Company:
The international engineering group is a leading manufacturer of machinery and equipment for various industries. The company operates worldwide with several subsidiaries and has recorded solid growth in recent years. Due to increasing complexity and growing international competition, the company decided to bring in an experienced interim CFO to realign the finance function and further improve financial performance.
Baseline:
Before the interim CFO was deployed, the finance department faced several challenges. The existing financial structure and organization were not optimally set up and there was potential to improve financial transparency and efficiency. Finance should be developed from a pure support function to a proactive business partner for the management team. There was a need to optimize financing, establish a powerful financial structure and make the company’s key value drivers transparent.
Measures and implementation steps:
To achieve the goals, the following measures and implementation steps were carried out:
Assumption of leadership of the finance area:
- Analysis of the existing organizational structure and identification of optimization potential.
- Provide leadership to the finance function and work closely with the management team and senior leadership.
Expansion of a top finance team:
- Assess existing staff and identify training and development needs.
- Recruit experienced professionals to strengthen the team.
- Implement a clear structure of roles and responsibilities.
Evolution to Financial Excellence:
- Implement best practices and efficient financial processes.
- Implement state-of-the-art controlling systems to identify value-added activities.
- Conduct training and education for the Finance team to strengthen their expertise and skills.
Optimization of financing:
- Analysis of the existing financing structure and identification of optimization potential.
- Negotiate new loan agreements with banks to improve financial stability.
- Introduction of efficiency measures in the area of working capital.
Establishment of a powerful financial structure:
- Develop a robust financial structure with clear responsibilities and processes.
- Implementation of uniform guidelines and standards for accounting, controlling, finance, treasury, legal and IT.
Special focus on controlling / performance management:
- Implementation of a modern performance measurement system for transparent presentation of the performance of the various parts of the company.
- Identify and implement performance improvement programs to increase efficiency and profitability.
Continuation of the development and optimization of the financial organization and processes:
- Continuous improvements to the finance organization and processes.
- Optimization of workflows, automation of processes and introduction of uniform guidelines.
Ensure transparency along key value drivers:
-
- Implement comprehensive reporting with KPI dashboards and regular reports.
- Work closely with management team to monitor financial performance and provide decision support.
Results:
The following results were achieved through the implementation of the measures and implementation steps:
- Successfully assume leadership of the finance function and work closely with the management team and senior leadership.
- Build a high-performing top finance team with clear roles and responsibilities.
- Develop a top level finance department with efficient financial processes and best practices.
- Optimization of financing and improvement of the company’s financial stability.
- Establish a powerful financial structure with uniform guidelines and standards.
- Implementation of a modern performance measurement system for the transparent presentation of the company’s performance.
- Continuous improvement of financial organization and processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
- Ensure transparency along key value drivers through comprehensive reporting.
Conclusion: The successful deployment of the interim CFO enabled the international engineering group to improve its financial performance, increase efficiency and create a solid foundation for future growth. The mandate was successfully completed and the company is now well positioned to continuously optimize its financial organization and processes and continue to operate successfully.