Hugh Robinson

My previous role was at a Big Four firm, which meant there was lots of red tape in order to get something done. For example, we couldn't easily add new software to our tech stack and so it was difficult to get things accomplished in an efficient way. I'd been working four days a week in that role and one day a week with my sister-in-law’s e-commerce business. I really think that helped me understand flinder's clients in the e-commerce sector much more deeply.

I helped that business get to a stage where it could run itself and its big next challenge was customer acquisition and growth. At this point, I was starting to think about a new challenge. At the same time, the role at flinder became available.

Having worked with my sister-in-law building her e-commerce business, it gave me great hands-on experience of what flinder clients are going through.

At flinder, we have an amazing tech stack that we use to help our clients. It's refreshing to see that and work in an environment where we're constantly trying to automate and improve processes, whether that's via new software or a new approach.

There are two main parts to my role, and that's what attracted me to flinder:

1. The transition side is making sure clients have a smooth experience transitioning to flinder, but also designing our output to offer the greatest value to them and redesigning the way we collect data in order to do this.
2. The transformation side is consulting on the best solutions for them as a business to help them scale and achieve their targets. This involves a deep understanding of their current processes and goals and then working with them to implement and integrate new technology to achieve these. This goes way beyond what I've seen others do, and is a real reference to flinder's Big Four genesis.

We're primarily driven by adding value, gearing our delivery towards that and using data (financial and non-financial) to offer meaningful insights that our clients can use to make strategic business decisions.

What I like about flinder is that it's a friendly, approachable atmosphere but we're expected to work hard and we pride ourselves on delivering to a high standard. On the flip side, there's so much to engage with socially - the ski trip, games nights, summer social - plenty of time for pay back and thank yous for putting the work in.

The founders are very different to any Exec I've worked with before. They have completely different styles and strengths, but a very clear idea of where they want flinder to be and what they want to achieve. It's great to be able to learn different things from both of them and I am enjoying the challenge of working alongside them.