Business without borders

You need to pack your bags and go far, far away if you want that top finance job. International experience matters, and having overseas experience has become an advantage to the finance directors that reach the zenith of the profession.

This has long been the case for CFOs in the FTSE-100 and at multinationals. Just look at the CVs of the likes of Liz Doherty, CFO of Reckitt Benkiser, who has worked in Australia, Spain, the Netherlands and Thailand, as well as in the UK.

“If you do not have international experience, it will limit your career progression. When you get to the top level in finance, the difference between you and the opposition is almost zero,” says Mark Freebairn, partner in the CFO practice at headhunter Odgers Berndtson.

The requirement for top-level finance professionals to become more internationalised and possess global finance and management skills is also becoming more prevalent among SMEs. It is no longer the preserve of big business.

According to Tim Vye, operations director at recruiter Reed Finance, this trend has come about because multinationals are moving towards centralised finance functions and taking up international accounting standards. As a result, employers expect finance professionals to be flexible and work from international locations.

Vye adds that he has recently noticed an increase in SMEs requesting candidates who already have international experience.

“We see this taking place right across the board. Historically, it has been multinationals that have asked for people with foreign language skills, but in the last year this has also become the case in the SME sector,” Vye tells Financial Director.

That is partly as a result of the trading conditions in the UK. SMEs are diversifying their business and they are looking for new markets abroad. Emerging economies also present opportunities for cheap labour and low costs of production.

“Our manufacturing clients are looking to go abroad and manufacturing is increasingly taking place in central and eastern Europe. They are targeting fast-growing sectors to sell their services into,” says Vye. “High-tech manufacturers are going to look to produce goods overseas cheaply. The transport costs might be higher overseas, but they also have opportunities to trade in the country.”

But the need for finance professionals to have greater levels of international nous is not just restricted to those businesses that can be physically found on the ground. Globalisation and the power of international trade have been just as important, says Freebairn.

“The world has got much smaller as the world economy has shrunk, so businesses want to trade with further-flung companies and countries,” says Freebairn. “Because of the production costs, more companies are trading with countries they have not traded with before. Places such as India and China: those markets and counties were closed to us 10 to 20 years ago. For SMEs and FTSE businesses, it is all about where they have products that they can trade with the international marketplace.”