Market Financial Controller

Business Context

Korea is a strategic luxury market for CHANEL. It is a global center of innovation and source of many trends into Asia and even the world.

The Korean business unit operates 3 business divisions (FBP, Fashion and WFJ), englobing both the Local Market business and the Travel Retail business. Our current distribution includes 100+ retail POS, with most of them in the leading Korean Department Stores. 

CHANEL Korea is technically a 100% retail business & highly retail / customer focused organization, driving for “customer centricity” and “retail excellence”, with 1700+ people employed directly by CHANEL.

CHANEL Korea is a significant market in the House with direct interactions with Region and Global at key meetings.

In terms of financial environment, financial regulation and infrastructure is one of the most complex in Asia, particularly in Customs, Tax regulation and reporting.

Korea is furthermore an extremely challenging and demanding market with the increasing of business size. For the past five years, CHANEL Korea has experienced rapid growth, leading to increased complexity and stringency in external regulatory oversight and approval processes. With the growth of company size, the intensity and quality of audits by external regulatory authorities are increasing, especially from NTS (National Tax Service) and Customs audit and investigations.

It is foreseeable the company continues to growth in the coming years, we need to create a right model to serve our business needs and more agile responses to external environment. In order to give more deeper support to market CFO, we need  Market Financial Controller position to drive market finance strategy and give market insight to Financial Business Service team while consolidating local agenda and bring solution to market CFO and APAC Finance.

Job Mission:

This position will play a critical role to develop financial strategies, policies and maintain operation to ensure the company’s long-term financial stability and growth and deal with external audit, investigations. This position will closely be working with FBS to oversee overall activities of all finance domains and partnering with APAC FBS, local Finance teams and business stakeholders. It is expected to work with diverse function heads in deciding on complex modeling of the business’s financial approaches that cut across the entire business.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Analysis & Reporting, Process Management

• Lead end-to-end process for preparation of Financial Statements and auditing & investigations for Korea market and report to Market CFO.
• Lead generating monthly closing report of financial systems, ensuring that all activities are executed promptly and by accounting policies, procedures, and guidelines by coordinating and collaborating with Financial Business Services.
• Monitor and assess analytical tools and reports utilized with a focus on systems and process enhancements supporting the financial management of the company.
• Provide finance guideline to business divisions and lead change management to improve overall finance performance.

Tax/ Customs Audit and Compliance

• Serve as the primary point of contact for tax authorities and manage tax audits to ensure compliance with tax regulations. Provide tax planning and optimization strategies.
• Oversee customs audits and ensure the company complies with import and export regulations, tariffs, and duties.
• Closely work with internal stakeholders to prepare a successful audit process to prevent exposing serious risks to the company.
• Collaborate with external partners such as tax accounting firm personnel, auditors, and in all matters regarding auditing, customs and taxation

Government-Related Actions / Risk Management

• Act as the main liaison with government agencies, respond to inquiries, and ensure compliance with government-related financial regulations and incentives.
• Monitoring and adhering to government financial regulations and policies, and market trend. Keeping abreast of changes in government financial policies and communicating their impact on the company's financial operations to relevant stakeholders.
• Collaborating with government auditors, addressing their inquiries, and ensuring a smooth audit process.
• Preparing and submitting accurate financial documents and reports required by government agencies.
• Collaborate with Internal Control/ Risk Management team to identify financial risks and implement mitigation measures.
• Lead establishment of risk management procedures as well as the as-is procedure update.

Project Management

• Lead and manage the implementation of a new ERP system as a project manager of Korea market.
• Manage diverse stakeholders – business, local finance, regional team and external vendors to ensure a seamless transition.
• Provide local perspectives for shaping the design and implementation of new regional/ global systems.
• Lead change management for new Finance project & system launching to ensure smooth implementation

Leadership

• Lead and develop the market finance and FBS team, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to team members.
• Highly contribute to building talent across the accounting function and supporting continuous improvement initiatives across the finance department.

Other Finance Related Projects / Works

• Manage and partner with service providers to ensure professional and cost-effective service delivery
• Recommend systems improvements across the finance department and oversees the implementation of changes across the department upon approval.
• Attend regular finance forums/meetings both internally and externally to get insights and bring it into the team to enhance the process and policy.

Qualifications

Academic / Professional Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance and a qualified accountant with at least 12 years of post-qualification experience 
• Solid experience in IFRS and K-GAAP.
• Solid experience in Tax accounting (NTS and Customs related work experiences)
• CPA / CMA or equivalent certificate highly preferred

Work Experience

• Experience within multinational organization(s) preferred
• 15+ years of experience in accounting preferred
• 15+ years in the retail industry preferred

Required Competencies

• Strong understanding of financial regulations and accounting standards
• Expertise in local tax regulation, government audits, customs compliance and risk management
• Change Agent – willing to evaluate the status quo and take action to change when necessary.
• Strong interpersonal skills to engage professionally with different levels of stakeholders for close work partnership locally, regionally and globally.
• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams
• Experience in using Hyperion, TM1, and ERP system (AX) is preferred
• Strong understanding of the Brand, Business and Retail
• Fluent in Korean and English

Key Interactions:

Internal

• Business division/ Corporate business managers
• Finance/ Supply Chain counterparts from region and global
• Regional and Country Finance community

External

• Customers, Communicate with customers (3rd party departments, DFO)
• Auditors, Government authorities