, 

which poses another difficult issue 

for CEOs and HR staff alike; men 

are, generally speaking, less likely to 

speak out about these troubles. It is 

important their bosses identify any 

irregular patterns. 

Mindfulness is vital too and as part 

of their research, TOG spoke to a 

mindfulness expert, who said: 

“We’ve seen first hand how 

mindfulness can help calm the mind. 

It allows you to be more present 

and better able to communicate 

thoroughly, making it a useful tool 

when presenting, participating in 

meetings and even having everyday 

conversations with colleagues.” 


THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTING 

SOFTWARE IN FINANCIAL PLANNING 

Accounting software platforms continue to rise in 

prominence, being adopted by both SMEs and larger 

corporations. For CFOs, they have become an integral part 

of their day-to-day activities, allowing them to perform 

their role more effectively and efficiently. 

Ercan Demiralay, 

Partner at Wellers, 

SO, WHAT IS ACCOUNTING 

SOFTWARE? 

Essentially, accounting software 

is a computer program which 

assists financial professionals in 

recording and reporting a firm’s 

financial transactions. All accounting 

software systems, and there are 

many, have different modules 

which deal with specific parts of the 

accounting process. These include 

key areas such as bookkeeping, 

billing, invoicing, as well as inventory 

management and stock. More 

specific areas, such as credit control, 

can also be added if necessary. 

HOW DOES IT BENEFIT CFOS? 

In the early days of accounting 

software, everything was desktop 

based. This meant that CFOs 

needed a large, specially trained 

team to manage and input huge 

amounts of data. Information could 

only be accessed at one physical 

point and the process was lengthy. 

There was also room for error, with 

so many people inputting data from 

different departments. 

Considerable progress has been 

made since these early days, 

with systems becoming more 

streamlined and the interfaces more 

user friendly and intuitive. Not only 

does this mean that CFOs have been 

able to reduce the size of their team, 

but those in their team don’t require 

such rigorous specialist training. 

Reducing timescales is another 

crucial benefit of accounting software 

for CFOs. Producing monthly reports 

for the board has been made a 

considerably shorter process. With 

the old system of desktop software 

and manual packs, it could take up 

to 20 days after month end for the 

reports to be produced. Now, a flash 

report can be produced within a day 

and actual reports, on average, within 

seven. With every company having its 

own unique business targets, quick 

reporting improves transparency and 

improves the ability for management 

to take appropriate action. 

Live dashboards, which have been 

made possible through advances in 

accounting software solutions, have 

become imperative to the modern 

CFO. In both global corporations and 

SMEs, different data sets are held in 

different areas. For example, sales 

data will come from the sales team 

whereas materials expenses will 

come from procurement. Software 

allows data to be automatically 

pulled through from all areas of 

the business, without the need for 

manual input. This usually allows 

more time to cross check the data 

to ensure it makes sense rather 

than spending the time to get the 

data there in the first place, thus 

improving accuracy. 

CFOs can reconcile financial 

statements easily and they can 

react and plan accordingly to the 

company’s financial situation as it 

is changing. This allows for critical 

analysis of the numbers which was 

incredibly challenging before the 

implementation of software, not 

only because it required a lot of 

manpower, but also because the 

data was not up-to-the minute, and 

possibly contained errors, so it was 

harder to react effectively. 

The introduction of software means 

that the latest data can be seen 

live and inputted on the go. For 

example, employees can submit 

their expenses straight from their 

phone without the need to keep the 

receipt for their coffee at the train 

station. This prevents expenses being 

claimed for late, or without receipts, 

saving CFOs a lot of headaches. 

The implementation of accounting 

software allows other members of 

the board to also have access to 

financial data. Historically, data could 

only be seen from one access point, 

whereas dashboards can now be 

shared. This improves transparency 

across the business and means other 

board members are kept in the loop. 

One of the most recent 

developments which has made 

accounting software even more 

valuable for CFOs, is that HMRC has 

gone digital. Making Tax Digital is a 

key part of the government’s plans to 

make it easier for companies to get 

their tax affairs up straight. This has 

commenced with VAT filing but will 

spread to all taxes in the near future; 

where all records are required to 

be kept digitally. It is therefore 

essential that CFOs are comfortable 

with accounting software to avoid 

problems later down the line and 

keep the software they are using 

under constant review. 

CONCLUSION 

Accounting software has become 

an increasingly crucial aid for CFOs, 

saving them time and allowing them 

to redeploy their skillsets to other 

areas of the role. By streamlining 

the workforce and allowing greater 

transparency to the board, the 

introduction of accounting software 

has already delivered many business 

benefits. Of course, with technologies 

advancing at such a rapid rate, it 

will be interesting to see where the 

industry will be in five or even ten 

years’ time. 


workforce scenarios on product 

and service margins 

ability to match spend to resource; and 

better cost savings over time. 

EVERYTHING CFOS NEED TO KNOW 

ABOUT WORKFORCE PLANNING 

In around 95% of organisations, people will always 

be the biggest business cost. Gaining control of this 

massive outgoing is essential for organisations to 

perform well financially. 

It’s not just about headcount. 

Workforce costs are impacted by 

a wide range of factors, including 

salary, retention and recruitment 

rates, departmental structures and 

automation. 

The greater control an organisation 

has over this huge organisational 

expense, the better. 

WHAT IS WORKFORCE 

PLANNING? 

People are not only an organisation’s 

biggest cost – they are its biggest 

asset. Workforce planning software is 

about aligning your people strategy 

with your evolving organisational 

needs and business plan. 

People are what make an organisation 

what it is. Simply put, no people means 

no business. That’s why any business 

strategy that fails to consider how 

the workforce will be organised and 

distributed is deeply flawed. 

Workforce planning software 

ensures your organisation has the 

right people, with the right skills at 

the right time. It looks at where you 

currently are versus where you want 

to be and shows you what you need 

to do to bridge the gap. 

This could involve everything from 

questioning the work that should 

be done in-house and the work that 

needs to be outsourced, to striking the 

balance between full-time and parttime 

employees. It could be addressing 

the growing question of which tasks 

are more effectively performed using 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA), 

or making decisions about where the 

work should be done to experience 

the biggest opportunities and best 

financial results. 

WHY IS WORKFORCE PLANNING 

IMPORTANT FOR CFOS? 

There are still blurred lines when it 

comes to the question of who should 

lead workforce planning, so while 

this might sound more like an HR 

task than a finance one, read on… 

For some organisations, HR owns this 

process because of the obvious link 

to all things people in the business. 

Others may hand this responsibility 

over to the organisational 

development team if they have one 

in place, whilst large organisations 

may have a specific team solely 

dedicated to workforce planning. 

The role increasingly viewed as a key 

player in overseeing the workforce 

planning strategy is the CFO. 

People costs make up such a large 

proportion of workforce planning, so 

it makes sense for the CFO to have 

eyes on this from the start. Good 

workforce planning is about bringing 

your business closer to reaching its 

strategic and financial goals. 

THE CFO WILL ACT AS A CREDIBLE 

VOICE WHEN IT COMES TO: 

• Determining what investment 

will be required to implement the 

workforce plan 

• Fully understanding the impact of 

changes in employee numbers on 

operating expenses 

• Defining critical roles and the 

organisational structure 

• Recognising the impact of various 

Real-time visibility of all workforce 

planning factors, each of which 

carries a cost, empowers CFOs to 

achieve greater speed, accuracy and 

confidence about the complex and 

changing workforce data they are 

working with. 

Workforce planning should be 

something that every organisation 

constantly does, but even more 

emphasis should be placed on 

this in times of change such as an 

acquisition or merger, or in the lead 

up to Brexit. 

Despite this, effective workforce 

planning often goes neglected, 

but research suggests that this is 

becoming more important than ever… 

The cost of owning a workforce 

is rising quicker than the budgets 

available to support it. Organisations 

are being forced to learn how to 

increasingly generate more value 

with fewer resources. As a result, 

an organisations’ biggest cost – the 

workforce, needs to be optimised 

with fit for purpose workforce 

planning systems. 

A recent study by McKinsey revealed 

that more than one-third of global 

executives said their organisations are 

unprepared to address the skill gaps 

they anticipate. Whilst 60% expect 

that up to half of their organisation’s 

workforce will need retraining or 

replacing within five years. 

Workforce planning reveals obstacles 

that will crop up in the future and 

shows organisations what they 

can do to mitigate risk and spot 

opportunities for growth. 

The benefits of automating the 

workforce planning process place 

it even more in the CFO’s domain: 

Faster insights; more time to spend 

on higher-value tasks; more accurate 

decision-making; real-time analysis; 

ability to model “what-if” scenarios 

before committing to a decision; better 

WHAT CAN WORKFORCE 

PLANNING SOFTWARE DO FOR 

AN ORGANISATION? 

• Predict future workforce needs – 

Identify possible future scenarios 

and use workforce planning to 

understand what this will mean for 

your workforce. 

• Understand gaps in the workforce – 

Show you where skills are missing, 

as well as determining when you’ll 

need these capabilities and how 

long it will take you to obtain them. 

• Reduce costs – Identify where 

you’re making unnecessary spend 

and take action to reduce costs. 

• Improve productivity and quality 

of work – Determine where 

time is being wasted and boost 

productivity by taking measures 

like adopting new technology or 

outsourcing repetitive work. 

• Create employee reward 

initiatives – Help you understand 

how to reward employees in a way 

that keeps both them and your 

budget happy. 

• Get the balance between different 

types of employees – Determine the 

perfect ratio of full-time employees, 

remote workers, contractors and 

freelancers for success. 

• Recruit with confidence – Recruiting 

can be a tedious process often left 

to intuition. Workforce planning will 

show you how hiring new people 

will impact your organisation’s 

overall vision. 

• Easily adapt to change – Having 

a clear understanding of what is 

going on in your workforce allows 

you to seamlessly adapt to any 

changes in the short or long-term. 

Advanced analytics techniques for 

workforce planning are widely available, 

but not yet widely adopted. 


WHAT CAN THE GOVERNMENT DO 

FOR THE HOUSING SECTOR? 

Housing is a key part of our national infrastructure 

and social fabric. The foundation of everything we do. 

Yet more and more people don’t have this as a basic 

right, at huge economic and societal cost. 

Ian Wardle, 

CEO Thirteen Group 

and Secretary at Homes 

for the North 

More people in temporary 

accommodation as they have been 

made homeless. Younger people 

living with parents longer as they 

can’t afford a place of their own. 

Those who can never save enough 

for a deposit to have the security 

of their own home as house prices 

are too high. 

Average rents in some places out of 

reach for those on average salaries. 

An unregulated private rental sector, 

often with Dickensian squalor. Key 

public sector workers such as nurses 

and police personnel unable to 

be adequately housed. Employers 

unable to get people to work for them 

as living costs are just too high. These 

are fundamentals to have stable and 

engaged colleagues, although outside 

our control as employers. 

We are a wealthy and progressive 

country, yet we can’t seem to see the 

short-sightedness of not investing 

adequately in providing safe, good 

quality homes of different tenures 

to meet local housing needs. In 

the long run it will save us so much 

money as a nation. Today, to buy 

the average house is between seven 

and 14 times the average salary, 

depending on location. Salaries 

haven’t kept pace with house 

price growth. Supply hasn’t kept 

pace with need and we now have 

a dysfunctional housing market. 

So, I would have three asks of this 

Government to help create a housing 

market that works for everyone. 

FUNDING 

There is a need for a new supply 

of homes (of all tenures) as well 

as grant support to renew failing 

housing markets in the North 

and the Midlands. Financial grant 

support has been made available 

(and increased) for the building of 

new affordable homes and many 

housing associations are rightly 

sweating their assets and increasing 

the number of homes they build. 

With the rolling back of state support 

through a period of austerity since 

2010, the housing situation has been 

made worse. There has been little 

effective national response to issues 

of decline and disconnectedness in 

many communities. To my mind, new 

affordable housing supply needs to 

run in parallel with renewing housing 

and places, as damaging and costly 

market failure still exists in many 

neighbourhoods. These areas are 

capable of reinventing themselves to 

provide homes and become places 

of now and the future. Places where 

average house prices and rents are 

more in tune with local average wages. 

Without this investment we end up 

throttling growth and don’t unleash our 

true potential to increase our economic 

output at a time when it’s needed the 

most. My ask would be to ‘invest-tosave’, 

with better housing and places 

which in turn leads to stable workforces 

and travel to work distances, as well 

as less spend on welfare, people 

needing health services etc. 

My further ask would be about social 

rent. We need homes of different 

tenures to suit different pockets 

and housing needs. There is a need 

for home ownership, renting social 

housing and renting in the private 

sector. What has diminished over 

time is the amount of available social 

housing, compared to the needs based 

on average incomes. Developing 

more homes for social rent will help 

stabilise imbalances and lack of access 

to good quality affordable homes. 

The current criteria for social rent 

funding focus only on the housing 

market and does not take into account 

ratios of local income and affordability, 

or the availability of genuinely 

affordable housing in a given location. 

REGULATE THE PRIVATE 

RENTAL SECTOR 

This sector has grown in the country, 

which is just as well as it is certainly 

needed. It costs UK PLC a fortune 

though. There are great landlords 

and poor landlords in the private 

sector. Many people who come to my 

organisation have come from nothing 

less than squalor in unregulated 

housing conditions. With local 

authority budgets being cut massively 

since 2010, they don’t have the 

resources even to carry out the most 

basic of health and safety checks. I 

believe all rented homes (no matter 

what tenure) should meet a quality 

mark. I would want the government 

to regulate and have a regulator for 

the private rented sector in the same 

way as I have a regulator for my 

social housing. In some locations, I’d 

also have the regulator cap rents (it 

works in some many successful cities 

internationally) so rents are in the 

reach of those on lower or average 

salaries who keep this country moving. 

CEASE RIGHT TO BUY 

Right to Buy allows most council 

tenants to buy their council home 

at a discount. Average discounts in 

2018 were 43%. If the home used to 

be owned by the council, but it sold 

the property to another landlord 

(like a housing association) while 

you were living in it, you may have 

the Right to Buy as well. Almost two 

million homes have been purchased 

through Right to Buy. In 2016, the 

Government extended the scheme to 

housing association properties. 

A considerable proportion of Right 

to Buy stock has now been ‘recycled’ 

into the private rented sector. At a 

time when there is an acute shortage 

of affordable/social rent homes there 

is no economic sense in selling off 

these homes when it costs far more 

to replace them. My ask would be 

to cease Right to Buy until we have 

more supply of the homes, we need 

to support our communities. One 

study has calculated that the higher 

cost of accommodation in the private 

rented sector in a local authority 

led to an additional cost of £3.2 

million per annum compared to the 

equivalent in social renting. Multiply 

that nationally and you can see how 

much public money is being wasted. 

These three things are my pragmatic 

response to help transform 

communities and remove our 

housing imbalances so that 

more people can make an active 

contribution to UK PLC. There is 

so much potential to really get our 

housing right based on people’s 

knowledge, relationships and of 

sharing power and resources. Could 

there not be a cross-party consensus 

and willingness to get behind our 

most basic of necessities? 


management decisions are being 

made without clear directions about 

the impact of Brexit on customs 

arrangements, EU trade tariffs or Irish 

border controls. The environment is 

so uncertain that some managers may 

choose to not trade in the region or 

to not change their business despite 

any opportunities. Decision making in 

this new environment will no doubt be 

impacted on manager reputation and 

career preservation positions rather 

than pure logic and data. 

RUNNING A BUSINESS IN A 

TIME OF GREAT UNCERTAINTY 

Business operations have historically assumed 

a notion of reasonable certainty, where decisions 

could be reviewed and approved for investment 

despite change. 

Mathew Donald, 

Xxxxxxx 

Xxxxxxx 

Old decision-making processes 

appear to be inappropriate for 

this faster and uncertain new age, 

where the old processes may be 

too slow and even too bureaucratic. 

The new business environment is 

full of ongoing, fast moving change 

associated with great uncertainty 

and considerable risk. Disruption 

has radically reduced predictability, 

where many managers may no 

longer be able to easily see future 

directions. The past tools of strategy 

and decision-making models may no 

longer be appropriate for this faster 

disruptive environment. 

Disruption is associated with 

globalisation that has been aided by 

increased trade interconnectivity, 

social media, internet, technology 

and systems integration. It no longer 

takes years or months for new 

practices, processes or products to 

be transmitted around the world, 

with the internet and social media, 

the information sharing may only be 

minutes away. Whilst globalisation 

has yielded benefits, it is clear that 

the transition has not been uniformly 

beneficial, where groups have 

formed in places to represent antiglobalisation 

in protest. Disruption 

forms appear to emerge on an 

almost daily basis, including fast 

moving and uncertain trade wars 

or presidential tweets, where often 

these appear without notice or 

without certainty and detail. 

Businesses have historically been 

required to produce a strategy 

for their investors and banks, 

also used in explaining business 

decisions to staff or customers. 

Strategy preparation may often 

have taken many months to prepare 

and may have only occasionally be 

changed unless a significant change, 

opportunity or threat emerged. 

Business day to day operational goals 

would often be aligned and set from 

the longer-term business strategy, so 

enabling shorter term decisions to 

be explained to staff, customers and 

investors. Business strategy may not 

be so useful if it takes many months 

to prepare and then find itself 

redundant from fast moving, risky 

and uncertain emerging disruptions. 

In disruption, business decisions may 

be required to be made faster than 

before, required to be made made 

without full analysis, verification 

or complete data. A presidential 

tweet may announce new tariffs or 

new trade wars, despite the lack 

of clarity and detail organisations 

may be forced to react and make 

decisions in order to not be left 

behind. Unpredictable changes in 

government policy provide additional 

challenges for management 

that wants certainty and control. 

Government policy making was once 

determined through long processes, 

often involving revisions, negotiation 

and business consultation. The 

sporadic nature of change today 

provides less insight and time 

for management to inform its 

shareholders and staff, less time to 

react and analyse new situations. 

Despite Brexit being in the hands of 

three UK prime ministers uncertainty 

prevails, where it is still unclear what 

type of deal may ensue or even it will 

occur at all. Despite this emerging 

business environment managers 

need to make operational decisions 

on trade, office locations, travel, visas 

and even employee relocations. The 

Management may find it more difficult 

to be innovative and attract investors 

during disruption, as they may fear 

losing the trust of their investors if 

their assumptions are not certain and 

reliable. The whole process of strategy 

with its planning and governance may 

simply be too slow and bureaucratic 

for this new age. Staff and customers 

may wish in this new age to be closer 

to decision making, closer to emerging 

data and change. Without involvement 

staff, investors and customers 

alike may lose trust in the business 

managers decisions and directions. 

Stakeholders will continue to seek 

information about organisational 

direction and plans despite the 

changing nature of the new 

environment. Management may have 

to confront and emerging dilemma set 

between a choice of setting direction 

and explaining, versus that of waiting 

and not setting a fixed direction. 

In preparing stakeholders for the 

ensuing disruptions, management 

may be advised to explain the 

broader changing environment rather 

than making specific promises that 

cannot be kept. The understanding 

of the broader change context 

may assist staff and customers, so 

enabling them to be more accepting 

of sudden changes in direction, or 

where changes may appear to be 

contradictory or confusing. 

Older style management may have 

preferred to be the central decision 

maker, only providing explanation to 

staff occasionally. In this modern age, 

managers will likely need to partner 

with staff and customers in order to 


inform and include them adequately, 

so modern managers will require 

excellent skills in communication, 

negotiation and explanation. 

Stakeholder of all types will likely 

require genuine engagement with 

management decision making in 

order to understand and accept 

ongoing changes. Superficial 

engagement will likely diminish trust 

in management that may result in 

stakeholders rejecting decisions and 

changes in direction. 

Despite uncertainty and risk in the 

new age, new opportunities and 

transaction types may emerge 

that were previously considered, 

where those new transactions may 

emerge quickly and not be covered 

by existing policies and procedures. 

The policies and procedures often 

provided guidance, stability and 

structure for staff to follow. In the 

new age policies may be too slow 

to keep up with new emerging 

disruptions, leaving staff to take their 

own positions that may be based 

merely on a legality check, if broader 

ethics and business goals are not 

considered organisational value 

and reputational loss may result. 

Organisations may be embarrassed 

and suffer losses even if new 

transactions are legal, if they are 

found to have taken advantage of 

the poor or the disabled. 

Management will still need to make 

decisions despite any presidential 

tweets, fake news and incomplete 

data, where faster decisions may 

even be expected. A business that is 

smaller, nimbler and more innovative 

may find itself in an advantageous 

position in this new age. The larger, 

slower and more bureaucratic 

organisation may be unable to react 

to many of the disruptions that 

emerge in a sufficiently fast way. 

The delegation and governance 

processes of large business may 

hinder their ability to adapt and 

respond to disruption that contains 

speed, volatility, risk and uncertainty. 

In this age of constant change, staff 

may become tired and confused, 

customers may lose trust in 

constantly changing, where investors 

may not be able to fund projects 

due to volatility. A complete failure 

in trust in management may result 

if the variability is not explained 

adequately, so closer ties between 

management, staff and stakeholders 

will likely be required. Stakeholders 

with closer ties to management may 

be better prepared for accepting 

sudden changes, such as new 

products being dropped due to a 

new trade war or be arguments 

of new robots. Disruption will 

also require staff that are flexible, 

adaptive and customer service 

orientated in order to facilitate 

change across the whole business. 

CBI PRESIDENT LEADS CALL FOR 

BUSINESS RATES SYSTEM OVERHAUL 

The President of the Confederation of British Industry 

(CBI) believes changes in the business rates system 

are long overdue. 

In a speech addressing business 

leaders in central London, John Allen 

argued that the current system is 

exacerbating regional inequalities, 

saying the business rates system is 

“uneconomical, unsustainable, and 

frankly, unintelligible.” 

Two reasons were put forward as to 

why, according to CBI’s president, 

“it’s a system in need of reform.” 

He believes that the business rates 

system discourages investment in 

growth from businesses. 

“Any real efforts to invest will see 

your business rates rise,” he said. 

“It certainly doesn’t give businesses 

a strong reason to invest in the UK, 

let alone in areas where capital is 

most sorely needed. 

“That adds yet another barrier to 

growth at a time when the UK already 

faces its lowest level of business 

investment since the financial crisis, 

far behind our competitors – at 

only 9% of GDP compared to 13% 

across the G7, fuelling an ongoing 

productivity challenge.” 

The other reason given for the 

need to change is the fact rates are 

entrenching regional unfairness. 

John explained: “Part of this problem 

is the uncertainty around when the 

next rates revaluations occur. 

“The last revaluation period was 

extended from five years to seven. 

We can now expect revaluations 

every three years. 

“But in practice, any longer than one 

year means business rates lag far 

behind economic cycles and – over 

the years – the significant rises in UK 

property costs. 

“The result is a system that rewards 

those places already on their way 

up in the short term, but eventually 

pulls the rug from under them. 

“And one that punishes those areas 

that already struggling.” 

It is why, the CBI President argues, 

that both the Conservatives and 

Labour must follow through 

with the “comprehensive and 

independent review of the business 

rates system” promised in their 

respective manifestos. 



45

MANY BUSINESSES NOT 

GDPR-COMPLIANT ONE YEAR ON 

More than two thirds of businesses are not 

considered GDPR-compliant one year on. 

This is according a poll from Europe’s 

number one information security 

event, Infosecurity Europe 2019, 

which revealed a lack of confidence 

in the application of GDPR. 

The poll reveals that 68% of 

respondents believe businesses have 

not taken GDPR seriously and are still 

not compliant, despite the fact that 

this came into force on 25 May 2018. 

Further results from the Infosecurity 

Europe poll reveal a lack of doubt 

in the enforcement of GDPR; one of 

the questions focused on whether or 

not there was a belief that regulators 

were too relaxed when it came to 

enforcing standards and following 

up with organisations. In answer 

to this, 47% said they believed 

regulators were too relaxed. 

The poll which focused on whether 

firms were GDPR-compliant or not 

also revealed that 38% of respondents 

felt this issue had dominated their 

organisation over the last year, taking 

the focus away from pressing issues 

such as plans for projects. 

Within the cybersecurity industry, 

governance, risk and compliance all 

continue to be key issues, according to 

a State of Cybersecurity annual report, 

based on interviews with industry 

professionals all over the world. 

One of the contributors to the 

report, Perry Carpenter, commented: 

“While excitement about regulation 

has died down a little, the 

introduction of GDPR has had both 

positive and negative impacts. 

“GDPR will remain a driver in the 

EU and beyond, as more and more 

organisations are changing the 

way they handle data in the face of 

changing regulatory requirements. 

“GDPR and other compliance 

regulations have done a lot 

to promote the application of 

foundational information security 

and privacy-related practices. 

“A potential downside, however, 

is that many organisations still 

assume that meeting a compliance 

requirement is the same as being 

secure – of course history teaches 

us that compliance and security are 

not the same thing.” 

GUARANTEEING ERP SUCCESS IN THE 

BOARDROOM: THE CFO ADVANTAGE 

Streamlining business processes can often bring a 

substantial competitive advantage, and one way to 

easily achieve this is with a business-focused ERP 

implementation. This scope of work would traditionally 

fall under the CIO’s job description. 

Debbie Green, 

VP of Applications, 

Oracle 

However, time and time again 

CIO’s find that when they come 

to present their ERP strategy 

to the board, they are met with 

the difficult task of trying to 

challenge outdated views of highlevel 

decision-makers. While the 

CIO does need to take primary 

responsibility, finance can bring 

valuable insight to the process of 

designing a new ERP system. In the 

Gartner report, You Are Not ‘Doing 

ERP’: How CIOs Can Successfully 

Present Their ERP Strategy to 

the Board, Gartner advises CIOs 

on how they should approach 

presenting their ERP strategy to 

the board. 

A critical success factor highlighted 

in the report is the need for a 

partnership between the CFO and 

CIO. The CFO should be aligned 

with the ERP vision the CIO is 

pitching to the board and other 

executive stakeholders to secure 

funding and support for the project. 

The advantage of a CFO and CIO 

partnership is that the CFO can 

expertly explain business needs and 

demonstrate how a modern ERP can 

be used to support these, leaving 

the CIO to explain best practises for 

design and implementation of the 

ERP system. 


Armed with a well-crafted strategy and all 

the anticipated answers, you can enter the 

boardroom with your trusted CIO-ally and present 

an ERP implementation that even the toughest 

stakeholder can’t refuse. 

However, not all CIOs are jumping 

at the chance to work closely with 

their CFO. According to the Gartner 

report, there are four types of CIO: 

At-risk, transactional, partner and 

trusted ally. If you are the CFO, you 

want to collaborate with a trustedally 

type CIO to get the ERP system 

you want and the business needs. 

The other types are more likely to be 

comfortable sticking to talk of technical 

details and vendor choices in light of 

strained resources. Those messages 

don’t resonate with stakeholders and 

aren’t likely to inspire approval of the 

proposed ERP project. 

On the other hand, the CFO is seen to 

have a strategic view of the business. 

The CFO can explain business needs 

and demonstrate how modern 

ERP could meet those needs with 

supporting metrics that can make 

decision-makers sit up, take notice, 

and feel the urgency and relevance 

of the project. 

DEMONSTRATE THE VALUE OF ERP 

TO HIGH-LEVEL DECISION-MAKERS 

In many cases stakeholders tend 

to have an outdated view of ERP 

systems as transactional back 

offices systems used to drive 

standardisation, centralisation, 

and operating efficiencies. They 

don’t recognize modern ERP for 

what it is today, a digital business 

enabler. While those benefits are still 

relevant, today’s board members 

are more focused on digital business 

than cost savings, so making the 

connection between a modern ERP 

platform in the cloud and digital 

business success is vital. As Gartner 

says, “Postmodern ERP focuses on 

business strategy and business 

outcomes. Your presentation to the 

board must do the same.” 

Whether you are making the case 

yourself or helping the CIO craft 

theirs, prepare to explain the benefits, 

new capabilities, and impact on 

shareholder value. Here are some key 

commentary points that you should 

integrate to demonstrate the benefits 

of a modern ERP system: 

• New or improved ways of 

working and improved employee 

engagement 

• A strong core system-of-record that 

can support differentiation and 

innovation 

• Utilising operational data to facilitate 

operational transformation through 

automation and emerging technology 

• Offering a continuous stream of 

innovation through regular updates 

managed by the provider 

Your role as CFO is to keep coming 

back to what the ERP implementation 

means for your organisation and 

shareholder value. Maybe you can 

free up resources to focus on more 

strategic activities and to deliver 

differentiated value. Perhaps you’re 

looking at acquiring new businesses or 

have previous acquisitions to integrate. 

You need to quickly and effectively 

onboard those businesses and 

provide a smooth integration process 

to accelerate time-to-benefit. There 

may be an opportunity to monetize 

corporate data through new service 

offerings, or it just might mean that 

you can get a new product out the door 

and into the market sooner, thanks to 

new technologies, robust core systems, 

and the data that feeds them. 

CRAFTING A BUSINESS-FOCUSED 

ERP STRATEGY 

CFOs and CIOs together have the 

ideal skills to construct a business 

strategy-first approach to ERP. 

Per Gartner, “CIOs who take a 

business strategy-first approach 

to ERP will deliver 60% increased 

business value over those who 

take a vendor-first approach.” As 

CFO, you can act as a sounding 

board for your CIO - keeping 

them from the classic CIO pitfall 

of presenting technical details 

that risk losing the value-focused 

stakeholder audience. 

Especially critical is your ability 

and credibility in helping 

communicate to decision-makers 

both the positive consequences 

of taking action and the negative 

consequences of inaction. There 

is always the temptation to delay 

or scale down a new technology 

investment to save costs, and 

you’re likely the best person in 

the organisation to address that 

objection. As an adjunct to the 

CIO’s presentation, prepare the 

tangible business and financial 

justification for acting sooner 

rather than later, and create the 

appropriate sense of urgency. It 

is inevitable that the board will 

suggest delaying the project, you 

should be prepared to field these 

questions and suggestions. 

ERP solutions are powerful and 

potentially game changing for 

an organisation. While the cloud 

has helped alleviate some of 

the challenges, they can also be 

complex to design, implement, and 

maintain. Your ERP implementation 

is likely to consist of multiple 

programs and projects, delivering 

measurable business value over 

time. Make sure that your CIO 

sets this expectation correctly and 

be prepared to offer backup with 

metrics and milestones that help 

stakeholders understand that 

ERP is an ongoing strategy, not 

an individual, one-time project. 

The good news here is that there 

will be a continuous stream of 

innovation coming from the ERP 

cloud provider as, the days of the 

big, expensive, and disruptive 

upgrades are over. 

Armed with a well-crafted strategy 

and all the anticipated answers, 

you can enter the boardroom with 

your trusted CIO-ally and present an 

ERP implementation that even the 

toughest stakeholder can’t refuse. 


WHY THREE’S NOT A CROWD WHEN 

IT COMES TO DATA MINING 

Digital transformation is a priority for most 

organisations today. Businesses will employ the 

latest technological advances in an effort to improve 

their operational efficiencies, to grow, to innovate, 

and to maintain a competitive edge. 

Thomas Schneider, 

Head of Commercial 

Operations, 

UK, SAP Concur 

The automation of invoicing 

processes, for example, has been a 

key focus for many finance teams 

over the past five years or so. 

Enabling them to track invoices from 

the moment they’re received to the 

moment they’re paid, and matching 

them against corresponding purchase 

orders, it not only ensures all invoices 

are paid in a timely manner, but also 

reduces instances of duplication 

and fraud. It frees up resources 

too, reducing the administrative 

burden and allowing employees to 

concentrate on more important work. 

Now, with automation largely 

underway, the onus is on the 

finance team to drive further 

innovation and efficiencies. From 

invoicing to expenses, supplier 

relationships to business travel, they 

sit on a veritable data goldmine. 

Analysing this information could 

deliver invaluable insight into the 

health of their business, and into 

future trends on which they might 

capitalise. But without the capacity 

to fully exploit it, this wealth of data 

is essentially meaningless. Retail is 

a key example market for this – they 

have all the data regarding what 

happened during the last Christmas 

period which is great, but what can 

they pre-plan and forecast for the 

same time next year? 

However, while there are plenty of 

solutions on the market – many of 

them powered by AI and machine 

learning technology – they may not 

be enough in and of themselves. 

Finance teams are drowning under 

the sheer volume of data available 

to them. It’s vital, therefore, that 

they find a way to deploy this 

technology that will enable them 

to utilise the full potential of the 

information they hold. Sometimes, a 

helping hand is what’s needed. 

NO SILVER BULLET 

Capturing data from as many points 

as possible is all well and good, 

but if there’s no-one or nothing 

that can read that data, and draw 

meaningful conclusions from it, it’s 

useless. Deriving any meaning from 

it requires analysis, and even when 

using the latest set of business tools, 

this can still be time consuming for 

human operatives. 

Indeed, taking the wrong approach 

to collecting and analysing data, 

or using the wrong solution, can 

often backfire. Many organisations 

will purchase and install an AI- or 

machine learning-based solution 

in the expectation it will work its 

way quickly through their data and 

present them with actionable insight 

they can use to make improvements 

within the business. Instead, 

these solutions can often leave 

organisations in the dark, with no 

clear sense of direction, and with ten 

times as much as data to work their 

way through as they had previously. 

The truth is that, while AI is being 

increasingly rapidly adopted, it’s not 

necessarily the panacea businesses 

believe it to be. The technology is 

evolving, and features in a growing 

number of applications, but it’s simply 

not sophisticated enough to do all the 

heavy lifting. AI- and machine learning 

are certainly able to transform and 

translate data at unprecedented 

speeds. Currently, though, an AIpowered 

solution will have to have 

been collecting and analysing an 

organisation’s data for several years 

before it can independently deliver 

any actionable insight, without the 

need for human input. 

While AI and machine learning will 

certainly supercharge the work done 

by an organisation’s own experts - the 

talented people that make up their 

finance teams - there’s room for a 

third party if businesses are to enjoy 

the best return on their AI investment. 

A consultative intelligence approach 

is required, supplementing the use 

of technology with the knowledge, 

experience and guidance of a 

dedicated expert. 

CONSULTATIVE INTELLIGENCE 

Fundamentally, consultative 

intelligence is about engaging the 

expertise of data analysts – an 

organisation’s own, supplemented by 

those of a vendor. 

By combining the collective 

experience of an organisation’s 

finance team, with the power of 

an AI-powered data analysis and 

reporting tool, and the expertise of 

someone who helped develop it, 

such an approach will help steer a 

business toward actionable insights 

far quicker than if they were left to 

their own devices. 

Indeed, given that these experts 

will have seen similar data before, 

and will know how it should be 

directed and sliced, there are few 

people more likely to have a better 

understanding of how to analyse it 

most effectively. 

Very often, however, organisations 

can buy a solution without giving 

thought to how it can best be 

used. After all, these solutions are 

mainly bought by lines of business 

such as finance teams, rather than 

IT departments. And while these 

people are experts in all things 

financial, they won’t necessarily be 

knowledgeable about technological 

and IT matters. Having purchased a 

solution, they might expect it to work 

by itself, unaware that there’s a lot 

more that needs to be done for it to 

deliver optimum results. 

With a consultative intelligence 

approach, a vendor’s internal experts 

will be standing by, ready to take a 

call, or to reach out and proactively 

offer their assistance. By advising on 

how the data should be read, how the 

solution – and its developers – have 

translated it, a vendor can smooth the 

process, enabling the customer to slice 

and dice that data in a way that will 

deliver the most meaningful insights. 

As part of an ongoing digital 

transformation, the volume and 

variety of data available to an 

organisation is invaluable. It can 

inform every area of a business, 

improving efficiency, effectiveness 

and decision-making. But just 

collecting data is pointless. Rigorous 

analysis and reporting are needed if 

it is to have any meaning. 

Powerful AI and machine learning 

solutions undoubtedly improve 

the speed and quality of data 

mining, but they need help. And 

who better to help than the people 

who created them? In consultative 

intelligence, vendors become 

trusted advisors, and finance teams 

become centres of innovation for 

their business. 


WHY CEOS MUST FOCUS ON HR 

DURING THESE TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY 

With the recent appointment of Boris Johnson as the 

UK’s Prime Minister, C-Suites and HR departments across 

the country may be finding themselves wondering 

‘what’s next?’, and how they can, if possible, prepare for 

what is undoubtedly a new era of uncertainty. 

Rita Trehan, 

Business transformation 

expert, author, public 

speaker & founder of 

Dare Worldwide Consultancy 

In my judgement, Human Resource 

departments must ensure they 

keep PM Boris Johnson and the 

ever-increasing likelihood of a No 

Deal Brexit at the forefront of their 

minds, if they are to ensure that their 

business can weather the storm and 

emerge unscathed. 

First and foremost, the end of free 

movement (where an EU national 

could reside in another EU country 

with the same rights as its citizens) 

means that many organisations that 

rely heavily on EU workers are at risk 

of a talent drain. 

Mitigating the risks of this happening 

requires HR to take steps that seek 

to not only support current staff 

members through what is a stressful 

and daunting time, but also provide 

creative and sustainable solutions 

that will address any projected staff 

gaps post-Brexit. 

The challenge, however, is not just 

about the risk of a talent shortage, it 

is also about helping companies think 

about where new growth may come 

from. It is highly likely, irrespective of 

the Brexit outcome, that companies 

will look to new markets for growth 

opportunities and this will require 

people with language and cultural 

background that can support the 

growth into new areas. The bottom 

line is that many HR teams will be 

faced with new challenges that they 

may not have dealt with before. 

WHAT CAN AND SHOULD 

COMPANIES BE DOING DURING 

THIS PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY? 

Start with focusing on the talent you 

have; it is evident that many people 

will be uncertain of their future 

and what the impending impact of 

Brexit may mean for them. Providing 

information, sharing what the company 

is doing to ensure that they can retain 

key talent and providing a platform and 

avenue for staff to raise and share their 

concerns is a step in the right direction. 

Ensuring that leaders are present and 

engaging with their people is key to 

lessening the nervousness of what the 

future may bring. 

Finding out what the concerns 

may be is one of the best ways 

to ensure you are addressing the 

real needs and concerns of your 

people. Undertaking some form of 

pulse survey, to gage the workplace 

climate and then acting on what it 

says will go a long way to ensuring 

that staff feel happy and secure - 

feeling comforted knowing that their 

employers are actively planning and 

seeking ways to address any issues 

that may arise is key. 

Beyond the risk of potentially losing 

staff back to EU countries, businesses 

may also need to think of alternative 

ways to attract and recruit new staff. 

From preparing for the possibility 

of raising wages after Brexit to try 

and incentivise British workers into 

taking roles that are stereotypically 

filled by migrants, to revitalising 

apprentice programs and tapping 

into under-utilised work groups, 

companies need to be expansive in 

their thinking. 

HR departments need to be aware 

of the effect that Johnson could 

also be having on their workplace’s 

culture. Those exposed to Johnson’s 

countless controversial comments on 

ethnicity, gender and other personal 

demographics may feel justified 

or even liberated in extreme views 

within the workplace, damaging the 

diversity and inclusivity at work. This 

is, of course, not only distressing 

for employees, but is bound to 

breakdown relationships and will 

negatively affect work efficiency, 

not to mention the bottom line. This 

issue is possibly more important to 

me as an advocate for rights within 

the workplace. HR departments 

must be paying attention to their 

workplace culture. As we witnessed 

during the referendum, Brexit 

has proved to be a divisive and 

contentious topic which has created 

workplace tensions that can result in 

bullying, intimidation and increased 

levels of racial tension. Ensuring 

that staff, and in particular business 

leaders, are paying attention to and 

reinforcing the importance of their 

company values and how people 

should respect each other is not to 

be ignored. Equally, now more than 

ever, is the time for companies to be 

paying attention to their stance on 

equality, ensuring that true inclusivity 

is embedded in everything they do. 

Despite the most recent discussions 

with Merkel and Marcon, and Johnson’s 

declaration that he is planning to go a 

“thousand extra miles” to secure a deal 

for Brexit, the reality remains that the 

future is uncertain. 

In the past week alone, the pound 

has been seen to drop, and then 

rise, which underpins the level 

of uncertainty that exists. The 

combination of a likely No Deal- 

Brexit, with Johnson’s declaration 

that there was no future in the Irish 

Backdrop has seen the pound drop 

to its lowest strength since April 

2017. This is obviously not good 

news for businesses, particularly 

smaller businesses, as of course 

a weaker pound will result in less 

purchasing power. 

When I get asked, which I often 

do, “is it all doom and gloom for 

companies?”, I am prone to say 

that while the reality is what it is, 

businesses do have the chance 

to make changes and seize the 

opportunities that uncertainty brings. 

For example, some may benefit 

from foreign companies flexing their 

currency’s strength and using it to 

buy UK goods and services, resulting 

in a boost in exports. Similarly, 

foreign investment in the UK and 

the potential for increased tourism 

due to the weaker pound may help 

claw back and promote hospitality 

and leisure sectors. Companies 

may use the opportunity to look 

at innovative ways to redesign 

their business models and look at 

new markets and new business 

lines. So yes, uncertainty can bring 

new opportunities. The key is to 

proactively think about the options 

available. 

Overall, organisations need to 

ensure that they are planning 

for any eventuality, as difficult as 

that sounds. Unfortunately, eras 

of unpredictability are just that 

- unpredictable, and similar to 

other uncertain times, the key is 

to be flexible, agile and focused on 

driving outcomes. 

By ensuring that key employees and 

leaders within your organisation 

collectively engage in planning 

the future by taking the time 

to sit down and think about 

various scenarios and having 

contingencies in place, can and will 

help businesses thrive despite the 

conditions they are under. 


FIVE WAYS TO FUTUREPROOF 

YOUR ORGANISATION 

– AN ANALYTICS STRATEGY FOR 2020 AND BEYOND 

An uncertain business climate doesn’t have to mean 

uncertainty in your business, says data analytics 

expert Laura Timms. 

Laura Timms, 

Analytics Expert 

Despite complex challenges on the 

horizon, the wide availability and 

adaptability of data analytics means 

managers can take proactive steps 

to futureproof their organisations. 

As product strategy manager at MHR 

Analytics, the business intelligence and 

financial performance management 

provider, Timms sets out five ways 

companies can harness data analytics 

to thrive in tough times and plan 

confidently for 2020 and beyond: 

1. REDUCE UNNECESSARY 

EXPENSES 

A key part of preparing for the future 

is watching what we spend now. 

Deciding where to cut funding can 

easily be left down to intuition 

rather than truly understanding key 

and ‘not so key’ revenue drivers. 

In Deloitte’s Analytics Advantage 

report, revenue generation or cost 

reduction was reported to be the most 

valued outcome of using analytics. 

How? By aligning budgets and 

resources, funds can be redeployed 

to meet critical objectives and lower 

costs. Taking this approach, we 

recently helped one of our customers 

deliver savings which equated to a 

return on investment of 250%. 

Analytics acts as a strategic tool which 

can be used to give insight into areas 

such as investment opportunities, 

financial performance and key financial 

drivers; to give managers peace of mind 

that resources are always allocated in 

the right place at the right time. 

2. FROM HINDSIGHT TO FORESIGHT 

– SEE AND RESPOND TO 

CHANGES IN REAL-TIME 

Organisations that are able to 

respond to changes quickly are 

better equipped for success. 

As Mckinsey laid out in its five 

trademarks of agile organisations: 

“Technology is seamlessly integrated 

and core to every aspect of the 

organisation as a means to unlock 

value and enable quick reactions to 

business needs.” 

To future proof a business, it is 

necessary to evolve from a “hindsight 

mentality” that tries to accompany 

change once it’s already happened; 

to an approach that identifies and 

responds to changes as they happen 

in the moment. 

This is where analytics comes in. 

Business intelligence and analytics 

technology can provide a real-time view 

of an organisation so that employees 

can easily adapt systems to changing 

business strategies and realities. 

With analytics, businesses can provide 

products and services that meet 

changing customer requirements, 

match outputs to available resources, 

and ultimately make smarter decisions. 

3. SCENARIO MODELLING TO PLAN FOR 

DIFFERENT POSSIBLE OUTCOMES 

There are two types of organisations: 

those that are reactive and those that 

are proactive. 

While reactive businesses simply try 

and diffuse an already burning fire, 

proactive organisations identify the 

risk factors involved and question not 

only what they need to do to prevent 

the fire, but also whether there are 

any hidden risks or opportunities 

accompanying the disaster. 

The good news is that even for those 

who currently fall under the first 

category, data analytics can easily 

change this. 

Certain analytics technologies provide 

scenario planning capabilities, which 

enable managers to model different 

potential scenarios and outcomes. 

This can supercharge the effectiveness 

of decision-making, as it provides 

front-row seats to see how different 

decisions will impact the organisation 

– all without having to commit to one 

particular course of action. 

When this scenario modelling is “multidimensional”, 

you can see how change 

in one area of the business will impact 

on other areas, to ensure the whole 

business is optimised for success. 

Whether it’s a change in legislation, 

cuts in funding or changes to company 

structure – managers can plan and 

prepare in advance and reduce the 

risk of any nasty surprises. 


4. FREE UP MORE TIME TO SPEND 

ON WHAT MATTERS 

Chances are, businesses that are 

not using analytics to carry out their 

planning are probably relying solely 

on spreadsheets. 

Think of the number of different 

spreadsheets in your department alone 

and think of how many hours are spent 

in a typical week updating these… the 

answer is probably “too many.” 

We’ll keep your fleet 

While spreadsheets are widely seen 

as the building blocks of planning, 

relying on spreadsheets alone is 

neither a reliable or efficient way of 

preparing for the future. 

Repetitive administration tasks can 

hold companies back and are not 

always necessary. 

A better approach may be to utilise 

a ‘planning analytics’ solution to 

reduce these time-consuming jobs 

and simplify planning, budgeting and 

forecasting processes. 

This eradicates the need for data 

input-led roles and allows the costs 

associated with these positions to be 

better utilised in higher-value tasks. Not 

only does this provide financial benefits 

in terms of ROI, but it also works to the 

advantage of employees by allowing 

them to focus on ‘what they’re trained 

to do’ over routine tasks. 

Ultimately, analytics frees up more 

time to spend on the initiatives 

that really matter, positioning 

organisations in the best place to 

meet objectives. 

5. FULL ORGANISATIONAL VIEW 

OF PLANNING 

Without a holistic picture of the 

organisation, it’s impossible to 

safeguard it against future changes. 

While localised planning limited to 

individual departments and teams 

may be convenient, it doesn’t offer 

the scale of impact needed for 

success. To truly prepare for the 

future, the whole organisation has to 

be on board. 

Another downside of relying on 

spreadsheets alone to plan is that 

they’re simply not designed to tell 

the whole story. With different teams 

using different spreadsheets, input 

methods and analysis techniques, 

and little collaboration between this 

data, the task of collating and making 

sense of it isn’t an easy one. 

On top of this, manually inputting 

data into Excel documents 

leaves room for human error, 

with various studies even 

suggesting that almost 9 out of 10 

spreadsheets contain errors. 

working for you 

From 24-hour breakdown cover to accident assistance, 

with mobile technical services and connected solutions 

that help keep your wheels in motion. 

Planning analytics software puts 

all this sporadic data into one 

centralised place to give a 360-degree 

view of an organisation. 

Through this, you’ll be able to see 

and understand your business at 

a granular level so that you can 

gain early insight into the health 

of your organisation and plan 

with confidence. 

To learn more about using analytics 

to plan for the future, take the data 

maturity quiz which assesses the 

stage your organisation is on and 

outlines the steps to take to create a 

futureproof organisation. 

Talk to us today about Business Breakdown Cover 

Call 0800 294 2994 

Or visit theAA.com/business 

56 Today’s Boardroom • Issue 5

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Today's Boardroom Issue 5

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