Scaling Your Business? Why You Need the Right Financial Leadership
Most growing businesses do not fail for lack of sales. They run into trouble because the finance function that worked at £2m of revenue is still in place at £12m. The bookkeeper is excellent at processing, the external accountant files the year-end accounts, and the …
What Makes a Great Finance Director for a Private Equity-Backed Business?
What Makes a Great Finance Director for a Private Equity-Backed Business? A Finance Director in a private equity-backed business does a different job from an FD in an owner-managed company. The investor has a plan to grow the value of the business over a defined …
10 Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring a Finance Director
Interviewing a Finance Director is the hardest interview most businesses run, for a simple reason: the person across the table is usually better at interviews than the people asking the questions. FD candidates have spent years presenting to boards, banks and investors. What separates a …
Finance Director vs CFO: What’s the Difference and Who Should You Hire First?
Ask ten UK businesses what separates a Finance Director from a Chief Financial Officer and you will get ten answers, several of which contradict each other. The honest starting point is that in many British companies the two titles describe the same job: the senior …
How to Hire a Finance Director: A Step-by-Step Guide for Business Leaders
Appointing a Finance Director is among the most consequential hires a business makes, and one of the least practised: most leadership teams do it once or twice in a decade. This page is the working checklist for that hire. It is written for owners, CEOs …
The Rise of the Portfolio FD: Transforming Financial Leadership in Modern Businesses
A portfolio Finance Director works with several businesses at once, typically three to five clients for one or two days a week each, on ongoing arrangements rather than fixed-term assignments. Over the past decade it has moved from an unusual choice, made mostly after redundancy, …
The Role of a Finance Director: Do I Need to Hire One for My Growing Company?
Whether to hire a Finance Director is one of the more expensive questions a growing business asks, and the wrong answer costs in both directions. Appoint an FD too early and you have a well-paid executive doing work a Financial Controller could handle, who leaves …
