Kevin Briggs

The key skills associated with a manufacturing business concern:

• managing working capital - maintaining cash through application of a credit policy and cashflow forecasting and control of inventory and accounts receivable

• understanding the manufacturing process and the part that the costing and bill of materials systems play in this and the key variances of actual cost to standard.

• understanding route to market and the differences that this makes to profitability

• the combination of points 2 and 3 - to create financial models of "what-if" scenarios in deciding a commercial approach to sales opportunities

• understanding product and process innovation and the control processes around this strategy