How Beau Turner FCPA teed-up success in the golf industry

Early in his career, Beau Turner took the leap from public practice into the competitive commerce world. He says it was like flipping the playbook. He was building on his solid accounting foundation, while opening new horizons for growth and innovation.

“After six and a half years in public practice, I was suddenly in an entrepreneurial business with guys who were going faster than the back end could keep up with,” Turner says. “I literally got handed a folder of documents and was asked to just work it out.” The challenge gave him a taste for working with the whole business to develop strategies and processes to guide and grow the business.

“I would say, ‘Who’s running the month end? Who’s preparing the information for the stock exchange? What’s the reporting rhythm for the end of the financial year?’ The answer was always, ‘We’ve got to work that out’.

It was like nothing existed. I suppose that’s nerve-racking, particularly coming from public practice where it is well-structured, but it was a challenge that I absolutely loved,” he says.

No ‘sales stopper’

The main challenge, Turner says, when moving to a different business, is developing a new mindset — understanding that although he was doing the same role, he needed to look at it from a different perspective.

“You have to become a knowledge expert inside the business. In my case, I was working with a group of very successful entrepreneurial business leaders and owners.

Some of them had great respect for finance, but I was also called ‘the sales stopper’ on many occasions, and that‘s probably a stereotype that many accountants have struggled with,” he says.

 

 

"There was always the question in the back of my mind of ‘How can I mix accounting and sport and work in a sporting organisation?’ I wanted to combine two passions."

 

 

Turner’s response to that attitude has always been to deliver outstanding results and communicate across the organisation to show how the financial perspective is invaluable in decision-making.

“It was a good learning experience, because it was entrepreneurial. I was involved in some of the decision-making, and supporting those decisions and ensuring that they could occur.

But there was also the responsibility of reporting back to the private equity owners and giving them updates on how the business was tracking from a commercial standpoint,” he says.

Turner is now the finance director, South Pacific and India, with American global sports manufacturer Callaway Golf.

During his nine years in the role, he has undertaken a range of responsibilities within partnering and insights, finance, accounting, commercial, IT, reporting, treasury and strategy functions. He continues to deliver strong results for the company and has integrated two new brands into the Callaway Golf umbrella.

“There was always the question in the back of my mind of ‘How can I mix accounting and sport and work in a sporting organisation?’ I wanted to combine two passions,” Turner says.

When the opportunity with Callaway Golf came up, he was attracted by the possibilities to innovate and help grow the business. His reputation preceded him, and he was brought in to get the business up to speed.

“By then I had a bit of a reputation for being able to set up businesses and processes, and effectively clean up some history and forge a new path,” he says.

This was an assignment he wholeheartedly accepted.

 

"The story for Callaway Golf over the last nine years has been exciting. The first two years were focused on setting up the business. We probably wouldn't have been as successful if we hadn't worked to get the communication and relationships with the business in a positive space upfront, which takes time."

 

“It was a challenged business, and the margins were quite concerning early on. I literally came in at ground zero in terms of bringing a focus on margins and rebuilding the business,” he says.

Turner points out that bringing in wholesale change can be confronting for any business, and rushing the process will not get the desired outcomes. The secret to the company’s success has been in the planning.

“The story for Callaway Golf over the last nine years has been exciting. The first two years were focused on setting up the business. We probably wouldn’t have been as successful if we hadn’t worked to get the communication and relationships with the business in a positive space upfront, which takes time.

“We were also supported by strong processes, procedures and reporting rhythms, which enabled business partnering to flourish. We had to deliver on what we said we were going to do. Once we started delivering, partnering effectively and adding value, the magic happened,” he says.

Communication and transparency

One area Turner focused on was communication, particularly to educate others in the broader team about the benefits of visibility and transparency across the business.

“I had some folks in the business who weren’t aware of their budgets, so the first step was to create the forums for reporting rhythm, visibility and openness of numbers.

“From day one, the mantra was H.O.T — honesty, openness, transparency — because if you share the problems together, you get to the solutions a lot quicker,” Turner says.

One piece of advice

“You’re not going to be able to add value from behind a screen, so get out of your chair and go and talk to your colleagues and your networks.”