Interim CFO in Specialty Distribution – Case Study

Whether it’s to urgently replace an absent CFO, to steer a large-scale financial operation or to ensure crisis management, calling on an interim CFO is a strategic solution in many cases.

When to use the interim CFO? What is its role? And what is the added value of his intervention for the company? Through In our customer case study, discover an example of an interim CFO mission for a specialist distribution player.

 

Interim CFO: what is its role?

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO), the manager’s right-hand man, plays a central role in the company. Its main mission is to ensure the financial stability of the organization and to steer its financial strategy. His field of action covers several areas: he manages finances, supervises accounting and legal aspects, controls financial risks, ensures compliance with accounting and tax obligations, etc.

An interim CFO is an external expert with a long career of 10 to 15 years in financial management positions. He is temporarily integrated into the company to respond to a specific problem, for a predefined period of time (generally 6 to 18 months).

 

When to use a transition CFO?

The interim CFO can intervene in companies of all sizes and in all sectors, to respond to a wide range of issues, such as:

• Ensuring financial crisis management (restructuring, recovery, sudden drop in activity, cash flow problems, etc.);

• Relay management : to replace, at short notice, a CFO following a resignation, retirement, or prolonged absence for health reasons;

• Optimize administrative and financial management (cost reduction, renegotiation of receivables, optimization of working capital requirements, etc.);

• Strengthen the financial profitability of the company;

• Oversee complex financial transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, capital raisings, buyouts, tax compliance, or strategic negotiations with key accounts.

The Interim CFO is an expert within-depth knowledge of the sector of the company in which he or she works (whether it is Industry, nuclear power, E-commerce, Construction, Health, Luxury, etc.). Thanks to its sector expertise, its long experience, its interpersonal skills, his strong sense of leadership and his external perspective, he is able to adapt to the problems encountered and to produce tangible results in a limited time. As soon as he arrives, he identifies the issues and sources of dysfunction, thus making it possible to precisely define the actions to be put in place to rectify the situation as soon as possible.

 

Interim CFO: our case study for a transition assignment in specialist distribution

Our interim management company WAYDEN supported one of the European leaders in specialized distribution as part of a transformation of its Finance department.

With a turnover of €1.9 billion in 2018 and a projection of €3 billion in 2025, the group needed to quickly strengthen its financial governance to support this period of strong growth (the size of the company had doubled in the last 5 years).

To this end, the creation of a Deputy CFO position appeared to be essential to take charge of corporate and operational matters in the Finance perimeter alongside the Finance Director.

Pending the recruitment of an executive for this position, WAYDEN has been mandated to bring in a transitional leader. Indeed, the rapid growth of the activity, urgent and strategic projects required an immediate response.

To meet this need, Benoît Durand Tisnes, President of Wayden, has selected Antoine Deschene, an experienced Finance CEO, with an operational profile and adapted to the group’s culture. A former civil engineer from the French Mines School with a background in finance at INSEAD, Antoine Deschene has a strong background as a CFO in the media and business travel sectors, where he led international teams and managed large-scale financial transformation missions.

Appreciated for his natural authority, his calm and his approachability, he stands out for his ability to reconcile operational action and strategic support, thus perfectly meeting the expectations of an action- and business-oriented group.

His mission included the management of several strategic axes within corporate finance, such as reporting, consolidation, treasury, budget management, strategic planning, management of activities related to the central purchasing office, and the management of the Finance teams within the international business units. He was also called upon to take charge of and ensure the management dotted-line of the Finance teams in the BUs, in conjunction with the local operational bosses and the new CEO of the BtoB activity.

The mission proved to be a great success. This deployment of skills has indeed made it possible to lighten the load on the DG Finance on certain functions and to structure the organization with a view to future challenges. Thanks to this mission, the client was able to Stabilize its financial operations while laying the foundations for strengthened governance, allowing the Chief Financial Officer to focus fully on equity operations and the medium- and long-term growth strategy.

To learn more about this mission, read our full case study.