A Month in the Life of a Portfolio Finance Director

I believe that a Portfolio Finance Director fulfils 4 roles:

• Strategist, helping businesses determine their purpose, understand their role in the market and working to develop a long-term strategy,
• Operator, assisting businesses with the day to day implementation of their strategy
• Guardian, looking after the pennies and the pounds and keep a general eye on compliance issues
• Supporter, bringing the strengeth of a wide network of contacts and being there to listen to the challenges small business owners face.

This month has been largely a strategy month. I have had several sessions with management teams where we have been taking a fresh look at their businesses.

Core Values

In one of my businesses there is a handover of the reins happening. I have been working with the management team to help develop their strategy.

We had a very productive session where we went right back to the deepest level and discussed what the business core values were.

It was amazing how easily we were able to agree an initial view of these and the clarity they provided.

We then agreed a way forward, which will involve a series of sessions with the key middle management to further discuss these values and how they translate to each part of the business.

Once these sessions are finalised and there is organisational buy-in, these values will then become the touchstone for all decisions going forward.

The business will have a very clear identity and every in it will understand where it is heading, how it intends to get there and why.

SWOT Analysis

Another one of my clients has a range of different divisions and sales channels for a particular product type.

This month we carried out a SWOT review of each of the divisions as they are at very different stages of the business cycle.

One is in wind down and we discussed the most efficient way to stock realise.

One is a stable business with a sizeable market share, here the conversation was around how to continue to improve the sales channel and how to target specific geographical regions.

Another is relatively new, and the discussion was more around new ways to approach the market, be it networking, direct sales or social media.

2024 Priorities and challenges

At one of my clients the session was around agreeing the priorities and challenges for 2024.

We worked on a high level looking at the possible financial impact of a wide range of initiatives and challenges.

We started with our current estimate of the 2023 out turn and then discussed the full impact of a round a dozen potential changes.

We worked them through in detail, what would the impact be on Sales? Margin? Overheads? Would we need more central staff? Would we need more space?

And importantly did we have the management resource to successfully deliver them all.

We were then able to agree the 2024 priorities and a very high-level financial plan for the business.

All in all, it was a very productive month and my clients have taken a great first step in preparing to grow and succeed in 2024.

Author, Jason Soars