Rutherford Cross recently held the next webinar in the Sector Spotlight Series focused on the Construction Sector. The virtual event was attended by a small group of Senior Finance Professionals from the industry and featured the insights and expertise of Stuart Dougal, Director at Interpath Advisory, Alistair McAlinden, Interpath Advisory’s Managing Director, and Ryan Gilluley, Managing Director of GCM Ltd. Hazel Wynn shares insights on the discussion points from the event.
The session included a general discussion around how the sector is performing with the consensus being it is certainly a fast-moving landscape with cashflow as always being the key focus. A couple of examples were given of businesses which had been in financial distress. The learning from these scenarios were that there has to be an open and clear dialogue between finance and operations. It can be very difficult in construction to receive real time information which can then reduce the ability to take corrective action. Building trust with Operational colleagues and ensuring a flow of information in the company is vital.
Ryan discussed the topic of ‘The Quantity Surveyor & The Finance Director – compatible or combative?’. This section of our event included a discussion around the integration of financial and commercial management e.g. where does financial management collaborate with the commercial team and correct costings of projects? The key takeaway was the need to be proactive with contracts. So much can fall by the wayside and finance sometime don’t know until it’s too late. If contract financing is properly checked at the start you are on a more solid footing.
Finally, we discussed the issues around supply chain with pressure continuing around supply and cost of materials. Another area driving cashflow issues in supply chain is that suppliers sometimes won’t be granted the same credit insurance cover because of material and labour cost increases, meaning the credit limit is swallowed up.
Overall this was another highly informative hour with lots of interesting discussion points. Many thanks to our speakers and all those who attended the event.
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