Executive Interviews

Our Executive Interviews feature top leaders from across the disciplines that we specialise in, sharing their career advice and experience with candidates seeking success in those sectors.

Christian Bruechle- Lead CFO at Coty Benelux

As Lead CFO for Coty Benelux, what is your typical day?

There is actually no day like the other. Mostly I spend my day in meetings and reviews, supporting the Business and Finance Teams to guide, remove roadblocks and ultimately to make decisions. This is quite diverse and ranges from business topics (i.e. can we launch a new product for a certain customer with a specific support model, ensuring this is financially attractive), to making decisions in the area of our Custodian/Accounting Teams (i.e. General Ledger, Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable), to people management topics, questions related to the Coty’s Holding activities, or presenting new strategies to our local teams or to the Company Leadership Team, etc.

Coty allows me to have a balance between work and family, which means that I can take my son to Day Care every morning.

If you could go back, what decision would you change, if any, about your career, and why?

This is actually a very good question! Recently I was asked to present internally to the Benelux organisation about my career development and one of the questions was very similar. I wouldn’t actually change any of my decisions, but I would evaluate some of the situations I have encountered. In the end, everything turned out well and I feel quite lucky with it. Despite the fact there were times where I was thinking, “I’m not moving on fast enough”, I got to where I wanted to get to.

My advice is that ‘patience’ and choosing the ‘right’ assignment over the faster career step, definitely pays out in the end.

What made you decide to move to Coty in Amsterdam, from Procter & Gamble – Switzerland? How did this impact your family?
In the end it was the job opportunity of the position of the ‘Lead CFO Benelux’ which made me move to Amsterdam. Being able to run a relatively large Finance organisation, with around 40 employees and operating the full 360 degree set of finance tasks (including Business, Custodian/Accounting, Controls, Financing, etc.), plus with the special addition of Coty’s Holding activities also being managed out of the Benelux, made this decision easy.

However, on a personal side this came with a ‘downside’ of moving my family from Geneva, where we really enjoyed living. My partner needed to abandon a very attractive job with the United Nations. However today we are happy that we did it, since we all managed to settle well in the Netherlands, both professionally and as a family.

What advice would you provide to Senior Finance professionals considering the move to the Netherlands?

I have no specific advice but can only confirm that the Netherlands is a great place to work as well as to live and would recommend trying it. I especially appreciate the ‘direct and collaborative’ work style of Dutch people, as well as the versatile possibilities of outside work activities such as ‘Kite Surfing’, in addition to having a work/life balance!

What makes Coty an employer of choice?

In my opinion, Coty is probably one of the best companies for personal accelerated development and growth. Despite being a sizeable company, we are still growing together after the merge with P&G in 2016, which has created the need for a lot of flexibility, creativity and, above all, personal ownership. This is one of the reasons I joined and can confirm after 3 years that this is really the place for development and growth.

We are currently building the future company all together. A ‘learning’ environment in a big company of similar size, you usually would not get.

What key attributes does Coty look for in a potential employee?

It will always depend on the specific position we are hiring for (depends on the expertise or experience required). However, in general, we look for individuals with a strong commitment, a strong ‘own it, drive it’ attitude as well as a good ‘team player’ mindset. People who are committed and don’t get afraid of challenges.

As a business, how does Coty promote diversity and inclusion internally? How does this manifest itself in the finance function?

Yes, indeed diversity and inclusion is a very important factor for us, which we are not just promoting corporately, but driving also locally. Take for instance our local Benelux Finance team; within the team of around 40 people we have 8 different nationalities, circa 15 different backgrounds and ca. 60% female employees. Bringing the strength from different backgrounds!

How does Coty actively support with Corporate Social Responsibility?

Also in this area, we try to play our part. As an example, initiatives include a Charity Day, where all employees support local projects for one day. We are currently trying to make our offices ‘greener’ by specific waste reduction activities; less/no plastic initiatives, taking the stairs/saving energy and supporting specific individual fundraising projects that are initiated by our employees.

At a global level, Coty and its brands are committed to minimizing its impact on the environment and to a range of social causes, such as the “We Stand For You” program, co-led with Global Citizen, aiming at raising Coty associates’ voices to fight against discrimination, whether on gender, LGBTI, ethnicity or disability.

If you didn’t work in finance, what another career would you like to have tried?

Before starting my studies of Finance, I was actually looking into Environmental Engineering as an alternative study, as this was my passion. At a later stage during my time at University I was also considering doing a side move towards Diplomacy, which is also why I specifically chose to study for one year in France.

What beauty products can you not live without?

If worst comes to worst, I guess I could live without any beauty products. However, having worked in this industry for a very long time now, I actually get to (and enjoy) trying new products all the time to stay close to latest developments and innovations of the category.

Alexander Albrecht- Finance Director Europe - LECO

What excites you about working for LECO?

We are a global family business that has the advantage of a personal culture where people care about each.

I’m given the opportunity to develop my own ideas and have a lot of freedom to manage the administration of our European Subsidiaries – Finance, Supply Chain, HR and Legal -

How does the business stand out from the market and your competitors?

We have an outstanding sales and service organisation which cares about the customer. Sales does not end with selling an instrument to the customer; it is the aftersales service which really makes a difference for us and we have people who have worked here for some time - I don’t think any of competitors can deliver a similar quality. Furthermore, we have a high level of vertical integration in our production, meaning that we really do a lot of stuff on our own, which is not that common any more – nearly every screw is still produced in St Joseph, Michigan which helps us to control the quality of our products.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your role?

I would say seeing the success of the company is the biggest reward and seeing satisfaction from the joy of the team working together. I personally find that a satisfying factor.

When did you decide to explore a career in accountancy and finance and why?

At school I was already interested in accounting and I always had a strong tendency towards that; during my studies that sort of firmed this up. I was seeing finance as a backbone for any organisation and this gave me the opportunity to sneak into every corner of a company! I think there is probably no area like finance, where from day one you get to see and get in touch with every area of a business.

Looking back through your established career, what would you identify as a personal highlight?

The biggest highlight for me or the latest achievement which I am proud of is the reorganisation which we have done here. LECO Europe has been an established company, but the question asks re. established career, and I don’t know if I am at the stage to call it an established career! I can tell you for sure that over the last years we have been driving a change process to renew the organisation and to bring in fresh blood to change processes and this is one highlight for me. We are looking nowadays at a very modern organisation with a small shared service centre and centralised distribution. I am proud of that we have been successful in completing these projects.

What would be your advice to someone aspiring to be where you are now?

The base is always skills. You need to get the base right, because if you don’t, you won’t have a clue and it will be difficult to get into a good career, no matter what you do. It is also about commitment and ownership; that is what makes the difference. I am 100% engaged with the company and companies I have worked with before and that ownership and drives becomes visible to those people around you. That is the path for your career.

Listen to the people around you and show some patience sometimes. Just reflecting on myself here; for people who want to have a quick career most of the time they lack the patience that is sometimes necessary to do the next steps and sometimes only a month makes a difference. Sometimes they are too impatient to change job and they are destroying their careers by doing that.

You have worked for small companies and large business, what would you say are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

I think to rate something as an advantage or disadvantage is down to the person themselves – there are visible differences, and everybody needs to decide for themselves if they see it as an advantage or disadvantage.

One key factor is speed and flexibility; decision processes in small companies in general happen more quickly than larger organisations and that makes them faster to react. Nowadays you see that a lot of larger organisations try to build up their own accelerators to achieve that flexibility and reaction. The other thing is clearly the personal factor, if you are working in a multinational company with 1000-2000 employees there is a good chance that the CEO, CFO soon will know your name. In companies with 50.000 employees or more, you are quickly becoming a number.

When you decide to go for a smaller business you should be ready to change a bit of your style of working as usually small organisations require more flexibility from you. I have seen people coming for interviews from bigger businesses and they are used to structure - there is a person and process description for everything. In a smaller organisation that is not something you can necessarily expect and there is more flexibility requested from you in your day-to-day role and you need to be prepared for that.

Who is your most inspirational person in business and why?

Someone I worked with was one of my first mentors and later on a supervisor and manager of my last job (he was very senior). He had a certain business philosophy which gave me a lot and I still reflect on nowadays. That would be an inspirational person from my career.

If you talk big names, two names always turn around in my mind – Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin Group)and Dietrich Mateschitz (Founder of Red Bull). Both achieved major things in terms of building brands and so on, and what is more inspiring is that both of them are 70+ now and they still have a massive energy to drive and be engaged in their business and they are still innovative still at that age; I find that inspiring.

What books / blogs are you currently reading? What book could you recommend to accountants that are wanting to progress?

I have just finished a book called “Don’t Stop the Carnival” which is quite an old book and placed in the 1960/70s by Herman Wouk. It is about a Caribbean island and a guy from New York who wants to disconnect. He buys a hotel there and it is about all the difficulties in this environment and culture, very far from what he is used to in New York. It’s quite interesting and was recommended to me by a friend who lives in Barbados. Life looks nice, but it is very different. Read that book and it will tell you a lot about the day-to-day life.

I also look at books on personal development – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People may not be for everyone, but you need to open your mind for those things before you read them.

Do you have any hidden talents?

Not that I have discovered so far. I still have the hope that when I retire I will be able to go on a senior golf tour and be a good golf player but I am not sure that talent will develop!

Thomas Staehli, Finance Director - Loomis Schweiz AG

To get started, please could you tell us a little about your background?

I am a Finance Director at Loomis Schweiz AG which is the Loomis legal entity in CH. This includes supplying retailers and banks with cash and managing cash in society. As Finance Director, I oversee the whole finance operation, including accounting, billing and value accounting (which is making sure that the customers get the amount paid out on time). My background is varied. I started after university in Investment Banking as a Stock Broker - not good timing as the tech bubble burst, so it didn’t last as long as expected or hoped. I then joined Deloitte as an Auditor, to work from Audit Assistant all the way to Senior Manager, within a 10 year period. I also worked for 2 years in the US in audit. I completed the Swiss CPA exam and after 10 years I decided it was time to make a career change, so I had my first accounting role as Head of Accounting for a credit card company. I fulfilled another of my goals and went into management consulting for another Big 4 company for 2 years. I then joined Loomis a few years ago as Finance Director for CH.

What would be your advice to someone aspiring to be where you are now?

When I started out, apprenticeships were more common and people would work their way up to senior positions. This is not the case now. I had an apprenticeship myself, but nowadays it isn’t enough; you must have the theoretical background, the diploma in your pocket, in order to make yourself a candidate for such a position. So a university degree and preferably Masters or further study is the first place to start. To achieve these merits, you must study hard and make it through.

Second thing to focus on is your goals. If you know your long term goals, try to work towards them as early as possible. In my case it was a different path. In some ways it was positive because I gained a broader picture of the world - gaining different skills, a different mindset to those focused on one area - but nevertheless, focus on your goals and know what you want from life.

Third, consult with experienced people. Try to get in touch and keep in touch with people who are better than you and try to learn from their experience, and mistakes as well. Try to get as much as possible out of them and apply to your own personal career.

Looking back through your established career, what would you identify as a personal highlight?

In my personal life and professional life I had the chance to live and work abroad; I spent 2 years in the US, studied in France for a Semester and also had the opportunity to spend a month in Japan to learn the language. These were highlights which opened up new horizons and gain new experiences that you cannot usually gain when you stay in the same place.

What are your personal motivators?

My biggest motivator is my wife. She is as supportive as she can be and understanding when times are tough. She sticks with me and motivates me. There is a lot of comprehension for what I do in my business life so, personally, I think that’s my biggest motivator. The other key motivator is my team. To see people growing and also trying to push people in certain directions and see the results, is also motivating. If you do it right, you see what you can harvest.

How did you get to the level you are at? What great decisions do you believe you have made throughout your career and what risks have you had to take?

One of the cornerstones of my career is the changes I made, from stock broking to audit, to consultant, to finance. This I believe to be unique within the finance world. I then did a lot of training after university including the CPA, Executive MBA and a degree in IFRS accounting. The CPA and the MBA were by far the best decisions I made and the most helpful to my career.

In terms of risks, there have been two:

1. Quitting my job before my current job. This was definitely a risk with family to provide for, but I was confident that it was the right decision - and it was.
2. When we moved to the US. We have two children; our daughter was 3 years old and son 3 months. My wife left her well-paid job here. My salary was much lower than in Switzerland. Financially and career wise it was a risk. In the US they are not waiting for young Swiss people to come to work, they have their own great candidates there. You have to make yourself stand out. It was what I wanted. I probably didn’t have the same support as ex pats; I had to do my own tax filings there and find my own apartment there for the family. It was also a good experience. I specifically chose Deloitte because I thought I may have this chance later down the line.

Can you identify how your organisation stands out from the market and your competitors?

We are the biggest provider in the market in Switzerland. We are better at cost control, we don’t have any big fancy palaces or glass buildings in the middle of town. We try to be cost efficient and don’t invest in ventures that are loss-making.

How would you advise a jobseeker to approach the current market?

It is so important to be flexible. You must be able and willing to make compromises, be open about businesses you are going to. For instance, I didn’t really know much about Loomis before I joined. It wasn’t on my imminent radar of companies I would look to work for. A headhunter presented this opportunity and that is how I came along. Don’t just pick and choose, be open-minded about the business.

I also have the type of businesses that I wouldn’t work for, but as long as you can ethically support the business, why not work for it?

Be flexible in terms of position. You have to change career sometimes. You may not have the position or salary level you envisaged, but here in Switzerland everyone is relatively well paid, so why not work for less during a certain period of time. I was always flexible in that respect, therefore I would recommend it. Just because they had a certain level in a previous job, why not be open and adjust to a new reality when it is not possible to gain as much anymore.

I understand it is not easy, but it is better to work for less than not at all.

Describe yourself in 3 words

Flexible, reliable and open-minded.
In my view the only resource that increases in value if you share it is knowledge. Any other resource divided, you end up with less. Dividing knowledge increases its value for everybody.

Nicola Scampoli - SVP Corporate Finance & Procurement at SWAROVSKI

As someone who has been working in Switzerland for many years, what changes have you seen to the employment market, particularly within finance & procurement?

The various technology platforms have enabled companies to attract talent from a larger global pool and enabled talent to have a faster and broader access to jobs. All this has created a more transparent, competitive and global employment market. Overall, I believe that you get more quantity and choice, but not necessarily more quality. The last mile in the recruitment process, when you test the soft skills, is still very relevant.

I observe an oversupply of qualified talent in Finance and an undersupply in the Procurement market. My observations rely particularly on the turnover of staff and recruitment.

Furthermore, in your opinion, what have been the drivers for these changes?

I believe there are multiple drivers - I see three in particular. One, globalisation. Talent (younger talent in particular) has become more mobile. Two, technology. Employer and talent are using technology to enable the search and the fit. Three, transformation. Most companies are undergoing transformations of some degree.

Digitalisation is an ongoing hot topic in the market place. Given the pace of change, how is your organisation embracing this topic and what challenges do you foresee will need to be overcome?

I think that the main issue with digitalisation and technology is that it is generally more advanced and readily available than organisations and employees can absorb. We try to prioritise business and functional topics based on customer/consumer needs, then specify the technology that meets the needs, then scout the market in the relevant areas and then decide which technology we deploy in which business or functional area. The major challenges to overcome are trade-offs among which technology investments to prioritise and how to manage the abundancy of data.

In recent years you have taken on responsibility for the Procurement function alongside the Finance role – how do you manage the balance between the two operations?

The leadership and management approaches are similar. The main difference is that the different functions are at various maturity stages. In Procurement, we are in the middle of a large transformation requiring more attention. However, striking a balance on where to allocate time and other scarce resources is a typical and constant duty of any manager.

What other challenges await your business and how do you hope to overcome them? Do you foresee greater change within Finance or Procurement in the coming years?

The global markets we operate in offer lots of opportunities, but at the same time competition for the share of wallet has increased. The biggest challenge is the one of transformation across the company, both in magnitude and speed, in order to capture the opportunities. In general, I try to prioritise, to visualise on a roadmap, to execute and then to monitor progress. In our particular case, Procurement faces greater challenges given its undergoing transformation. But there are also a number of Finance topics driven either by market demand (e.g. payment systems), regulations (e.g. customs, insurance) or technology (e.g. data management).

What has excited you about working in the luxury goods market over the course of your career? In particular, what excites you about working for Swarovski?

The global luxury goods market, and the jewellery market in particular, is very attractive with appealing characteristics. It is large, it outgrows global real GDP, it’s profitable, its global products are distributed through multiple channels, products are tangible and transport emotions and business is conducted in a pleasant environment. Also Swarovski is one of the few global players.

I have a broad role in an attractive, globally operating company that keeps me interested and challenged. I have the opportunity to deep dive in certain areas of interest (e.g. M&A and investments) and I can make use of my education, languages, skills and experience in a free-to-act working culture.

How important was it for you to develop relationships outside of your department for career development?

Developing and maintaining relationships is of utmost importance. Within the company we provide services to our colleagues, hence they are (to a large extent) our customers. Outside the company, I maintain relationships with peers, industry experts and former colleagues.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your role?

When a team achieves set goals, celebrates success and gets rewarded.

What advice would you give to future aspiring leaders and why?

Follow your talents and interests. Gain experience in various fields. Be open to and seize opportunities when they come around. Stay hungry and curious. Do not plan too far out. You can only perform sustainably and be happy in areas where you can deploy personal talents and interests.

Who is the most inspiring person in business for you and why?

There is no single person. Several people have inspired me and there will be more to come.

Stephan Gaemers - Tax Director at TIP Trailer Services

We see that 2018 was a big year for TIP Trailer Services; celebrating 50 years in the trailer leasing and services business across Europe and Canada, being acquired by independent global infrastructure investment manager, I Squared Capital, and according to CEO Bob Fast, "well-positioned for growth in the transportation equipment leasing and maintenance services sector in Europe and North America”?. Can you identify how you stand out from the market and your competitors?

The key benefit for our customers is that we provide attractive financing options for their fleet requirements and complement these with value added maintenance and repair services to ensure the highest degree of continuity in their logistical processes and supply chain.

With approximately 70,000 units in our fleet, a diverse portfolio of trailers and tankers and our geographical footprint; we are able to swiftly meet customer needs. We also provide maintenance and repair services for customer- owned fleet whether on location at TIP Trailer Services or through our network of mobile service units. Many of our customers focus on a single discipline like leasing, rental or maintenance. TIP Trailer Services are experts in providing all services that a customer will require during the life cycle of the trailer; making it a one stop shop for all customers’ equipment needs.

What challenges await your business and how do you hope to overcome them?

There a number of challenges inherently related to our industry like interest rate levels, performance of domestic economies, international trade and environmental matters. We typically refinance our business periodically to lock in favourable financing terms, which allows us to provide attractive finance options to our customers. The performance of domestic economies and international trade is typically a capacity discussion. We continuously monitor economic development and, where needed, rebalance the composition of our fleet including remarketing to markets where we do not have a physical presence.

What does your organisation currently do to contribute towards corporate social responsibility?

We subscribed to the UN Global Compact principles last year to put TIP Trailer Services key focus areas into a framework. Two of these key areas where we have solid experience and perform a market leading role are:

”¢ Within Environmental and Health and Safety programs - in particular to ensure workplace and employee wellbeing and safety.

”¢ We are also the founder and lead member of the European Transport Board (ETB), a group of leading European transport and logistics providers which together represent a significant part of the industry with almost 300,000 trailers in their combined fleets. The ETB’s goal is to share insight and solutions that solve common issues which transcend country borders and individual needs. The ETB’S mission specifically aims to reduce environmental impact, reduction congestion from road transport, increase road safety and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the industry.

What excites you about working for TIP Trailer Services?

The entrepreneurial and high energy spirit among colleagues to get the best deal for our customers. The business focus is key, and this is fully aligned on the finance and tax side.

When did you decide to explore a career in Tax and why?

At university (fiscal economics), I enjoyed combining the complexity of international tax with a strong finance angle.

Looking back through your established career, what would you identify as a personal highlight?

Overall in any position I have worked in, I have learnt that my key strength is to operate in greenfield circumstances where I can make something good from scratch. As a note, any position has greenfield elements or moves into greenfield areas so when you like it; get in front! This particularly became visible when I was asked to set up a global procurement organisation in Switzerland for a large bank and insurance organisation; working across 40+ countries and aligning internal stakeholders up to Executive Board level. It was the excitement from renting office space in Zurich, recruitment of procurement staff, putting systems and global processes in place up to hosting roadshows in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Atlanta to align regional and local procurement organisations. Extremely hectic. It was a personal milestone as it demonstrated that I could perform well in a highly demanding and complex environment with challenging business stakeholder and functional experts from the head office.

What would be your advice to someone aspiring to be where you are now?

When you want to learn something good after graduation, make sure you start with a business that has what you want to learn as part of its core business – so if you want to be an accountant, start with an accounting firm and build a few years’ experience.

Your career progresses well when you do something you really like – so every now and then sit back and think about where you are going to end up if you continue with what you are doing now and what your driver is for doing it – it does not need to lead to a change but make sure there is a balance between who you are as a person and the work you do. Getting to know yourself better will give focus and acceleration to your career. Be sensitive to your limitations.

Listen to feedback at work and take it seriously – it tells you what you have to do to make it work with you and the company you are working for – if you can’t match it, it might not be the right fit.

Being a sparring partner is a pre-requisite for a finance professional - what do you feel makes an effective sparring partner?

Good listening skills with the ability to put yourself in the position of the other and being able to respond in a manner where you can filter the technical details; tailor the message for your audience. Ensure a timely delivery of the requested information with high quality and have a pro- active exchange of information. Be flexible on protecting your own interest.

What are your personal motivators?

Keep learning and being ” in motion”?, working closely with my team, bottom line results – business impact, efficiency and effectiveness, (being optimally organised) and exploring greenfield opportunities – building something good from scratch.

Who was your most admired person when you were in your childhood and why?

Le Corbusier – I was fascinated by the buildings he created and the impact he had on modern architecture.

What books / blogs are you currently reading?

Home Deus – Harari and De nieuwe zijdenroutes - Frankopan

Do you have any hidden talents?

I am very handy, in the past 20 years I have refurbished three houses; two myself and for the last one, I was the main constructor and architect where I managed all the construction companies to get our house from 1926 back in its original condition with a modern touch. I am often told I should start my own construction company!

Ralph Geertsema - Program Director Digital at LeasePlan Nederland

You started your career in Finance and have moved into a more Technology led role. When did your passion for Technology and Transformation begin and why?

I think it started early on as I was fascinated by Excel at the start of my working life, although I knew I was not an IT guy or programmer. I loved using it, loved the power of it and I’m really always looking to improve my life. Nowadays we call this continuous improvement and we have all these buzz words around it. It is an interesting motivation; do you want to move forward and improve or keep things the same? And in finance I was kind of a rare species. Most people were trying to keep things the same or say ” this is good enough”?. I love the finance profession - it’s almost like a science, which is unique in the business world. A lot of managerial jobs are about influencing and finance is like a science. I like the combination of understanding the complexity of a business, translating that into the numbers and then seeing what systems could do. Even when working on large programmes nowadays, it’s still important to continuously take small steps to improve. That is for me the foundation of Scrum and Agile as well; taking small steps in teams and making small incremental changes.

You have worked across a number of industries and within consultancy. What do you think has been the key to your success and development?

For me it starts with passion for what you are doing. Whether it's passion for technical accounting, passion for influencing the business or passion for explaining how accounting works to the wider organisation. When I look at people, I always want to understand what their true passion is and what they really love to do, so we can develop them and build that skill set up. I try to teach people to excel at the things they’re good at. The things that you’re not so good at, ensure are at an acceptable level. Try and be outstanding in what you do as it brings the most fun and the best results follow.

Consulting is very different from industry of course. Consulting is about helping the client and bringing them along with the journey they need to make. Part of consulting is giving the client the self-confidence that they can make it through the change. We know people don’t sleep much through these change programmes and it’s a fantastic feeling to sit with a team and say ” I know it’s challenging and I know it’s tough, but we will make it through”?. When we do, it’s a wonderful accomplishment to say, ” Did we really manage that and pull it off?”?. Bringing clients through this journey is a unique experience.

Another difference is that consultants bring another skillset to the team with the rigor and structure that is required in large scale transformation projects. I always look to create diverse teams of internal and external people, young and old, on- and off-shore. This allows people to transfer skills and grow in their capabilities. In consulting I have seen many different settings and have learned we can’t always succeed in one go - most of the times you’ll need at least three goes at a certain challenge. We know from research that diverse teams are much better at being creative in approaching challenges from different angles. This is one of the key drivers why diverse teams are more successful.

If you could go back and give your younger self some career advice, what would it be?

These days I find it very difficult for people to be able to convince each other, so bringing people closer together is maybe the optimal result we can hope to achieve. I always thought that with logic and reason, one would always be able to convince the other, but usually this is not the case. So, I would advise being better at listening and understanding, therefore trying to work through it, to find that ‘win win’ scenario. We should follow each other’s wisdom and together we should build something new. A lot of the times I’ve thought, no, I really know what the way forward is. Of course I know, but then I found out and understood what the other person knew at a later stage. It really is still a struggle to understand other peoples’ points of view, but they simply make sense and are probably right as well. Itâ €™s about trying to bring the worlds together and trying to get that optimal result. Making a good idea into a better idea is really hard. Maybe it’s good enough to implement a good idea and not try to make it better and that’s the art of delegation as well.

You spent several years within EY, what would be the best advice you have for someone looking to make their step into industry?

Business life operates very differently has a different heartbeat. It’s very much about collective and team success. Individual success is usually less important. So right now I am being valued on how successful you get others to be, instead of how successful I am, which is quite different from consulting. Furthermore, the span of time through which you are viewed to be successful is very different in business. It’s much more of a longer term perspective, not just looking at a chargeable hours, which sometimes leads to people thinking they don’t need to work as hard. I find myself working in peaks and troughs and often contribute to something outside of my area, to enable the entire team to be more successful.

On the other hand, the level of expertise that I found in most consulting firms is just amazing. If you have worked there for a number of years and have a good network, after two or three phone calls you can find any expert across the world, in any industry or company. This is an incredible power and also makes it a lot of fun, as an expert view can bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the challenge at hand.

You recently attended the CFO Roundtable event which we co-hosted with Microsoft, with a focus on the impact of ‘Technology in Modern Finance’. Why was this useful and what did you take away from it?

I was really impressed by the team from Microsoft. For any company I think it’s really a strong promotion for their brand and their employees to host a knowledge sharing event. There is much more power in recruitment agencies and the business industry to work together, it makes the event more practical and tangible. The topic of forecasting automation was just fantastic and the transformation that they have been through. The challenge is always to understand the time and the amount of effort it has taken to achieve what they have managed to achieve. It’s more than just luck; this is something different.
Many people will underestimate the effort it takes to achieve a true step change; you can’t buy what they have done, you can only earn it. Having done a number of these transformations and knowing how hard it is, I value the outcome even more.

What would be your advice for someone looking to make a move in their career towards transformation?

Transformation is of course a bit of a buzz word and it’s essentially change and running programs to implement that change. Digital transformation is even bigger - more difficult and very interesting. You really need to have a passion to change things. This may sound silly and plain, but a lot of people simply don’t want to implement the change. What we learnt at EY was that cross-functional change is so important. Cross-functional working together with this Agile method is so important.
What does this cross-functional transformation then really mean? If you want to change the world of Finance, then you need to take the rest of the business people with you. The effectiveness of the change sometimes evaporates because you aren’t taking the rest of the organisation with finance. You hit the efficiency target, but the effectiveness of the process goes out the door. Working together with people across the business is essential; you may want to change the Procure to Pay procedure for instance, create and receive an order close to where the action really happens, rather than a distant office.
This is really where technology can help us these days, because of these magical brilliant computers we have, which can help and automate with Artificial Intelligence. It’s about bringing the simple transaction to an easier solution and bringing the transaction to a complete end result.

What can you tell us about the transformational change programmes you have planned in the ERP/Robotics/Blockchain and Digital Transformation space at LeasePlan? What are the biggest challenges?

My inclination is to talk about Blockchain, as so many people are talking about this and want to see it work. I have tried it now three times and I am struggling with it and just can’t see it yet, but I am truly fascinated by the technology and the potential. We are trying, evaluating and reviewing with systems and looking to make a successful blockchain PoC. People are always quick to discuss their success but not all give information on where it’s not working and hasn’t worked out.
There is a lot of press around Blockchain at the moment and when I go and look for the program team now I struggle to find them. And even sometimes we find out they may no longer be involved and now left! So, we can all see the opportunity, but we can’t see too much in the results yet. For me it is a bit like Data Analytics of 5-8 years ago or so. We knew we could analyse data really well, but weren't sure how to create business value. It took the best of 5 years to bring business solutions based analytics before we really saw things come into fruition.

We have recently opened a new recruitment division in Business Intelligence & Data, in response to the demand that we saw in the market. What kind of key interpersonal skills do you see that a BI Analyst or Data Scientist, for example, should have?

It’s really people who will make the difference in the BI domain, looking into the tools and people who can work cross-functionally. They need to understand what the data means, structure it and bring it to the level of quality where we can do something with, and explain across, the business teams. Analytics of the data is very important for us to be able to draw conclusions and then bring those insights to life – this really is such a huge challenge. The other thing is to ensure leaders understand how we bring this into an organisation on a sustainable basis, so it becomes an organisational capability.
Also, this journey is far from over and will take a number of years before data-driven decision making is part of everyone’s day-to-day working life.

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Executive Interviews

Christian Bruechle- Lead CFO at Coty Benelux

Alexander Albrecht- Finance Director Europe - LECO

Thomas Staehli, Finance Director - Loomis Schweiz AG

Nicola Scampoli - SVP Corporate Finance & Procurement at SWAROVSKI

Stephan Gaemers - Tax Director at TIP Trailer Services

Ralph Geertsema - Program Director Digital at LeasePlan Nederland

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Executive Interviews

Christian Bruechle- Lead CFO at Coty Benelux

Alexander Albrecht- Finance Director Europe - LECO

Thomas Staehli, Finance Director - Loomis Schweiz AG

Nicola Scampoli - SVP Corporate Finance & Procurement at SWAROVSKI

Stephan Gaemers - Tax Director at TIP Trailer Services

Ralph Geertsema - Program Director Digital at LeasePlan Nederland