What excites you about working for LECO?

We are a global family business that has the advantage of a personal culture where people care about each.

I’m given the opportunity to develop my own ideas and have a lot of freedom to manage the administration of our European Subsidiaries – Finance, Supply Chain, HR and Legal -  

How does the business stand out from the market and your competitors?

We have an outstanding sales and service organisation which cares about the customer. Sales does not end with selling an instrument to the customer; it is the aftersales service which really makes a difference for us and we have people who have worked here for some time - I don’t think any of competitors can deliver a similar quality. Furthermore, we have a high level of vertical integration in our production, meaning that we really do a lot of stuff on our own, which is not that common any more – nearly every screw is still produced in St Joseph, Michigan which helps us to control the quality of our products.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your role?

I would say seeing the success of the company is the biggest reward and seeing satisfaction from the joy of the team working together. I personally find that a satisfying factor.

When did you decide to explore a career in accountancy and finance and why?

At school I was already interested in accounting and I always had a strong tendency towards that; during my studies that sort of firmed this up. I was seeing finance as a backbone for any organisation and this gave me the opportunity to sneak into every corner of a company! I think there is probably no area like finance, where from day one you get to see and get in touch with every area of a business.

Looking back through your established career, what would you identify as a personal highlight?

The biggest highlight for me or the latest achievement which I am proud of is the reorganisation which we have done here. LECO Europe has been an established company, but the question asks re. established career, and I don’t know if I am at the stage to call it an established career! I can tell you for sure that over the last years we have been driving a change process to renew the organisation and to bring in fresh blood to change processes and this is one highlight for me. We are looking nowadays at a very modern organisation with a small shared service centre and centralised distribution. I am proud of that we have been successful in completing these projects.

What would be your advice to someone aspiring to be where you are now?

The base is always skills. You need to get the base right, because if you don’t, you won’t have a clue and it will be difficult to get into a good career, no matter what you do. It is also about commitment and ownership; that is what makes the difference. I am 100% engaged with the company and companies I have worked with before and that ownership and drives becomes visible to those people around you. That is the path for your career.

Listen to the people around you and show some patience sometimes. Just reflecting on myself here; for people who want to have a quick career most of the time they lack the patience that is sometimes necessary to do the next steps and sometimes only a month makes a difference. Sometimes they are too impatient to change job and they are destroying their careers by doing that.

You have worked for small companies and large business, what would you say are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

I think to rate something as an advantage or disadvantage is down to the person themselves – there are visible differences, and everybody needs to decide for themselves if they see it as an advantage or disadvantage.

One key factor is speed and flexibility; decision processes in small companies in general happen more quickly than larger organisations and that makes them faster to react.  Nowadays you see that a lot of larger organisations try to build up their own accelerators to achieve that flexibility and reaction. The other thing is clearly the personal factor, if you are working in a multinational company with 1000-2000 employees there is a good chance that the CEO, CFO soon will know your name. In companies with 50.000 employees or more, you are quickly becoming a number.

When you decide to go for a smaller business you should be ready to change a bit of your style of working as usually small organisations require more flexibility from you. I have seen people coming for interviews from bigger businesses and they are used to structure - there is a person and process description for everything. In a smaller organisation that is not something you can necessarily expect and there is more flexibility requested from you in your day-to-day role and you need to be prepared for that.

Who is your most inspirational person in business and why?

Someone I worked with was one of my first mentors and later on a supervisor and manager of my last job (he was very senior). He had a certain business philosophy which gave me a lot and I still reflect on nowadays. That would be an inspirational person from my career.

If you talk big names, two names always turn around in my mind – Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin Group)and Dietrich Mateschitz (Founder of Red Bull). Both achieved major things in terms of building brands and so on, and what is more inspiring is that both of them are 70+ now and they still have a massive energy to drive and be engaged in their business and they are still innovative still at that age; I find that inspiring.

What books / blogs are you currently reading? What book could you recommend to accountants that are wanting to progress?

I have just finished a book called “Don’t Stop the Carnival” which is quite an old book and placed in the 1960/70s by Herman Wouk. It is about a Caribbean island and a guy from New York who wants to disconnect. He buys a hotel there and it is about all the difficulties in this environment and culture, very far from what he is used to in New York. It’s quite interesting and was recommended to me by a friend who lives in Barbados. Life looks nice, but it is very different. Read that book and it will tell you a lot about the day-to-day life.

I also look at books on personal development – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People may not be for everyone, but you need to open your mind for those things before you read them. 

Do you have any hidden talents?

Not that I have discovered so far. I still have the hope that when I retire I will be able to go on a senior golf tour and be a good golf player but I am not sure that talent will develop!