Commercial or Not commercial
Ben Grinsted
CFO Practice | C-Suite & Boards | Technology, Tech Enabled & Business Services
What does it truly mean to be commercial?
A competitor of sorts to Reed.co.uk has moved into the building next door to my office. It sure is an impressive space, and took an age fitting out. What tickles me is the massive gong they have in the middle of the floor, compare that to in our office where we simply have a chime bell which sits on the edge of the table it is quite a statement.
Is making sales all that it takes to be commercial?
That brings me to my next point which is a topic I have spoken at length over the years with both candidates and clients “what is commercial”?
The utterance of that word will mean different things to different people.
The definition of that word is;
1.“Concerned or engaged in commerce” 2.“Making or intended to make a profit”
If you can believe the word commercial goes back to 1680 when its use was first documented there will have been so many interpretations.
So in today’s world what does that really mean?
When I used to recruit newly qualified roles almost every candidate under the sun uttered the phrase I am looking for a commercial role.
Sometimes I would sit there and think am I missing something, do they know what that means?
If the role was within a growth SME with a defined route towards a leadership role in the future.
Bearing in mind my clients typically are SMEs on a growth path, they want someone punchy to grow and learn. You really need the fundamentals to know surely what good looks like or needs to be.
It seems that the title Analyst or Commercial Manager makes candidates think that the role is in fact commercial.
That is not always the case
I think in the UK certain job titles have begun to be adopted to entice the candidate, sometimes candidates will call back my team after 6 months in an Analyst role and say the role was not commercial enough they wish they went with the opportunity that we had presented them.
What really do all commercial finance professionals have in their locker?
- They know cash is king
- Culture is essential - building ground up culture is imperative
- They know how to manage relationships with key people
- They review costs and apply changes to them appropriately
- They know their company and they for sure know who their competitors are
- They continually review & share information
- They are negotiators - they will negotiate with suppliers, clients and investors
Being commercial can for sure at points be analysing spreadsheets and data. But real life experience & knowledge has to be key to unlocking what that information really means.
Good CFOs or FDs who come on board to help scale businesses will surround themselves with individuals with the key skills to enable them to do their job and lead from the front. They will want to know that when they move on from a business it is in better shape than when they joined, and more so even that they have a team who can step-up.
Experienced Financial Controller (10+ years in Finance) | Media/Marketing/Advertising Industry Experience
5 年However...in order to trust another person (candidate or recruiter) without having 10-15-20 double copies of supposed evidence of that person's worth (apart from your own judgment) both the HR director/manager and the hiring manager to be "risk-takers" and not "grey risk-adverse bureaucrats"...because the recruiter *can* be daring and trust his or her professional judgment and do so to the point of "taking a risk", but inside the company he or she must find people that are willing to "take a risk" as well in order to find a good candidate! In the end,?
Experienced Financial Controller (10+ years in Finance) | Media/Marketing/Advertising Industry Experience
5 年You need to be honest about your *real* company culture (hire ambitious and talented only if your company tries to be ambitious and to constantly improve...not hire them "for show"), about what you *truly* need from this candidate and be *fair* in the compensation package offered (as good candidates want to be well-paid, obviously). Nowadays seems "out of fashion", but if you are willing to spend a bit more time and money in your search, you might consider which *personality* would be best for the role and try to find candidates that match that personality profile... ...instead, if you want to save that extra bit of money and time, you'll need a good recruiter who is a good judge of character and keeps a good pool of competent candidates with whom he or she has built a *relationship*...over time this person will "know" these candidates and be able to vouch for them... However this means that you should keep a rock-solid relationship with a recruiter like this once you find him or her, because...how you can trust the opinion of someone about someone else's worth you don't *already* know, trust and appreciate your recruiter?
Experienced Financial Controller (10+ years in Finance) | Media/Marketing/Advertising Industry Experience
5 年3) Companies often attempt to perform "benchmarking" outside their industry or look for auditors to fill their internal Finance roles (even if "auditor" and "finance manager"/"finance controller" are different roles and, in my opinion, require different personalities as well), because they want to have insights on how processes work in other industries, but feel "too risky" to take a candidate from outside their industry.? ? ? ? ? ? I think the point is that these "shortcuts" are wrong...for most industries, a candidate that has spent his or her life studying business", that "is smart", that "is versatile" and that "is ambitious" (vs. "risk-adverse bureaucrat") should need just a very brief explanation of how your business works and then he or she would get "up to speed" by him- or herself...Internet exists and, if you have the intellectual curiosity, there are infinite ways to understand how a company works *even if you never worked in that industry before*... The point is that you need the "right candidate"...
Experienced Financial Controller (10+ years in Finance) | Media/Marketing/Advertising Industry Experience
5 年Another term that is trendy is "industry experience"...I think that many companies have the impression that this requirement allows them to drastically *cut* the induction times, *avoid* training costs, obtain precious *insider tips* about competitors' processes...but probably an important point is the idea that someone with "industry experience" will be more "business focused"! However there are a few issues with these assumptions: 1) For line functions, "industry experience" is often critical...because you cannot hire an engineer to work for you as a surgeon...and because from a salesman you will probably want his or her precious contacts with your competitor's clients...but staff functions, in general, tend to work in *similar ways* across different industries, so what a company should be primarily trying to hire someone with a significant seniority and who has performed many different activities, because it is very likely that how Finance, HR or Marketing are done in your industry is not so different from how it is done in a different industry. 2) The *actual* processes, instead, may change *wildly* from company to company within the same industry, so an induction will *still* be necessary.
Experienced Financial Controller (10+ years in Finance) | Media/Marketing/Advertising Industry Experience
5 年- There are cases in which a company or a group is absolutely "bureaucratic" and completely alien to the concept of "efficiency", but still wants to advertise positive qualities it does not have to attract "talents"...for *pure image* issues...so, instead of looking for people matching its culture (bureaucrats), they try to attract ambitious and talented people... In my opinion these are the reasons why companies would try to simulate a "commercial" aspect in a role which has little or no "commercial"/"business partnering" aspect in it...