Interview Prep Flashcards
Why are you interested in the role?
Interesting business with wide variety, but mainly, I just feel really enthusiastic about a company that publishes books - I have two little girls and I love reading to them and they love being read to. Bloomsbury won children’s publisher of the year (I know children’s books sits in consumer division). I have really good experience in business partnering - providing valued, commercial information to senior business leaders to make decisions, leading a tight budgeting and forecasting process, and it also it fits in with the career trajectory I’m aiming for - manage a bigger team, set me up to move toward a finance director role.
Questions for Jennifer:
How is the budget & reforecasting process - is there a tool for completing it, is the process embedded?
The team - how long with company?
How much contact do you have with academic & professional (the key stakeholders that I would be partnering)? Non consumer - 65% of revenue
Seemed to be reliant on Qatar foundation contract.
Issues like student piracy?
What do you think are the most important qualities for someone to excel in this role?
What are the biggest opportunities for the dept right now?
What do you like about Bloomsbury and what do you wish you could change?
how would you describe the organisation’s culture
How are print sales holding up and how are margins impacted by e-readers/digital textbooks?
(launched 4 new digital resources)
Explore ideas like book streaming, include video clips in books?
Independent publishing on Amazon a threat?
What book are you reading currently?
Maybe not: Is a company like Amazon your competition on book sales, both for e-reading and ? And if so, how competing?
Other notes:
Dino Diggers is cheaper than amazon. How competing with companies like that?
Specific Skills
• Knowledge and understanding of producing management accounts, variance analysis, business case analysis and costing.
• Prior experience in a Planning & Reporting role, managing teams to Budget/forecast timetables
• Customer focussed individual with excellent interpersonal skills, who is able to show evidence of strong influencing and communication skills; ability to build and maintain good business relationships and explain financial concepts to non-accountants
• An effective team player, able to build close working relationships with other departments and external partners to better understand the procedures and bottlenecks that can affect results. Proactive in supporting colleagues and contribute towards discussions around continuous improvement of the service level provided to the business from the Business Partnering team
• Ability to problem solve and work independently, handling and prioritising time sensitive work under pressure and to multiple time sensitive deadlines, responding swiftly to different demands from the business and prioritising work load.
• Advanced analytical review skills; articulate and skilled in analysing business information in complex business situations. Strong data manipulation, reporting and analysis skills; comfortable with advanced excel functionality and sound working knowledge of other Windows based software packages
• Comfortable with complexity, with ability to prioritise and focus on what is important. In particular able to draw out key risks and opportunities and able to summarise and communicate these concisely
• Proven experience in modelling, analysing data, managing cost and savings projects and implementing a strategic plan are all essential skills required for this role.
• Knowledge of financial accounting standards and procedures. An unquestioned track record demonstrating sound judgment, integrity and ethics. An individual with strong character who will quickly gain the trust of others.
• Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced global environment.
I convinced a senior specialist at Christie’s not to do something that wasn’t profitable against his objections, resulting in exceeding the books private sale target by over 2% (50K). Partnering GM of World Art, Books & Science and his direct reports.
Mid-way through year, concern about meeting Private Sales target. Head of Sale - He was often skeptical about information given to him from finance. I’d discovered that certain types of valuation work he was involved in were not really profitable given the amount
of time he would spend. He would spend weeks valuing the items for an estate sale for a small percentage commission, which might earn £100K. If he instead devoted time to 3 private sales which were on average £70K each of commission income,
it would be more profitable for the company. I was nervous about presenting what I’d discovered to him.
I made sure I knew my facts very well and calmly presented what I’d found to him. I resolved his objections by responding to all of them confidently and comprehensively. (Right a lot). At the end of the conversation we agreed.
He took my recommendation on board. Earn Trust. Have backbone. Where other departments were underperforming in private sales, the books private sale target by over 2% (50K).
I rolled out a streamlined forecasting process to my art group managers (dotted line reporting to me) to cover forecasting for 30-40 auctions across 7 departments, freeing up 3 days for me to spend more time reviewing and refining. The existing process involved the FB
entering the data for all of those auctions happening constantly after speaking with the 3 business managers based in Paris, New York, and London leaving little time to review and challenge the numbers. I had to implement something new and add a little bit to the
business managers workload. We talked about the best way to handle the process and methodology (I would build and maintain a template, they would enter the numbers after speaking with specialists, we would then discuss at scheduled meetings).
I rolled out the forecasting tool prior to the next auction which had to be done quickly (bias for action), which the three regional managers were able to use without my help. I then could challenge their assumptions based on interest in the lots/past performance, etc.
and the forecast accuracy improved and time was saved. Invent & simplify, Insist on the Highest Standards
At Christie’s, I partnered the GM of World Art, Books & Science and direct reports. My manager (director of Commercial Finance) received some questions from the CEO about why an auction performed adverse to forecast. I needed to respond within 15 minutes.
I hadn’t had time to do the full analysis of the auction results so I made my best guess. I knew that the auction was weighted toward higher value lots selling vs. middle price points. So it seemed plausible that one explanation was sale mix.
I also knew that there was a fixed vendor commission which the vendor had negotiated, regardless of what hammer was achieved. The hammer value had come in below forecast, which also had an impact. I submitted these as the main reasons.
When I had more time I went into depth. I found that my explanations were correct. I built good credibility and met my manager’s deadline.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Planning & Reporting
• Produce monthly management commentary including detailed variance reporting on the management accounts in accordance with Group timetables. Attendance at monthly management meetings and leading on presentation of the business unit result;
• Manage the Group budget and reforecast process including monitoring and delivery of information within agreed timelines, managing regional teams to deliver within predetermined deadlines and preparation of Board Papers;
• Continuously improve the budgeting and monthly reporting processes; contribute to the improvement of other finance processes and service.
• Lead financial modelling on business cases by identifying key risks, the impact on the rest of the business and ensure that the financials appropriately account for these
• Drive the quarterly revision of the Group five year plan;
• Finance lead on IT developments impacting the Business Partner team
Delivering value for money
• Preparation of ad hoc financial analysis and management of ad hoc queries on Business Unit financials in order to support and improve commercial decision making;
• Support the business on financial aspects for existing assignments, bids, proposals, pricing and reviewing commercial contracts as appropriate;
• Understand the wider impact of financial results and use this insight to curtail or support business and investment activities. Including spotting warning signs of things going wrong and providing a decisive response.
• Provide constructive challenge to senior management on change proposals which will effect own business area.
Collaborating and partnering
• Manage team of five management accountants with on-going coaching and mentoring of team members
• Strong team management skills, to enable the development of highly skilled finance function
• Actively build and maintain a network of colleagues meeting regularly with key management personnel to understand their issues and offer innovative solutions or further contribution to inform their resolution
• Encourage contributions and involvement from a broad and diverse range of staff by being visible and accessible through attendance of key business meetings including monthly management meetings and title P&L sign-off.
• To support the Group Financial Controller as appropriate
S: Through my partnering with the Director of Operations and his team at Virgin Media, I identified an opportunity to save £1.5M by consolidating customer service sites. I partnered the Director of operations at Virgin Media who was accountable for the smooth running of the TV, mobile, and broadband network and cyber security. He was tasked with reducing the yearly operations spend by £7.0M. At a team meeting, one of his direct reports (Head of Business Operations) spoke about the fact that a couple of business customer support sites were doing the same thing although they had low call volume. I volunteered to investigate what savings consolidating the sites might generate. We worked together to create an Excel model showing the FTE and site savings. I led a presentation about the opportunity to the Director of Operations with the Head of Business Ops there supporting. We were pleased that the project was approved and it generated significant savings (£1.5M). This strengthened my partnering relationships with the Director of Ops and his team. Learn & Be Curious. Right A Lot. Think Big. Bias for Action.
I coached an analyst reporting to me on setting the right tone in her interactions with senior people, resulting in an improved perception of her credibility and professionalism. An analyst reporting to me at PepsiCo was very competent but a bit gossipy and at times she could
come across as overconfident. This may have been because she was starting out in her career and was less polished. I encouraged her to be more formal and less self-depracating in order to build credibility with our stakeholders. I really noticed an improvement in
how people regarded her. Hire and Develop the Best.
