Circumstances:
- A leading soft drinks bottling company, part of an international group, decided to end the contract of its CFO and to start a recruitment procedure to fill in this function.
- The sudden departure of the CFO caused some turmoil in the Finance department with a few key people considering to leave the company.
- B-management was asked by the MD to search for an interim CFO
Assignment objectives:
- Three main objectives were defined for the CFO a.i. :
o guarantee the operational continuity of the Finance department
o improve and re-structure the internal reporting as well as the reporting to Head Office
o develop and coordinate initiatives in the framework of a cash flow management improvement plan.
Management approach:
- The interim manager was facing a demotivated and slightly suspicious team, the former CFO had been a popular person and some team members were afraid to loose their job too
- The general working atmosphere in the company was very open and positive but with a lack of well defined procedures, especially at the level of Group reporting this had been noticed by Headquarters and the MD was under pressure to improve this quickly
- During the first weeks our interim manager had individual meetings with all members of the team and took actions on 3 topics:
o restructuring the department taking into account increased efficiency, individual talents and aspirations
o coaching of key people
o define & implement new internal reporting processes
- In parallel, a much closer cooperation was established with production & sales to work out improved cost reporting and debt recovery measures
Operational results:
- A new positive team spirit emerged in the Finance department, team members felt being valued and having an impact on the performance of the department
- Operational performance of the department rose considerably
- Internal reporting became structured and to-the point
- Group reporting evolved from “below average” to “outstanding” and became a reference at Group level (deadlines, quality of data)
- Working capital was decreased through specific joint actions with Sales department to collect receivables faster at the level of key accounts
- Newly recruited CFO was coached during a period of 4 weeks resulting in a smooth integration at department and management level.