By Jonathan Stringer,
Director, Norman Broadbent Interim Management
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 Financial Services, saw the need for experienced Finance professionals to help organisations experiencing periods of change. Whilst BREXIT continues to raise debate on whether London will retain talent or if companies will stay, little impact had been felt (either negatively or positively) in the Finance space, despite the weaker pound being good news for other sectors. As the role of the CFO changes, a fundamental part of this is managing and creating good data that is easily accessible and clearly linked to business intelligence and trends, thus maximising growth. Interim professionals with good analytical and business partnering skills will continue to be in high demand. Additionally, Interims that can advise on, create and implement systems across sectors (usually across similar industry types e.g. customer centric) will also be in high demand. Norman Broadbent Interim foresees that gaining efficiencies and reducing costs will also be a continued focus this year. With the introduction of the living wage, increased cost of raw materials, cost of regulation in Financial Services markets and the valuation of sterling against the dollar, CFOs will be looking for long-term efficiencies as well as reviewing ROI on all major investment projects. Interims will add value here through experience and objectivity. Change and Transformation is critical for many businesses to remain competitive, typically involving a cultural shift for the workplace and embracing new systems and processes. Such changes will make businesses more efficient through greater business engagement and commercial insight.