Depends on the FD, to an extent

FDs are like Legal Directors, they come in two flavours:

- don't even think of crossing that road. Someone could be speeding, playing Pokémon on their phone, distracted by impure thoughts of Jennifer Lawrence, and we haven't even got on to the risk posed by lightning strikes and meteorites!

- OK, so we want to get over that road. Here is the safest place to cross and here are the quantified risks (amount of damage, likelihood of it occurring). Your call.

As you can tell, I much prefer working with Kind Number Two.

A good FD will understand the financial needs of the operation and structure things to provide cash when needed. S/he will also warn of consequences of spending more than X amount: if we don't go up we will need to liquidise Y amount of assets off the balance sheet to cover the P+L liabilities we're taking on, which in practice means we'd have to sell Z players. In other words, here is the decision you're considering, here are the consequences of taking it or not based on one of three outcomes (we go up, we stay where we are, we go down). That kind of thing. If s/he is constantly saying "don't spend money" then s/he is in the wrong job - s/he should be laying out the consequences (and, of course, warning if any decisions risk the club trading insolvently, which is illegal).

Posted By: Old Man on March 18th 2017 at 11:02:11

Message Thread

So what is the difference between a CEO and an MD? (n/m) (NCFC) - CB41, Mar 18, 10:43:12
- CEO is on the board, MD is not which in my opinion is a big mistake. (n/m) (NCFC) - John in Texas, Mar 18, 10:56:41
  - See I've come across companies where the opposite is true. (NCFC) - Rob NCFC, Mar 18, 10:58:01
    - True, I was referring to the old NCFC structure. They have in effect taken a board member (n/m) (NCFC) - John in Texas, Mar 18, 10:59:19
- In business (NCFC) - Old Man, Mar 18, 10:56:28
  - Or this (NCFC) - CWC, Mar 18, 10:58:37
- In Norwich's case (NCFC) - Trent_Canary, Mar 18, 10:48:08
  - Isn't it a conflict of interest though?.. (NCFC) - loz, Mar 18, 10:50:06
    - Depends on the FD, to an extent (NCFC) - Old Man, Mar 18, 11:02:11
    - Yes, which is why you need a CEO to manage the two branches (n/m) (NCFC) - CWC, Mar 18, 10:53:01
    - I assume he will be given a budget? (n/m) (NCFC) - Rob NCFC, Mar 18, 10:50:41
- MD is usually on the board but that's not the case here so pass. (NCFC) - Rob NCFC, Mar 18, 10:47:43
- Letters (n/m) (NCFC) - SCC 28, Mar 18, 10:45:12

Reply to Message

In order to add a post to the WotB Message Board you must be a registered WotB user.

If you are not yet registered then please visit the registration page. You should ensure that their browser is setup to accept cookies.