By Angela Hickmore, Managing Director, Norman Broadbent Interim Management.
2016 was one of the busiest years for introducing senior interim finance professionals. <div align="justify"> Demand driven by business change in various sectors such as continued consolidation in professional services, restructuring in retail and the impact of changing distribution models in FS saw the need for experienced finance professionals to help organisations experiencing periods of change and transformation. Whilst Brexit continues to raise debate on whether London will retain talent or whether companies will stay, little impact was felt either negatively or positively in the finance space despite the weaker pound being good news for some sectors. The demand for better and more meaningful information was a repeated theme across all sectors and one which will gain momentum in 2017. As the role of the CFO changes, a fundamental part of this is managing and creating good data, easily accessible and clearly linked to business intelligence, trends and maximising growth. Interims with the ability to move across sector (usually across similar industry types such as customer centric) and the ability to advise, create and implement systems for accessible and consolidated data - and professionals with good data analytics skills - will be high in demand in 2017. Alongside this is a renewed increase in finance interims with skills in business partnering and leading FP&A functions. Already in the first quarter of 2017 , we have seen a significant rise in CFOs identifying gaps in these areas and with needs for experienced interim professionals who can interpret data effectively, work with the business to make commercial decisions but also mentor existing teams. However, we do foresee that gaining efficiencies and reducing costs will also be high on the CFO agenda in 2017. With the introduction of the living wage, increased cost of raw materials, cost of regulation in FS markets and the valuation of sterling against the dollar, CFOs will be looking for long term efficiencies as well as reviewing carefully ROI on all major investment projects. Interims will add value here through experience as well as objectivity. Norman Broadbent’s interim CFO practice supports CFOs embarking on significant finance and business challenges, through the introduction of short-term expertise or additional resources, proving management with greater bandwidth and significantly improved delivery time. For further information please contact: Angela Hickmore Managing Director Norman Broadbent Interim Management angela.hickmore@normanbroadbentinterim.com d. 020 7484 0080 m. 07483015584 </div> <div align="justify"></div>