FP&A Manager

Overview

The Blair Partnership is a literary and entertainment agency. We offer our clients a broad range of services including rights management, client representation and franchise management. As part of those services, we help to manage several companies on behalf of our client J.K. Rowling. Those companies are Pottermore and Bronte. These businesses benefit from shared resources and expertise provided by The Blair Partnership, but they are run by their own leaders.

There are three core pillars to The Blair Partnership’s business activity:

• Franchise Management – which encompasses brand & franchise vision and strategy, creative strategy & direction, product development, brand management & comms for the Harry Potter franchise.
• Client Management - we represent a large and eclectic list of clients’ literary and entertainment rights portfolios and pursue commercial opportunities for them through deal making in the UK, US and internationally, partner management and backlist rights management.
• Governance & support - we provide governance, resources and support to companies owned by J.K. Rowling. As part of that support, we cultivate close collaboration & strong, cohesive working practices between all the businesses.

Our vision remains to shape, nurture and grow the most imaginative and engaging brands for generations to come, working with our clients. Our mission is to shape and connect stories to their audiences. The Blair Partnership is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace where all talent and potential is valued. We welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives and recognise the value that this adds to our business.

Overall purpose of the job

The Financial Planning and Analysis Manager will work closely with the (FD), leading all Agency (The Blair Partnership (‘TBP’) and The Blair Partnership LLP (‘LLP’)) Financial Planning and Analysis, with a particular focus on revenue for budget and all subsequent reforecasts, including developing any outputs required for the Business Leadership Team and/or the TBP Board. They will support on ad hoc analysis, developing a deeper understanding of underlying performance of key areas such as Print Publishing, reviewing macro industry trends as well as underlying performance of agency titles. As required will support the (FD) to prepare financial models to support ad hoc analysis including: review of new deal terms for clients, long range plans for the agencies, business plans for M&A targets.

Summary of duties

Financial Planning and Analysis

• Own building the annual budget and subsequent reforecasts for Agency income across TBP and LLP.
• Work closely with the Client Business Team to capture all new contractually agreed income (e.g. Author advances).
• For all JK Rowling titles, work with the HP Franchise Team to understand the revenue drivers and likely earnings for all types of income across all rights licensed to Warner Brothers, high priority print publishers and other partners.
• Liaise with the other Finance Directors to capture the commission income due from Pottermore Limited, Bronte Film and TV Limited, and HPTP Limited.
• For LLP, liaise with the Agents, helping them to develop their full year outlook, including developing a royalty calculation model, the outputs of which are used to generate the full year outlook.
• Support as needed on P&L and Costs analysis as well as on revenue analysis for other businesses.

Revenue analysis

• Lead the advancement of revenue analysis, including deepening understanding of print publishing sales performance for Harry Potter, Robert Galbraith as well as other clients.
• Macro analysis of the publishing sector, identifying trends at a genre level.
• Support the Publishing Team to understand their account(s) performance, as well as analysing proposed contractual renewal terms for all Harry Potter print titles.

Presentations

• Own the files used to generate outputs for presentation to key stakeholders (internal and external).
• Liaise with the other FDs to ensure that they are inputting their financial information into the correct format for the TBP Board reviews.
• Prepare first draft of presentations to be reviewed by FD.

Ad hoc Analysis

Work closely with the FD to support all ad hoc analysis across the agencies, leading on various projects sponsored by the Chief Commercial Officer (‘CCO’), including for example modelling new business ventures, and business plans for M&A targets.

Strategic and Long-Range Planning

• Partner with (FD) to develop long range financial plans (three to five year outlook).
• Identify insights from the long-range plans which are used to set the strategic direction of the agencies.

Financial Systems & Processes

• Work with the (FD) and the (Finance Systems and Data Manager (FSDM)) to become a subject matter expert with tools such as Sage Enterprise Intelligence and its Excel Add-In as well as Power BI and other tools, enabling better analysis of our data.
• Work with the (FD), (Client Business) and (FSDM) to pioneer reporting from new agency management system which will include sales, royalties and contract data to inform business decisions.
• Super user on AI working group with focus on augmented intelligence & knowledge build through AI powered research.

Personal Development

• Champion excellence in financial planning and analysis throughout the team acting as the go to internal consultant on any challenging areas.
• Drive the team towards reporting deadlines by coordinating and task planning effectively across the group.
• Work towards team success collaborating, sharing regular feedback and knowledge with the broader finance team and business contribute actively to meetings and contribute ways to achieve team goals.
• Continue to learn by building knowledge of the group businesses and understanding the connections and the accounting implications of them.
• Gain an understanding of the broader financial processes, systems and responsibilities to help guide the business teams through and be able to effectively represent the Finance Team as ambassador group wide.

General

Other ad hoc tasks as required (resolving queries, preparing reports and system implementation/updates).

Person Specification

Experience, Technical Knowledge And Skills

• Background in a combination of practice (audit) and developing commercial models (either when working in practice or in industry).
• Accountancy qualification (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA) with a minimum of (3) years PQE.
• Dynamic team player with the ability to drive results across a diverse team in an entrepreneurial environment and not afraid to ‘get hands dirty’.
• Excellent interpersonal & communication skills with ability to influence up and down and get the best out of a team.
• Able to demonstrate a deep understanding of complex accounting and business models and external market conditions and be able to use this to inform business plans and ongoing operations.
• Experience of working with international markets e.g. US, Asia and Europe would be useful.
• Super organised and able to manage a diverse portfolio of responsibilities, prioritise and meet tight & often changing deadlines calmly but ensuring that responses are timely and the team are onboard.
• Thrives on an evolving environment and always looks for ways to improve.
• Proven experience in developing and coaching individuals; strong influencer.
• Comfortable in an entrepreneurial environment.
• Advanced excel user with a data focused approach and a keen interest in how financial data is processed and manipulated for successful reporting and insight. Experience with Power BI and other similar tools is helpful but not essential.