Lantern Foods
A Show Piece — This Role Is Made Up
Finance Manager
Four Days
The Heartbeat
We know to the dollar what we sold yesterday and almost nothing about what we will sell in March.
What Becomes Possible
A month that closes in four days instead of three weeks, and a forecast the family actually believes.
The Room You Are Given
Every number in the business, the bank, the two people in accounts, and which systems we buy. You would choose them, not recommend them.
Why This Role Exists
The founder's daughter has been doing this beside running the warehouse and she has asked, plainly, to stop.
Before You Answer Anything
The Place, And What A Week Is Like.A warehouse and an office above it, forty-one people, and a kitchen where lunch is made and eaten together at half twelve. Four days, yours to choose, and two of them from home once you know us. The warehouse starts at five and nobody expects you to.
And honestly
We have been late paying suppliers twice this year and it was not a cash problem. It was that nobody knew in time.
What They Are Actually Good At
This Is What They Do Well.We have never lost a customer to price. Forty-one years and the relationships are the whole business.
And honestly
That the spreadsheet is fine because it has always worked. One person can open it and she wants to retire.
The Deal, Plainly
$130,000 – $145,000
Four days is four days here. Nobody has ever been asked for the fifth.
And what is demanding about it
The first close will be ugly and you will do it alone. After that it is the calmest job in the building.
Why You
You have closed a month in a business where everyone knew the numbers by feel, and you made them true without making anyone wrong.
Her Question, Answered Plainly
How You Will Know It Is Yours.You have replaced a system somebody loved. You can read a P&L aloud to a family who own the business and have it land.
And honestly
Buying and pricing stay with the family. You would tell them what it costs; they choose.
What This Gives You
What You Would Walk Out With.A forty-one-year-old business that finally knows its own numbers, and a family who will say so out loud.
Your Reply Goes To A Person
The founder's daughter reads every reply, and she has said she will answer within two days.
The Tango
You See It.
You Move It.
The Room Keeps Up.
You answer to the work. You lead, and the room moves with you.
Is This Your Tango?
Begin Your ReplyYour Reply
Say It In Your Own Words.
They wrote to you first. This goes straight to them, exactly as you write it.