April 23, 2025
Hat tip to Subbuteo for bringing this back and every Finance Director of a certain vintage knows exactly who these 2 are. Do they represent the Divisional Finance Director 'bust up' when Finance Shared Services is first mooted by the Finance Transformation Consultants?
As Francis Lee and Norman Hunter squared up all those years ago little did they know that they would become an image for the Finance Director Shared Services 'turf war'. The CFO calls the shots and has decided it will be a Finance Shared Services Operating Model somewhere in the UK to service 6 Business Units.
Invariably one of the Big 4 and I don't mean Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal or City did a quick run through of the numbers.. 'Crunching' them like Norman Hunter in his prime and said you will save about 30% and without a doubt will deliver one version of the truth.
A Meeting is called and 6 Business Unit Finance Directors dutifully file in from Birmingham, Manchester, London, Glasgow, Southampton and Belfast. They know its coming, somebody let it slip. There will be no surprises today, unless the big boss selects the Location straight out the gate.
At this thought 3 of the Finance Directors start to sweat and the 3 more experienced ones start doing the mental arithmetic of Site, Staffing and City Benefits. It will come as no surprise that in the race to the Title of 'Host of the new Finance Shared Services Centre' Birmingham and Manchester have 'form'. They feel confident, they have their story and a City behind them.
Which Site would you pick and why?
To see how we can help your Finance Shared Services program check out our Consulting Services.
Best Regards,