This
year’s Finance Directors’ Forum was held aboard the P&O cruise ship Arcadia
from the 7th to the 10th October and proved to be a great
success. And I was delighted to be on-board and a part of it representing
Shaylor Group plc.
The
opening night’s keynote address was given by ex-Newnight and University
Challenge heavyweight, Jeremy Paxman, and focused on The UK Political
Landscape. Humorous, witty, entertaining and followed by a typically prickly
Q&A session (albeit somewhat tongue-in-cheek), it was the perfect way to
start the Forum proper. His banter with Justin Urquhart Stewart (in the circle
of the theatre) was a joy to behold.
These
Forums are well known for being busy and concentrated affairs, and this year
was no different (with delegates kept focused from 7.30am to 10.30pm to ensure
that benefit is maximised for taking precious time out of the office in
addition to the CPD accreditation).
Day 2
started with an excellent presentation by Virgin Atlantic Airways FD, Liz
Collins, entitled ‘Building a Finance Centre of Excellence the Virgin Atlantic
Way’, which demonstrated the steps taken to streamline the finance function and
deliver a leaner, more commercially focused organisation. My schedule followed
this up with the workshop, ‘Leading The Finance Function During Uncertain And
Volatile Times’ delivered by Tim Pullen of Telefonica UK.
The
keynote address on Day 2 was ‘Courage, Vision and Values’ by Roz Savage MBE, the
solo women’s ocean rower who not only rowed across the Atlantic Ocean (3,000
miles) to raise environmental awareness, but followed this amazing feat of
endurance by then rowing across the Pacific (8,000 miles) and the Indian Ocean
(4,000 miles). I was also fortunate enough to attend Roz’s ‘eVALUEation’
interactive workshop on the same afternoon before I, myself, delivered a
presentation on being an Interim/Equity Finance Director.
Around
the presentations and workshops were a number of meetings with suppliers, so
many new contacts were made and hopefully much business will result from this
opportunity (from both sides) to explore and discuss opportunities in this
captive environment.
Our
Forum Facilitator, the irrepressible Justin Urquhart Stewart, opened up the
first main session of Day 3 with an interview of/audience with Mark Hesketh, UK
& European Finance Director of Standard Life plc, with the working title of
‘Setting A Standard In The Finance Function’. Justin’s questions about Mark’s
time at RBS resulted in some surprising and positive comments regarding working
with Fred Goodwin.
Following
this, the Day 3 Keynote Address was given by Jas Hawker, past Commanding
Officer of the Red Arrows and currently a Director of Mission Excellence (and
organisation focused on improving clients’ execution – closing the gap between
what gets talked about and planned, and what gets delivered). This was an
enjoyable session that mixed lots of anecdotes and footage of the Red Arrows in
action with some key pointers on how to lead a world-class and highly
performing team in the corporate world.
Perhaps
the finest presentation of the event was reserved for later that afternoon when
Justin Urquhart Stewart gave his presentation, ‘Post General Election Economic
Update – What It Means For You And Your Organisation’. Irreverent, amusing,
fast paced but also interesting, relevant and cutting through the nonsense so
often reported in the media to give the real bottom line. An amazing hour that
seemed to fly past in minutes – top class.
My
pre-dinner day ended with a very useful one-to-one coaching session with Aim
Higher Leadership, with a post-dinner keynote given by Austin Healey and aptly
titles ‘The Rugby World Cup (Amongst Other Things)’.
Day 4
was all about packing, disembarking the Arcadia in Southampton and driving back
up the country reflecting on what had been packed into the previous 3 days (and
the meeting and business that would be inevitably be done in the weeks that
will follow).
And a big
thank you must go to Richmond Events for their excellent organisation once
again.
