Paris Finance Senior Director

WHAT YOU'LL DO

The Paris Finance Senior Director contributes to building BCG’s business in France by shaping the value creation agenda and driving all financial topics in Paris.

BCG employs approximately 1,300 people in France, and in 2023, achieved around €430M in revenues. BCG Paris is a geographic System within EMESA (Europe, Middle East, South America and Africa), one of BCG’s regional business units (BU).

The role reports to the France System Leader and to the EMESA CFO and you will lead a team of around 30 finance professionals. Your peers are other functional leaders within Paris (e.g. HR) and the finance leaders from other EMESA geographic systems (e.g. Central Europe or London, Amsterdam and Brussels (LAB)).

You will manage 3 operational domains that form the Paris Finance organization today:

• Commercial Finance (including support to Case Teams, Practice Areas, and Business Development Committee)
• Financial Planning & Analysis (including all costs oversight)
• Finance Operations (including Accounting, Risk & Tax Management, Treasury & Procurement)

The Paris Finance Senior Director responsibilities are:

Shape and drive the Paris value creation agenda

• Manage the System’s P&L working closely with the System Leader, management team and EMESA CFO
• Lead efforts to manage and track revenue, capacity, cost, profitability, and the growth agenda (drawing down on BI&A and other global resources wherever possible)
• Track commercial and financial progress including a focus on state of the business, wins, lead flow tracking, lead revenue forecasting and large opportunities (utilizing ClientView as resource)
• Present key updates to the System Partner Group in monthly meetings and be a sparring partner to the Leadership Team for Finance topics
• Work closely with the Business Development MDP (Managing Director & Partner), being a thought partner for the business development agenda by providing a Finance perspective and participating in
• Business Development Committee (BDC) meetings; and working to further ClientView adoption to provide enhanced visibility
• Participate in weekly EMESA finance leadership meetings: monitoring & driving the Region’s overall performance, driving cross-regional initiatives, and sharing best practices
• Identify and implement local cost reduction programs, profit improvement measures and administrative process optimizations
• Work in partnership with other Heads of Functions in Paris
  • Provide guidance on Finance implications (e.g. Mobility, …)
  • Support coaching of Business Services Team (BST) managers on all aspects of Finance relating to their roles
  • Support HR and System Management on all finance-related topics of interest to the local Workers’ Council (“CSE”), notably active management of all local profit-sharing schemes (“Intéressement & Participation”) and related internal communication
• Manage interfaces with accelerators, global and alternate businesses (Inverto, Platinion, Brighthouse, BCG X, etc.)

YOU'RE GOOD AT

• Strong business judgment, value-based decision making and independence of thought: “a trusted advisor”
• Exceptional analytic and financial management capabilities
• Strong aptitude to lead, guide, and collaborate with technical experts responsible for accounting, taxation, treasury, risk management., business controls, and MDP comp related topics
• Ability to solve complex problems and drive change in a rapidly evolving, complex environment, building support as needed with key stakeholders
• Excellent people management skills, ability to lead a large team and communication maturity to navigate across culturally diverse region
• Recognized for high quality and high impact results

YOU BRING (EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS)

You have successfully operated in a matrixed environment with a dispersed power base and have a track record of influencing change within that setting. You also understand professional services environments to empathize with a high-intellect, professional workforce.

Your experience includes:

• Strong academic foundations, i.e., University degree in Economics/Finance or Business administration, preferably with emphasis on Finance/Accounting
• Around 15 years' experience in finance leadership role
• Operating as part of a leadership team within professional services, partnership, or similar matrix environments
• Operational and technical experience in general accounting, tax, treasury, collections, financial systems implementation, financial reporting in the professional service industry, experience with US GAAP is an advantage
• Developing and leading talent - you're a good judge of talent. You have coached employees to improve performance, provided and encouraged challenging and stretching tasks and assignments, held frequent development discussions, and have awareness of your team's individual career goals
• Digitizing processes within finance and transformation of that function and good know how of the eco system in the market
• Working with outsource providers (or in-house shared services) for transactional processes, e.g. Accounts payable
• Excellent analytical capabilities and numerical reasoning
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in an international environment with people at all organizational levels by establishing positive and productive working relationships

YOU'LL WORK WITH

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Manage key processes at System level

• Planning & management reporting (incl. system P&L)
  • Set and articulate long-term financial goals and targets
  • Consolidate local office annual and long-range plans and estimates (incl. CAPEX budgets, occupancy, expenses)
  • Oversee and monitor the financial performance of the business (e.g. pyramid, investments, revenue and costs), continuously identifying opportunities to reduce costs and improve profit
  • Monitor performance of all functions, communicating, escalating needs and opportunities, seeking improvement opportunities as appropriate
  • Deliver management reporting and analyses as a basis for business decisions
• Coordinate with System BDC to drive business build and client service, including
  • Alignment on rules for billing rates, bill rate differential (BRD), present value factor (PVF), cross-office staffing (COS) absorptions, etc. (drawing down on global policies as appropriate)
  • Coordination of investment process, further refinement of investment principles and communication of principles to Partners
  • Coordinate pricing agenda with local client teams (understand pricing discount requests, gather relevant information, lead review process with BDC)
  • Ensuring usage of ClientView and best practice contracting is included and monitored e.g. invoicing schedule, payment terms, etc.

Manage finance operations in Paris

• Oversee local Finance activities, including accounting, tax, treasury, and insurance benefits (and aligned with HR)
• Ensure all local legal administrative requirements are met (i.e. filing of accounts, annual returns, compilation of Board minutes, compliance regarding company secretary role where relevant)
• Drive and deliver the global finance transformation agenda in France; including reshaping our local finance team’s capabilities and costs as we roll-out our business intelligence and analytical capabilities, automated finance operations agenda and more (SAP rollout in 2024/25)
• Partner with our Global Finance Operations teams (in India) to improve and extend the remote support provided to the Paris office; support their continuous improvement and foster a “one team” approach
• Ensure best practices are implemented in client contracting, investments, billings, and collections process in order to decrease days sales outstanding (DSO), maximize cash collections and improve price realization
• Ensure a coherent procurement structure, maximizing purchasing & management efficiencies, and ensure adherence to firm-wide vendor policies and agreements
• Collaborate with BCG Global Real Estate to define and manage France real estate strategy and lease execution (including sub-leases)

Oversee financial risk management, ensuring that effective risk control is integrated into the Finance department, including the establishment of robust internal control systems, policies, and set minimum standards. Help identify and mitigate risks; examples include but are not limited to:

• Embed risk management into the finance function, ensuring adequate systems of internal controls (segregation of duties, reconciliations, checks and balances and oversight). Lead improvement/change projects as required
• Ensure appropriate policies are in place and monitored and global policies are adhered to
• Ensure compliance with local regulatory requirements, including preparation of all official documents and filings required by local law
• Manage all office insurances across in liaison with BCG Insurance resources
• Ensure that BCG Risk team/internal audit recommendations are being actioned in a timely manner