Senior Profiles

Finance Director – Jaguar

Derek Barnes has been a Fellow of the Institute since 1989 and is currently President of CIMA Birmingham Branch. The Heritage Motor Centre, home to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, has benefited from his financial expertise for two years and before that he was the finance director of a joint venture in Switzerland between the former Rover Group and Emil Frey AG.

Why did you choose CIMA as your professional qualification?

It’s a while back now, but as I talk to the students here, it’s still the case that the CIMA qualification is the fit-for purpose qualification for people working in businesses.When I studied for my letters, CIMA could easily be related back into the industry I was working in and having seen the new syllabus, CIMA appears to have listened more than ever to what employers need in their finance teams.

So why not a different type of accounting then?

In fact, I remember doing a job swap when I was younger and working at Coopers & Lybrand. I found myself doing ‘tick and bash’ audit and I’ve never been more convinced that I wanted to work in industry. I didn’t feel I was actually adding any value to businesses and I certainly wasn’t there to witness any improvements. It felt very uncreative.

In terms of skills, what do you think you’ve gained through studying CIMA?

Back then I felt it was about a greater understanding of the regulatory framework of accounting. The further into my career I’ve got the more I see my skill base as about adding value to the business and the products with which I’m involved. It’s very much about bringing together and applying different aspects of management accounting and applying them.

For example, the case study paper, now Paper P10, the Test of Professional Competence in Management Accounting, is as close to real business life as you can get. Finance professionals need to be technically competent but if they can’t apply their knowledge to a broad range of industry situations then it’s not helpful. I’d also add that the ‘softer’ skills are hugely important: business organisation and strategy, for example. In finance graduates at Jaguar and Land Rover, we’re looking for ‘rounded’ individuals with stacks to contribute.

Do you admit you’re an accountant at parties? Do you usually get the stereotypical reaction?

I don’t go to as many parties as I used to but I have been known to tell people I sell motorcars! Whilst finance may not be as sexy as, say, marketing, when making strategic or day to day decisions it always comes back to financial considerations. Although I do get a buzz when a project goes as planned, it doesn’t tend to be something I’d talk about at parties.

About what percentage of your work time is more ‘people-based’ as opposed to traditional ‘number-crunching’?

Nowadays, about 25 per cent of my time is doing the day to day directing of the finance team here at the Centre. The remainder of the time recently has been spent working on a project called ‘Create The Winning Team’ – which is developing innovative ways of continuing to develop our staff in Jaguar and Land Rover.

We realise that our most important assets are our people, and have a range of programmes covering everything from technical skills through to the softer skills of coaching and developing individuals. At senior management level in finance, we expect all of our staff to have 50% of their annual objectives ‘people-based’.

What’s the best thing about your job?

The most exciting thing lately has been chairing the Diversity Council. For us to build a stronger finance team, we need to make our work environment as inclusive as we can. This way everyone is enabled to build on their strengths and contribute their best to business success. We trained some of our own staff to actually conduct the diversity training and, because it’s been peer-led and owned, it’s worked out brilliantly.

We’re beginning to feel it gives a real competitive advantage as holding on to and developing good people is now easier with this in place. I like to think of us as becoming an employer of choice in the region and I think this scheme really helped us win the CIMA ‘Employer of the Year’ Award too – it showed that it’s not just numbers and value creation that interest us accountants but investment in our human resources.

What car do you drive?

Jaguar XJ – although I’d love an Aston Martin Vanquish!

What sort of impact do you think your company has on the region? Are staff involved in any voluntary work?

Here in Gaydon, we’re a massive employer with over 3,000 staff and in Solihull it’s something like 8,000.We’re all too aware of the responsibilities that big businesses have to the communities we’re part of. As part of every CIMA student’s experience with us, they spend a week of the programme doing something externally. We’ve had school playgrounds re-laid and community buildings painted. I guess the cynic might call it lip-service but at least the jobs are actually getting completed and people’s lives improved as a result of exam-burdened CIMA trainees.

Do you actively support other members of your team to study CIMA and during their studies?

CIMA is the course we recommend to all finance staff here. As I’ve mentioned, it’s the most appropriate qualification for what we need. Around two-thirds of the staff are now CIMA qualified or part-qualified. As we have a critical mass of students, the Birmingham branch of BPP are more than willing to come and teach on-site which makes a huge difference in terms of time and pressure on the students and the business.

In one sentence, please describe the value being CIMA qualified has added to your working life

CIMA provides me with variety – in terms of my day-to-day working life, the areas I might want to develop and the direction my career might head – it’s this flexibility that I benefit from, being a CIMA man.

This article originally appeared on the CIMA's website.

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