Les Thomas acted as Interim Regional Finance Manager for the South West Division of Yodel from March 2012 to October 2012.
Les joined to support the Division through the implementation phase of a major change programme within the Yodel Service Centre infrastructure. From March to October, the South West Division transitioned from 19 sites to 13 sites and many of those sites changed IT systems and reporting infrastructures as two businesses were merged into one.
Les’ role was to both support and to challenge the Service Centre Managers through this very testing phase. His experience enabled him to hit the ground running and to keep pace with the Team throughout a very frantic period.
He showed creativity in developing short term reporting systems that guided the operational managers daily through the cost implications of their actions in a very sensitive period for the Company, The newly designed reports clearly highlighted what was expected of the Service Centres, what the variance was and they were used to set corrective action plans.
He also demonstrated an ability to robustly challenge the SVC Managers whilst maintaining excellent working relationships with them.
Les also proved to be an excellent ambassador for the South West division when interacting with senior stakeholders across the Company.
This is the second assignment in which Les has worked for me, I would not hesitate to recommend Les and would not hesitate to use his services again should a suitably challenging role become available.
Guy Burgess Divisional Director, Yodel (Change Programme 2)
