Interim Country Head of Finance — Controls

The judgement calls behind one financial view

A single financial view sounds like a systems project. In practice it is a series of judgement calls that systems cannot make. Which definition of cost per shipment, per route or per asset wins when two parts of the business measure it differently? Which cost allocations survive, and which were invented to make a particular line look healthy? When a figure is disputed, does finance publish its own view or wait until everyone agrees? The Interim Country Head of Finance will make those calls, and will be held to them.

Each call creates winners and losers. A common definition of margin can turn a celebrated contract into an ordinary one. A tighter close calendar removes the days in which adjustments used to happen. The interim's task is to decide on the evidence, explain the decision once and well, and then hold the line.

The Audit Committee Chair is the reporting line, and the authority is executive. You will agree the decision rules for finance and controls, and which thresholds local leaders retain. You will define the grounds on which investment, operating capacity and control changes are approved, and rule on whether each inherited commitment continues, pauses or ends. You will stop proposals that push cost or risk onto a team that never agreed to bear it, and decline investment where take-up, dependencies or downside are missing from the case. You will approve the finance leadership line-up and the route issues follow, and settle disputes with depot and commercial heads before money is spent.

Twelve months to a number everyone uses

Within 90 days the single financial view, the close calendar and the ownership of each control should be agreed with the Audit Committee Chair. Around month nine, capital and operating decisions should be taken on that single view, and every controls exception should be costed and owned by someone who knows it. At month 12 the view and its controls should be embedded, with a stronger finance team ready to run them without interim support.

A finance leader who has reset more than processes

Your finance leadership has covered at least $540 million of revenue, 2,600 people and four countries. The Audit Committee Chair will weigh your experience of culture reset, integration and professionalisation: one financial truth is as much about behaviour as about ledgers, and you should be able to show where you shifted who approves, how money flows and how often leaders meet, not just reporting templates. Capital allocation is expected at level 4, with controls and reporting, risk judgement, and FP&A forecasting each at level 3. Your record should include decisions where fresh evidence moved money, people or leadership time. You keep the controls that earn their place, put a price on every exception and hand over a stronger finance team.

Audit chair, board chair, executives, directors

Week one brings a confidential video meeting with the Audit Committee Chair. The Board Chair sees you in the third week for a session built around a practical finance problem. In week five comes an in-person conversation with executives drawn from each function, and in week seven the directors sit as a group. Each stage is followed, within two working days, by our response in writing.