Prerequisites for Being a Financial Manager

(One of the top managers at the company Huawei expresses his view in relation to the company`s requirements regarding financial managers)

Now when *Huawei is presented with a historic mission as well as an opportunity to grow rapidly, what kind of financial managers do we need? Or put it differently, how should we select, assess, and develop financial managers? Actually the same standard for selecting other managers applies to the selection of financial managers: morality and character and sense of responsibility before anything else. In the training and development of financial personnel, Shanxi banks of a century ago had much experience for us to learn from. One of them, Rishenchang Bank, advocated and stressed honesty and integrity in the conduct of their employees and expected the same from those who had business transactions with them. Every apprentice at the bank must be under observation and get trained for years before becoming a staff member. This practice began on the day of its incorporation, and was passed on generation after generation as its most treasured tradition. In reference to their experience, I would like to make the following suggestions:

1. Our financial department must set up a well-defined accountability system and strengthen result-based performance assessment so that we can identify, select and promote to management positions those grassroots staff members of honesty and integrity who are responsible, achieve good results, and make sustained contribution to the company.

The financial department contributes to the company differently from other departments, whose contribution is represented by their performance. But the contribution of the financial department is best seen in its responsibility.

The financial department is a mature, classical management system where a clear accountability framework can be set up to form a well-defined accountability system. It does not call for reckless innovation. Therefore, when we select grassroots financial managers, we must make assessment according to the quality and quantity of their work, their execution competency, and their ability to identify a problem and get it solved. In selecting mid-level managers, we have to look at their competency to lead grassroots teams and ability to implement standardized management. Those who come from areas where working conditions are harsh and have achieved good results in their work should stand a better chance of being selected and promoted.

The financial department is not a place where one stays safe by shunning responsibility. A financial manager must have the guts to stick to principles and must be tactical in doing this so that he/she stops or refuses to do anything that imperils the company's interest. Unless he/she has a strong sense of responsibility, he/she does not deserve this position. In other words, a financial manager without a sense of responsibility and readiness to stick to principles and defence of the company's interest is sure to be removed.

2. Morality and professional ethics are prerequisites for being a financial manager while they are also preconditions for being a manager in another department.

Morality not only refers to moral standard and conduct, but readiness to work wherever one is needed and make sacrifice, sense of responsibility, and ability to handle the relationship between the interests of the individual, department and company. It also includes such merits as not grumbling, not saying anything irresponsible, and not telling tales. Of all the traits required of a financial manager, honesty and integrity are the most fundamental – a financial manager must be honest and righteous. Furthermore, as it is likely that he may be temporarily misjudged in work and performance assessment, a financial manager must be willing to live with it before it is corrected.

A financial manager must never stop improving in terms of professional ethics, which decide his/her selection or promotion. Such ethics include: leading a team in handling financial transactions fairly and objectively to represent the company's business operations in an accurate and timely manner; rigorously implementing financial rules, always taking it as the paramount responsibility to protect the interest of the company by reporting any suspected irregularity or illegality. In addition, such ethics require a financial manager not to use any information obtained in work for personal purposes; not to misinterpret or cook up information; not to disclose or discuss the company's financial information without authorization. A financial manager must have a positive attitude toward work and serve as a role model in complying with professional ethics.

3. We should set up a stringent financial management and control system where managers and staff can do their work effectively by the workflow.

We cannot conduct financial management based on trust; instead we have to do it based on rules. For trust is so elusive that there is no sustained standard for it. For this reason, financial management is based on rules in the West. As long as a rule is conformed to, everyone is trustable, otherwise no one is trustable. Before a rule is set down, it must be justified sufficiently before it is implemented and serve as authority.
At our financial department we must promote an accountability system where authority is scientifically and rationally delegated, properly exercised, and strictly controlled. Authorization means delegating authority to managers of lower levels and holding accountable grassroots managers who know their work best. Authority exercising requires the setting-up of a balance-of-authority system necessary for internal control where it is clearly defined how authority is exercised with accountability according to the workflow so as to ensure the proper implementation of the workflow and smooth business processes.

4. We should build our financial department into a learning team where those who do not learn will lose their positions in competition

At our financial department, managers are not keen to learn. So we must change this situation by turning it into a learning department through the introduction of various examinations and a professional competence improvement mechanism. Coupled with our existing nine standards for managers and the revelation from Rishengchang Bank, we must learn both in practical work and self-examining, to improve the quality and competence of our employees.

We financial managers must study hard to improve our professional and managerial levels. As managers we must, first of all, be professionally qualified so that we can efficiently help the company's business processes, prevent risks, and fix financial loopholes. Professional improvement in the financial field does not simply mean acquiring financial knowledge; it refers to understanding the company business and the business of the served department so that our managerial problems can be exposed continuously in data as a way to support management improvement.

Our financial department must speed up its globalization effort and the rotation of managers between the headquarters and the overseas operations. It must complete raising its globalization level to an international standard. Any manager who has no experience of working overseas with appropriate professional competency is not qualified for promotion or pay raise.

Reference:

* Huawei is a world-leading telecom solutions provider focused on building long-term partnerships with telecom operators. Its head office is based in Bantian, China.
It is a leader in providing next generation telecommunications networks, and now serves 36 of the world's top 50 operators, along with over one billion users worldwide. The company is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and growth potential for its customers.

Huawei's products and solutions encompassing wireless products, core network products, applications and software, as well as terminals. Major products are designed based on Huawei's ASIC chipset and utilize shared platforms to provide quality and cost-effective products.

At the end of June 2008, Huawei has over 80 000employees, 43%of whom are dedicated to R&D. Huawei's global R&D centers are located in Silicon Valley and Dallas in USA, Stockholm in Sweden, Moscow in Russia and Bangalore in India in addition to those in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Chengdu in China.

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