Senior Interim Finance Specialists – a Market

Leaders Insight - with Steve Hammell, Experienced CFO, Industrials & Technology markets

The latest instalment of our “Leaders Insight” series is with Steve Hammell, experienced CFO in Industrials & Technology markets. In an insightful interview conducted by Michael Ball, Partner at The CFO Partnership, Steve shares his journey, the strategic initiatives he’s spearheading, and his vision for the future of finance.Steve Hammell brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to his role at Pressure Technologies. With a career spanning over two decades in various financial leadership positions, Steve has navigated through numerous economic cycles and industry shifts. His expertise in mergers and acquisitions, financial strategy, risk management, and operational efficiency has been instrumental in driving the company’s growth and resilience. Join us as we delve into Steve’s experiences, explore the evolving responsibilities of a CFO, and uncover what defines successful financial leadership in today’s environment.What are both the best and the most challenging aspects of being the CFO of a fast paced, listed business?Best aspects; Supportive shareholders with capital to inject into the business, including the ability to provide innovative financing instruments (e.g. convertibles, quasi debt-equity instruments) High quality Boards with NEDs who bring in-depth experience and a steady hand. The public profile helps to attract and recruit high quality candidates and offer incentive structures not available in private companies. Challenging aspects; Everything plays out in the public domain, so the interplay of strategic projects and business performance need to be carefully handled. Short-term share price movements can become a barometer of success rather than progress against strategic objectives and long-term improvements to the business. Regulatory burdens are heavy and the costs of being listed can be prohibitive for any plc with revenue < £30m. What are your opinions about the relationship between a CFO and CEO? What is critically important in building a successful partnership and providing the right support to the CEO?CEO and CFO must have each other’s back and provide a united front with all stakeholders, especially the Board, shareholders and employees. They should complement one another in terms of skills/expertise, leadership style and teamwork. Each needs to have strong leadership characteristics and deliver on their own responsibilities aligned to common strategic objectives. CFO needs to be the financial authority in the company and have command of the numbers, with the ability to simplify complex areas and deliver concise analysis for the CEO to use commercially. CFO should recognise that being CEO can be a lonely place with responsibility for almost every facet of the organisation. The CFO should be a strategic sounding- board and challenge the CEO regularly as an outspoken partner. What new key skills or attributes do you think the next generation of CFO’s are going to need to develop?Technology; Cyber security is becoming a core competence and leadership responsibility of the CFO; ability to develop the cyber defence strategy of the company and work with internal and external resources to provide a robust operating framework and a response capability if the business is attacked. Ability to lead and deliver ERP and data analytics projects as Board sponsor. Ability to harness Artificial Intelligence and automation to deliver value to the business; in manufacturing, this translates to delivering full integration of manufacturing and financial data to drive operational improvement. Procurement; Supply chain integrity, performance and reliability has become a significant issue post-pandemic. CFOs need to be able to develop and lead high performance procurement functions to serve the business and manage operational and financial risk. People; The world of work has changed in the last 5 years with many competing pressures emerging. CFOs need to develop a core set of values to guide their recruitment decisions. CFOs need to develop high performance cultures by harnessing a broad range of skills across the increasingly integrated functions of finance, IT and procurement to deliver first class support to the business. CFOs should focus on big-picture priorities and determine what gets done, not how it gets done; CFOs should therefore prefer to empower their teams and encourage collaborative decision-making. You have worked in some challenging turnaround environments in your career. What specifically are the most essential skills and personality traits that a finance leader needs to be able to steer a business through a turnaround project?Resourcefulness – CFOs must be able to draw on a broad array of skills and a network of dedicated advisors and funders to find their way through complex situations. Resilience and being strong-willed – CFOs must be acutely risk aware but be able to carry on regardless in a dark, uncertain and ambiguous situation where the route to success is not clear and the odds may be stacked against you; CFO’s need a plan B if things go wrong. Change management – turnarounds involve significant change for organisations and create new priorities, pressures and working relationships; CFO is normally in the eye of this storm. Are new technologies like Artificial Intelligence having much of an impact on your role as CFO yet? What impact do you think they will have over the next few years? See above re impact on manufacturing sector. Working patterns and individual priorities have never been as much at the forefront of working life as they are for people now. Is it possible to maintain a reasonable work life balance at C-suite or do you have to accept that there will be personal sacrifices in order to succeed at that level?C-suite responsibilities are time consuming, and you are usually dependent on the performance of others, which requires flexibility and ability to handle time pressure. However, by organising the activities of your internal and external teams, space can be created for your personal life, albeit at certain times the job has to come first. You come from an advisory background yourself. How important is it to put time and effort into building and maintaining a network of trusted advisors that you can go to time and again?Developing long-term relationships of trust with CF advisors, lawyers, diligence providers, tax advisors and a range of debt and equity funders is critically important and enables a CFO to deploy the full suite of skills and expertise required. As a CFO, the businesses I have worked for have been employing not only myself but my entire network (whether they realised it or not!) What is the one single best piece of advice you were given early in your career that still holds true today?Frame your career and skills in terms of the market you operate in and develop the flexibility to deploy those skills in new ways. For myself, I have served the Yorkshire M&A market for over 25 years in diverse roles including CF advisor, corporate banker and most recently CFO and have been able to re-invent myself a number of times using a core set of skills and relationships. Looking forward, I have ambitions to move into non-executive roles and expect the flexibility I have developed over the years to serve me well again. Looking for your next career move in finance or accountancy? At Sharp Consultancy, our expertise lies in matching your potential with the perfect temporary, interim, or permanent position. With a well-established presence in Leeds and Sheffield, our seasoned team of consultants extends their services across Yorkshire and beyond. Don't wait for opportunity to knock, reach out to us TODAY and let's chart your career path together.

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Sharp Consultancy is Yorkshire’s largest, most experienced and best-connected independent company committed exclusively to financial recruitment.

Our division of dedicated Interim Specialists focus exclusively on Senior Finance. We asked one of the key members of that division, Stuart Douglass, Business Manager to share his valued opinions and observations on the current market.

Stuart is a senior interim specialist who joined Sharp Consultancy in 2016 and has over 20 years of experience in financial recruitment. He has provided case studies to highlight the major benefits of utilising an interim finance specialist and explores the ever-changing dynamics of the candidate market.

Although dynamism, agility and expertise have always been essential in the world of business for growth and success. Interestingly, over the past 12 months we have seen these elements have been even more crucial to businesses throughout the region. There has been a distinct and obvious increase in the demand for and supply of Senior Interim Finance Specialists.

Two of the top motivations in hiring a Senior Finance Interim during the last 12 months have been:

Navigating Organisational Change

Changes in personnel or ownership can be turbulent times for any business of any size or structure. Finance Interim Specialists serve as steady navigators, guiding companies through these changes with their strategic foresight and experience to ensure the impact remains positive. Case Study 1 provides an example of just that.

Case study 1 - Navigating Organisational Change:

MD - "Our £40m t/o business was due to be acquired by a private equity business and I was worried that our current FD just didn’t have the experience to take the organisation through this type of change. Sharp Consultancy was recommended to me by our bank and following a briefing meeting they quickly identified and submitted three candidates who all had the change management experience in a PE setting that was needed. Interviews were arranged and one of the candidates was a perfect fit (a local chartered accountant with a big 4 background who also had the interpersonal skills to engage with all the relevant stakeholders). When the candidate started and got up to speed quickly, we liked them so much we offered them a permanent role which gave us fantastic stability going through the deal. They helped us recruit new people into the team and set us on a great path. I believe the main benefits of hiring a contractor like this were being able to bring someone on board quickly that had the exact experience to manage us through the significant change process. The hidden bonus was the interim also brought his own network of advisors which was also extremely useful. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Sharp Consultancy if you are about to embark on a similar journey."

Project Management

Sometimes, even the strongest teams may find project management difficult and that can lead to distressed teams and may create unnecessary risk. This is where a Finance Interim Specialist and their fresh perspective and focused guidance can support a finance function, steering it towards efficiency and success using years of seasoned experience whilst owning such a specific project.

Case Study 2 - Project Management:

Operations Director – "When our business gained private equity backing, our acquisition pipeline literally exploded….at our peak we were acquiring 5-6 new businesses each month! Our finance team of 8 people needed to grow quickly, and our systems were just not equipped to cope with the new demand. This all happened within a few months, so we engaged with Sharp Consultancy as we needed accountants quickly. At that point, we had identified a more appropriate ERP system but knew it would take a couple of years to transition to the new set up. Over the next five years, Sharp Consultancy provided us with over 25 Accountants at various stages in the process. Some supported simple accounts preparation, some were change agents, some supported finance systems developments and others helped with important integration work. Without the support from Sharp, the speed of response, the deep understanding of the type of candidate character and attitude we liked, I don’t think we could have achieved anywhere near what we did. Some of those contractors have stayed with us long term, such was the accuracy of the initial introduction. "

In addition to the above, we have seen changes in the candidate market. A new wave of Finance Interim Specialists with excellent experience and knowledge are embracing interim assignments. In part this has been caused by redundancies. However, the main factors for the increase in candidates is twofold; firstly, more and more candidates are making a conscious career move to become an Interim Specialist and secondly there has been a growing market across candidates who are based further afield with the option of hybrid/flexible working now more common the candidate pool has become a national one. The increased demand we have experienced across Yorkshire has certainly created plenty of attention for the region.

Although the hybrid model is as popular as ever throughout the interim market, it has been obvious that fully remote opportunities have reduced significantly, with most clients requiring some presence within the business.

In turn, with more candidates in the market increasing our clients’ options, it has been a fine balance between utilising modern candidate attraction methods without any risk of sacrifice to quality. As with all candidates, regardless of location, quality control is paramount and all our candidates continue to be met, screened, and referenced vigorously.

Conclusion

The decision to hire a Senior Interim Finance is more than a stop-gap solution; it’s a strategic move towards a proactive solution.

The availability and diversity of expertise from Finance Interim Specialists is increasing, fuelled by flexible working opportunities.

Sharp Consultancy’s dedicated Senior Interim Finance division is the longest standing in Yorkshire and the most experienced, focused, and knowledgeable in the region.

For more information about hiring one of your own Interim Specialists or finding that perfect interim finance role please call 0113 236 6300 and ask for Stuart Douglass.