How has FINSIA contributed to your career development?
FINSIA contributed because I knew I needed to join a professional body having studied at university - additionally, FINSIA allowed me to socialise with other finance professionals who were not directly connected to my finance specialty, commercial finance. FINSIA importantly keeps me up to date with regulatory changes in a changing environment.
Tell us about your career to date.
Starting at the Reserve Bank in the mid-1980s, well before the Internet, has been a great journey and allowed me to move from capital markets into commercial finance after the recession of the early 1990s. From that point in commercial finance, I worked for two major global non-bank lenders - ORIX Australia, a Japanese based finance company and Bibby Financial Services, a globally diverse business based in the UK. Whilst at ORIX Australia I worked across accounting, credit, collections, recoveries and business development.
In the last 25 years my roles have been solely business development and management.
It's been exciting and rewarding for me to have this journey and get to the point where I am today, running my own business as a Finance Specialist in Cashman Consulting Pty Ltd.
We’ve seen your job title, but how do you describe yourself at a BBQ?
My business is called Cashman Consulting, a little different but it’s appropriately named after my nickname, The Cash Man, which has been around for about 25 plus years.
In my business I work with business clients to arrange working capital, cash flow finance as well as asset finance. A specialisation is working with clients in business turnaround and more challenging or distressed business situations like insolvency. I found that business turnaround and insolvency is an area that I operate best in, as I solve problems and change the fortunes of business owners. I really enjoy this type of finance opportunity as it is all about best possible outcomes in challenging situations. I've been able to develop some well-defined skills in that area to create client solutions.
As I often say to clients, “every solution needs to be financed”. My job is to find clients a finance solution to resolve business challenges or issues. It's complex in a lot of situations as people have different circumstances with an existing group of lenders, directors’ objectives and expectations and blending new lenders into the business to align the cash flow and improve the working capital. .
Some clients that I deal with are quite concerned and we could even say distressed, but I prefer to use the word keen, as in keen to fix the problem. Importantly for some clients, it's not about a solution that involves more finance or more money. It’s about managing existing finances better that often resolves the problem.
Biggest challenges of 2023/24
The biggest challenge I have is generating leads and fulfilling that commitment or expectation in a timely manner. In short, this is what everyone does as a professional service provider. For me it's all about drawing on, what you know, 35 plus years of business experience to get the best possible result for the client. .
Why did you decide to go on this career path in the first place? And was there a light bulb moment?
I really enjoyed studying economics and doing business studies at school and so it was just no question that I would do some form of economics/finance at University and the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) role came up. When I moved from central banking into commercial finance it was always about achieving success in the current role that would propel my career forward into business development and management.
What has been the best piece of career advice that you've received?
So the best career advice is,
- “Make it happen because you can”,
- “Back yourself”, and
- “Always go for the win win”.
I live and breathe those statements now in everything that I do in life.
“Make it happen because you can '' is my mantra. I developed it around 30 years ago when I said to myself, I'm seeing other people doing this role, I could do that and I can certainly achieve the same or better results, let's give it a go and this philosophy has worked for me since.
“Back yourself” came from someone in professional services who basically believed in me, saw my potential as a successful business owner and said back yourself, start your own business now, so I eventually did.
Number 3 was when someone achieved a great business outcome with an international company and he explained the idea of “a win, win” result where all the parties at the table are in the deal, win in their own way. This idea was new to me as back in the day this concept wasn't developed in any of my formal studies but developed in a competitive business environment. I found it an inspiring business philosophy of getting all the stakeholders in a transaction to feel like a winner. So, as I now say, “if the finance happens, everyone's a winner”.
In hindsight is there anything you would have done differently?
The one thing I would do differently is develop myself earlier in my career. I'd not wait for other people like my family or employer to do it. It would be a case of recognizing the areas you have that need developing and do something positive about that first. If I have my time again I would also get a mentor, have a coach and take a helicopter viewpoint of the opportunities that I had in my career.
Who has been the most influential professional in your career?
I've worked for a few leaders that I found to be really inspirational and thus influential. These are the sort of people/ leaders who have high levels of integrity, know what is right and wrong and effectively you would follow into a fire without getting burnt, not having any regrets on the challenges faced.
Great leadership was so important to me that I followed one leader through three startup businesses over 20 years that were all successfully sold to large banks or large non-bank financial institutions. The other great leader is still mentoring me today in our second business venture over 14 years. I still participate today in an Advisory Board to advise my business and other businesses about how to grow and improve. I did find that the right leadership inspires people to act and sets the best culture in a business and as the old saying says “culture beats strategy”. The rewards come if you work with great leadership.
What do you enjoy doing out of work, outside of work?
Outside work, If I'm not talking about finance, I'm talking about road cycling or mountain biking. I love riding my bikes. I have a saying that “every day on the bike is a good day” but this could apply to anything in life really. Cycling is my thing and is one of the best activities providing freedom and great opportunities for travelling. I recently rode in Belgium, France and did the Camino in Spain.
The other more important focus is family. My wife and two adult sons are important. After that, lets also talk about history or global politics and then go back to more cycling.
