Chief Financial Officer at Adexen

Our client is a large conglomerate with business interests from engineering to FMCG and healthcare products.

Job description

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is responsible for all financial and fiscal management aspects of the Company’s operations.

Provide strategic financial leadership, business planning, forecasting, accounting and budgeting processes, tax and risk management and optimize returns to the Shareholders.

Responsible for directing IT function to ensure that the Company’s systems and information technology attain the best technology standards at every level of the business with increased data security.

The CFO reports directly to the Managing Director and assists on strategic and tactical matters as they relate to financial management and their impact to the business operations

Principal Responsibilities:

• Collaborates with the Managing Director to define and articulate the organization’s vision and to develop strategies for achieving that vision.
• Provide strategic direction and management of the Finance & IT functions and ensures alignment to the Company’s goals leading to shareholder value creation.
• Participate in preparation of the Annual Plan and Strategic Business Plans that improve the efficiency and long term profitability of the business and ensure optimal realization of brand/market potential.
• Ensure the design of a robust business-decision-making framework, driving through process improvements and change initiatives that enable the budgeting, forecasting and reporting to be carried out in a consistent and effective manner.
• Proactively participate in benchmarking studies of FMCG peers including but not limited to pricing, COGS, overheads, manufacturing costs along with cash flows and balance sheet foot prints
• Act in a fiduciary capacity, protecting the value of the brand through safeguarding assets of the company, both tangible and intangible.
• Ensure compliance with the company's policies, procedures and local statutory regulations. Manage Statutory and Internal Auditors.
• Organizational structure and effectiveness through building capabilities both People and Technology to ensure continuous innovation and growth; also motivating and retaining high performing employees

Implements/Supervises Internal Controls:

• Protects and preserve the company's assets to comply with financial reporting and control requirements.
• Standardize. Establish company-wide standards for systems, data and processes
• Own the data. Collaborate with the Finance Director & IT Manager and take responsibility for the collection and governance of financial and management reporting information.
• Assure relevance and completeness of financial policies and procedures for the functional areas of the business;
• Initiate periodic updates of financial policies and procedures;
• Request audits that provide assurance of compliance with financial policies and procedures.

Financial Planning & Projections:

• Review and discuss with management the long term strategic business plan and financial projections along with related assumptions
• Co-lead with the MD the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) exercise providing insightful information on key value / growing drivers
• Issue the AOP calendar so that each department will prepare its annual comprehensive budget in a timely manner and present it to the relevant authority for final approval
• Proactively advise MD and senior management in regards to Risks & Opportunities (R&Os) to the attainment of the AOP (i.e. Latest Estimates, Outlooks) working closely with executive tam to mitigate risks while realising opportunities
• Conduct/review financial feasibility studies of new projects to assure that those projects are in line with company’s investment/business strategy with appropriate ROI’s

Treasury:

• Provide/review financial projections on cash budgets (i.e. monthly, annually)
• Assure in collaboration with group treasury that the negotiated bank facilities are competitive in terms of notional, tenor, pricing, roll over, and grace period;
• Assure the provision of adequate responses to bank queries for renewal of bank facilities;
• Assure that the periodic reporting requirements to banks are met in a timely manner;
• Assure that all loan covenants are complied with
• Review the daily bank status reports and cash flow forecasts and initiate the necessary directives to optimize the use of cash across company’s operations.
• Hold periodic communication meetings with bank relationship managers and other senior officers to discuss issues of mutual interests.
• Build constructive relationships with key banks stakeholders.

Budgeting Control:

• Issue the annual comprehensive budget control guidelines to all company’s departments so that budget control activities start as early as Period 1
• Review periodic budget control reports of each department to assure that performance is according to AOP;
• Advise and follow-up on effective implementation of corrective actions based on budget control performance reports;

Internal Performance & Reporting:

• Ensures the Business Performance Management (BPM) process take place and partner with the MD to activate corrective measures towards meeting AOP and business strategic objectives
• Assure monthly financial statements are generated with quality within the specified deadlines along with been properly analysed and in line with profitability and liquidity targets, and recommend corrective actions if needed to bring performance on course;
• Assure timely and complete year-end closing in preparation for annual audit.

External Audits:

• Coordinate with the external auditors in planning an effective and efficient audit programs;
• Monitor execution of annual audits in all department to assure their timeliness and effectiveness;
• Review draft external audit reports and provide the necessary commentaries for finalizing timely;
• Assure that the management letter is received from the external auditors.
• Assure that the recommendations in each point of management letter are adequately attended to by the respective Department Managers.

Technical Support & Business Partnering:

• Provide needed technical and financial support to all department managers so that they can perform their respective jobs effectively and efficiently;
• Assure the continued technical and business partnering competence of both the Finance and IT functions through the continuous training, development and coaching of employees

Success Criteria:

• Supporting the Managing Director to create shareholder value
• Proactively measuring and monitoring business performance
• Managing governance/controls/risks / compliance
• Developing a high potential Finance & IT Teams including realistic Succession planning

Job Scope / Impact:

• Meeting Critical Business Challenges
• Integrating Financial and Operational Data
• Reducing Errors and Data Duplication
• Cutting Costs and Creating Efficiencies
• Establishing a Consistent and Auditable Environment
• Gaining Flexibility and Agility.
• Extending and Elevating Financial Management
• Treasury

Expectations

• Chartered Accountant / other equivalent degree from an institution of repute
• Good communicator at every level of organisation from operations room to the board room – incl. but no limited to good oral and written English with strong multicultural awareness
• Excellent leadership skills capable of leading people from the front and from the back at every level of the organisation
• Demonstrated experience as a business partner and “co-pilot” of the MD in driving controls, compliance and performance while improving the business
• Experienced CFO / Finance Director with minimum of 5 years leading the finance function and with 15+ years of overall progressive finance experience (incl. Supply finance, commercial finance, financial controls, decision support, reporting, others) with most of his/her working experience in a subsidiary of a global FMCG with turnover of USD 350 – USD 500 million
• Exposed to best practices and global standards and their application in emerging markets, who knows how to balance global standards and local approaches in order to attain targets / outcomes while maintaining intact the controls, compliance and performance agendas
• Knowledgeable of IFRS along with its right application
• Meaningful exposure to different ERPs (SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, others) as well as their business implications
• Ample experience leading and working across functions as a business partner while keeping the finance rigour and accountability
• Experience leading Information, Systems & Technology and Risk & Assurance (Internal Audit) departments, ensuring the proactive and progressive attainment of business objectives