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Finance Director Europe Winter 2022
Editorial Editor Andrea Valentino Sub-editor Tal Abdulrazaq Production manager Dave Stanford Designer Martin Faulkner Group art director Henrik Williams Head of content Jake Sharp
Commercial Client services executive Derek Deschamps Publication manager Sanjeev Dole
sanjeev.dole@
progressivemediainternational.com Managing director William Crocker
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about. In October last year, to give one example, Deloitte found that a full 46% of European CFOs were optimistic about the future of their business – not bad given the abyss global business had been staring into for the better part of 18 months. This anecdotal optimism, for its part, was shadowed by harder statistics too. On the eve of the Ukraine war, economists were predicting that 2022 growth could be as high as 4.6% across the Eurozone. As that last note implies, the bombs and missiles of Putin’s war would quickly turn most corporate smiles upside down – and things have only got worse. From sanctions and lost investments, to inflation and the energy crisis, European CFOs have reverted to the kind of pessimism they must have imagined had been consigned to the N95-filled dustbin of history. In this October’s Deloitte survey, 78% of all British CFOs expected their country to fall into recession by late 2023. In the same poll, the majority of finance directors expected revenues to fall by the end of next year too. Of course, you’re likely to discover equally grim responses if you quiz the man in the pub – and that’s precisely the point. While living standards may have been falling across Europe since the financial crisis, this is the first time in over a decade that C-suite denizens have found themselves in the same murky waters as their employees. That, moreover, raises an important question: if bosses and workers alike are trapped in a maze of austerity and recession, might they be able to find a way out together? With executive compensation in some sectors now outstripping that of grunts by 670–1, it’s sometimes hard to be sanguine. But as this edition of Finance Director Europe tries to uncover, there are, perhaps, causes for optimism. Consider, for instance, the question of sustainable energy. As Tal Abdulrazaq explores, companies as varied as Scottish Water and Evri are investing heavily in new environmentally friendly vans. Naturally, company profits are important here, too. But even as finance teams involved gaze with satisfaction at blacker bottom lines, our planet nonetheless gains from cleaner energy sources less reliant on Russian caprice. Elly Earls tells a similar tale: SaaS provider Meltwater obviously has reputational motives to promote boardroom diversity, especially in a business environment where competition promises to become even fiercer. But does the reasoning matter if it offers more opportunities to more people? At this point, anyway, we should probably take our victories where we can grab them, especially as the next year promises to leave us with even fewer reasons to smile.
In it together? W
Andrea Valentino, editor
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hat a difference a year makes. Towards the end of 2021, as the pandemic was finally receding into memory, and industrial production revived, executives finally had something to laugh
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