I qualified as an ACCA whilst working at Unilever HQ in a financial and planning group that covered the Unilever world outside of Europe and North America. I then joined Nestle in the UK and undertook various financial management and control roles including transferring to work in the US near New York running the domestic and ECP programmes, took a US cash management qualification whilst there and later back in the UK, spent five years as the Treasurer for the UK group. This was followed by a brief stint as the group financial controller for the multi-national Birds-Eye Igloo group following their highly leveraged PE backed management buy-out. The last 13 years have been as the Group Treasurer for Hitachi Capital UK (HCUK is a non-bank lender) during which time, because the UK group has grown more than five-fold, my role has changed considerably. I joined the ACT a long time ago and completed the Advanced Diploma in 1997.
Raising debt funding in a variety of ways and managing interest rate exposure, together with managing cash and payment system facilities. They all require looking externally at the fast changing economic and technical environment, applying judgement to alter course depending on what you foresee happening, and importantly, being able to clearly see the commercial result of you and the team’s efforts. Nearly every day, from the time I get up, there is a part of what I see and listen to on news media of all sorts which connects and directly affects what the treasury team including myself are aiming to do. The external focus always makes it interesting and sometimes even exciting.
There are several aspects. First is that I have to put conscious effort and time into checking that the HCUK Treasury team have what they need to work effectively and are feeling involved and motivated. In the longer term there is no doubt that one legacy of the pandemic will be a permanent positive change in attitude towards remote working – which I think in the long term will be beneficial to all in terms of better quality of life – and will be an important factor in attracting talent in the future.
Another aspect of the pandemic was the dramatic effect on credit markets and spreads – the first half of lockdown was reminiscent of some days during the 2007/8 financial crisis. Some of what unfolded earlier in 2020 could be anticipated, however it was the myriad of the unexpected, unanticipated consequences that unfolded that was reminiscent of 2007/8. That together with the blow out in margins needed considerable attention.
Another equally if not more important aspect of the pandemic has been the effect of the lockdown, payment holidays and the furlough scheme on HCUK’s business as a lender to consumers and businesses. The dramatic fall and rise in new business volumes and the potential effects on unemployment is something that I doubt we’ll ever see again – at least not so sharply and in my working career. Dealing with the consequences for HCUK has been challenging, especially as we have four different securitisation programmes. For instance, you might have expected that consumers personal finances in general in the UK economy would have tanked during this time but in fact the overall savings ratio in the UK increased over the lockdown.
Whereas before, when working from an office, checking that the team have what they need to work effectively and are feeling involved and motivated would happen without much conscious effort, because everything (but not all) was so much more directly visible and physical proximity fosters involvement. Working from home however, it requires more conscious effort and time to be put in to keep the team working effectively. For instance, we had one team member who was on a one year placement from Bath University, so when the time came for him to go back to Uni, we had to devise a way of having ‘virtual’ leaving drinks.
The most exciting thing we’ve done so far was in November 2019 when we did a pan European road-show over two days for HCUK’s first public bond issuance, followed by watching the live book-building numbers come in a few days later. We knew the target we had, and had set our expectations based on previous experience of something similar on ‘club’ deals, approaching the public market before and what we know about some of the key investors. To watch the numbers first reach our target of what we needed and then keep going and going getting up to six times over-subscribed even after bringing in the spread in twice, was actually exciting. It was the result of many years of working towards that goal, but watching the book grow during that day was utterly addictive, I don’t think I’ve hit ‘refresh’ quite so often. We didn’t get much else done that day. However the most exciting projects may be those in the future - we’re currently working on a collaboration with Gridserve (green electrical energy), and possibly no doubt at some point in the future we might re-visit the prospect of becoming a bank.
Don’t delay, join the ACT, do the exams and be flexible. Keep an open mind of sector or company to work in – just be ready to change to something you weren’t expecting in order to gain the right type of experience. Especially at the start, or re-start of your career, but later too, don’t stay in a role where you are not learning and/or building up experience in either hard or soft skills. Remember that one person isn’t particularly luckier than another – they just recognise and take the opportunities that do come up. In-between times, just keep preparing for those future opportunities by remaining curious, keep on studying what interests you so that you recognise an opportunity when it comes up for what it is and are ready to go. Opportunities can often not be in changing role - but can be about making the time and space to getting involved in projects at work, or even consider volunteering for something – you never know who you’ll meet or what you may get out of it.
I don’t think I have a specific single career hero – though I have noticed qualities in people, or their approach to issues that have inspired me to strive in a certain direction at a particular point in time – so many influencers rather than any single individual.
Richard Raeburn, whilst acting as a KPMG consultant to Nestle with respect to controls and governance over the use of derivatives (shortly after the Bearings disaster), said that the difference between prudent hedging and wild speculation is only the expectations of senior management (something I’ve never forgotten and has been an excellent guiding Tennent) and he also then encouraged me to join the ACT.
Compared to others I think I evaluate decisions too carefully which can infuriate others sometimes. Although I may not sound it at times, fundamentally I have an optimistic outlook looking forward to what might be, seeing the potential in things. Also, I’ve been cycling on and off road since shorts were made of Merino wool and you used clips and straps to hold your feet onto the pedals. So; optimistic, evaluating, cyclist. Maybe.
The obvious ones for work are home Wi-Fi router, laptop, monitor and mobile phone - all of which are simply essential prerequisites to be able to do anything now. Outside of work however, last year I bought a DIY gadget called a self-levelling laser level that projects exactly horizontal and vertical lines. It has saved me an unbelievable amount of time so far and there’s more to be done yet since I hanker after a home office at the bottom of the garden.