Page 35 - DePuy End of Year Magazine 2020

What are the upcoming activities/projects in the department? What’s happening in 2021?
2020 saw Finance members in Ireland begin their “Digital discovery” journey. Digital Discovery is an EMEA initiative that aims to develop the foundational and broad digital skills and prepare for the Future of Finance through five bite-sized learning courses.
The goal is to build digital capabilities fast and at scale to accelerate the readiness of the EMEA Finance community for a Digital world.
The Digital Discovery journey builds into the ongoing lead
up to SigniFi will continue during 2021. SigniFi is a multi-year program intended to deliver global standardization, enhanced digital capabilities and process simplification with the objective of enabling an improved optimal employee experience and ultimately and J&J Finance way.
Are people mostly onsite or offsite and how has life changed for yourself and the department since COVID-19?
In terms of timing, the move to remote working in March 2020 could not have happened at a more challenging time, two weeks out from Quarter 1 close! That said, like the rest of J&J, the Finance team really stood up to the challenge. Some of the key changes in the way we work
in 2020 include;
• Q1 Close: Our backs were against the wall, but the team showed immense fortitude as folk juggled dodgy internet
connections, homeschooling and
all the other challenges remote working brings
and still deliver a Q1 close that was timely and met
all compliance requirements. They also provided
key insights to business partners. Q1 saw the first signs of COVID-19 come through in financials, ASPAC sales dropped from January while the impact of lockdowns in EMEA and US began to come through in late March.
Virtual Onboardings: COVID-19 has not slowed the growth of our Finance team. 2020 was a year where we welcomed 10 new additions to the finance team. It will be great to get back to the office and meet all our new joiners in person;
• Aoife Bardsley & David O’Leary - Global Inventory team
• Daniel O’Donoghue was hired into the newly formed Automation & Analytics team
• Megan Noonan – ICP Pricing team
• Michelle O’Mahony – AGP Governance Team
• Michelle Geaney – FP&A
• Shelia O’Connor – Accounts Payable
• Denise O’Mullane – PIC COE
• Aine Foot – Joints BUF – PIC COE
• Debbie Hennessy – 2020 saw Debbie rejoin the Finance
team after some time with S&OP
What is your favourite part of the job?
Hard to look past them half days on a Friday. But in all honesty, I love working in such a diverse organization. On a daily basis
I have calls with colleagues from across the globe. I could be looking out the window at the rain drenched fields of East Cork while a colleague in Puerto Rico is basking in 30 degrees heat. It was also great to see the resolve from team member across the globe in the face of the COVID crisis. Everybody was going through a tough year with lockdown restrictions across the globe, but there was a degree of comradery in the sense we were still delivering on our goals and objectives and meeting the needs of stakeholders, in spite of the challenges COVID and lockdowns threw at us.
Is there any member you can highlight who has contributed to the business positively in 2020?
September 2020 was a special month for Brian Leahy as he marked 15 years of service with J&J. Brian started his J&J career in the Manufacturing Sigma Knees Value Stream. In January 2015 Brian made the move to Make
Finance. There he studied at night to get his ACCA Accounting exams. In 2018, Brian was on the move again, this time to Supply Chain Finance where he works as
a Team Lead in the PIC COE. However, this achievement was overshadowed in many ways by the contribution Brian made to the provision of visors to frontline healthcare staff. Brian was a member of a team of 15 made up of the expertise of Supply Chain, Design and Quality that leveraged 3D printing to create a virtual factory at Garryduff.
Brian at work in Garryduff during lockdown in Spring
Most exciting project you have worked on?
I was lucky to get an early Alteryx license and used it to automate the DePuy Ireland Excess and Obsolete Inventory Reserve calculation. I got the opportunity to roll the process out across other Supply Chain Finance teams in DePuy Synthes. It saved so much time for all the teams and allowed folk the opportunity to understand the drivers to movements in their reserve.
Toughest decision and how did you approach it?
I am currently trying to make the big decision to pick the colour of a new sofa, it is actually a painstaking decision and
I am flipping every second day between different looks. From a work perspective, my decision to leave CRH and Dublin in 2017 and return to my native Cork was very tough at the time. I mapped out where I wanted to be in my career and personal life in 5, 10 and 15 years. It was a rough exercise, however
it provided great clarity at the time. While CRH is a great company to work for, I certainly do not look at my decision to join J&J with any regrets.
Proudest moment?
I am very proud of J&J’s response to the COVID crisis. In particular the flexibility and support shown to employees.
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