Finance Director - Alex Davis

Well, it turns out that accounting isn’t that boring after all. Although those considering audit might want to take a careful look at what’s involved.

Accountancy was cited by almost everyone as a brilliant place to get a solid understanding of business and many people exploit the training as a springboard into other careers both within finance and more broadly (such as management consultancy). This makes it a pretty good option for those who aren’t entirely sure which direction to take but who want a solid qualification from which to build.

The exact qualification you sign-up to will depend on what interests you and what slant you want your training to have. Typically at the big 4 you’ll be going for the ACA, which probably has the edge in terms of prestige. If you’re interested in being an accountant within a business then you’ll be heading in the direction of CIMA. Public service has its own specialised training and that’s CIPFA.

Something that may seem a little counter intuitive is that you don’t actually have to be a math geek to be successful in this industry. Whilst it might help for more specialized areas such as tax and actuarial work, most people we spoke to didn’t have a clue what the whole top row of a calculator does!

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Alex Davis, I look after finance for Flight Centre UK Ltd.  I trained as an accountant and I now work for Flight Centre Travel Company.

What is an Accountant?

An accountant is somebody who has a focus on the results and the figures, the financial information that a company creates. In order to be able to say “are those figures correct” and also “what do we want to do with those figures”, what does it tell the business that they need to do going forward to make the profit figures larger.

What attracted you to this career?

I was attracted to graduate jobs in accountancy because I didn't know what else to do largely, I left university with a languages degree, not knowing how to use it, I didn’t want to be a teacher and thought I wanted to get into business and accountancy is a well recognised way of getting a broad business understanding.  So I went into an accountancy company and worked there for a while and decided that it would be more fun to get into industry, so I moved to Flight Centre.

What about the stereotype of accountants being boring?

Is accountancy boring? Yes and no. I found the studies were not the most interesting thing I had every done.  I personally found external audit where you are going around other companies, you are looking at their accounts, you are essentially saying "do we agree that these accounts, these numbers are a true reflection with the trading they had for the previous years. I found that pretty boring. What you are doing there you are really looking at the company's results, the results have already happened in a sense, the company has already had its year of trading, we are looking at them and thinking "do we agree with them, yes or no". Frankly how much you add from that point of view is questionable, how much interest there is is questionable. So that is "is it boring?  It is yes side for me - no side is when you get into industry or slightly more specialised role because now what I am helping to do is making the company decide what it is going to do on a day to day basis, what the strategies should be looking forwards and that is very exciting, that is great because you are really helping to decide what may well work for us a business and how can we make it even more of a success.  There is a little bit of history looking back to go over how we did last year, but that is from a point of view of saying "ok, what did we do last year, what can we learn from that to make this year even more successful”.

What does your job involve?

In basic terms I head up finance for Flight Centre, which means I look after the team of accountants who support our team of operational people, who are the travel agents who are out in the stores in the high streets selling travel.  My team looks after the financial side of things looking after the numbers, providing business support, providing commercial advice.  Basically answering any queries, telling them how to make more profits, giving them advice in terms of how to treat anything from a numbers point of view.

Who do you liaise with on a daily basis?

Because I am an accountant within a company, a business, I liaise very closely with my team of accountants, but also with the business itself, the people who are making the decisions in terms of operations.  Also I am in charge of, external relationships with our lawyers, with our bankers, our insurance companies, so pretty much anyone on a day to day basis.

What do you do on a typical day?

The beauty of the role is there is no typical day, there is a bunch of different stuff and it depends on what crops up on any given day.  We wouldn’t be talking too much to clients, it tends to be the guys in the stores dealing with the customers, we are dealing more internally so there will be plenty of telephone calls to our stores, plenty of emails to and from our stores and also dealing with external people, our lawyers, our auditors, our insurance companies; risk type stuff, health and safety.  So although it is called finance it tends to be where everyone lumps everything that isn’t selling travel.

What are the specialisms within your industry?

An accountant is quite a broad training and people tend to specialise once they have qualified.  So some people specialise in tax, some into corporate finance, which is looking at companies buying other companies or merging essentially.  Some stay within chartered accountancy, which is looking at other companies’ results and verifying those.  Then you have got management and financial accountants, who tend to be people who have done the qualifications but then move into a company and produce their own accounts and set budgets and that sort of thing.  There are also a number of other streams such as risk management, where people who have trained as accountants then go off at looking at what are the risks to a company in terms of them hitting their profit figures and that sort of thing.

What are the best bits about your job?

I love working in the travel industry, it is very exciting industry it is very young, it is quite dynamic.  It tends to suit people who are able to wing it.  There is not too much structure and things to fall back on in terms of systems that sort of thing.  So it’s the variety and the excitement of the day to day that keeps me going. 

What are the worst bits about your job?

The worst bits are probably the flip side of the best bits which when things don’t go so well, there aren’t necessarily the systems to sort things out so if things go wrong it very much falls on the individual to try and sort it out.  So any given day, I might be presented with any number of problems that we have got to work a quick solution to.  The guys in the stores are very good sales people they are fantastic at providing travel advice, but they don’t necessarily understand the financial side of their business, so they will come up with questions and problems which we have to find quick fixes for.

What has been your greatest achievement?

From a personal point of view I am just really glad that I went through a traditional chartered accountancy route.  So I worked for accountancy firms and I finished at PWC, one of the big accountancy firms, it was all going quite well there. But I spotted the fact that actually it wasn’t really what I wanted to do, I didn’t want to sit there, become a partner, work for lots of different clients, basically everything revolving around what you can sell to external customers.  I am quite glad that I spotted the fact that it might be more fun to get in to industry, to get into a company to actually try and help them improve from the inside as opposed to permanently selling your advice at x hundred pounds an hour.  So having spotted that, I have been at Flight Centre for two years and it as been fantastic.

Any regrets?

I am sure there is lots of stuff I could change.  Probably making the move I did was fine, but I could have made the move into industry maybe a couple of years earlier.  I think what quite a lot of my colleagues did when I started at the accountancy firm, they did what I did, they qualified but they then jumped ship on qualification.  So they jumped out of accountancy and went to work for different companies, some in property, media, all sorts of different industries.  I chose to stick around for a few more years, which had its benefits, but it would have been quite nice to get into industry earlier.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

There are certainly perks, being travel, there is discounted travel, so at any given time there will be airlines that are offering us, as their agents, nice deals, so you get to New York and back for £100 or there will be discounts on premium and economy.  From a pay point of view it is in line with the travel industry.  It is not the best paid sector in the world, it is fairly lenient in terms of profits but also because people recognise it is a great place to work, it’s fun, it's dynamic, it’s young.  Whereas maybe if you are working in a bank you have a slightly different environment, you don’t get so many perks from the culture and your day to day stuff and therefore they have to pay a little bit better.  In terms of finance, in terms of accountancies within travel, it is actually relatively well paid because they know that to attract qualified accountants, the salary has to be fairly commensurate with the rest of the industry.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

The working hours are a joy.  Compared to being at an accountancy firm, where you are so client facing that the client says “I need this by Monday”, and suddenly that means you are working Saturday and Sunday.  When you are in industry, especially when you are in travel, absolutely not.  Our shops are open typically from 9 to 5 so typically our accountants need to be in 9 to 5.30 and those are the working hours.  Because I head up the finance team so I am a little more senior, I probably have to be in from 8 to 6 but it is very much up to me, I only like to do that because I like to get stuff done in the morning before other people are around.  Compared to being in the accountancy world, in a firm of accountants, it would be significantly worse and it is very seasonable but certainly Flight Centre does mean that I get my own life back.

Is there much in the way of travel?

Personally I have always travelled.  I love travel and that was one of the attractions of getting into the industry and I have had far too many gap years to confess to.  In terms of travel with Flight Centre, there are the odd conferences here and there.  We have what is called a global gathering which will be in a different area every year when they get a bunch of the best people together essentially, to train them up and teach them new skills.  But because we are an international company, this year for example is in Hawaii and the year before was Dublin and the year before that was in Las Vegas.  So if you are successful and good enough to go to those, then that is the highlight of the year. In terms of travel day to day, I am largely based in my office, I go out around the UK to our different shops but there is not too much international travel.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

There are different kinds of accountants so there are those with the big chartered accountancy firms, there are those in industry like me at the moment and there are also those who work for very small high street operations.  In any town pretty much anywhere in the country there will be accountants of one form or another. So typically if you work for a big firm of accountants you might be in their London head office, you might be in one of their offices in any major city, Bristol, Reading, Liverpool, Edinburgh, wherever it is.  But likewise if you just want to work in your local town then there is bound to be a firm of accountants there.

What is the working environment like?

As goes with travel, it is very relaxed.  There is a uniform, because that is very particular to Flight Centre and the guys in our stores wear uniform all the time, as you will see, and that is reflected in everyone in the company.  It is very much about egalitarianism, its very much about if the guys selling our products are wearing a uniform, why shouldn’t everyone in the company.  That maybe presents a rather more formal image than the company has because it is very relaxed, the radio is on in our place, there are no offices, everyone is open plan you can very much walk up to anyone and ask them questions, whether it is the managing director or the newest accountant.  Everyone chats together which means the culture is very open and very transparent and people are always sharing information and sharing ideas and generally, hopefully, having a relaxed time at work.

How did you get into your job?

To get into accountancy in the first place, I didn't have the specific degree requirement, I didn’t have the specific result in that, because I did languages, so nothing to do with accountancy whatsoever.  I went through the standard graduate interview process and was successful in that and started off doing the accountancy qualification and exams and when I got this job at Flight Centre, they looked very much at my experience with those accountancy firms to see what I could bring to this company, so there was no pressure in terms of what degree did you get.

There are various different types of accountancy qualifications.  The one I chose was chartered accountancy (ACA).  Normally you do that when you are working for an accountancy firm so someone like PWC who is providing the service to clients.  There are other ones that are maybe more suited to people working in industry, so CIMA is one example and also ACCA, which cover the same ground but in a slightly different way.  Typically people who are doing those will do it from within Flight Centre or any other company.

What's the application process like?

It was a little while ago now  but when I first applied, there was a series of three interviews, and a kind of day assessment or half a day assessment course.  As a graduate you don’t have necessarily much business experience, so it is more about discussing people's motivations, discussing what they thought they would be getting out of the job, because it is quite hard work, especially when you are studying, it is typically three years for the exam, plus you will have to do some evening work.  They want to make sure you are committed to the career and that you are going to be of benefit to the company.  So it was basically about testing the potential and motivation more than looking at your actual result on paper.

What are the key skills required for your job?

Certainly the role I am in at the moment, being in the travel industry and in finance, you have to serve both sides.  You have to have the business acumen and you have to have the interest in business and how it works to be able to fulfil the financial requirements.  Be able to give advice to the guys on the ground who are in the stores, who are very good sales people but don’t necessarily understand finances, so as well as having the finance understanding and interests, vaguely being good with numbers but more about being good with business, you also have to have the ability to be able to communicate that to people who don’t have that same basis of knowledge.  So it really is about being quite a rounded person, having the understanding and having the ability to communicate that understanding to others.

Do you need to be numerate?

It is a bit of a misconception, being in the accountancy industry isn’t really about crunching numbers everyday.  Part of your role is looking at people's profit and loss accounts to you can tell them how well they are doing. You can spot things that could maybe improve their business.  But it isn’t spending all day with spreadsheets, it's not about just adding up columns of numbers and getting an answer, it is about using the numbers from a business point of view.  Using those numbers and being able to understand essentially what it means - is this company doing well?  If it isn’t, how can we help them, what can we do to really pick things up and it's much broader than the numbers in the sense of my role looking after finance includes things like health and safety, risk management, a number of areas that it is really not about the numbers at all, it is about the broader role.

What's your top tip for breaking into your industry?

I think it is about researching the specific accountancy firm you are interested in.  If you are going down the route of a big accountancy firm then there are the big four who have maybe set requirements, they are quite structured they are looking mainly for people who fit the mould they are after.  Whereas some of the smaller firms are more interested in actually getting people who have more potential, who have maybe a more varied experience or varied aspirations, so they can broaden their areas.  If you are going into industry, in finance, it is really about understanding that industry.  The financial experience comes with the financial qualification and study.  What you want to persuade someone in industry is, for example, you want to work in travel, is why you want to work in travel, that you are committed to the financial studies.  They are going to be more interested in why you are more interested in travel and they will leave you to get on with the financial side of it.

What's the career progress and how quickly can you move up the career ladder?

In accountancy, chartered accountancy, firm progression is very structured, it goes partly with the exams, so as you pass the first year of exams you can maybe expect to have the commensurate programme and that will continue until you are a qualified accountant. Beyond these there are very defined tiers and so you would typically progress from a senior accountant to a manager, and then from a manager to a senior manager, and then a director and then finally to partner when you kick back, relax and watch the money roll in. Whereas out in industry it's much less structured, so you might come in as a management accountant as in the Flight Centre, where you end up and how long it takes you to get there is very much meritocratic.  If you are the right person and you have shown the potential or the skills then certainly Flight Centre as a company will recognise that and you will be promoted accordingly and if you then need to brush up on your skills to get up to that level then that will be taken account of.

How does the role change over time?

Within Flight Centre, within travel, the role changes as the business changes and that is one of the beauties of it so the variety of the job comes partly from the variety of the company.  So where as travel is a fast changing business with travel on the internet becoming a big area, with people typically turning from travel agents to tour operators so instead of just selling flights suddenly selling holidays, packages and insurance.  That obviously changes what the guys in the stores are doing and therefore it changes the impact on support so we are part of the support function and that changes the support we have to give to the guys in the store.  On the other hand in an accountancy firm you pretty much know what you are going to get. The more senior you get the more management of teams you are doing but the job pretty much stays the same.

Where do you see the industry going?

From a travel point of view the internet is an area that is talked about non stop.  There are always new ideas coming out on the internet, new ways of selling travel, new ways of packaging things up.  However it has probably reached it peak in as much as, yes there may be more changes but actually consumers are beginning to think "maybe the internet works really well if I want to go to Paris and back again for a weekend, that's easy enough to do, but if I want a slightly longer or more complex holiday then actually I quite fancy the idea of talking to someone face to face and they can give me the options and prices accordingly".  So I think from the point of view of travel there is a bit of a leaning away from the internet and back high street businesses, face to face business and that is certainly a way for Flight Centre to go forwards.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

One of the good things about training and qualifying as an accountant, whether chartered or a CIMA, what have you, is that it does bring with it certain recognitions and therefore if you are out of the workplace for a year, you have chosen to go travelling or whatever, as long as you can justify to a future employer why you have taken that year, and going travelling is a perfectly good reason, then I think it is recognised that those skills you have learnt as an accountant, will remain with you and therefore it is not too hard to get back into finance.  Also the higher up you go, certainly within an industry, and I have certainly found this within finance at Flight Centre, the higher up you go the more commercial you get.  So if someone is looking to get out of finance and go into a more operational role, then actually it serves you quite well to do that because you obviously have the understanding of the numbers and the finances, but also you have picked up an understanding of how the business works and you have been able to contribute to the strategy. And then you are able to think "maybe I will leave the finance side for now and I want to go into a more commercial directive type role".  So finance as a qualification certainly sets you up very well for movements within business.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

There are endless publications, from an accountancy point of view there are many magazines that you get on a monthly basis that will summarise what is going on in the industry and what is going on in the world of accountancy and finance, some changes, they are not the most interesting reads it is said, but there are some useful things you will pick up from those magazines and certainly for someone who is thinking of a career in accountancy, it couldn't do any harm to pick up a copy of Accountancy Age or The Accountant magazine just to see what the issues are because that will serve you well in an interview showing that you have actually done a little research.  In terms of the travel industry there is a multitude of publications, many of which are specific to certain sectors to commerce, to the internet side or purely to travel agents some of which are more general and again you would never have time to read them all in detail but there are titbits that can be picked up from any or all of those that will help you build you commercial knowledge of how the industry operates.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

I would be a travel guide, I would be travelling around South America, leading bunches of gap year students in buses around Argentina.