Introduction and Bio

Kelly Autey epitomises so many of the features of a modern SME CFO – creating value across every area of her business through financial leadership.

She is the Group Finance Director and Joint Chief Operating Officer of Metalliform Group in South Yorkshire – a proud British manufacturer of furniture for the education and office sector. They are owned by Dunham Massey, turn over £20m and have ambitions to grow through NPD and expanding their range of products.

We asked Kelly to be our next CFO interview a few months ago and are delighted to have finally secured some of her time. She was fresh from a trip to watch Taylor Swift in Italy and a California to Mexico cruise with her husband and seven-year-old daughter.

Congratulations on your recent promotion to Joint COO!

We are increasingly seeing operational leadership merging into the CFO remit. Tell us about being COO as well as Group FD.

I joined as Financial Controller eight years ago. My progress has been a series of natural evolution since then.

I was on an SMT of six in a flat structure at the start. This has reduced to a team of two through natural attrition over the years. In June of this year, I was promoted from CFO and Emma Tipping-Smith was promoted from Group Sales Director – both to the positions of Joint Chief Operating Officer.

I was very proud to be given the recognition from our investors. The reality was that I had been doing a large part of the COO role beforehand. I have always been involved in commercial and operational decision. Finance can be a great foundation for achieving that. It has helped me to lead the successful process of buying the building that houses our factory.

When I first joined the board, my role was what one may categorise as “Company Secretary” – I took the notes, distributed the agenda and made sure that everything was filed. I gradually realised that I did have something to say in the meetings and so I started to speak up – initially focussing on asking the right questions and progressing to offer opinions when I felt confident that I had a valid opinion.

Outside of the boardroom, the benefits of leading operations as well as finance are vast – I can see the bigger picture in the business, I can talk to the operations manager, the engineering manager, the production managers and get to the answers through the best-placed expert (without having to go through a chain of command). Most importantly, I have made finance approachable to the business – if anyone feels that costs could be reduced or sales increased, they share their ideas with me.

Our latest Yorkshire CFO Network Annual Report shows that women CFOs & FDs are only 18% of the population. The proportion is growing at a slow pace.

You have been one of the first to engage with our posts on women in finance. Please share your thoughts on what positive gender diversity for finance leaders should strive to be.

As you know, this is a subject that is very dear to my heart. The statistics are poor reading and the speed of change is too slow. The biggest issues are cultures that are old fashioned and similar mindsets from leaders.

I joined Metalliform because the job was advertised as part-time (Three days per week). I have added an extra day and I have always been able to make it work and deliver on what is expected from me. Having Wednesdays to concentrate my time on family priorities makes a huge difference to me and allows me to perform with focus and efficiency at work for the rest of the week.

I have worked with some inspirational women who operate in male-dominated environments (Emma Tipping-Smith at Metalliform and Jackie Saunders at Allotts Chartered Accountants as two examples.) Both showed me how effective women can be in teams – a natural inclination to be action-orientated (a polite way of saying “getting s**t done!”), planning for productive meetings and making sure that clear actions result from conversations.

You mentioned that the vast majority of your posts on gender diversity receive engagement from women. Sadly, this does not surprise me and it shows one of the obstacles for progress. We need male allies to encourage, support and mentor. I have been fortunate to have had two excellent male allies in my career:

Matt Killingley was the MD in my first role in industry. He recognised my insecurities and my imposter syndrome. He encouraged me to overcome my hesitation to deliver stand-up presentations and to have the conviction in my opinions. Adam Howitt was the COO at Dunham Massey until recently – he recognised some of the things that had held me back previously, supported me and championed me.

Equitable gender diversity is not just an item of compliance or governance, it is a tool to achieve better productivity.

23% of CFOs and FDs in Yorkshire lead our manufacturing and engineering sector. With 24% of appointments last year, it is the largest sector in our region. How does the manufacturing sector look in our region through your lens?

I was pleasantly surprised to hear this. That is not the impression you get from within the manufacturing sector or from the media. We are not a sector that is very positive at promoting our successes, I guess!

My first impressions of the industry were turning up to my interview at Metalliform – in a very rustic and grey old building. Nothing ostentatious, showy or that showed that the business was making £300k NP – a figure that would rise to £2m.

The key thing for the past success and the future prospects for our industry are our people. We are blessed with great manufacturing people in this region. Our factory is based in Barnsley and has been at the heart of our community for 80 years. We have generations of families working with us. These people are everything to us – they know what good looks like and they are our first line of quality control. We are proud of our people and have invested in them with many of talent pool being filled with internal promotions rather than bringing in new people – additionally we have brought in schemes like a 4-day working week over the Winter months – longer days over four days and no impact on pay.

You started your career in finance with two of the longest-standing firms in South Yorkshire in Allotts and Smith Craven. How have the foundations in practice helped you and what is your advice to young people at the start of their career in finance?

My foundations in practice have been critical for my technical knowledge, my commerciality and my confidence.

I was exposed to so many different sectors – from sole traders and contractors to IT companies and GP surgeries.

James Ryan at Smith Craven trusted me to start running client meetings when I was 21. Seventeen years on and this is still one of the largest steps in my confidence building.

I learned the right technical skills, the language of business and how to analyse success – invaluable lessons that are important for every FD throughout their career.

We are working within a period of significant generational change – most leaders are Gen X, Management is Millennial and entrants are Gen Z. How do you see the changes between the different generations?

The world of work is fascinating for many reasons, none less than the generational dynamic that you outline.

I spent five years working with a board of very limited diversity. There was definitely an older generation's attitude to culture and values. Respect was expected and the norms were hard to break. I succeeded in purchasing our factory, paid off our asset financing, improved the balance sheet significantly and bought (and integrated) a plastic moulding business…..but it was not enough for the board to recognise me as a director.

Our new investors have developed a culture that I would describe as considerably “more millennial”! All ideas are welcome, inclusivity is a clear focus and meritocracy is embedded in the culture.

People fascinate me – what motivates them, what influences them and how they set their values. Business leaders can unlock productivity, performance and personal satisfaction in empowering their people and building great cultures. It is not an option “to do what you have always done”, the world is changing and there should be little consolation for anyone who says that they cannot keep up! Listen to your people, build businesses through people and keep improving!

What is the future for Kelly?

I have an excellent role now, with a lot of freedom to use my entrepreneurial spirit and take these companies in to their next chapter.

Our October board meeting will be held in Majorca, another example of the new shareholders rewarding us well for taking on the responsibility of running the businesses to generate wealth for them.

That being said, my true passion, as you’ll probably understand from the start of this article is travel, so a job where I can travel more often would be my ideal.