Big companies and their crazy nomenclatures

Always nice to report FCs taking a step up. It's not uncommon, of course, in bigger companies for divisional FCs to move into divisional FD roles - like Nic Nicandrou, who has been promoted to the role of finance director of Aviva’s UK life business, Norwich Union Life. His successor will be Tim Harris from PwC (which happens to be Aviva's auditor - I thought there were rules about that sort of thing now...).

But here's the thing. Nic, and now Tom, is called "group financial control director". Whoa. Two things: first, I don't really care if it is a huge company: "directoritis" is a real pain wherever it crops up. If you're the group FC, then you're the group FC, yeah? Helps everyone understand what's going on - and having a "GFCD" sounds almost like some marketing guy six years ago got uptight about not being "director of somethingorother", so he got the title and the HR department then upgraded everyone else at that pay grade to "director" status. Second, it does make the FC role at growing companies seem that much more attractive. In most entrepreneurial businesses, you may get called something simple like "FC", but you can bet your bottom dollar you'll see a lot of action outside the finance function. That's not only more interesting - it's better for your career, too. (Mind you, after PwC, anything in business probably looks like a trip to Vegas...)