What makes CIMA professionals stand out from the crowd – Alexander
Roche, Peel Ports Group, UK
Briefly explain your role and what it involves.
I've recently started my first finance role, working as an Assistant Financial Analyst for the Peel Ports
Group, one of the UK’s largest port group operators. Based at Peel Ports Head Office in Liverpool, my
role involves producing monthly management accounts and working with operational teams to
ensure they have the financial information and analysis they need to do their job well.
How long have you been working for Peel Ports Group?
3 months
What made you want to be a management accountant?
When I was at university, studying engineering, we had an entrepreneurial module and from that I
really got into thinking about business. My engineering background meant I knew that you could use
data to make things better. If you’ve got good data you’ve got a good business. Then i found CIMA.
The most important aspect for me is being able to make business better with the knowledge and
insight into finance that being a CIMA professional brings. I originally joined CIMA for this very
reason, as it bridges the gap between tables and tables of meaningless numbers, and actual business
performance and improvement.
How has CIMA enabled you to develop professionally?
As I've quickly come to discover, a management accounting role carries a high level of responsibility,
in that non-financial colleagues rely on you to make decisions, help themselves make decisions, and
offer your own interpretations of financial data. The CIMA Code of Ethics offers a useful framework
in which these decisions and interpretations can be made, and offers a level of confidence to be able
to say, 'this is the right thing to do, and this is why'. Happily I haven't experienced any moral
dilemmas so far, but I do always have 'what’s the right thing to do?' in my mind, and CIMA's Ethics
and regulations help to answer this question.
When you become a member what will being Chartered mean to you/the public?
I view Chartered status as, in a sense, a badge of assurance. Much like the 'Dr.' in front of your GP's
name gives you assurance that he or she has an intricate understanding and knowledge of medicine,
similarly, the ACMA/CGMA after your management accountant's name gives you assurance of their
intricate understanding and knowledge of accounting and finance.
What stands out most from the ethical and professional guidance CIMA offers you?
Generally speaking it’s made me question a lot like, should we be doing this? Should we be doing
that? It makes you think about think about things from an ethical point of view rather than just from
a solely profit led point of view
When you become a member, wheat would be your ideal role?
I’m fairly ambitious so I’d like to get to director level eventually, that’s where I’d like to be, so
everywhere else I’d like to be is leading up to that so eventually I’d like to manage a finance team
but that’s my long term goal.
What advice do you have for someone considering becoming a CIMA student?
I’d say definitely go ahead and do it. If you look at job ads it’s the most valuable accountancy
qualification in the industry, absolutely