Headstart: Management - A Week In The Life.
Neil Quarendon is director of finance and operations at Alexander Lloyd, one of the South East’s leading independent accountancy and insurance recruitment companies. His timetable includes meetings with directors and operations managers, chairing local topic groups, and discussions with entrepreneur’s banks and financial institutions. Away from work he has two young children, a passion for exotic cars and various sporting activities.
Monday
Weekly meeting with operation managers
to discuss sales and profit margins. Reviewed improvement programme for quality management within the marketing operation. Consulted on a difficult client situation and concluded the day with a meeting with the auditors to discuss tax planning issues.
Tuesday
Presentation of financial management information to the board. Good news: the six-monthly results are ahead of all budgets and forecasts. Justified a major capital investment programme and presented new product entry strategies. Amazingly, as promised, I manage to get home by 6.30pm for son’s birthday.
Wednesday
I spend most of the morning liaising with some of our major customers and key accounts in order to assist with a feasibility study and evaluation on a potential business acquisition, then off to Windsor to meet up with professional advisers on a due diligence exercise before heading back to London for Accountancy Age awards dinner at Natural History Museum.
Thursday
Still feeling the effects of the previous evening’s awards night, I head off to an early meeting in Gatwick with our marketing consultants and commercial director to discuss the company’s strategy and tactics for the next 12-18 months’ projects. Bi-monthly lunch with leading guest editor and key clients to discuss current issues. Then on to legal advisers to discuss various issues regarding business acquisition. Finally, back to the office to prepare for early review meeting for the following day.
Friday
Resources & Whitepapers
Accounting Software The power of customisation in accounting systems
Weekly cashflow update-reviewing debtor/creditor positioning in time to reinvest on money markets. Meeting with commercial director to discuss figures and draft reforecast end of year projection. Working lunch with operations managers to discuss issues and improvement for existing procedures.
Joined operations manager and sales team to celebrate record results.