CIMA where business + finance meet
Delivering crucial cost reductions of a £3 billion budget at RAF Air Command ‘You have got to be mindful that you have still got to be able to deliver a financial service. It was important to record what we were still going to deliver, and what improvements we were going to make. We then hung our hat on improving the quality of analysis, creating a consistent risk management structure and a greater sense of financial awareness – to make better decisions. Skills derived from the CIMA qualification and developing a “human face” were vital to the success of this initiative.’
Colin Evans FCMA Royal Air Force Deputy Command Secretary Resources, Air Command, Ministry of Defence (MoD) Royal Air Force Air Command holds an annual budget of £3 billion within the Ministry of Defence.
and planning functions - consolidating budgeting and enhancing forecasting capabilities.
Tasked with a requirement to reduce its headcount as part of a programme to reduce 32,000 civilian roles and 17,000 military roles across Defence, the management accountants at Air Command delivered a one-third reduction (£3.8 million) to its central and regional team, and co-led the redesign of the Command’s Headquarters and the delivery of more analytical services across the Command. This was delivered in 12 months, against a two-year target.
‘CIMA qualified individuals helped bolster the analysis function. As a result, the team became well placed to feed better quality management information to the Command’s board, reducing the chance of missing budgets.’
CIMA member Colin Evans, Deputy Command Secretary at Air Command, explains. ‘We had to show leadership. In asking the rest of the Command Headquarters to deliver one third savings, it was right that we should also embark on that course. At the same time we still had to deliver our outputs and products, and ensure that the Command delivered significant multimillion pound non-personnel savings targets and came in on its control totals and budgets,’ he says.
Evans says his appointment to the task is an endorsement of CIMA professional skills. ‘In addition, CIMA qualified individuals helped deliver positive change and a “human face”. Certainly, exposure to organisation design and relationship management in the CIMA qualification has helped.’ ‘On a programme that would ultimately see a reduction in jobs, being transparent with staff members was also key’, says Evans. ‘Individuals rose to the challenge. The great thing about being honest with people is then they want to come and work with you. CIMA - qualified individuals were coming forward and saying, ‘I can see this process can be improved’. You saw people starting to volunteer to improve their own processes,’ he says.
The redesign of the entire Headquarters was also co-led by Evans together with an Air Commodore colleague. Central to the redesign was to increase effectiveness in the finance
CIMA value: MoD Reducing head count at RAF Air Command Headquarters by one third in half the allocated time. Reducing costs against personnel budgets by £3.8 million, while maintaining the ability and capacity to deliver multi-million pound savings across the Service. T. +44 (0)20 8849 2251 E. cima.contact@cimaglobal.com www.cimaglobal.com