Chief Financial Officer, Lion
Stephanie Nixon has held the position of CFO for Lion for the past 5 years, she is responsible for Australia, NZ, Asia, the UK and US markets. Her remit stretches across a portfolio of teams including Group strategy and M&A, Risk and Audit, IT, Shared Services, Finance (Tax, Treasury, Controller and Commercial Business partnering).
What sort of flexible work practices have you undertaken in your career?
I have worked flexibly from a very early stage in my career. In my early 20’s I held a global role travelling from Sydney to all parts of the globe every week. The team was based in the UK, Asia, NZ, and South America so we worked across time zones which meant adopting flexible work practices like non-standard working days and hours, weekend travel and then flex days off during the week.
Once I had children, I then worked part time in senior roles, moving from 3 days a week up to my current 5 days a week and have always used flex to work from home some of those days. I have used technology to enable effective work practices and structured my diary so that face to face meetings occur on the days I am in the office. I have continued this flexible working for the past 15 years and during that time have also continued to build my career.
What do you love most about your role and your industry?
I love the breadth of my CFO role — from leading strategy and acquisitions to IT and business processes optimisation. The role has enabled me to learn and grow in both technical areas such as tax, treasury and IT and also contribute to the growth agenda of Lion.
I have always loved consumer companies and Lion is has some of the best consumer brands in the markets we are in. Lion’s industry focus is beer, seltzers, wine and spirits and we have a real focus on sociability, sustainability and living well.
The industry is full of passionate people who are focussed on creating an environment through the pubs, clubs and bars channel where people can come together, be sociable and connect, and through bottles shops and retail where people can buy our products to enjoy that experience at home.
What are the biggest barriers or challenges you have overcome in advancing your career so far?
I am very grateful for the enjoyable and successful career I have had. There are several factors that have enabled and supported my career journey and I focus more on the enablers rather than the barriers.
I have always had a love of learning something new, so every time there was an opportunity to try something new, move to a new part of the business or team, work on a project, move to a different geography I jumped at it.
I have also had several sponsors along the way who have really backed me into roles where I didn’t quite have the experience, and these have been pivotal career moves that have pushed me forward.
I have always surrounded myself with people who are great leaders. I have always looked for talent who are agile enough to be stretched constantly into new areas, have a change mindset and who are always looking to challenge to make things better.
In terms of challenges along the way, balancing home with work and ensuring the right focus and care for each is a constant juggle. In the journey of raising children it has moved from caring for a crying or sick baby whilst also contributing to an important meeting or more recently a teenager that has urgent needs after school and doesn’t understand the impending work deadline.
There is no silver bullet but clear prioritisation and a support network at home and at work are critical.
How do you think your industry and business has changed as a result of the impacts of COVID on the working world?
Like all businesses during COVID we have had to adapt very quickly.
Our industry has been impacted by various restrictions, particularly the on-premise customers who have had business lockdowns. Lion had to quickly adapt to the changing nature of our customer needs and the changing demand from consumers which impacted all parts of our supply chain.
Our business has become faster at making decisions and solving problems and the jump shift in capability using technology for collaboration and meetings has led to some great productivity and efficiency gains.
Like most businesses, our people have enjoyed the flexibility that comes with working from home. We have stepped up communication with our people and have been able to quickly and frequently run town halls which keep people connected and aligned to our vision and strategy as well as performance. As a result, our people engagement has improved over the year.
Lion has always been highly innovative in programs to support their employees across all areas of work / life balance. What are some of the initiatives or programs that have been most impactful for your people?
For over a decade, we have had achievement principles that focus on outcomes rather than time spent. These principles shaped our approach to determining performance and recognition.
Five years ago, we launched our LionFlex program, which encouraged our people to experiment with different kinds of flexibility. This has continued to evolve, supporting our people to flex in a variety of ways and encouraging our leaders to “start with a yes” when considering requests. With the introduction of this program, 84% of our people said that they have enough flexibility to balance work and personal responsibilities.
We also offer some market leading initiatives via our Families at Lion policy which includes fantastic benefits like 12 weeks’ primary care leave to both parents within the first 24 months (“pass the baton leave”) and return to work programs like Lion Cubs and ‘Parents at Work’ memberships.
You’re a big supporter of flexible work and also a mentor and advocate for helping women advance. We’re seeing change, but it’s still slow across many industries — what sort of programs is Lion championing to support more gender diversity at leadership levels?
We have many practices to ensure that we are championing diversity, including gender diversity at leadership levels.
First, we measure and set targets for gender diversity at the leadership, team and enterprise levels. We hold our leaders to account for our target by putting the targets in performance goals.
Second, we have reviewed our talent management practices ensuring that we are removing potential bias, for example diverse interview panels, diverse candidate shortlists
Thirdly, we build confidence and leadership capability in our female leaders. We have run our “Women at Lion” programme for a number of years and this has enabled our women to focus on their strengths and career goals with very positive outcomes.
With such a focus on remote work, what are your tips for building culture and community when people aren’t necessarily together in physical spaces each day?
There are a number of ways to build culture and community when people are not in the same physical space. Technology has been an enabler for remote work and connection. We have set the expectation for leaders and team members to connect with their teams regularly, be that a mix of in-person where possible, 1:1s on zoom and town halls.
We have also increased the programmes we offer to our people around wellbeing and have quickly pivoted our capability programs to be online and relevant to the challenges people are facing.
Could you share your top 2 or 3 predictions for what the new future may hold and how workplaces will shape up heading into 2021 and beyond?
· Purpose — the global events of 2020 have brought a renewed focus on purpose and values, and we expect this to continue.
· Hybrid working — 2020 has proven that people can work remotely. In 2021, we will likely see people maximising the benefits of both remote working and connecting in person.
· Agility — last year, we had to pivot quickly to external changes. This capability is likely to continue to be leveraged into the future.
