The Company

Rapidly-growing financial services business jointly–owned by two major UK listed organisations, with Head office in West London and subsidiary offices in the City of London and other London locations.

Why the Programme?

• New team of Finance Operations established in January 2004, led by newly-appointed Finance Manager (external appointment).
• Need to deliver an effective service to the business.
• Need to create an effective management team for Finance Operations comprising Finance Manager and five Team Leaders.
• Widely differing levels of management experience in the team.
• Aimed to create a consistent management approach by all in the team.
• Wanted on-going development, not ‘sheep-dip’ one-off training.
• Wanted a programme which was practical, not theoretical.
• Wanted a common-sense approach to ensure basics are right.
• No appropriate in-house management training available.

Programme Framework

1. The Programme was planned to run on 7 dates from June to December 2004.
2. The aims of the Programme were to
   
   • Develop participants’ team leadership skills
   • Develop the Finance Operations Management Team as a Team.
   • To improve Finance Operations contribution to the performance of the business
3. The suggested timetable was:
   

   Introduction to Management-1	Thurs. 24 June
   Introduction to Management-2	Tues. 27 July
   Mastering Personal Effectiveness-1	Tues. 24 August
   Mastering Personal Effectiveness-2	Thurs. 23 Sept
   Effective Performance Management	Thurs. 21 Oct
   The Skills of Project Management	Thurs. 18 Nov.
   Review Day	Thurs. 9 Dec

4. For a variety of operational reasons, the last two dates were postponed until early 2005.
5. There was a strong practical, work-based focus to the programme with action items agreed at the end of each day with follow-up at the start of the next day.
6. All days (except the Review Day) were accompanied by a full set of handouts summarising the day’s topics.
7. At the Review Day the Finance Manager presented a summary of conclusions from the Programme to the Finance Director and senior colleagues in the company.
8. The material which follows is based on that presentation

What Worked Well

Tangible Outputs

• A Departmental Monthly Performance Report put in place to help us measure and manage the work of Finance Operations. Report includes:
  
  • Order Volumes
  • Returned order volumes
  • Returned order analysis
  • Queries received, resolved, rejected
  • Daily settlement deadline achievement
  • Analysis of deadlines missed
  • Invoice payment analysis
  • Cycle time for Monthly Performance Report
• Greatly improved major project planning and implementation, especially BACS/Direct Debit Project.
• Greatly improved management and implementation of week-to-week problem-solving and smaller systems improvement projects.
  
  • Managed by FATAL (Financial Accounts Task Allocation List!)
  • Analysis of problems, improvements to be addressed
  • Sorted by priority and complexity
  • Tasks allocated to team members in relation to individual experience and development needs
  • Reviewed and updated by team weekly.
• Very effective quarterly process of individual goal-setting and review in place for all members of Finance Operations.
• Improved management of introduction of new team members with induction checklists.

Less Tangible Outputs

• Consistent approach to management of our operations and our people across the Department.
• Our days together provided valuable time out from day-to-day work demands to focus on improving our Finance Operations performance.
• Our programme put Finance Operations ahead of the rest of the business!

What Hasn’t Worked So Well

• Finance Manager resigned within 5 months of being appointed to role.
  Lesson: Train potential leaders before putting them in role.
• Postponements to our final 2 programme days disrupted programme momentum
  Lesson: Stick to Plan!

Overall Opinion of the Programme

Has met original objectives

• Has been practical, not theoretical.
• We have made real improvements
• We have a consistent approach across the Department
• We have been able to discuss together and agree our approach. We work as a team.
• There has been on-going development – but because of postponements it took too long!

Programme is a Platform

For Further Improvement

• Some of our objectives could be SMARTer.
• Our month end reporting cycle has improved considerably, but is not yet down to our original goal of 2 working days after month-end.
• Our work planning is much improved, but we still allow plans and deadlines to slip.
• We need to maintain our on-going development.

Thank you

Team

• For your input and for doing the work

XXX (Finance Director)

• For supporting the programme

Most importantly: Noel

• For developing and facilitating the programme.
• For advice and support during the programme.