This month’s day in the life is with our finance director, Jerome Charles. In our chat, Jerome speaks to us about the route he took into finance within the advertising industry and how what you see as mistakes changes as your career evolves.

What led you to a career in finance?

I was good at numbers throughout school and a maths degree followed which led me into a career in sales. Unfortunately, while I liked the idea of it, it turned out I wasn’t particularly good at sales. When a job opened up in the accounts department at the same company it was a no brainer, I jumped at the opportunity. Accounting felt so much more comfortable to me. I am far happier looking at a spreadsheet rather than writing a speech or presenting a deck.

That first role was in a company selling knowledge on the property overseas market. After the 2008 recession, the company went through a tricky time and, even though I was still junior, I became the sole person on the finance team. I left to go travelling and when I returned, after a finance role in theatre turned out to be surprisingly corporate, I was offered a role in the media industry. It was an eye opener into a much more interesting industry for me in a far more relaxed environment. I was also lucky to begin working under a great finance director who I followed to subsequent roles.

What does a typical day look like for you?

One of the beauties of finance is that there are specific deliverables which give your days and weeks structure. In my role as finance director, I must strike the right balance between the strategic: planning, forecasting and performance, and the supportive: making sure that every stakeholder in the business has what they need to do their jobs. A huge part of my role is supporting my team and the SLT with their work, I have to manage that while bringing a strategic financial perspective across different areas of the business.

What mistake have you learnt the most from?

As you progress through your career ladder, I think what you see as mistakes changes. I remember earlier on in my career I would have said that accuracy is king. When the primary part of job is transactional then you want to be as accurate as possible. As your career develops you begin to understand that trying to be too accurate can in itself be a mistake. As an FD, you shouldn’t be aiming for everything to be perfect before broaching an idea. It’s far quicker and more effective to develop your ideas until they’re 90-95% there, then open them out to collaboration with your MD and senior leadership team to get them over the line. It’s a mistake for any FD to put the responsibility for anything solely on themselves.

Who’s your role model and why?

My old FD who I have worked with a couple of times over the years, Sukhdev Poonian, was fantastic. We worked together for six or seven years and in that time, he took me from being a quite green in junior accounting to a senior management level. What was nice about our relationship was that while I was on that journey, he had a massive impact on me in terms of technical capability, but I also had an impact on him too as he became a much more extroverted and confident FD. We worked incredibly well together and took a lot from each other. I really enjoyed seeing him grow into both a well-rounded and button-tight, technical accountant while also working on his commercial and personal side. Seeing that example of someone senior that was still developing who they were as a professional has stayed with me throughout my career.