Building influence to catalyse change: interview with Val Elliott, Finance Director at Lavazza Professional UK

Over a long and storied career, Val Elliott has become an expert on steering business transformation from the financial driving seat. Today, as one of two Finance Directors at Lavazza Professional UK, she brings a pragmatic, people-focused approach to leadership.

On paper, her job sounds simple enough: develop resilience against economic uncertainty, build a lasting culture and ensure long-term value creation. However, when it comes to not only tackling these challenges, but inspiring the business to unlock hidden value, that’s where Val’s unique talents and perspectives start to reveal themselves.

We sat down with Val to hear why she thinks influence is one of the most important skills in any finance leader’s arsenal, and how it can be deployed to not only shape the bottom line, but to turn the finance function into a genuine catalyst for organisational change.

Could you tell us a bit about how your finance function is structured?

I’m quite lucky to have a full finance team. I have both the transactional reporting and commercial side, plus accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the management accounting team. We’ve recently brought in a financial controls manager, as this is an increasingly key area for us. I then also manage commercial finance and reporting, which fulfils the traditional FP&A role as well as the business partnering with sales and marketing.

Across the leadership team, we have marketing, a local and national sales director, as well as HR, transformation & customer services and operation directors. Operations is the bulk of our headcount, as a large proportion of our staff are out putting product into our machines or servicing them.

It must be challenging to manage such a large team.

It can be, but it has its advantages too. For the more senior members of my team, it gives them the opportunity to broaden their skillsets and build experience in the role of the finance director. But there are some downsides. We often spend too much time talking about and analysing the data, especially when it’s not in the right place and impacts process flows. That takes our focus away from the commercial side of the business, which is where I want us to be.

When we talk about the Finance Function of the Future, we’re hearing a lot about value creation. How do you create value in your team?

For me, it’s all about the value add. When you’re looking at the big picture – for instance, the way the political sphere is heading with increases in national insurance and impact on employment costs – we ask ourselves, how will this impact us, how can we manage this while still offering the service levels that we do now, and how can we extract more value? If labour is becoming more expensive, for instance, we ask: what are our clients offering to their employees? Could they be offering something else?

So, it’s about being forward looking. We’re not just looking at the budget next year, we’re thinking about how we can build foundations now that will support us years down the line. We want to build a sustainable business, and in order to do that we need to look beyond just transactional accounting. We look at the macro items and identify where we can create value.

How do you bring that forward-focused mindset to life in the business?

It’s all about influencing decision makers. I do lots of research in my own time – not just around finance, but all areas of the business. For instance, right now, employment patterns are quite key, so I’m keen to understand what’s happening in the world of HR. I’ll read articles and attend webinars, then try to feed that data and intel back into leadership meetings. That way, we can build this knowledge into our forecasts.

Finance is often described as an influencing function. What does that mean for you in practice?

Yes, since we aren’t the data owners, we need to be the influencers instead. But it’s an interesting question for finance: do you want to become the data owners or not? I don’t think we should be. I think we should be spending more of our time analysing the insights. That’s where we need to be great influencers, so that we can add to that conversation and provide strategic feedback. We’re the experts in, say, how to set up a purchase order or sales order – we shouldn’t take the expertise for granted.

I believe finance is in a unique position to be a catalyst. We often think of marketing or R&D as the innovators, but finance can be good catalysts too because we can see the financial impact of things. We can see how numbers are moving or where things aren’t happening. We’re in a strong position to drive change.

There’s a separate question around how we do that, and for me it comes down to energy. It’s up to us in finance to be a hub from which energy can spread across the business, driving positivity and optimism. Since we’re so close to the numbers, we know what this is telling us about how the organisation is performing and keep that momentum going. This is something I really look for in the people I interview – that energy, that can-do attitude.

What skills would you say are the most important for finance professionals looking to influence effectively?

Communication is key. One big question for us is how do we make what we say less like ‘finance speak’, and more like ‘business speak’. Finance people tend to tuck themselves away, which is not great when it comes to communicating with the wider business. We want people who are sociable, who get out there and meet people.

Adaptability is also important. Businesses are moving faster and faster now. You might have processes sorted, but it won’t be long before the organisation needs to pivot and those processes need to change. So, how do you adapt to still get what you need out of it? You need to be adaptable, flexible and curious, so that when you go in to influence it, you’re coming from a place of strength.

How are you building those skills within your team?

I’m running a couple of programmes with my team at the moment. One is around motivators – what encourages them to take a bit more risk and step outside their comfort zones. And we’re also looking at change models, and how they can make change in smaller ways that land and stick. And then we’ll move into what actions we’re actually going to take. What I’d really like is to get to a place where my team is leading their own continuous improvement projects.

We’re also working on something we call ‘Tribe’. We’re matching team members into pairs and then getting them to look at things together, rather than in isolation, to help them understand alternative perspectives but also to make them feel more comfortable in their own decision-making.

As part of a global group, how do you approach communication and alignment across different functions and geographies?

It varies. I’m good friends with our tax counterpart, so I’ll often just phone her up and have a chat. But other areas are more structured – credit, for example, we’ll have a weekly communication from them, particularly given the global environment at the moment. FP&A budgeting requires the same level of attention.

It really depends on the level of risk. With credit, for instance, there’s very little room for movement. Tax is quite constrained because the reputational risk is so high. But from a sales perspective, we’ve got much more autonomy. We’re at the market level, so we know what’s going to sell and what the market will tolerate.

How are you approaching uncertainty in the current economic environment?

We’re constantly talking about coffee prices. Over the last couple of years, it’s been very volatile and has been going up, so we’ve had to make a number of price increases. That’s not just commodity-led – it’s also the result of things like the increase in minimum wage and national insurance contributions.

For us, it’s important to understand how much the market can bear. It’s great to have a cup of coffee, but if you’re paying £10, you’ll start to think twice. That’s why we lean heavily on scenario planning. It’s important to move quickly past the shock when global events like these happen, and to start thinking about the long-term ripple effects. From there, you build out long-term scenarios. There’s a balancing act to get right, but still set ourselves up to achieve our ambitious growth plans.

Lavazza is a family-owned business with a long-term outlook. How does that shape your approach to value?

I love that question, because I love working for a family-owned business. Lavazza has been around for 130 years. Having worked in private equity and listed companies, it’s quite different here – you’re not just looking at an exit strategy or the share price.

Of course, we still need to make sure there’s enough cash to remain sustainable and profitable – we want to be around in another 130 years. But our values are broader: we’re shaping society as a whole, not just our own bottom line. The development of our associates (that’s what we call our employees in Lavazza Professional) is key, and we invest in the entire value chain to help safeguard the future of coffee.

That’s interesting for me, because the shareholders here aren’t just interested in profit. The family want to pass the business on to the next generation and to see ecological benefits, impact on ESG, greater equality and continuity of the business. It feels much broader here than it has at other organisations.

What stands out to you about Lavazza’s culture?

One of the things that really struck me recently was that I was at our headquarters in Turin, and a member of the Lavazza family was in the queue for coffee with everyone else, just chatting. There was no red carpet. It felt very human.

The business has grown from €700 million to €3 billion and they’ve invested heavily in skills, bringing in people from global organisations like Unilever and Coca-Cola, while still looking after employees who have been there for 25 or 30 years. That balance is really symbolic of the culture – a realistic approach to growth, balanced with a human-centric approach.

Also, it is very caring. During COVID, bonuses were still paid, and people were really looked after. That’s not to say we aren’t also held to account. You do need to step up and deliver!

What are the biggest challenges you’ve had to deal with?

I was brought in because of my experience in leading organisational and behavioural change and turning businesses around. When I first arrived, the organisation was evolving and redefining its scope, and we had quite a high turnover of staff. A lot of what I was hearing was about a lack of communication, which is what we’ve since been trying to address – making sure people understand what’s going on and feel connected to the wider team.

It’s also about helping people feel more comfortable stepping outside their comfort zones. When I joined, there was a culture of ‘we’ve always done it this way’ and a low appetite for risk. Since then, we’ve been putting programmes in place to build that confidence – encouraging people to take more ownership, to lead improvement activity, and to go out into the business more.

It’s not something that changes overnight, but we are starting to see a shift. You can see people becoming more engaged, more willing to adapt, and more willing to make changes where they’re needed.

At BDO we’re discussing how to build the Finance Function of the Future. How would you say you’re building this in your own organisation?

For me, it comes back to that influencing role. I don’t want my team to spend all their time just delivering a set of numbers. I want them to take those numbers and turn them into something meaningful for the business. It’s that ability to challenge, be heard and influence.

I think that will continue to grow. The expectation is that finance will be more outward-facing, more engaged with the business and more involved in decision-making moving forwards, and that’s what I want to see. The more we can prove our case with strong, solid numbers, the more we’ll be able to build our influence.

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