Overview 

Great finance leaders see beyond the day to day accounting routines and become a change leader who can transform finance into a best-in-class operation and drive change throughout the business by providing valued insights to managers. A strong finance leader will create clarity of vision for the function and focus on building high energy teams with the skills and attributes to add value and to create an environment which is seen as an aspirational place to work.

Key features

  • What makes a great finance leader
    • Creating a vision and road map for finance setting direction and aspirations
    • Making sound decisions, avoiding the judgement trap caused by inherent and cognitive biases
    • Understanding the end to end business
  • Improving finance efficiency, reducing low value added work, increasing quality and freeing time to concentrate on value adding activity
  • Building a great team and knowing their strengths, skills and attributes
  • Understanding what managers want and need - turning finance into a valued and trusted partner, more responsive to management needs
  • Developing goals and action plans for finance and to measure performance progress

What will I get out of this course?

An understanding of how the role of finance is evolving towards a greater focus on adding more value through a more partnered approach and insightful reporting and of the key role the finance leader holds in driving change and transformation within both the function and the wider business.

Who should attend?

Finance directors, financial controllers, and any finance staffs whose aspirations lie in finance leadership roles.

Speaker

John McKenzie

John has held a variety of roles in F&A, manufacturing, sales, marketing & business development with 21 years in the automotive sector with Ford & Unipart, then 12 years in the IT sector with Armstrong Laing & SAS.
He now pursues freelance lecturing, consulting and writing. In 2008, his first book, ABC/M to the Max was published and has spoken at over 500 public conferences and seminars worldwide.

He has lectured for the Management Centre of Europe and currently lectures, as an acknowledged subject matter expert, for major accounting bodies both U.K and abroad on, business planning, budgeting and forecasting, strategic accounting, strategic planning, ABC/M, margin management, change management, cost management, shareholder value and performance measurement.

Amongst many clients he has worked for are The World Bank, DHL, Barclays, Oracle, Cisco, British Airways, UBM, Mercer HR, Tetrapak and Pfizer.