Becky Glover is a finalist for the FD of the Year title, sponsored by iplicit, at this year’s Accounting Excellence Awards after winning the trophy in 2023.
Becky, who is FD for Yutree Insurance, talks about her work on technology, diversity and putting finance at the heart of business.
“I think as a finance leader, you shouldn’t just be churning out the same reports every month,” says Becky Glover.
“You should be adding value to the business growth or the business strategy.”
Since she won the first, iplicit-sponsored FD of the Year title at the Accounting Excellence Awards last year, Becky has been in demand for her insights on finance, technology, diversity and more.
She believes finance should not just be seen as the division that says no to people’s spending plans.
“Finance shouldn’t be a back office, fun police function,” she says.
“It should be front office and we should be the enablers of business growth because we have all the data at our fingertips. We can tell people what happened last time or, if you pull this lever, what we expect to happen next time.”
Becky left school at 17 and worked her way up from being “pretty much just the tea girl” in the finance department of a law firm to being an ACCA-qualified accountant. The route involved an AAT apprenticeship with an accountancy firm.
“The apprenticeship scheme was so valuable to me,” she says. “It’s a lot easier now to get an apprenticeship. When I was that age, it was still seen as the second tier of education. You have to open doors for yourself sometimes, you have to champion yourself, and that’s something I’ve done a lot of. You can’t wait for someone to see your value; you have to show them your value to progress.”
She was always interested in the entirety of business rather than the finance function in isolation.
“I was talking to someone the other day about strategy, which sometimes sits with finance and sometimes doesn’t. Everything we were talking about always came back to finance needing to be a thread through all of it,” she says.
“I think the FD should be the right-hand person to the MD or CEO. It means you have to lift yourself out of the weeds and be able to look at the bigger picture to be able to give the MD or CEO a really good insight into what’s happening in the business and in the industry as a whole.”
She believes technology is crucial to that role – and her expertise on that subject won her the Finance Transformation Award at the P2P Transformation Summit earlier this year.
“Technology is how you move away from the mundane stuff and bring the data to life. It allows you to be more human in your role and add a lot more value to the organisation you’re in,” she says.
“It allows you a bit of space, away from the numbers, so you can get some perspective, have that 20,000 feet view and look at where the business is going.”
That’s not a one-time exercise. “Just because you implement one piece of technology, that doesn’t mean job done. It’s always about looking for the next thing you could be doing or what’s coming down the tracks that you need to be aware of,” she says.
“There are still a lot of businesses out there that aren’t led by technology. A lot of them were staying quiet before and waiting to see if technology was going to stick, but I think now they’re coming forwards and saying ‘OK, maybe we’ve seen enough and we want to jump on board’.”
She is also interested in diversity of ages in the workforce. She has spoken on that subject at Accountex events in London and Manchester, arguing that finance needs to blend the experiences of different generations.
“I had so much great feedback in London and Manchester, so it’s really nice that the messages I’m giving out are giving people something to think about,” she says.
“The media love to present things as black and white, polarised, so I’m happy that people have taken on board that there is no one best or worst generation.
“We all have different strengths and it’s up to the business to utilise the best strengths of everyone.
“Diversity in a workforce doesn’t just mean having men, women, people with autism or ADHD, whatever that diversity is. It’s about having diversity of age, background and experience as well and diversity of thought can only be a good thing.
“If people want high-performing teams, they need to look at every single generation and how to keep them all very happy and get the best out of them.”
Becky learned a lot about business from running her own side hustle, Elizabeth Rose Wines, selling English and Welsh wines to consumers and the trade. She sold that business this year after five years.
“We were approached by another company that was able to take it to the next level. If you love something, you have to let it go,” she says.
“People don’t really talk about how it feels after you’ve sold a business you founded. I like to be busy and I’ve always had a full time job as well as running the business. It was a very strange sensation when you’ve signed a piece of paper and given everything over and think, what do I do with my time now?
“Hopefully we’ll see that business continue to thrive through the next stage of its journey and I’m really proud to have been there for a part of that journey. There’s definitely something in me that always needs a little business going on, because that fulfils me in another way from the day job. So, who knows? Maybe I’ve got another business in me.
“I’m so commercial now because of that business. I understand how each part of the business merges together. It was a rollercoaster, but an amazing one.”
The past year has been a busy one with her employer, Yutree Insurance, as well. She has introduced new technology, implemented new processes and seen the business enjoy the latest of several growth years.
“I’ve only been in insurance for a year so I’m still learning about the industry,” she says. “There’s so much value you can give to a new industry because you come in with fresh eyes and you see things differently.”
Her employer has been happy to see her build her profile outside the business. “I think all organisations need to encourage their staff to be individuals and take an interest in things outside work,” she says. “They’re only going to get more value and the staff will bring that experience back to the workplace, so it’s really a no-brainer.”
Becky hopes her shortlisting for the FD of the Year award recognises the impact she’s had on the profession for another year – and her advocacy for the centrality of finance.
“I think finance people are more willing to take on lots of different things and are seeing their value as business leaders, not just departmental leaders,” she says.
“I think we're a at a dangerous stage where if finance professionals just stay doing what they're doing, they're going to get left behind, because there's another set of finance professionals that are dealing with the bigger picture, the strategy, moving the business in a certain way to get it to where it needs to be.
“So I think there's a choice for people to make: Do they want to stay as back office? Or do they want to be front office?
“I do think finance is business as a whole now. It’s not just producing historical numbers.”
The Accounting Excellence Awards are held on 8 October. Becky Glover’s website can be found here.