By the board

We've written before on the need to think unconventionally about finance careers - get out into the operations side of the business, think laterally about job titles, look for positions in businesses where you'll get the right experiences to take your career forward and so on. But this story adds a new dimension into the mix: the FC as board member. I suspect it's far from being the only case.

It's a good news piece about a new management structure at "one of South Wales' longest-established companies," Andrew Scott, a subsidiary of the Rowecord Group which employs almost 250 staff has reported a turnover of more than £25m. Company secretary and financial controller David Hadley is part of this turnaround board. So why not an FD? Well, perhaps it's a seniority thing, and maybe the title will come in due course. But look at the rest of the board: a commercial director and an ops director? (There's also a BD director, so the commercial guy isn't solely responsible for sales and marketing.)

Which sort of implies the FC role is being treated on its own merits. If the FD role really does encompass a bunch more commerciality now (and it does), and if that side of the function is being handled elsewhere, why not have an FC on the board of directors?

OK, I realise that we may be about to turn full circle here: if he's a director, why no just call him "FD"? But that's my point. Maybe we will, indeed, see the emergence in UK company culture of a COO or an ops director or a business services director or even a support director to do the broader job that many FDs currently do - and the "FD" will become the FC who's senior enough to sit on the board. Which begs the question: would you hanker after the pure FD role? Or the wider "support" director's job?