Matthew Hamilton James arrived at Motability Operations in 2001 and has been their CFO for 7 years now.
Motability support people with disabilities to achieve greater independence by giving them access to affordable, worry-free mobility. People can use their mobility allowance from the government to lease a brand-new car, Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV), scooter or powered wheelchair through the scheme.
Although moving to Motability was initially a bit of a blind career move for Matthew all those years ago, he landed in a company with a very clear purpose, doing a whole world of good for their customer base. Matthew has stayed in the company for a long time as a result of being able to contribute to the organisation’s strong sense of purpose towards their customers and this aspect contributes to great levels of staff retention overall.
Having started out on a grad scheme with the NHS, Matthew was no stranger to seeing the difference his daily work could make in people’s lives. When he arrived at Motability, however, Matthew found an opportunity to make a difference but so much more besides. Motability has an interesting blend of the commercial, a real challenge and over 750,000 customers, making it the largest car leasing company in the UK.
Since Matthew first joined Motability, the finance team have steered the business through a transformation. In his early days, it wasn’t run on a commercial basis. Back in 2001, Motability’s offering was viewed as a handout to disabled people, and as such, had more of a charitable model. Over the years though, this model has now changed and users are viewed as customers who are choosing to utilise their disposable income to access a product and service. In delivering this service, Matthew’s team of finance professionals work to drive efficiency and value for money in order to get the best deal for their customers. Then, any surplus profit that cannot be deployed within the Scheme’s own walls to support their customer base can also go across to the Motability Foundation to support their wider mandate, looking at transportation needs of people with disabilities in the UK.
Going through the BCorp process.
In addition to all the good work that Motability are doing, they are currently going through the rigorous process of the B Movement Builder program for companies with a turnover in excess of 5 million dollars (or equivalent) and are the first organisation of their scale to go through the process. There is a general recognition that the automotive sector should be part of the BCorp conversation as it is all about better business, and for the automotive sector this conversation is around a transition to electric cars.
So how are Motability tackling the EV market?
The transition to electric vehicles is coming at pace and, without Motability’s intervention, their customers would be left behind. Motability’s customers are typically more hesitant when it comes to adopting new tech as there can be more barriers for them to do so succcessfully. There is no doubt that the experience of an electric vehicle is vastly different for a driver with a disability, particularly with reference to charging. It’s one thing if you run out of charge on a motorway and you can easily get out the car and seek sanctuary behind the barrier, but as a wheelchair user, it’s an entirely different proposition. Then there’s charging infrastructure. If you have access to off street parking at home it makes things much easier, but 40% of our customers don’t have access to offstreet parking. If you don’t have this access, as a wheelchair user, you are reliant on public charging facilities, which, although they are improving, are somewhat fragmented at the moment.
That’s why Motability have committed 300 million pounds to supporting the transition to electric for customers by not only subsidising the lease costs but also offering free access to charge points situated in off street parking. For those who aren’t able to charge at home we are putting pilot schemes in place. The MOGO charging app, for example, enables people to purchase charging from a public charging point via the app across 60% of the infrastructure.
Motability have 40,000 customers in EVs and although that is only about 5% of the fleet, it is growing quickly. By 2032, they hope to have 8 out of 10 customers in EVs. The Scheme is all about offering a worry free proposition and this needs to be the same with EV vehicles also. More charging points will become available but they need to be installed with accessibility in mind as the charging infrastructure is not currently inclusive, it needs adapting.
Adaptation is key but it’s often the case that disability is often not taken into consideration at the outset of the design phase, so modifications need to be retro-fitted. That’s why Motability are working with a design institute called Calum which is coming up with a concept car for a wheelchair accessible electric vehicle. Adjustments have to be made to the chassis and ramps need to be put in. Making these kinds of modifications is fine in a petrol or diesel vehicle, however, with most electric vehicles, the battery is in the floor plate so you can’t cut into it. (Retro-fitting a modification such as this will therefore be a real headache.) Motability are currently helping with the development of a concept vehicle, not to go into production themselves, but they can put it in front of some OEMS and that will have a use beyond cars but also in camper vehicles etc.)
Obviously, the transition from petrol to electric is going to affect the business on every level, so to help the business to make important transitions such as these, the finance team at Motability have forged a vital connection to the rest of the business. To maintain that vital connection, the finance team are constantly inviting guests from other parts of the business in to their meetings to talk about what they are doing. They also have a finance forum where a representative from each of the different teams sits down once a quarter with the finance team to bring feedback.
With this proactive approach, the finance professionals at Motability have taken their place at the forefront of the company’s success. When Matthew made the decision to encourage the finance team to see themselves less as a support function and more as an important contributor to the success of the business, their role started to change. They stopped seeing themselves as a back office function or a gatekeeper and in this way they are also enabling the business to function with more of a long-term perspective.
Sign up to The Conscious Finanace Insider today for FREE monthly insights!
