Riskbusters

by Catherine Woods - Monday, 29th October 2007 -

When a big decision needs to be made in the business, who you gonnna call? Terry Smith wants the answering cry to be “the finance team!”

As Smith enters his second year as FD of Canon UK, he wants to drive an intiative he calls “finance business partnering”.

Smith says: “For me, finance business partnering is being there at all those key decision points during the business and ensuring, on the information we have, that we’re making the right decision.”

Smith says the finance team needs to be involved in all decisions, from formulating long-term strategy to planning where to invest resources, to challenge the decision makers.

“It’s making sure that all the available information is being provided and understood and therefore the decisions are made from a solid foundation,” he says.

“It’s also about building the relationships. Do you have the strength of relationship with those decision makers so you can really hold up a mirror and say ‘is this what we want to do?’.”

Smith joined Canon nine months ago after spending 18 years at Unilever. He succeeded Peter Brown.

Brown is now European Canon Business Solutions FD for Canon Europe. To read a profile of Brown when he was at Canon UK, click here.

Picture source

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