Editor's Letter: Change. Go with it

After a couple of years of unpleasant economic surprises, I hope this issue of the magazine will be among the scant number of good ones. As you’ll see, we have come up with a fresh look for Financial Director and made it small enough to be more easily portable (because some of us still like paper over BlackBerry).

Why change a good thing? Much has shifted in the economic and business landscape in the last couple of years and, whoever wins the UK’s General Election, there can be no doubt our fiscal debt is forcing a rethink of the political landscape. We may have to live with the current level of uncertainty for much longer than we would like.

FDs, then, become ever-more critical not only the UK’s economic recovery, but also the way in which it conducts business on the global stage and leads best practice. We’re working in a world which may be led in the future by what we have always seen as developing economies. If we’re not careful, we’ll be part of the global problem, rather than the solution.

That presents as many challenges as it does opportunities for FDs and we’ve changed to cover these in more depth. Our new section ‘The Macro View’ gives more room for analysis of global financial indicators. Our new guest column, where each month an FD shares their take on key issues, has gone down a storm: we’ll be introducing you to more new columnists, FDs and others, to open up conversation about what else FDs do – and what they might do beyond life in finance.

Let us know what you think of the new-look Financial Director and keep us informed on what you would like us to cover.