GrowCFO Show

Many people gain experience by changing jobs and moving between organisations. Tony Fossey took the opposite approach and forged his early career rising through the ranks in a single company. He joined Halliburton, part of civil engineering giant KBR when he left school in 1976 and remained in KBR for the next 29 years. Tony took advantage of the size of the organisation he joined to get a wide range of experience in both finance and commercial roles. He worked internationally in several different roles with increasing seniority. Tony is highly experienced and has operated at the CFO level for well over 20 years. He shares some great insights into what makes a good CFO and the type of experience a prospective CFO should seek out as their career progresses. Listen to the full episode to find out more Links Tony Fossey on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Find out more about becoming a CFO Timestamps 01:08 Leaving school and joining a finance team 03:02 Tony’s first commercial role 06:30 FD, CFO, and VP of Finance. Is there a difference? 07:56 The importance of a professional qualification 10:08 Length of time between qualifying and taking on a number one finance role 13:10 What makes a good CFO? 16:48 Working with the board and non-executive directors 19:30 Get away from your desk and out into the organisation 21:33 Developing a reliable number two 22:18 How often should you change jobs? 25:35 Where does Tony Fossey work these days? 28:54 The importance of having fun and enjoying what you do

Manu Gupta has acted as CFO of several high growth businesses including MyDrive Solutions, GridDuck, and Brisk. He shares his unusual journey to his first CFO role and becoming a board advisor. Manu isn’t from a traditional accountancy background. He started his career in sales. A finance-based MBA then took Manu into a career in management consulting. He chose to leave consulting and move to a startup. The startup needed a finance team ahead of a Series A investment. Manu’s job was to create that team. Manu regards himself as a generalist and really enjoys the variety of challenges the CFO role offers him. We talk about how to become sufficiently rounded to do all the things a generalist CFO needs to do well. We also examine Manu’s skills as a management consultant and understand how he applied those to be a dynamic finance leader. Manu talks about the attitudes and skills a modern CFO needs to bring to the role. He has much to share. Listen to the full episode to find out more, including passions and lessons learned that come straight from the cricket field!  Links Manu Gupta on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Find out more about becoming a CFO The CFO as co-pilot to the CEO Timestamps 00:59 How did you become a CFO? 02:35 From sales to finance 03:35 Manu’s mantra: “I find myself in places I’ve not been before” 04:36 Becoming a well-rounded generalist 05:00 An MBA in finance leads to a career in consultancy 06:10 Opportunity to work in a startup and create a finance team ahead of a Series A fundraise 07:16 Advantages & disadvantages of an accountancy qualification and background 09:22 Leveraging skills learned as a consultant 11:06 What attitudes and skills do modern CFOs need? 11:45 Being a business partner and helping others make decisions 13:36 How to engage with others 16:04 Managing your energy 17:13 Managing situations with customers 20:40 Working with the SLT beyond just finance 22:21 Acting as a non-exec alongside being an operational CFO 25:27 Having an impact 25:51 Ben Stokes – lessons from the cricket field 28:45 What are you passionate about? 31:31 The Godfather and the CFO

What Can You Learn from Julian O’Neill’s Journey from IT Director to CFO? Julian O’Neill’s unconventional route to CFO — via IT leadership and a brief stint as CEO — offers a powerful reminder that finance careers aren’t always linear. In this episode of The GrowCFO Show, Julian shares the pivotal decisions, career shifts, and lessons that shaped his path to CFO at Ardent Hire Solutions. His story shows how commercial experience outside of finance can set you apart and prepare you for executive leadership. It’s a very small world. As guest Julian O’Neill and host, Kevin Appleby discovered in the first few minutes of the episode. 20 years ago they both worked for PwC Consulting and were on the same client project in the Ministry of Defence. Before that, they were both accountants in manufacturing businesses. But since that brief spell working together their careers have been very different. Julian has operated at the board level for a number of big-name brands before taking up the role of CFO at a high growth start-up. Julian qualified as an accountant in industry. He then briefly worked as a management consultant. Next, his journey took him to IT Director and a number of CFO roles in divisions of large corporations. Julian joined Arcadia Group and ended up doing a commercial role. He stepped away from big brands and joined a startup as CFO, taking over as CEO when the original founder was forced to step down. After the sale of that business, he took on his current CFO role, preferring that to another challenge as CEO. Julian O’Neill reflects on his experience, sharing lessons he learned at each stage of his career. He adds that his time outside finance, in commercial roles has been invaluable. Listen to the full episode and hear Julian’s full, and extremely fascinating, story. Links Julian O’Neill on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Find out more about becoming a CFO The CFO as co-pilot to the CEO Timestamps 01:48 Accountancy and finance open a lot of doors 03:40 Early career in telecoms; qualifying as an accountant in Cable & Wireless 06:18 Spicing things up at General Motors 11:30 Doing an MBA at Warwick Business School 12:10 First role outside finance at Siemens 13:25 Joining PwC Consulting 15:42 The decision to leave the big 4 17:00 Pizza Hut 17:30 First director role 18:20 The challenge of being an IT director 26:25 Arcadia, as a divisional CFO 30:50 CFO of an airline 32:20 Moving from a big brand to CFO at a £2m turnover high growth business 34:50 Taking over from the CEO 37:30 Finding a new job while selling the business 38:28 Back to a CFO role in a small business 39:00 Small startup vs big corporate 40:54 The importance of getting experience in commercial roles outside the finance function

Conflict is a natural and unavoidable part of life. It can arise in our personal lives, with friends and family, or in our professional lives, with co-workers. No matter where it happens, it’s important to learn how to manage conflict effectively. If not handled properly, conflict can lead to hurt feelings, damaged relationships, and even lawsuits. In this podcast, Susana Serrano-Davey and Kevin Appleby discuss some tips for managing conflict in both your personal and professional life. One of the most important things to remember when managing conflict is to stay calm. This can be difficult, especially if you feel like you’re being attacked or accused of something. It’s important to remember that getting defensive will only make the situation worse. Take a deep breath and try to see the situation from the other person’s perspective. Only then can you start to find a resolution. Beyond this though, Susana has four great lessons for us, and she goes through each of these in turn. Listen to the podcast to find out more. Susana Serrano-Davey is an experienced CFO and a member of the GrowCFO professional mentoring team. If you are interested in having Susana as a mentor then please get in touch using the link below. Links Mentoring at GrowCFO with Susana Serrano-Davey Susana Serrano-Davey on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 00:57 What is conflict? 03:15 The danger of unresolved conflict 05:34 Step 1: Take precautions, don’t respond in the heat of the moment 06:50 Write the reply email but delete it before sending 09:02 Don’t feel pressured into an immediate reply 12:16 Step 2: Some basic assumptions – nobody comes to work to intentionally create conflict 14:22 Don’t jump to conclusions 14:37 Step 3: Take some time to think 18:09 It’s rarely a case of one person is right and the other is wrong 18:30 Step 4: Listen to the other person 22:30 Choose a relaxing, neutral environment for a conversation 28:30 What do you do about a historic conflict that still gets in the way? 31:00 Make the other person feel it’s their solution, not yours

As a finance professional, you are often required to provide financial information to people who are not finance professionals. This can be a challenge. It is important to communicate the information in a way that is easy for non-finance leaders to understand. In this podcast, Asif Ahmed, author of The Finance Playbook for Entrepreneurs joins host Kevin Appleby. We discuss the issues involved in providing financial information to the entrepreneur and the rest of the business leadership team One of the challenges of providing financial information to non-finance leaders is that they may not have the same level of understanding of finance concepts as you do. This can make it difficult to communicate the information in a way that is easy for them to understand. One way to overcome this challenge is to use simple, clear language when explaining finance concepts. Another challenge is making sure the rest of the team understands what financial information is important and what isn’t. Asif and Kevin spend time talking about cash vs profit, and the need to understand some financial numbers that aren’t immediately obvious from the profit and loss account. This includes customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, and that often 20% of customers generate 80% of the profit. Asif Ahmed is the founder and managing director of Acclivity Advisors and co-founder of The Finance Department. He is also group CFO at Labrys Group and an advisory board member at HM Revenue & Customs. Links The Finance Playbook for Entrepeneurs on Amazon UK and Amazon USA The GrowCFO Competency Framework Asif Ahmed on Linkedin Kevin Appleby on Linkedin Timestamps 00:43 What does The Finance Department do? 03:27 Communicating financial information to early-stage entrepreneurs 06:23 What information does an early-stage entrepreneur need? 08:47 Information needed for raising funds 10:08 Covid-19: Bootcamp for learning the financial basics 12:15 You can’t manage the business using historic data 13:47 Financial vs non-financial data 16:56 Understanding lead generation and the cost of customer acquisition 21:13 Customer lifetime value 24:00 What else do entrepreneurs need to understand? 27:53 Cost of retaining an existing customer vs cost of acquiring a new customer 29:21 Understanding product costs and the tendency to over cost the simple and under cost the complex. 31:40 What’s the right time for a startup business to employ its first CFO? 37:05 The importance of instilling the right financial culture and practices 41:06 If 20% of your customers produce 80% of the profit, do you know which customers make up this 20%?

Chris Fry has the best CFO job in the world. He’s group CFO at SISTER. SISTER is the organisation behind recent TV blockbusters “The Split”; “This Is Going To Hurt”; and “Chernobyl”. So why is the CFO of a TV production company the best job in the world? First of all, it’s a very demanding position that comes with a lot of responsibility. But if you’re up for the challenge, it can be extremely rewarding. You’ll have a hand in the creative process and you’ll be able to help shape the future of the company. Chris has certainly been up for that challenge. He’s an accomplished CFO but he also recognises that there’s always something new to learn. Chris was one of the founder members of the CFO Programme within GrowCFO, having previously been involved in something similar during his time working in Australia. He talks about the programme in the podcast and why it has been so useful for him. He tells us why he has found the support from Catherine Clark, the programme leader, and from his fellow CFO participants, invaluable.  Links Find out more about SISTER The CFO Programme at GrowCFO CFO Mentoring Chris Fry on Linkedin Kevin Appleby on Linkedin Timestamps 00:42 Who is SISTER? 02:18 What exactly is your role as Group CFO of SISTER? 03:22 What are your biggest challenges? 05:50 What was your career path before SISTER? 08:50 How did you get the experience to break through to the CFO level? 10:10 Using your influence 11:12 Why did you join the CFO programme at GrowCFO? 13:39 The role of mentors in the CFO programme 15:22 Why do you want to extend the CFO programme beyond the initial 6 months? 16:41 Where does Chris Fry aspire to be in 10 years’ time? 19:07 The importance of enjoying what you do 20:16 Advice to a new CFO coming to grips with the first CFO role 21:34 Would you advise a CFO to have a mentor?

Who is your boss? Do you have more than one boss? Perhaps you are number 2 to the CFO and you report indirectly to other people too. Maybe you are the CFO and you need to be mindful of the needs of both CEO and investors in the business. Getting the relationship right with all those people is important. Finding the right balance between your needs from the relationship and their needs is key. It’s no secret that the relationship between you and your bosses, whoever they might be, can be a tricky one. It’s often difficult to find the right balance between being respectful and assertive, humble and ambitious, compliant and determined. When you report to more than one person you get the added complication of competing needs and being pulled in several different directions at the same time. In this podcast, Susana Serrano-Davey and Kevin Appleby explore some of the challenges that come with trying to maintain a healthy relationship with your boss. We’ll offer some tips on how to handle common situations, as well as how to stay sane while working under someone else’s control! Susana breaks the problem down into 4 areas: Mutual responsibilities Separate the job from the person Finding your Voice Professional to professional relationships We explore each of these in turn and provide some practical examples to illustrate the key points. Links The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by  Don Miguel Ruizon on Amazon UK and Amazon USA GrowCFO Show episode 74 discussing personality types as birds with Merrick Rosenberg GrowCFO for Finance Teams The communications module within GrowCFO for Finance Teams Susana Serrano-Davey on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 01:04 Everyone has a boss unless you are the CEO 03:18 Building or balancing relationships 04:48 Susana’s personal experiences 06:08 Introducing the 4 areas for balancing relationships 06:49 Mutual responsibilities 13:37 Separating the job from the person 15:10 The four agreements book 21:55 DISC and the 4 personality types 25:02 GrowCFO for Finance Teams – communications course 25:42 Finding your voice 30:37 Tackling conflict 35:44 Professional to professional relationships

As a finance leader, you are constantly juggling responsibilities between financial and non-financial analysis. On one hand, you need to make sure the company is meeting its financial goals and obligations. On the other hand, you may be called upon to provide insights into non-financial areas such as operations, marketing, or human resources. This can be a daunting task, but with the right tools and strategies in place, you can successfully balance both worlds. Paul Barnhurst, The FP&A guy specialises in planning and reporting. In this episode of the GrowCFO Show Paul provides Kevin Appleby with a great overview of business planning and analytics; how to integrate financial and non-financial data; and the tools that are available to help you. Links GrowCFO for Finance Teams Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Timestamps 00:52 Day one of a brand new business 02:10 What exactly is FP&A? 03:26 Which areas will Paul be working in? 04:31 Excel: are spreadsheets the best way of doing things? 05:14 What are the planning tools available? 09:51 Selecting the tool that’s right for you 12:59 Should non-financial measurement sit in finance? 15:52 The importance of a single version of the truth 20:16 What does day 100 look like for the FP&A guy? 21:13 What are the biggest things on the horizon for FP&A in general 22:47 The problem of too much data

As a finance leader or CFO, you have a lot of responsibilities on your plate. From ensuring that the company is making money to managing the budget, there are a lot of tasks you must complete on a daily basis. On top of this you will be involved in change projects. Then there is your role as a trusted advisor to the rest of the management team. You need to manage your workload. You need to make sure that the important tasks are given sufficient emphasis while making sure the urgent and routine things don’t swallow up your whole agenda. Managing your workload doesn’t have to be difficult. With a little bit of planning and organization, you can stay on top of everything. Helene Brichet Herbinet, part of the GrowCFO mentoring team joins Kevin Appleby on this episode of the GrowCFO show. Together they give some great tips for both increasing your personal efficiency and maximising your personal effectiveness. By following these tips, you can make the workload more manageable and get back on track. If you’re finding that your workload is unmanageable, it may be time to seek out professional help. There are many CFOs who specialize in helping others manage their workloads effectively. By hiring someone to help manage your workload, you can free up your time to focus on more important tasks. If you’re not sure where to start, there are plenty of resources available online. With a little bit of research, you can find the help you need to get your workload under control. Within GrowCFO we have a team of professional mentors ready to help. Premium and corporate members have an entire course on personal effectiveness they can access in the GrowCFO training library. Links Find a GrowCFO mentor GrowCFO for Finance Teams Helene Brichet Herbinet on LinkedIn Subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Timestamps 00:40 Personal effectiveness or personal efficiency? 01:51 How do you manage your workload? 02:43 Being intentional about how you allocate your time 05:46 Keeping your to do list under control 07:20 Separating work life and personal life 11:59 When other people take over your agenda 14:20 Setting expectations 16:51 Reviewing the quality of your own work 20:27 The art of challenging plans budgets and forecasts 23:53 What should you do yourself and what should you delegate 25:53 Developing your finance team 27:19 The RACI model 30:28 Multitasking 33:29 Social networks and the danger of always being switched on 36:08 Managing deadlines What tips do you have for managing your workload? Why not share the things that work for you in the forum?

It’s no secret that communication is hard. We’ve all been in a situation where we just can’t seem to get our point across. And it’s even harder when the person on the other end of the conversation has a different personality type than us. When you’re trying to communicate with someone who has a different personality type than you, it can be easy to get wrapped up in your own perspective. It’s important to remember that everyone experiences the world differently, and what makes sense to you might not make sense to them. You must try to see things from their point of view and adjust your communication accordingly. But adapting your style isn’t easy. In this podcast, we take a look at the common problems with communicating with different personality types. DISC is a personality assessment tool that can help you understand yourself and others better, and Merrick Rosenberg, CEO of Take Flight Learning, has adapted the DISC model into 4 birds: eagles, parrots, doves, and owls. The behaviour of each bird is easy to grasp and remember. Merrick has found the majority of finance people are owls. The owl needs to adapt to work with the other three birds. He shares some great strategies that will really help you understand how to do this, so make sure to check this episode out! Links GrowCFO for Finance Teams The communications module within GrowCFO for Finance Teams “What got you here wont get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith on Amazon UK and Amazon US Merrick Rosenberg on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 00:46 Why use birds instead of the DISC letters? 01:20 The eagle 02:05 The parrot 02:20 The dove 02:35 The owl 02:45 Which style are you? 04:15 Finance are predominantly owls 05:23 Finance working with sales; owls and parrots 06:47 How does an owl get the parrots and eagles to provide the detail that’s needed? 08:50 Owls dealing with doves 10:15 The history of DISC 11:25 75% of your organisation has a different style to you, you need to communicate in all 4 styles 13:12 How each style manages change 15:20 Owls need detail so can be perceived as barriers to change until they have the information 15:40 Owls can actually be incredible champions of change 16:50 How do you communicate change? 20:09 Adapting your style as your career progresses 21:17 “What got you here wont get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith 22:43 How easy is it to develop the other 3 styles? 24:15 Bill Gates the owl 26:17 Working with organisations 30:19 Alternatives to DISC 35:31 Relationship building 38:09 What about children? When do the 4 birds start to emerge? 40:23 The danger of imposing your own style on someone else

As the finance lead, you probably present the business profit and loss account at many of the business meetings you attend. You place huge value on the financial results of the business each month or each quarter. But is that correct? Does the P&L account tell you what you need to know? Does it paint an accurate picture of business performance? Sometimes it does, but quite often it doesn’t accurately reflect the economics within the business. The P&L account tells you what you spent money on, your cost centre structure likely tells you who spent it, but neither tell you why you spent it. Is an adverse variance really bad? Is a positive variance good? The answer is not always. Unless you know the why, and also understand the economic engine of the business you don’t know. You probably grappled with the two fundamental accounting concepts of prudence and accruals when you passed your accountancy exams. Accruals are all about matching costs with revenues, while prudence is about taking account of liabilities as soon as they arise. But we are in strange times where we seem to like capitalising our empty office blocks and hardly used company cars while we write off our investment in digital sales-generating assets as soon as we spend the money. In the podcast, Kevin Appleby and Susana Serrano-Davey discuss these and other issues and conclude you need many more metrics than those in the P&L account and a much deeper understanding of your business through an economic rather than an accounting model. We didn’t mention it in the show, but Doug Hicks has written an excellent book about what’s wrong with the P&L account and why you need an economic model of the business. It makes excellent further reading on this topic. Links Mentoring at GrowCFO with Susana Serrano-Davey I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It: How Accounting Information Undermines Profitability by Doug Hicks on Amazon UK or Amazon USA Evergreen Assets by John Lamerton on Amazon UK or Amazon USA 24 assets by Daniel Priestley on Amazon UK or Amazon USA Listen to Next 100 Days Podcast with John Lamerton talking about Evergreen Assets Susana Serrano-Davey on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 00:59 The P&L account is a key tool 01:53 A history lesson; one set of accounts for investors and for the taxman 03:53 Modern systems and the ability to cut the data in different ways 04:28 Accounting standards and the 4 core accounting concepts 06:23 Are your fixed assets really the assets that drive business performance or are they just hidden future costs? 07:40 Evergreen digital assets 10:46 Depreciation 11:38 The pressure to report a better picture in the P&L 15:51 Unrealistic budgets 20:39 No surprises; don’t hide the truth 23:30 The P&L account doesn’t tell you why you spent the money 26:21 An economic rather than an accounting model of your business 29:41 Assigning costs to activities gives you a better understanding of customer and product costs 31:07 The tendency to over cost the simple and under cost the complex 31:39 An activity-based costing example

Are you ready to be a CFO? To step into your first CFO role. How do you know if you are ready to make the transition to that number one role in finance? That’s the question Kevin Appleby posed to Dan Wells on this episode of the GrowCFO Show. Kevin asked Dan if there is any such thing as a CFO readiness indicator or CFO readiness index. Dan doesn’t believe there is one single measure of CFO readiness. He goes on to explain the various skills and levels of experience you need to be a successful CFO. These vary according to the type of CFO you want to become and the nature of the organisation you plan to work for. Are you ready to be a CFO? Some questions to ask yourself If you feel you are ready to be a CFO then as a minimum you should be saying yes to the following five questions: Do you have a strategic mind? As a CFO, you will need to think beyond the numbers and see the big picture. You need to be able to develop strategies that will help your company achieve its goals. Are you are a good communicator? As CFO, you will need to communicate with different stakeholders within your company. You need to be able to explain financial concepts in a way that non-financial people can understand. Are you comfortable with change? Change is inevitable in business. As CFO, you need to be comfortable with change and be able to adapt quickly to new situations. Are you a good problem solver? As CFO, you will be faced with many challenges. You need to be able to identify problems and find solutions quickly. You have leadership potential? As CFO, you will need to lead your team and inspire them to achieve great things. You need to be able to motivate and mentor your team members. But feeling ready is just a start. Listen to the show and hear Dan explain the other dimensions of CFO readiness, why one size doesn’t fit all, and why there is no easy way to measure CFO readiness or have a CFO readiness index. Links Landing Your First CFO Role: CFO Readiness Guide Join a taster session for the Future CFO Programme Take the CFO competency framework assessment Find out more about the GrowCFO mentoring team and how they can support you in your CFO role Dan Wells on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamp 00:41 How do you know you are ready to be a CFO? 03:06 The skills every CFO needs 04:00 The three types of CFO 04:10 The financier CFO 05:37 The strategist CFO 06:52 The operator CFO 08:02 The GrowCFO competency framework 09:13 Which competencies are most relevant to you as an individual; Module 3 of the Future CFO Programme 11:29 Which type of CFO do you want to be? 13:30 3 Different scenarios for your first CFO role 17:56 The relationship with the CEO, and the cultural fit 19:54 A proper action plan, not a CFO readiness index 22:18 The things we cover in the future CFO programme 25:30 What are your next steps?

Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? Chances are, you don’t. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. We devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. So, Do you play to your strengths? Do you even know what your strengths are? Or how to best use them? The good news is that Strengthsfinder 2.0 from Gallup can give you a real insight and help you leverage the talents you have. Jim Brophy has worked as a CFO and is both a mentor and a Strengthsfinder 2.0 (or CliftonStrengths) accredited coach. He joins us on the GrowCFO Show to explain how he uses Strengthsfinder as an integral part of his mentoring. On the podcast Jim tells us about his career as a CFO, how he discovered Strengthsfinder and gives us an overview of what it is and how you can use it to best advantage in your day to day. Links Buy Strengthsfinder 2.0 on Amazon UK or Amazon USA Find out more about mentoring at GrowCFO Find out more about CliftonStrengths at Gallup Jim Brophy on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamp 00:46 Jim Brophy’s career as a CFO 03:49 FD & CFO roles in Asia 05:26 Becoming a portfolio CFO 07:24 Becoming accredited by Gallup 09:31 Mentoring 11:30 The stresses of a new CFO role in a new organisation 15:25 Where does Strengthsfinder fit in? 16:55 Linking values and strengths 20:02 What exactly is Strengthsfinder 22:22 Myers Briggs and DISC 24:47 How do you take the test? 25:49 The 34 talents 28:00 Our top 5 talents 32:24 Your top 10 talents, and the extended assessment 34:27 Developing talents instead of fixing weaknesses 35:31 The “Analytical” talent in more depth 40:59 Matching your talents to the immediate situation 41:30 Talents vs skills and experience 46:11 Maximising talents across teams

When did you last get your whole finance team together in person outside the office for a team event? Probably a long while ago. Your team has been working remotely for extended periods in the last two years. They may have started coming back to the office, but are rarely all together on the same day. Training and team development are some of the things that have suffered. You have struggled to invest the right amount of time and energy into your people’s future. 2022 is the year you have to do something about it. How about a special event for your finance team? Maybe now is time for a team away day? But where do you start? What do you cover? What exactly is the purpose? Moreover, how do you make it enjoyable, memorable and get a great outcome? On this week’s podcast, Kevin Appleby poses that question to a professional trainer and facilitator, Paul Maltby. Paul is the professional development leader for IBM Global Business Services in Europe and is responsible for running development programmes for many of the most senior people in IBM. He is also branching out with his own independent business that specialises in designing and delivering personal and team development activities. Paul has taken his many years of experience in facilitating events and put them into a book, “The Fearless Facilitator: A proven plan for leading successful meetings, dynamic workshops, and effective training events”. He gives you some great advice about what to think about as you plan your finance team event. Paul talks about what to do and what not to do when you want to create a memorable experience. We also talk about handling a number of tricky situations. Links Find out more about GrowCFO finance team development Enquire about GrowCFO supporting your next finance team event Find Paul Maltby on Linkedin Kevin Appleby on Linkedin Get the book “The Fearless Facilitator” on amazon in UK and in USA Timestamp 00:39 What does Paul Maltby do? 01:40 The Fearless Facilitator 03:32 The three sections of “The Fearless Facilitator” book 06:54 Facilitating in challenging situations 10:38 The deficit in finance team development 12:04 The importance of purpose 14:36 The “So What?” question 15:50 How do you create energy? 19:50 The answer is always 42 23:15 Forget the PowerPoint slides 24:42 Handling difficult questions 27:27 The finance leader developing facilitation skills 31:01 How much time does it take to plan a great event? 34:38 How GrowCFO and Paul Maltby can help you deliver your next event

Things are changing fast in finance. You are more than likely struggling to keep pace with the latest technology. You might be in a fast growing business and your team is struggling to keep pace. There’s pressure to get better management information sooner. These are all challenges for the finance team leader. In GrowCFO, the Future of Finance Functions regular events are designed to help you with all these challenges. Future of Finance Functions is a live Zoom webinar that takes place to discuss all things concerning the modern finance function. These range from systems to processes to people issues. Automation, integration, faster close, and the latest cloud accounting are all subjects we cover. Chris Tredwell is the regular host of the events and he joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO show to tell us what to expect in the 2022 series. Meetings taking place on the second Tuesday of each month and the 10 topics we will cover in 2022 are: Is now the right time to change? (8/3/2022) Why Strong Foundations are key to your departments’ success (5/4/2022) What is True Cloud Accounting? (10/5/2022) Ensure you are able to scale alongside your growth ambitions (14/6/2022) Automation in Finance (12/7/2022) The value of Integration (9/8/2022) What should I expect from Reporting (13/9/2022) Improve your Month-end close (11/10/2022) Get it right – Do’s and Don’ts / Procurement Checklist (8/11/2022) How to review the software market (13/12/2022) The series of events looking at change management will continue on the last Tuesday of each month. Links You can book a place on these sessions by RSVP at www.growcfo.net/events/ Find out more about Chris Tredwell Find out more about Kevin Appleby Timestamps 00:56 The reason we started Future of Finance Functions 04:13 The topics we’ve covered in the last 2 years 09:35 The 10 themes for 2022 12:08 Is it the right time to make the change? 12:30 Cloud accounting 13:00 Scaling the team in line with business growth 14:34 The difference between automation and integration 17:02 Reporting and KPIs 17:42 The do’s and dont’s: learning from others experience 20:01 Selecting and procuring software 21:35 How to book your place at any of the future of finance functions events 22:00 The change management series of future of finance functions events 26:25 Accessing recordings of past events 28:19 What else does GrowCFO do?

Do you struggle to write compelling reports that get the right response from the rest of your business team? Business Writing doesn’t come naturally to many finance leaders. You are probably much more comfortable with an excel spreadsheet than drafting a report that needs to be persuasive and encourages others to back your arguments or take the right actions. When you produce a finance report you aren’t just articulating the numbers, you need to tell a story. You need to make the numbers come alive and turn them into something meaningful that your audience will understand. It’s often not an easy task. Martin Booth is an experienced copywriter and is the ideal person to help you improve your business writing. Martin is featured in the communications course within GrowCFO’s new finance team training package. The course examines all forms of communication including sections on both powerful presentations and writing persuasive reports. Martin spent more than 20 years on the sports desks of various national newspaper titles including The Times, the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Express. More recently, he worked in the betting industry. Martin’s focus now is on creating, refining and delivering written content of the highest quality for business owners and leaders. In the podcast, Martin tells you about the things you should avoid when you draft your next finance report. He goes on to explain to you how to create better business reports that are properly targeted to the audience that will read them. He explains that even in finance it’s all about telling engaging stories to real people. Links Enquire about finance team training and development for your team Find out more about LeBoo Media Martin Booth on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamp 00:43 Martin’s background in sports journalism 02:18 The biggest challenge in moving from sports journalism to business copywriting 03:01 What do finance folk tend to get wrong when they write reports? 07:12 The importance of creating a persona or an avatar from your intended audience 09:38 Getting behind the numbers and saying what they really mean 10:39 Storytelling brings things to life 14:01 The importance of a good headline and first paragraph 16:23 The power of the executive summary 18:27 People don’t read reports start to finish they dip in and out 19:44 Have a call to action, tell people what to do next 20:20 The importance of a good structure 22:18 Audience research 27:11 Remember that while the report is about the business you are talking to people think about “what’s in it for me?” 30:15 Paul Gascoigne…..If you want to know what Gazza has to do with writing better finance reports you have to listen to the audio!

You have just landed your dream job. Now your challenge is how to make an impact in that new finance role. You need to hit the ground running. What you do in your first hundred days in your new role is critical. If you get the first 100 days right then you will get the first year right. Get the first year right and you will set yourself up well to excel in years two and three. The first 100 days are vitally important. There are multiple challenges you will need to address. You have a new team, you need to get to know them as individuals, assess their abilities, and understand their strengths and weaknesses. You also have new business colleagues, you need to get to know them, understand their issues and begin to build a successful working relationship. On top of all this, you will need to find out how the business actually works, and understand its processes and systems. Particularly those you own or are directly responsible for. Where are the issues? what do you need to fix? You will need a clear plan for those first 100 days, and you will need to execute the plan effectively. In this episode, Kevin Appleby and Dan Wells go deeper into all of these issues and discuss how to approach the first 100 days in your new finance role; how to plan for those 100 days; what you can do even before your first day; and some of the things you can do to help execute your plan effectively. Links Enrol in our free course: “New Role: Your First 100 Days” covers all the things that Kevin and Dan discuss and goes into much more detail. If you are about to move into a new role then this course is ideal for you Enquire about finance team training and development for your new team Find out more about the GrowCFO mentoring team and how they can support you in your new role Listen to the podcast: “Build a Heatmap for Change” with Susana Serrano-Davey, which focusses on a key activity in your first 100 days Dan Wells on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamp 01:16 People move roles on average every 3 years 01:57 Franklin D. Roosevelt and the origin of the first 100 days 04:15 The different challenges of an external appointment and an internal promotion 05:46 Think carefully about your No.2 08:00 Why were you appointed to the role? What are you expected to fix? 09:49 Getting up to speed with business as usual 10:34 The first 10 days in your new finance role. The settling in period 11:33 How to plan the next 90 days 14:40 The first 30 days: Fix 17:03 The middle 30 days: Blueprint 18:00 The final 30 days: Transform 19:05 Involve your team. Build a heatmap for change 22:00 The importance of mentoring

Many finance leaders have approached GrowCFO asking for help with training their finance teams: what sort of training and development does my team need? What should it cover? And how should it be delivered? In this episode, Dan Wells and Kevin Appleby discuss the requirements and options for effective finance team training and development. We draw valuable insights from our 2021 survey of over 200 finance leaders. There is a clear need for a broad range of skills training, ranging from financial topics such as cost control to soft skills such as communications. Self-paced online finance team training is popular, but many leaders still favour in-person training and where possible, have this bespoke to their organisation’s requirements. We talk you through GrowCFO’s team training online courses, mentoring and coaching, workshops, and team-building events and their benefits. Our team training resources are designed to cover the topics that will have the most impact on your team and organisation, free up your own time by delegating more, and improve your ability to retain your best staff. Links Enquire about finance team training and development for your team Dan Wells on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 00:59 Finance leader training survey results 02:16 The training deficit caused by the pandemic 03:43 The four most sought-out areas of development 05:15 Bespoke workshops available to you 07:13 Online training (courses, mentoring and coaching, workshops, and team-building) 08:09 The 10 most popular topics for training 10:53 The typical time needed to complete an online course 13:16 Cost-effectiveness of online training 15:11 Saving your time by enabling you to delegate additional tasks 16:01 Why investment in training and development helps you retain your best staff 18:11 Taxation and local regulations 20:35 How to find out more

In this episode, Kevin Appleby interviews Felix Velarde, author of best selling business book Scale at Speed: How to Triple the Size of Your Business and Build a Superstar Team. Felix is also the founder of 2y3x.com, a growth acceleration program. Felix has distilled some of the best strategies he’s learnt over twenty-five years of leading businesses of varying sizes into an easy-to-read framework. He expertly lays out the journey a business needs to undertake to scale. He breaks it down into digestible steps, allowing you to achieve your goals through well-structured frameworks and engaging stories along the way. It’s a great guide to achieving 3x growth in 2 years (2Y3X). We use this framework to examine the role of the CFO. The CFO’s role within the team charged with setting strategy and delivering growth is vital. The CFO is key to the entire process. We also consider businesses that are in trouble and need to transform quickly in order to survive. Felix strongly believes that the same framework that allows you to scale at speed works just as well in a short-term crisis. He backs this up with evidence from his own clients who lost significant revenue at the start of the pandemic. Links Felix Velarde on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Buy scale at speed on Amazon UK or on amazon.com Listen to Felix on The Next 100 Days Podcast Timestamps 00:53 Felix’s background as a serial founder 03:02 2Y3X: triple your revenue in two years 08:29 Scale at Speed: The role of the CFO 14:24 The CFO is in a unique position on the Growth Lab team 17:08 The Growth Lab team and its purpose 18:43 Scale at Speed, the book 19:30 Jim Collins and the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) 20:27 Edwin Locke and Goal Setting Theory 23:17 The Scale at Speed framework in a crisis 31:14 Team’s holding each other to account 37:34 Motivating the growth team: Do you need incentives such as EMI? 40:01 The importance of shared values for your team 46:37 The financial goal, the quality goal, and the people goal 47:40 Summarising the role of the CFO in the growth process

Mike Henebery has been involved in private equity transactions for most of his career. He’s recently co-founded Titan Partners. Titan has just completed its first 8 figure fundraising deal helping fast-growing technology business Wise secure minority funding from Inflexion. Mike’s Career in Fundraising and Private Equity Mike is a qualified accountant, starting his career in Arthur Andersen. He quickly moved away from audit and into the world of deals and fundraising transactions. His 30-year career in deals started in Montagu Private Equity and then Gresham LLC. He moved on to found several businesses of which Titan is the latest. You can find out more about Mike in his Linkedin profile. What does Titan Partners do? In 2019 Mike launched a new consultancy: Titan Partners. The mission was about accelerating success for SME owners. Titan Partners offers DISRUPTIVE start-ups and scale-ups access to a diverse range of EQUITY and CREDIT CAPITAL solutions ranging from high net worth to institutional investors leveraging our own startup/scale-up fundraising. Titan Partners facilitates fast growth, disruptive and profitable SMEs with unfulfilled Big Hairy Audacious Goals and executes a clear exit strategy.  The steps: assess value objectively; access to capital on the best terms;  boost innovation (along with sales and profit); close out the transaction. Mike explains to us how leveraging Dr Dave Richards experience is key to step 3. These steps help owners fulfil their ambitions faster while still maximising value The GrowCFO Fundraising Simulator While Mike has a wealth of experience in fundraising, this isn’t something that is common for accountants and CFOs. Over two-thirds of aspiring and first-time finance leaders have little or no fundraising experience. This can easily derail your career progression and leave you feeling unprepared when leading your first ever fundraise. If that’s you then GrowCFO can help. GrowCFO’s Fundraising Virtual Simulator provides you with essential first-hand CFO experience of leading and delivering an entire fundraising process from initial brainstorming through to deal completion. Our simulator is based on a real-life $12 million fundraise comprising equity and convertible debt for a high growth company with a pre-money valuation of $60 million. We have designed our simulator to help prepare you to confidently lead a range of fundraising deals so that you can thrive throughout the process. You will feel empowered to obtain the best available deal for your company. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

On this episode of the GrowCFO Show Susana Serrano-Davey and Kevin Appleby discuss how to Build Consensus so that your proposal is accepted without challenge. Have you ever wondered why some people can turn up to a meeting, present their proposals, and have them accepted without question? Yet at the same time, you bring your proposal forward and you get a hard time and no decision. Why? What are you doing wrong? The answer is you probably aren’t doing enough outside the meeting room to build consensus. If you put in the hard work before the meeting, it’s likely you will have a far easier ride in the meeting itself. There are three steps to build consensus Susana defines three steps to building consensus: Identify who you need to persuade. Who are the key stakeholders? These might not just be the meeting attendees. Some board members may take advice in some instances from their no.2 or other members of their own function. If that’s the case, you need the advisor on your side and saying the right things when they advise their boss. Engage with each of your stakeholders in an appropriate way. Find out what their issues are and talk about them before the meeting. It might require a formal meeting. It might just be a chat at the coffee machine. Adapt your proposal to take account of their feedback. The consultation process is bound to give you some new information that will make the proposal better. Make sure you recognise this information and make the updates to your initial proposal. Listen to the whole episode to find out more. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Pinky Jangra teaches resilience to individuals and teams. She joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show to explain how to create a resilient finance team. About Pinky Jangra Pinky has delved into many branches of human development and behaviour, enabling her to build a rich understanding of the human experience – mind, emotions, body, behaviour and soul. Pinky has been teaching her own courses since 2015. She delivers her proprietary Resilience Training to a variety of audiences online, in person, in business and personal environments. She combines her human development knowledge with 10+ years of corporate and consulting experience to help organisations with other people related areas including wellbeing, culture, change management and leadership development. Following this path enables Pinky to do what she loves – “leading people towards their greatness, growth and transformation. I love seeing people blossom. I love seeing them step into their own power and unlock their inner genius. We are not here to play small, to be bystanders, to be at the whim of our circumstances, beliefs and other people’s expectations. We are powerful creators, each bearing gifts and talents, we are able to overcome even the toughest challenges. We’re here to make our lives, our teams, our companies and our world better together.” How to create a resilient finance team Pinky says it depends on what your focus is for the training. If you’re doing resilience training for individuals, or for the team as a whole. Whichever it is, the first thing she starts with in all her training is self awareness skills. The first thing you have to understand is what’s going on in any person’s mind, emotions, body behaviour, any given time. So that’s really what you do to set the foundation. And then if you are doing something for a team you can start looking at a vision of what you actually want to create, collectively, or you can do it for an individual. Visioning is only the start. Pinky teaches five or six different elements of resilience. Some people just say, oh, to build your resilience, you need to just work on your mindset, or you need to do some exercise. But you are a holistic being, everything about you is a system, everything is working together. Pinky does look at mental resilience, looking at your own mindset. But theres much more. She then considers emotional resilience, what do you do when you’re stressed? And how are you handling difficult emotions and anxiety? And so on? Are you processing them? Are you regulating them? Pinky has a whole toolkit to help you. Then there’s also behavioural resilience. So what are you doing? Are you one of those people who just says yes to everybody? And then you wonder why you’re so overwhelmed as a simple example. Using these techniques together, you end up creating a resilient finance team Listen in to the full recording as Pinky tells us much much more about each element of resilience. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Helene Brichet Herbinet is the newest member of GrowCFO’s mentoring team. She joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO show to talk about her background and what she believes makes a good mentor. Helene tells us about 5 types of mentor and the situations in which each type works best. About Helene Helene describes herself as “an inclusive and dependable leader and team player with cultural sensitivity, openness and integrity”. Her focus is on delivering value to organisations, their people, customers and stakeholders. She leads change with a clear vision and close stakeholders engagement. Helene is passionate about building and leading high-performing teams. She says “I invest in supporting individuals’ growth and development. Bringing commercial acumen, critical and strategic thinking in diagnosis, problem-solving and decision making”. Helene’s background is in financial services. Her experience includes Barclays, Visa, and Capital One. She describes her career as non-linear, meaning she has changed roles often, and not necessarily for promotion to broaden her experience. Helene tells us more about the benefits of a non-linear career path in the audio recording. Besides GrowCFO, Helene also mentors for the ICAEW. You can find out more in her LinkedIn profile The 5 Types of Mentor Helene believes everyone needs five types of mentors. The first type is the Jedi Master. They have the experience and the Wisdom. They can provide insight into the industry, the function, or the role you work in. The second type of mentor will champion your cause, they will have your back. They will be connecting you to people, influencing how people see you, and introducing you to the key people. The third type of mentor is the co-pilot, the peers, committed to your success as much as you commit to this in collaboration. The fourth one is your confident or your anchor. They don’t need to be in a professional environment, or at least they don’t need to be in your industry or functional role. They are a coaching type of mentor, a sounding board for you. This mentor knows that you’re going to hit speed bumps and that you’re going to go through challenges as you develop as a leader. They can give you a lift, a psychological lift, and help you see light at the end of the tunnel. And the fifth one is the reverse mentor. That’s someone you learn from. Because they bring a new perspective, because they, they have a skill that you don’t have. And generally, this is more intergenerational. You can learn more about each of the 5 types of mentor by listening to the show. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Tom Berry joins us on the GrowCFO Show to talk about communications. Tom is passionate about building businesses, creating brilliant places to work, teaching kids and making people happy. His background is in journalism and communications. These days he teaches business in a secondary school and has several non-executive directorships. We discuss communicating in a crisis. Communicating in a crisis isn’t easy Tom’s main advice is “Don’t Panic”. Communicating in a crisis needs to be calm and clear. Honesty is important, and it can be a mistake to hide bad news. The CFO needs to assess their skills. Just because the CFO has all the information doesn’t make the CFO the right person to communicate it. If communication isn’t your strength then get somebody else to deliver the message. Tom has much more to say than just this. Listen to the recording to get Tom’s full advice on communicating in a crisis. Tom Berry as a Non Executive Director Tom moved from being a financial journalist to running a communications agency. He went on from there to become a Non-Executive Director. Tom tells us how that journey came about and his passion for working with mental health charities. Why a CFO should also be a NED Tom advises CFOs to consider taking on a Non-Executive role too. It gives an insight into a different organisation, allows you to see first-hand how other companies work. A good NED listens and is constructively critical. The CFO can enhance their skills by learning to do this. The transfer of ideas across organisational boundaries can be invaluable. CFOs can bring ideas back to their own business. What makes a good CFO? Tom has worked with quite a few CFOs. He believes a good CFO is somebody who will look very closely at the underlying truth and tell the board the truth. A good CFO doesn’t talk to the board that often, but when the CFO needs to communicate he will do so and you know it will be important. There’s no point in repeatedly talking about the status quo. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

One of the first tasks you have as a new finance leader is creating a blueprint for your finance function, and the other parts of the business you have responsibility for. Susana Serrano-Davey tells us how she uses a heat map for change to determine what needs to be done and in what order. Susana outlines a five step process to create a heat map for change. You have just arrived in your new finance leader role. Chances are you have been hired to fix stuff. Besides the things you know you have to fix there will be other things to change. You may well have your own opinions on what the solutions are and what needs to be done. Susana councils us to proceed with caution and follow a process. Step 1: Dont start too quickly You need to be mindful of your new situation. You need to get to know the organisation. How does your leadership style work within the culture of your new employer? The first few weeks are all about discovery, building relationships and finding out how things work around here. Until you understand these it’s too early to implement change. Step 2: Beware of the pitfalls Change will fail if you haven’t taken the time to build relationships. Take time to meet with the key stakeholders, and to really understand the nature of the problem. Make sure you ask the right questions. Why are things not working? Why those particular things? There may be a variety of issues to explore. Why is it so difficult to report? Why are we getting the wrong numbers? Or, why are suppliers not being paid? Why aren’t we closing on time? Whatever the question there are reasons behind it you need to know about. Make sure you involve the people at the coal face in the solution. They will know more about the problems than you do. They will buy into the solution and the business change if they think they created it. Don’t be a know-it-all super CFO. Be humble. Even if you think you have seen it all before. Then you can build from that. Step 3: Draw a Heat Map for Change The heat map is simple. It’s a 2×2 matrix. Take your team off-site to populate the heat map. This way you get consensus about the problems, their importance and their ease to fix. First look at the problems and agree on your level of concern about each. Rank them red amber or green. Park the greens, and then map the reds and ambers on the matrix according to ease of fixing. Heat Map for Change Step 4: Build a plan The heat map will help you identify what needs to be done. It helps you prioritise what comes first. You need to turn this into a plan that identifies specific tasks, assigns responsibilities, and sets a timeline. Plan in detail for the first 90 days and an outline for the quarters that follow. Stop the bleeding first. This will create some quick wins with a big impact. Then think about the big projects. You may want to take in some low hanging fruit. This will give you some further successes to celebrate while the longer-term changes are being worked on. Step 5: Implement Implement the 90-day plan. At the end of 90 days take time to celebrate success. Review what went well, what could have been better and plan the next 90 days. Before you plan again you need to update the Heat Map for Change and make sure that any new or changed priorities are reflected in the plan Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Kevin Appleby is joined by, VP of professional services at Board International, Karlo Bustos to discuss the resurgent CFO and how the CFO can be the strategic adviser. What is the resurgent CFO about? The resurgent CFO is a white paper that looks at empowering finance leaders for change.  The research was undertaken to examine a hypothesis. To understand how finance leaders globally work through data and how they use this data to empower decision making.  How do they transform their organisation and become more of a leader, In short can better information make the CFO a superhero?  The research survey was compiled from 600 finance leaders with 20 questions around 5 key areas. These were around: strategy in the role of finance in a time of change; performance management and reporting; organisation and change management; people and talent and data. This is saying the CFO is moving away from the more operational side of the role and focus more on the strategic area. What is driving that?  In everyone’s journey map there is a maturity curve. In finance (and operations, IT, HR, marketing), at the start, there is a focus on standardising processes. You can then be an efficiency driver of identifying those standardised processes and knowing how many you need to do and which is viable for the business.  Then you look at how you are taking some of these efficiencies and gaining more insights into the information you’re gathering. Ultimately reaching being a leader and being adaptable and agile.  Over the last 18 months, there has been a lot of change in strategy and business model. Did the person with the numbers get more involved than normal? This would have been the ideal situation. The office of finance should have true seat at the table. This should not just be as a scorekeeper, but as an enabler of more insightful decisions. Organisations doing well were the ones who listened to that person. The ones who were pro-active willingly transformed which enabled the business to set a true strategy. Those individuals had a seat at the table but their voices were also heard, and better decisions were made due to the data they represented. Should the CFO look after non-financial data as well as financial? Finance leaders are looking to expand their capability. This is the capability to draw out insights, and use data as a driver. That ethos can expand into HR, operations… Some finance leaders are there just to draw a dashboard and not to provide any guidance. The finance leader who is willing to come out and be a catalyst is being successful in personal and organisational perspectives. This is a resurgent CFO. The change starts with you, be transformative. Be more of a decision-maker across your organisation. Is there anything stopping the CFO from being a strategic adviser? The acceleration of change will vary. Some will find it drastic because of its reactive nature. Some will have a more proactive nature and will make the right type of changes that are needed in the process and in the people. People, process and technology are the three pillars. You want to be looking at reducing inefficient processes with this transformation. You don’t have to do something big and drastic to transform. This could simply be a method of delivery our monthly reports. Use data to support and drive insights. Asking the right questions is important as you want to clearly know what you are trying to solve, this gives you a direction which is important. Technology is an important catalyst to that transformation and you have to be able to manipulate that data. In the survey, 89% of finance leaders know they need to make a specific choice on whether to automate that process or move on. If you stay on the sidelines for too long, someone else will stand up and be that resurgent CFO. You should be that leader. Use the data access tools to manage and improve over time. Almost 90% of finance leaders believe they need to automate their finance function but only a third feel like they need transformation to do so. This shows us that people are aware of the problem but don’t want to acknowledge it. Correlation between the tech side and the people side Finance leaders want and need more time to become part of the strategic side. Many from the survey shared that they still spend time fixing the basics. Do the introspective look and see where you can take the low-hanging fruit and be that winner no matter the size of the success. You want to find a way to automate the process and make reporting more forward-looking so the focus is more on goals. This gives you an opportunity to start doing multi-functional analysis. Have these conversations about growth and how this will be beneficial for the whole organisation. Should CFOs push for bigger finance function budget? It’s an important investment. 47% of people in the survey are confident their team can take on the demand of capturing valuable insights

Kevin Appleby is joined by GrowCFO’s Founder and CEO Dan Wells to discuss CFO training and how GrowCFO tries to cater for everyone’s needs in their training programmes. Why was there not a good place to go to to get all of your CFO training together?  This links to why GrowCFO was set up. A lot of finance leaders asked Dan where they could go for CFO training and he had a look to see if there was anything on google etc. It was really hard to find anywhere. There were random courses and videos but nothing that pulled it all together. No businesses were dedicated to training CFOs. There is no CFO qualification, but GrowCFO has built a syllabus so that this doesn’t have to be the case. Lots of training programmes for accountants at the start of their career can be found. These can be helpful but people have different needs and require a different skillset to become a finance leader. As a head of finance or financial controller, you are the inward face of finance. Whereas, when you become CFO you are the outward face of finance. This is a very different set of skills. You are trained for the inward-facing roles but never the outward-facing ones. Most people who are delivering a proper CFO role spend at least 60% of their time on delivering strategy and change. We expect this to accelerate because over time a lot of the operational tasks will become automated. In 2 or 3 decades time, it is expected, this will look more like 95% of people’s time. Being a good right-hand to the CEO and being a valued member of the board requires strategy, confidence and the right skills to influence people and act as a leader.  Why is GrowCFO’s CFO training so helpful?  Often you are facing problems for the first time once you are already in the role which is why the way GrowCFO is laid out is so helpful. You can search for the topics you need to help you through the challenge. This will then show you relevant events, workshops and podcasts that will help you with this topic.  Some people like the structure of a programme and going through it at a steady pace. Others prefer having quick access for when they need it and it gives them a safety net to know they have everything at their fingertips. CFO roles are often very different. Kevin describes the three types of CFOs he has identified; the operational CFO, the strategic CFO and the Wall Street CFO. People are increasingly coming to the CFO role from different backgrounds. Depending on what routes they come from, people will be very strong at certain aspects of the role, however, there will always be gaps. The GrowCFO Competency Framework allows you to scan across all of the skills you need to be a successful CFO and identify where your gaps are. The GrowCFO Competency Framework is something that GrowCFO has built in the past couple of years. It takes the perspective of people across the entire ecosystem. It consists of 9 competencies with 5 skills within each competency. People use our rating guidance pdf to determine whether they are at a beginner, intermediate or advanced level against each of the 45 skills. They are then provided with a benchmarking report to see where they rank for each skill against their peer group. There will then be links to multiple of the activities for each skill. You can take the competency assessment at https://www.growcfo.net/the-growcfo-competency-framework/ How would you define a peer group?  There are many different types of CFOs and people are also at different stages in their careers. We split the peer groups in two ways. It is easy to benchmark depending on what stage they are at in their career. This could be aspiring CFOs who are 3-5 years out from landing their first role. It could also be first-time CFOs who have been in the role for less than 3-5 years. Or, more experienced CFOs who may develop gaps as the role evolves. We look at the ownership structures of businesses, the sizes of the companies and the industry boots. This benchmark can very clearly show you where you are above and below the average of someone at your level at each of the skills. It also very clearly shows where your biggest gaps are. People could alternatively look to strengthen their strongest areas further. The skills you focus most on will depend on the direction you want to take your career. Focus on being very good at the things that are relevant to your role and not trying to be good at everything as it is unrealistic. Some people are happy to work within the platform, which they can do within their GrowCFO premium subscription. Others may want to go a step further and get involved in a programme that is very structured and easy to work through. People could also benefit more from one-to-one professional mentoring. Everyone is in control of their CFO training. The CFO qualification certificate was requested early on into GrowCFO. Anyone who does the Future CFO Programme or the CFO Programme will get a certificate at the end. This c

Kevin Appleby is joined by Clarity First Founder, Davina Stanley, to discuss the 5 biggest communication traps. Davina goes into these in detail and how we can avoid falling into them. 1. Assume that shorter is always better Shorter text is not always faster to read. It is important to recognise that a shorter piece of writing may actually be more complicated to understand. It can take the audience longer to grasp the meaning and join the dots. Laying something out in clear steps may involve using more words. However, this approach will be quicker to digest. Delivering a logical clear message that is well-structured may double the length of the text, but it can be read in a quarter of the time. Avoid fixating on the length of the document. Instead, consider how fast somebody would be able to read and understand it. Executive summaries are a good way to give your audience a choice of how much detail they would like to receive. Users can either read the summary and grasp the concept from that, or refer to the main document to obtain more detail. This works well if you use the same structure within both your executive summary and main document. 2. Putting the conclusion at the end Bring the conclusion to the front. Structuring it by the way you did it forces your audience to go on the problem solving journey with you. Bring the finding to the front and then your audience will want to read on and you can include reasons why that’s true. Your audience does not have to go through the same process as you did to get to the conclusion so you don’t have to structure it that way. 3. Forgetting how our brains work We need to be aware of how our and our audience’s brains work. We know in our head all the analysis and thinking we did, our audience doesn’t know this so they only have only got the words that we have written or speak. You have to try and bridge the gap and this can take a lot of energy. If we don’t understand what someone is saying or you are finding it hard you have to fight to be able to pay attention. If this person is someone important you will fight hard to pay attention but if it is someone who you value less you may not make the same effort. Forgetting how our brains work mean our audience have to do the work to make sense of what you are trying to communicate.  4. Track changes is your friend When discussing track changes in a group, the focus can end up being on the minute parts of the document that need to be changed, not the substantial changes. Think about getting the structure really right rather than trying to get into the substance of it. When you now share this structured way of doing it and get feedback on it you should then nail that down. Then create the document so you won’t need track changes. You will save a lot of time writing and reviewing your document and you will end up with a clear and compelling message. Track changes can create it a mish-mash. You can spend so much time making track changes that don’t add much value to your document.  5. Thinking good structure equals a thorough list of topics The human brain can only deal with 3 focuses at once. You should have a big idea and then 2-5 supporting ideas and these should be messages not topics. Using templates can be useful to make sure you look through the topic thoroughly, however, it doesn’t give the message of why. The finance update can also be a challenge. In this update there will be topics but it is useful to give a message with these topics that would give more of an understanding of why this has been the result.   Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

In this episode of The GrowCFO Show Dan Wells and Kevin Appleby discuss the 9 biggest challenges faced by finance leaders and what you can do to address some of the underlying issues. We hear about the biggest finance leader challenges all the time from our GrowCFO members, and its given us a great insight into the issues you need help with. What are the 9 biggest finance leader challenges? The challenges fall into 3 broad areas. The first one concerns making more impact. The issues that you raised with us include: Contribute more towards strategy Make more impact during Board meetings Grow your confidence and overcome Imposter Syndrome We covered those 3 topics in the first GrowCFO finance leader challenge in September, and a large number of you participated in the 3 30 minute events and then followed up with the tasks we gave you in the sessions. The second is all about interacting with others, and you tell us the main issues are: Build stronger relationships Enhance your communication Improve your gravitas and perception We are planning a series of finance leader challenges that cover these running from 1st to 3rd November and you can register here to be part of that event. https://www.growcfo.net/finance-leader-challenge/ The final three challenges relate to delivering your responsibilities and include: Avoid feeling overwhelmed with tasks Maximise your team’s performance Influence and obtain people’s buy-in There’s a further series of events coming up in January to help you with these. The top 3 finance leader challenges 1. Imposter Syndrome This is the biggest issue raised by our GrowCFO community towards becoming the best version of yourself. Around 80% of finance leaders suffer from this and 56% of our GrowCFO community identified this as being one of their top three biggest challenges towards delivering their full potential.Here are the typical challenges highlighted to us: Stepping up into the top role Getting more exposure to the Board Youngest person in the Board room Least industry knowledge in the management team Representing the firm externally Working outside of comfort zone Doing lots of things you have never done before Not always a right or wrong answer 2. Avoid feeling overwhelmed with tasks The second biggest issue, and one that has a strong bearing on all the other issuesHere are the typical challenges highlighted to us: You simply have too many things to do Finance leader picks up many tasks outside of finance that nobody else is doing You are still too involved in the detail and unable to extract yourself for more value added tasks Lack of the right skills in the rest of the team to properly support you Company is growing but the finance team isn’t, more work falls to the same people Putting processes and systems in place to deal with new business 3. Contributing more towards strategy This is the third biggest issue raised by our GrowCFO community towards becoming the best version of yourself. 29% of our GrowCFO community identified this as being one of their top three biggest challenges towards delivering their full potential.Here are the typical challenges highlighted to us: Struggling to free up time to think strategically Unsure how to contribute towards strategic objectives Not being consulted on key decisions Never been involved in strategy before Lack of toolkits to help you document and deliver the strategic plan Events If you want to find out more then you can register for the following upcoming events. https://www.growcfo.net/finance-leader-challenge/ Finance leader challenge: Interacting with others – November 2021 Building relationships – Monday 1st November from 1pm to 1.30pm. Communication – Tuesday 2nd November from 1pm to 1.30pm. Gravitas, perception and being seen as a barrier – Wednesday 3rd November from 1pm to 1.30pm. Finance leader challenge: Getting things done – January 2022 Feeling overwhelmed with tasks – Monday 24th January from 1pm to 1.30pm. Maximising your team’s performance – Tuesday 25th January from 1pm to 1.30pm. Influencing and obtaining people’s buy-in – Wednesday 26th January from 1pm to 1.30pm. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Kevin Appleby is joined by GrowCFO mentor, Susana Serrano-Davey, to discuss storytelling and how it is useful in the CFO role. Where does storytelling come into the CFO role? No matter what job you are in, you can think about becoming a good storyteller. Not only do you want to get your point across but you also want to make an impact and getting people on board. You can use the recipe that storytellers use and apply it to our own communications. It is a presentation technique which uses stories that are memorable. You also want to give a vivid description in order to evoke emotions and insights from others. Using scenarios that people can relate to will make them pay more attention. What makes a good story?  Susana gives us a mnemonic that shows the key features of good storytelling. This is HUSSLE: Hero – This is where you have to set up context. The context is what makes the audience care. You can also help this by creating a rapport between the hero and the audience. You can make them feel there is similarity between them and the hero so they will care more about what happens to the hero. Uphill struggle – This will start to build momentum and create drama. You should now present the problem. When presenting something and there is a problem within it you want to see the problem from the audience’s perspective so they can connect emotionally. This can link to a marketing technique used which agitates the problem before you give the solution. Show – It is always important to put on a good show. Use words that are impactful along with body language and tone of voice. It is not just what you say but how you say it. In your story you want to have a wow factor. Susana suggests using colour or images, something that stands out. You also want to be aware of any unintended consequences of what you might show people as the same thing can mean different things to different people. Solution – It’s essential to present or propose a solution. This brings the tone. Although there is a problem, it can’t be all doom and gloom but bring it towards a happy ending. When you think about the people you enjoy working with they usually are the people who will come to you with a solution and problem not just a problem. In a story this is where you include how the situation was solved. Learning – The most powerful thing from the story is what can be learned. Fixing a problem on it’s own is pointless, you want to see the problem as growth for the future and preventing problems in the future. What can you implement to help you in the future? You need to be able to come clean about things that have been broken in the past, the important thing is what you are doing to prevent it from happening in the future. Extraordinary – This is about making your presentation memorable. It is important to do this so your audience will go away remembering the key points. It will also help you remember what you are talking about. You don’t want people to forget your key messages and you can do this by using mnemonics, your imagination and imagery. Storytelling is to make the message memorable as if you only show them numbers they will not remember as much. It will also help to get buy-in from people which, in the CFO role, you are constantly looking for. What stories to tell?  Personal stories can be useful by giving examples or metaphors. The examples may appear not relevant as it may not be identical to your current problem but it may be similar giving you more insights. At work we often shy away from sharing our personal information. Showing snippets of who you are as a person can be an asset as it shows you as yourself not just your professional side. You want people around you to have the confidence that you can solve the issues. You can help this by showing your track record but including your problems in this too. The most powerful capabilities builders are the examples of very challenging situations and failures which will allow you to deliver it successfully next time. If we have experienced similar situations it can help with the debate around what we do with a problem. Storytelling about doing something similar and then showing the results of it can be a useful way of adding to the debate. You are not disagreeing which can be emotive, but the story illustrates why you think it wouldn’t work and why it didn’t work in that situation. You can extend your analysis of a current problem by relating it to a previous story. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular network

There’s a big gap between the skills and competencies you need as CFO to those you have as Head of Finance. The GrowCFO competency framework provides a great way of assessing your readiness for the top job. We use the framework as part of the Future CFO Programme. It usually highlights a lot of potential development areas for our students. One of the challenges for you as a prospective CFOs is prioritising your personal development plan to address the most important competencies. Module 3 of the FutureCFO Programme is all about that prioritisation so that you can effectively fast track your personal development plan. In this podcast Kevin Appleby and Dan Wells give a preview of Module 3 of GrowCFO’s Future CFO Programme and show how you can successfully accelerate your development to get to your dream CFO job. The GrowCFO Competency Framework In Modules 1 and 2 of the Future CFO Programme, you complete the GrowCFO competency framework and identify your biggest issues. These give you powerful insight into your current skills and challenges; how these rank against your peer group; and where your opportunities for future development lie. The competency framework is split down into 45 different things. Most people on the Future CFO Programme find that they score well in relatively few of the 45. The potential gap between where you are now and where you think you need to be becomes somewhat daunting. Don’t worry. You don’t need to have expertise in all 45 to become a good CFO. The purpose of module 3 is to take that assessment, and develop a sensible development plan. This allows you to fast track the particular skills you need to make that initial step up to the CFO role. The techniques you learn in this module will also take you beyond stepping up. It will provide you with a way of planning your own development for many years to come. Everybody’s Personal Development Plan is different The first thing to remember is everybody is different. You have your own unique set of strengths, skills and experience. You will build on these and that will make you a unique CFO. The remit of the CFO can be wide – there is no standard job description. What the CFO does varies from company to company. The role of the CFO in a startup or high growth organisation might also be very different from that in an established corporate.  The CFO will be the number 1 in the finance function. What the number 1 does is often determined by what your number 2, direct reports and wider team can do to support you. The CFO is the co-pilot to the CEO. The role of the CFO is often determined by the support that the CEO feels they need, both to complement the CEO’s skills and to bring something extra to the business.  In short, there is no one size fits all. So, in determining your development plan you need to decide what sort of CFO you want to become and prioritise what is important to you. Module 3 allows you to address this systematically. What do you do in module 3? There’s a 5 step process and we suggest you use the next 10 days to work through it to build your own personalised development plan. Step 1 – Current state assessment. Where are you now? Step 2 – Set a Vision. Where do you want to get to? Step 3 – What do you need to do next? Set your priorities for the next 90 days. Step 4 – Make space to take action. Identify where you add the most value. Step 5 – Build a plan. A plan on a page with clear milestones for each of the next 12 weeks. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Kevin Appleby is joined by GrowCFO’s Founder and CEO Dan Wells to discuss the launch of GrowCFO’s Finance leader support Forum. Finance leader support Forums overview GrowCFO’s community support Forums help finance leaders to share knowledge, seek advice and solve common issues. They allow free or Premium members to quickly benefit from the combined knowledge and experience of your finance leader community. Many finance leaders are spending too much time delivering recurring finance tasks that add little value to your business. These Forums contain valuable insights regarding how you can automate, outsource, delegate or ditch such tasks. As a result, you will have more time available to make a bigger impact in your role. As you get more involved in strategy, you will face challenges that you have never experienced before. In most instances, your community will have already conquered such challenges and can easily share the solutions with you. This will save you huge amounts of time and allow you to quickly identify the best solutions. How many finance leader support Forums are there? There are two finance leader support Forums. Of these, the main Forum is called Finance Leaders Community and is designed for all GrowCFO members. This is where the majority of the community discussions take place and is the ideal place for you to discuss your specific challenges with the community. There is also a Forum for the Future CFO Programme. This is designed to help you with your biggest challenges towards securing your first CFO role. Within this Forum, we also post regular updates for our Future CFO Programme activities to ensure that our participants don’t miss anything exciting! We previously had various other Forums featuring The Situation Room, Women’s Finance Leaders and Startup/Scaleup Finance Leaders. However, we found it more effective to have one main community Forum and there is a tagging system to help you quickly navigate to the most appropriate discussions. Who should join the finance leader support Forums? Our finance leader support Forums are available to all free and Premium members. We recommend that everybody in the community joins the Forums as they will save you lots of time and help you get to a better answer. In fact, it is hard to think of a reason why you would not want to join in the Forums…! Where you can access the finance leader support Forums? Any GrowCFO community member can access our finance leader support Forums within the GrowCFO website. Simply log in and click on Forums within your left-hand menu bar. We also strongly recommend that you download your free GrowCFO mobile app by typing GrowCFO into your App Store. We have integrated GrowCFO’s entire platform into your App, which provides a fantastic user experience and is very popular! How to get started Your starting point is to click on your Finance Leader Community Forum and introduce yourself to the community. Tell them a few basic details about your job title, company, location and aspiration. You will be pleasantly surprised how friendly and welcoming people are! Next, scroll through the various discussions and benefit from the insights offered by other community members. Think about your biggest challenges and click on New discussion to seek advice from your peer group. Monitoring the Forum activity You will receive tailored notifications when other members reply to your discussions. This provides you with an opportunity to enter into conversations across a number of members within a particular topic. Don’t be surprised if other members also offer to support you in more detail through private messages or phone call – we are friendly and helpful bunch…! We recommend that you scan through the latest Forum activity every few days and show your willingness to help others by contributing to their conversations. It is surprisingly quick and easy to stay informed by using GrowCFO’s mobile App. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Kevin Appleby is joined by Ian Kaye, CFO and executive coach, to discuss how to present with confidence and how to improve confidence. What is your background and how did you learn to present with confidence? Firstly, Ian trained as an accountant at one of the big 4 and worked in industry for 5 years. This led him to be based in Hamburg, returning after 2 years to do a full time MBA. Directly after his MBA, Ian moved to GE as a consultant. Ian’s roles have usually been business as usual finance roles and in smaller businesses as finance director or as leading quite large bits of change. He has also been largely interested in personal development elements. This included him expanding his interest of neuro linguistic programming during 2014-2017 by attending many courses and becoming a doubly qualified trainer. He explains how the benefits of this create a toolset for you to understand yourself and the environment and people around you. Also, you can understand drivers of how we show up in the world. This personal development in this area has lead to Ian being an expert at how to present with confidence. How can you get over the fear of presenting? While Ian admits he is not a therapist, he recognises that exposure therapy can be very effective at tackling any fear. Exposure therapy theorises that the more you expose yourself to your fear, the more you will be comfortable with it. This will mean your fear will become less intimidating. If it is part of your monthly set up to give a presentation, you will be getting practice. It may not improve after the first 2 or 3 times, but Ian says, progressively this will reduce the fear of presenting. What do you think gives people the fear of presenting? This fear can come from many places. Ian gives an example of someone being made fun of when they made a presentation at school. This will make them associate standing up and speaking in public with an unpleasant feeling. There is somewhere in the unconscious dialogue that tells you you are not interesting or good enough. This roots from the incident at school. While you may not remember why you have those feelings, you still feel them. Ian says a big part of moving forward is understanding where the fear came from. This will enable you to reframe what meaning you have associated with presenting. You also have to pay attention to the skill side. This will include what formats you use for presenting, how do you build your confidence to hold your presenter status and how do you engage the audience. One side of being able to present with confidence is the skill you have. The other side is feeling comfortable trying to present or removing the fear. What should you start doing to build confidence?  There are many approaches. Ian suggests listening to your internal dialogue. You have to see what phrases you are saying to yourself when you are presenting. You should then be going down a timeline and identifying the root and where this started. This is when you try to question, challenge and reframe what it is. This will give you the resources to feel better about presenting. This will further lead to the ability to present with confidence. There will not be an immediate, huge difference but you can increase confidence quite quickly after a few coaching sessions. It would also be useful to work on different presentation formats. Ian also reiterates how important practice and knowing your subject is. This can lead you to being able to present confidently. He also suggests thinking about what is the worst that could happen. For example, if you are worried about being asked a question you don’t know the answer to. Ian explains how very rarely does anyone expect every person to have every answer at their fingertips. What do you do when you make a mistake? It is human to make mistakes. You should be assertive to correcting your mistake. Ian does, however, recognise that it does take another level of comfort to be ok with making mistakes. To get this level of comfort you have to present with confidence. This comes back to understanding where your internal dialogue has come from. Then further analysing how relevant it is today and reframing it. Your comfortability can also be helped by putting the presentation in a format you are comfortable with. This format also has to be natural for the audience and take them on a journey. You want this journey to end at the follow up action point being addressed of what you want them to do after the presentation. The 3 points of a presentation Kevin and Ian agree a good way to set a presentation into 3 points. These points should be similar to: what do we want them to know how do we want them to feel what do we want them to do These points mean you only have to remember a few key words. These will be prompts to you remembering what you wanted to say for that point. It is thought that people only remember 3 things from the presentation so you have to make sure these are your key po

Kevin Appleby is joined by Andrew Tapson, experienced portfolio CFO, to talk about becoming a CFO to fast growth startups. How did you start being a CFO for various companies? As a teenager Andrew was surrounded by peers who were massively influenced by others and the group above. This is shown as 5 went on to be engineers and 5 to accountants! He at first wanted to be an accountant but then realised he wanted to get into business as he saw it as the place to be. Andrew went to the big six (as it was then) for interviews. This lead to six offers. He decided to go with Arthur Andersen. This was because the people were interesting and they paid a bit more. The Big Bang then took place in London which led to Andrew working for a subsidiary of Bank of America. This set the tone for the next 30 years. It was all about finding a problem, finding a pragmatic solution and then executing it. Andrew then became a finance director in Paris and then moved on to work for AT&T Capital. He continued to move to various places including Dutch bank ING. He then ended up as a CFO in 2011 and went on to be CEO. How do you pick up the skills you don’t learn in exams?  You don’t go on courses in how to shut down companies. Andrew says it comes back to heads-up management. It doesn’t matter where you are in an organisation, walk around with your head up, talk to people and be intensely curious. Andrew is not keen on job titles. It didn’t matter what his job title was, he just did what needed to be done. He used to call his job title the minister without portfolio. Changing the description of a finance director to CFO puts it on the same level as CTO, CMO etc. This will mean you are looking across the business helping other people and your team as you are in it together. Andrew saw in larger organisations that the CFO became the focal point as much as the CEO. Despite them having different skill sets, Andrew prefers when the CFO and CEO are walking side by side. This means if the CEO is seeing an issue, they have their trust lieutenant next to them. This will get them that different perspective and get better results. There needs to be a partnership there. Why are you called to fast scale startups?  Start up businesses sometimes have a 5 people with all C titles. Andrew aims to make them all a team. At ING there was a scaled down board with four people together who trusted each other. Andrew describes a venn diagram where connections between people are in the middle. At this board in there were a lot of connections and complimentary skills. Usually Andrew is found by fast scale startups when their Venn diagram isn’t working, or there’s a three-legged stool with one leg. Without balance there is bound to be mayhem. Andrew knows he is someone who understands team and partnership and has done a lot. He also knows how dangerous he is with all this knowledge but he is also good at knowing when to call another expert in. He emphasises that you need to know what you are not expert in so you can talk to someone who is more expert. What are the differences of being a CFO at corporate and portfolio level? Kevin and Andrew agree on a general rule that a CFO needs to have 3 things that they know about everything and also someone who knows the detail. CFO-ing in corporate land compared to portfolio CFO-ing is having that network behind you. In corporate life, Andrew didn’t really have that. Now his network is a lot more. This means he has people he would call on because they know something more in depth than he does. Within this network there is a strong degree of mutuality. This level of trust comes from shared values. The key value with this is the trust. You hear about people going to help a founder and then stealing their idea. That is not what it is about for Andrew. It is more about helping younger people on their journey step by step. Andrew’s role here is to show them the way, add to their skill set and value set. Do you come across many similar problems faced by fast growth startups?  When you go in as an experience CFO, you’ve seen before the problems the CEO is facing and this can bring stability. Andrew will bring them assurance they are on the right path and can tell them they are going through similar problems to other people in their sector. It does not matter what the product or sector is, the problems are similar. It is about the mindset. Andrew sees things in a particular was to help them. There is not a standard financial model. For each business it will be similar but different. Adaptation is key. You don’t have to invent the whole wheel every time, but a part of it. Andrew says that if you take a generic framework and put it through a twist it’ll work every time. What did you decide to do next? Andrew had a big corporate job come to an end and had one of those seminal moments where he thought whether he should stay or do something different. He

Kevin Appleby is joined by Paul Marchant to discuss his fast track to CFO at the Rail Safety & Standards Board. Where did the fast track to CFO start? Paul qualified at a small firm in Birmingham and then proceeded to move into politics for a few years. The political world gave him certain skills that are still useful in his current role. He then transferred back to finance 7 years ago. Paul’s role when moving back into finance was an management accountant role at the RSSB. Management accounting, Paul says, is a good step in. This is because you are dealing with decision making for the rest of the business and providing information for decisions that need to be made. It’s an opportunity to not only give data but also show you can provide insight and thinking. How much of a politician does a CFO need to be?  Paul says a CFO massively needs to be a politician. Similarly to politics, as a CFO you have to deal with different stakeholders and you need to evangelise your position. The biggest similarity Paul identifies, is the messaging. You need to take complicated concepts and communicate them in a way that people can understand and get on board with. As CFO you know all the numbers but you need to put them into key messages that are compelling. One of Paul’s first tasks he was given after he made his fast track to CFO was to reform the pension scheme. Translating the complexities of a pension scheme to people on the ground is difficult. 2 or 3 clear messages would be most helpful. Within your communication you also have to be empathetic and understanding of the fact you are dealing with people’s lives. What happened from day one that got you that fast track to CFO?  When you join a new role it will take 6/12/18 months to get your head around the new business and how it operates. Paul explains that he was possibly put on a talent list. 18 months into his role at RSSB, Paul was asked to become a senior management accountant. This was with a view for him to take on the role of head of finance 8 months later. This is when Paul really felt imposter syndrome. RSSB brought in an interim head of finance with a view of developing Paul into this role. When you reached the head of finance role did you experience imposter syndrome? For Paul, he experienced imposter syndrome when moving from management accountant to senior management accountant. This was due to him not having managed line before and suddenly he was in charge of his peers. Your peers can struggle to see you in a new role and this can make you question yourself. When Paul reached the stage of head of finance on his fast track to CFO he saw the big task that was in front of him. This means he didn’t have enough time to think about imposter syndrome. The best way, Paul says, to overcome imposter syndrome is to chuck yourself in and expose yourself to everything. To mitigate it, the urgency around the need for action Paul faced meant he would have to sink or swim. How did you take onboard skills on how to manage a team?  This is the first challenge you face that you did not pass exams in. Managing people is vital to having a successful team. The people side of things was Paul’s biggest driver of imposter syndrome. Paul had a decent mentoring platform. These were mentors in and out of the business who he could discuss strategy with as he makes more difficult decisions. Paul mentions this being the first time he felt lonely in a role as you have previously been on the same level as others. He also mentions reading around as being very helpful for him. These books can help you understand different characters and how to manage them. Lastly, Paul’s previous experience in politics means he can spot an agenda being formed early on. You’re exposed to certain political environments where spotting warning signals early is very important. The move from head of finance to the board in your fast track to CFO Paul had his first board meeting as a young head of finance. He had to tell 13 board members the financial message of the business. Previous to the board meeting, he did not know the members of the board. This left him at a disadvantage as he did not know what angles they would be coming at the meeting from. Warming up the board is important. It is useful to have certain board members understand your position before you go into the room so it’s not a cold delivery. As your confidence begins to build and you begin to the know the board members more in depth, board meetings start being easier. When Paul first went to the board he went as head of finance. This made him feel almost a bottom amongst equals. There was no CFO position at the business previously. He had to prove he had what it takes to be the CFO. This gave Paul experience and shaped what the CFO role needed to look like going forward. What was your relationship with the CEO like? The CEO and Paul had a very strong relationship. There is l

Kevin Appleby is joined by consultant, David Tuck, to explore how to set a transfer price. He also looks at transfer pricing advice and how effective it is. There has been a shift in transfer pricing David tells you there is a mystique of complexity around transfer pricing. It does not need to be that way if you have modest international aspirations. Is transfer pricing all about tax? Or public image of company? David explains how there has been a real shift. Proactive tax planning to aggressively reduce tax liability is less prevalent now. The BEPS rules play a big role in this. There has been a successful campaign in the media to show that it is part of you corporate social responsibility to pay the right amount of tax. Make sure you get it right and don’t fall foul of rules and regulations and potential complexity out there.  Transfer pricing is much more about accidental consequence mitigation now. Making sure you don’t make mistakes or interpret the rules wrong. It is also no longer adversarial; “how can we beat the tax authority?”. The public outcry over Google, Amazon, Starbucks etc has been a part of this change. It’s about navigating the rules. Expanding internationally because it’s in our commercial interest to do so, not to save tax. As David says, the tax tail no longer wags the business dog! Accidental consequence mitigation With transfer pricing, often start up finance leaders have heard it and they google it. They think they don’t need to do anything as there’s a UK SME exemption. This means from a UK perspective, there are no worries. They don’t, however, realise that if you have international operation the same exemptions may not apply. There is no exemption in the USA for instance. As a result, that startup could be exposed when it comes to transfer pricing. This means you could build up costs and losses which exposes the startup to inquiries in the USA by the IRS. This bites when you’re going through funding round or an exit. There can an be serious consequences. Operating in other countries may mean you need to see if you need a transfer policy. A US operation may expose start up to 6 years of going back in terms of enquiry instead of 3. The IRS can enquire into you when you are going through an exit. Any opportunity for a price shave will be looked for and they will see transfer price risk exposure. It can drop the value by 10%. What transfer pricing help do SME’s need? The way David comes at is that there is a false dichotomy at present when it comes to transfer pricing. Either you do nothing or ,what a lot of finance leaders do, cobble a policy together themselves. Alternatively, they go to a professional services firm. There’s a middle ground here. The principle of reasonableness underlies the transfer pricing rules. David believes there is a gap for an OECD-aligned solution. If you’re a startup the most important thing is to have a sensible transfer pricing policy, sensible mark-up, some documentation that looks the part, then some legal agreements to back-up this is a genuine commercial relationship. David sees a gap for an OECD-aligned solution that could get you 95% of the way there. It is ballpark accurate, and it’s more than reasonable. That’s what finance leaders in startups want, to have done something sensible without paying eye-watering sums for finance pricing advice. Further down the line, you might go and pay for some specialist transfer pricing advice on top of that general policy to give you additional peace of mind. You don’t want to do this at an early stage, especially when your business operations are still fluid.  Transfer pricing is not overly complicated There is nuance to transfer pricing. There are five transfer pricing methodologies. The three first considered are transactional indicators. You look at that sale of that good or service and requires knowledge of a business’s gross margin that you will realistically not ever be able to publicly find. So, in less than 5% of cases can you use these methodologies. Then you come to profit-based methods. In 95%+ of cases they use this same method of transactional net margin. David believes to get the ballpark there and land on the right methodology, what is a reasonable margin or markup, some documentation to support that, and some legal agreements can all be delivered for a dramatically lower price than is usual today.  Kevin wonders if there are any advantages in moving money in particular countries? David wouldn’t push an agenda of proactive tax management as direction of travel is against your ability to do that. Public opinion is also against this. Putting the ethics to one side, from a pragmatic perspective of the brand and how this would affect it, David says he would not invest energy into this area. He indicates to focusing on paying the right amount of tax and that you are not paying too much but strongly suggests against having tax as the driver of busines

Kevin Appleby is joined d GrowCFO mentor, Susana Serrano-Davey, to discuss how to give feedback properly. How do you start preparing a manager to give feedback properly? Susana explains to you that feedback is a craft that we acquire over time and experience. You will go through a learning curve to reach the point of giving feedback properly. To prepare a manager for giving appropriate feedback some companies have training in place, however, Susana says that this is a good step but can’t be the only one you take. If you are a new manager or an experienced manager who’s feedback isn’t landing with their team, Susana tells you to find someone who can be a feedback mentor for you. You should find someone who gives or handles feedback correctly and then share your challenges with them. How do you give feedback properly in a difficult conversation? You should react quickly if you see there being an issue with someone’s performance. It will give the person the heads up and a chance to develop before the conversation becomes more difficult. The choice of language you use is critical when giving feedback. Susana suggests using more neutral words and also to not personalise the feedback. This will help you give the feedback properly and make it less aggressive. Preparation for the feedback you are going to give is important. You need to think beforehand about what points you are going to make as you are more likely to handle the situation in a balanced way. The environment where you give your feedback can also impact the way it is received. Susana describes to us how she gives feedback to her team in a more informal setting so it can be more of a conversation and less aggressive. How can the culture of the organisation impact feedback? Some organisations can be very hierarchical. There are also some managers who think feedback is telling the person how they are doing with their tasks and what they need to do better. Others have a more holistic approach. This is where they will focus, not just on the job at hand, but also personal development. They will look more at the person rather than the role. Elsewhere we can see a culture where it’s scary to ask your boss to help you achieve the improvements they have set you. In feedback, you need to not only tell the person what they need to improve on but also what they need to do to achieve it. How should you receive feedback? When receiving feedback you should put all your shortfalls on the table. This will lead you to asking for specific help on these tasks. Managers can provide you with guidance, support and even possibly finding additional resources. If someone gives you feedback in a broad way, ask for the specifics of what you are being told. This means you can be more focused on the things that really need additional attention. Susana also expands on being willing to listen when receiving feedback. Take note of what they are telling you. Also, take time to digest what you’re being told so you don’t automatically go into defense mode. Lastly, you always should accept the feedback. Even if it is harsh you have to look for the gem in the feedback that you need to improve from, and possibly previously didn’t see. 360 degree feedback Susana likes this feedback and shows you how it can give you a more balanced view. The more directions you look into the more balanced your view will be. Listening to one opinion will leave you with a biased view on what to improve on. Even people far away from you in your role can give you insightful feedback. Some can find it hard to give their boss development points. However, it is very good practise at giving feedback properly, in a way that doesn’t create discomfort. All feedback is important including your clients. These can be anyone you have delivered a product to or interacted with. The people you interact with will vary so this means your feedback approach has to also. You can’t put a straight jacket on feedback and it doesn’t always need to be done the way people say it does. Susana tells you to make your feedback method appropriate to who you are giving it to and where you are at. Collective feedback Receiving and discussing feedback as a group is great team building but is also an effective team management activity. However, Susana says it does not replace 1-to-1 feedback. Individual feedback can be more intimate. It gives the manager a chance to demonstrate care for the team member if they come prepared for giving the feedback. They can give you specifics on how you could improve but will give them a chance, also, to see how you are feeling and give them feedback. 3 tips on giving feedback Susana’s 3 tips when giving feedback are: Make sure it is balanced. Give positive and development points. Prepare Be sensitive with how you deliver it 3 tips on receiving feedback When receiving feedback, Susana’s 3 tips are: Listen Look for the gem, no matter how

Kevin Appleby is joined by Tony Shafar to discuss dealing with difficult conversations and how you can make them less difficult. Why do people avoid difficult conversations? Someone may not be forthcoming to have a difficult conversation with someone if they feel they will get a negative reaction from them. Tony explains that this is usually driven by them not having done the task the way they thought it should be done. Tony expands into how you can make someone more open to have these conversations. The main factor he talks about is if you want honesty you need to give it. The mindset you need to have for difficult conversations To make a difficult conversation more comfortable you need to be willing to understand from their perspective. Tony shows how this should include understanding what is stopping them from doing the task the way you want it done. When wanting people to be more open and vulnerable you need to reflect them yourself. Sharing with your team times you have previously struggled will show them it is normal. They will, therefore, feel more comfortable sharing their problems with you. Tony and Kevin agree that it is unrealistic to be good at everything. Showing this vulnerability will make people feel more open to giving suggestions and will invite a conversation to get other perspectives. Tony explains that you should have the mindset that you have an idea of how it should be done but have an open mind to other ways of doing it. The culture you create for difficult conversations You should have a culture that everyone feels comfortable giving their opinion and that they feel as though it is valid. Tony gave a few ways you can create this open culture. Utilise the junior members of your team. Hearing senior members talk about their ideas may leave junior members less sure in their ideas. To counteract this, letting the junior members talk first will let you hear their fresh ideas as they have less of an idea of what is right and wrong. In conversations there may be regular people who are always vocal. Possibly have discussions within discussions to give the less vocal people a chance. You could also highlight the counter-productive behaviour that the vocal people have with them. The finance leader’s difficult conversations Managing costs and budgets is a difficult conversation finance professionals need to have. However, Tony shows us how these can be made harder when you have to have a difficult conversation repeated and are still not seeing any action. Tony then helps you by giving ways of making these conversations less difficult. One is allowing them to be part of the solution. Instead of telling them what the solution is going to be, go to them with the problem and ask for their solution to add a new perspective. It would also make them feel more involved in what the final decisions will be. The difficult conversation of change People will usually look at change by seeing what they will get out of it. This is why, Tony says, you come to them with the question of which solution would work best for you while explaining the problems they need to overcome. This involvement makes change less forced and that they are partly responsible for the decision that was made. This makes them more likely to make it want to work. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Kevin Appleby is joined by David Appel from Sage Intacct to discuss reporting for a SaaS business. 5 Stages of SaaS business growth David Appel discusses with Kevin the 5 stages a SaaS business will go through, also what they need to accompany them: At this stage the simple goal is to create product market fit. The next stage is for you to prove you can sell your product and hire reps. Here, David explains, the focus needs to be on billing and cash flow. The metrics are around customer acquisition and sales efficiency. This is when you want to prove your net renewal model. This means you can hold and upsell the customers that you have. David indicates this is why more mature finance leaders are hired here. There needs to be a large focus on tracking performance obligations and contract obligations, tying every upsell back to them. As this continues, the finance function becomes more complicated. Make it predictable and scalable. This is when you will start to hire a more skilled finance team. This is the big outcome. It will be a strategic exit or IPO where the company will go global. Due to the higher stakes, there is a lot of additional pressure and scrutiny. With a SaaS business, recurring income makes meeting shareholder expectation easier. What’s the typical time-scale between more basic (receipts in shoe box) to thinking about the big outcome? David explores how SaaS businesses are getting faster and faster at this transition. However, investors always want it to go faster. For the top 10% who get there, it can be 6-7 years. Others can take 15, and up to 20 years. This can be down to the markets moving and customer sentiments changing. David suggests you have to be lucky to have everything fall your way. There is a lot of change as a lot of different things happen to finance. How often do folk scaling realise systems aren’t good enough? Classic process optimisation means you can break it down. There is such a cultural component to this. Is everyone clear on the simple mission of the company? And what role each has to achieve that? That’s critical to truly being able to scale.  Kevin adds importantly to what David says by pointing out: you have to think like a business of the size you want to reach. The systems you put in now will fit your company when you get where you want to be.  What metrics are key from CFO’s point of view? Each one is different at a different stage. David indicates towards using your resources around you like mentors and advisors as no one can do it all themselves. Someone will have been where you are and worked their way through it. David discusses 3 metrics: Velocity. This is the pace your going at. You could calculate it by using your revenue growth or your net dollar retention. There are many ways of calculating this but investors want transparency. Profitability. You need to look at what your customer acquisition cost is. An understanding of the lifetime value of a customer is vital. Capital efficiency. You want to know how much money you are bringing in against how much it is costing you. What is your net new ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) divided by your net burn? What Sage does David works for the successful company Sage, majoring in the Intacct Product. He briefly tells us the benefits of using them which include: Helping you through the stages you will go through and helps you close. Not only do they help you close, it will be a quick close, possibly as quick as 5 days. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Kevin Appleby is joined by Chris Tredwell to discuss this years GrowCFO finance systems survey and how the results will help them structure future sessions. The finance systems survey Chris explains what the survey’s purpose is and the benefits using it brings. He touched on an area of benefits that hearing the results from peers or the people who actually use the systems bring. It brings to light what people think about the finance systems they use. This helps GrowCFO to structure their sessions and become more adapted to what people are actually using. Last and this year’s finance system surveys There was a lot of continuity in the results, Chris explains. However, due to the events of the past 12 months some questions were more suited to how you had adapted to working in the pandemic. There is still miseducation among people as to what their finance systems can do as some responses were contradictory. Chris shows us how this can be helpful as fellow peers can help improve each other’s knowledge of the same system. increased systems footpring better represented situatuin riim Finance systems that increased footprint Kevin and Chris explore what finance systems have increased their footprint over the last year. Chris indicates that there has been shifts towards finance systems such as Cloud. Despite the large changes of last year, most people were still able to use the same finance system that they were using before, remotely. Only some of these people had to slightly modify these systems. We hear from Chris about the new intel on Unit Four as more people are using it, in comparison to last year. Alternatively, he discusses a recurring name from last year, the finance system Zero. The responses indicate this is used more frequently by start-up businesses to facilitate their early stages. How GrowCFO uses the finance survey to help Every Tuesday at midday GrowCFO holds a Future of Finance session. Chris tells you some topics that will be covered in coming weeks; Cloud, integrations and where roles are likely to be based. This is due to most saying they will not work solely from home or remotely. This leads to people deciding whether to train or hire people for their finance team. Due to the results, you will see more advice on how to hire the right staff. Chris also suggests that GrowCFO will be focusing on period end close and management packs as these were areas where the time spent was highly varied. This is a continuing issue despite improving technology. Chris also touches upon this as to why people feel they don’t make the changes to the system that would improve this. GrowCFO looks to help people counter the issues they face such as they don’t believe it will be a quick fix or fix anything in the long run. All Future of Finance sessions are recorded and featured on the website. New integrations and innovations Chris tells you what new players and integrators they want to look at. He lists; business intelligence, OCR, robotic process automation and ground workflows. These are all things that people wanted to tighten in their business. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Change is an important part of the CFO role. Change is a big part of a transaction, a business restructure or a systems implementation. The CFO is involved in leading all three. We look at each of these in this weeks podcast. The CFO’s role in business change can’t be underestimated, the CFO is a catalyst for change. GrowCFO’s future of finance functions group meets every Tuesday over Zoom. I’m looking at Change and specifically how it relates to finance transformation on the last Tuesday of every month. The CFO’s role in business change is covered as one of the core competencies of the CFO. The CFO as a catalyst of business change forms a key element of the GrowCFO competency framework. https://youtu.be/JuO2fKb5zuY The CFO’s role in business change is in 3 areas The transaction, after a merger or acquisition, or before a divestment Systems project, putting new IT into finance or the wider business Driving a step change in performance, reshaping the business model The transaction As CFO you will have a major involvement in any transaction and a key part in making it happen. After the transaction you need to be involved in the business change: After a merger or acquisition you need to drive integration of the new business, particularly in the back office Before a divestment you need to make sure the bit of the business you are selling is properly decoupled, and there’s no ongoing dependency for systems and processes with the parts of the business you are retaining Step change in performance The CFO is at the heart of driving business performance. As CFO, its you job to look for opportunities to improve the bottom line. The CFO’s role in business change could involve you in one or more of the following: A business restructure Cost reduction, reducing the cost base of the business Driving a Zero Based Budget. To direct spend to the key business objectives you and your C Suite colleagues are committed, and eliminate spend that isn’t focussed on these. You have a key role in decisions concerning pricing and product mix. You need to know which customers and products are profitable and which are not. The CFO view of the best parts of the business might be very different from the sales and marketing view. So, you need to: Understand the economic engine, not the P&L account Know which products & services drive cost. High margin might look attractive to the sales team, but if the product is low volume and there are lots of demands on customer service time then the overall contribution might be negative. Systems project You have an important role leading business change in a systems project. This might include: A Finance Transformation. Most finance functions have big scope to modernise and automate. Finance is your home turf. You need to get change right in finance to be trusted with change in the wider business. Wider business change, which will nearly always impact you and your finance team Delivering business benefits rarely comes from system changes, it more likely comes from changes relating to people and process that surround the system. People change is the hardest part. As CFO you have a vital role in people change. Leading change is all about leading people through the change process. Learning more about the CFO’s role in business change If you want to deliver a successful business transformation then you need to understand how to lead change. John P Kotter outlines an 8 step process in his book Leading change The sessions I’m leading each month for GrowCFO’s future of finance functions group is exploring the Kotter 8 step process. One step at each month’s session. Dr Kotter cultivated the 8-Step Process for Leading Change from over four decades observations of countless leaders and organizations as they were trying to transform or execute their strategies. He identified and extracted the success factors and combined them into a methodology, the award-winning 8-Step Process for Leading Change. Create a sense of urgency Build a guiding coalition Form a strategic vision Enlist a volunteer army Enable action by removing barriers Generate short term wins Sustain progress Embed the changes If you want to find out more about Kotter here’s a great article Why not take the growCFO CFO competency framework? The GrowCFO Competency framework is part of our library of training programmes for premium members. It starts with a self assessment. This allows you to assess your own capabilities in each of the following skills: Foundation skills: Governance and Control Operational driver Financial Planning and Analysis Implementation skills: Strategic Business Partner Catalyst for Change Fundraising and M&A Impact skills: Leadership Commercial mindset Soft skills You will receive an email which contains your results and your peer group benchmarking report. This report will include an action plan to help you address each of

The CFO and CEO’s roles have an important relationship. On this episode of the GrowCFO Show Kevin Appleby looks closer at this relationship with Richard Medcalf, founder of Xquadrant . Richard is a mentor to CEOs and tells you how the CFO should work with the CEO and also how to make the jump from the CFO role to the CEO one. About Richard Medcalf Richard studied at the University of Oxford and is now a leadership strategist to top tech CEOs. He is the founder and CEO of Xquadrant. Imposter syndrome and the CFO and CEO relationship Imposter syndrome is where you may feel out of place in your new role, or as though you don’t know how you have ended up with it. Richard explains how this shows that you are developing and learning. CFOs and CEOs are both senior positions meaning that you will be playing a bigger game. You will constantly be experimenting as to what will work best for you. Richard importantly states that “there is no learning in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the learning zone”. The ways the CFO and CEO should work together Richard expands on how the CFO should be the CEO’s right hand. He describes how the CFO should make the CEO’s case for change by using the numbers to back it up but then give a further insight to the executive and the board as to what the numbers mean. CEOs look forward for goals that will improve the business. This means, a CFO cannot be completely focused on the last quarter, but also what should happen in the next. The CFO’s and CEO’s need for time balance CFOs and CEOs both need a high level of skill in time management. Richard covers how you need not only to be focused on projects and execute them to a high level, but also to have time for strategic activity. If you do not time manage and are not involved, it can hinder your progression in that role. Reliability to answer questions about your section of the business is important and this means you have to have time balance so you can have that availability. The jump from CFO to CEO Richard and Kevin discuss ways to make this jump; One is to make sure you are doing more than what is required of an average CFO. This includes taking a larger interest in all the sections of the business as this is a key role of the CEO. Secondly, you have to be big on vision. The CEO looks forward and looks at what the company wants to be. The CFO often looks at what has previously happened, so there has to be a balance of looking forward but also seeing what has worked in the past. Lastly, you need to be ready to leave numbers behind. It is a new role,so don’t try and be a better CFO than yours. You will be expected to be well-rounded and have expertise in all areas, not only finance. How can a CFO build business relevance: Richard discusses this in two parts; He looks into why you shouldn’t look to wow with your finance skills, show your business skills. You need to add perspectives and not only see the business from a finance point of view. Also look commercially at what risks would be beneficial to take. Richard then delves into why you should not only have a financial plan but also a plan for finance. This will help you to uplevel your finance function which, if you can’t do, you won’t be able to do for the rest of the business. Richard’s website Richard’s website has many complementary features to GrowCFO’s lessons. It includes things such as the kryptonite test which will highlight your teams’ weaknesses and areas that need management. The CFO can also utilise this as it can see what impact finance wants to make on the business. You can also find an executive productivity assessment. This will show your benchmark and how you are doing. It will also help with time balance as you can see the least prioritised areas for work. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Great communication is a vital part of the CFO’s brief. Using the right language is often the difference between good and great communication. On this episode of the GrowCFO Show Kevin Appleby discusses the power of language with Susana Serrano-Davey. Susana tells us about the many ways the right language can make a difference. The right language is vital to communicate to a team or individual effectively. Susana expands on the ways we can adapt our language and how this adaptation can lead to better results. About Susana Susana is a GrowCFO mentor. She is also an executive director with international experience in commercial finance, business transformation, commercial management, FP&A, financial control and audit. Be mindful to use the right language   Susana discusses how we need to be aware of our environment to give the most effective message. This means we need to use the right language for that situation.  When we meet different people our language has to adapt so we can communicate with them in the right way so our message comes across the way we intend it to. Just a few words can make a large difference on how the sentence is received.  Right language is needed so you don’t reflect our emotions in what you are saying. Using a word like ‘always’ can add layers of frustration and alter how the sentence is received.  Why do we need to change our language to the right language? Susana dives into how things such as  culture can have an impact on the way we communicate, for example, differing nationalities can also lead to different attitudes but also accents can make us sound more or less aggressive.  This means we have to identify factors on what we ourselves need to work on to be able to communicate most effectively. This may mean adapting words that we say but also how we say it.  Talking from the other person’s perspective You will hear Susana explain how being aware of how other people perceive you is vital for good communication. The way people perceive you will determine how they respond to what you are telling them. Specific words will change the impression your sentence leaves, whether it shows you are being aggressive or feeling frustrated. It is also important to understand that the impression you leave does not only come from what you say but also how you say it as this creates an atmosphere. Susana discusses how being impatient can give an atmosphere that will not lead to the person you are speaking to work at their best. This is why you need to understand the impression you give and use the right language to get people to work with you. How do cultural differences affect right language? Susana illustrates how the right language can mean different things in different countries and cultures. She talks about the difference in attitudes to giving your boss feedback in Spain. This is where it is considered less acceptable to challenge your superiors. She tells the story of returning to her native Spain after working in the UK and finding it odd that her direct reports were so reluctant to give their opinions. Why do you need the right language to give feedback? You need to see how context can affect the feedback you give. You need to see how the negative can be seen in a different perspective like how, if it was resolved, it would lead to more opportunities.  Going further into this, Susana explains how this can vary from giving feedback to an individual as opposed to a group setting, where you need to be more careful as there is more room for misunderstanding due to a less tailored message. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Hugh Watchorn is the latest member of GrowCFO’s mentoring team. Hugh brings with him a wealth of experience, and he’s passionate about passing it on to the next generation of finance leaders. Kevin Appleby catches up with Hugh on this week’s GrowCFO show and finds that its a combination of business and people that keeps him motivated. Listen to the audio recording and find out more. About Hugh Watchorn Hugh spent 15 years as CFO of Bonhams. Bonhams is a privately owned British auction house. It is one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The Bonhams name is recognized worldwide throughout all sectors of the fine art, antiques and collectors market. Several of its departments are established world leaders within their specialist category. Hugh’s passion for both business and people is clear from his time at Bonhams. He talked to me about growing the business. A merger with Phillips followed by acquisition of other businesses. He also talked about the fascinating people he got to work with. Hugh’s mentoring experience Hugh is passionate about business and people. This is why he took up mentoring. He is a former mentor in the ICAEW F-TEN programme. F-TEN® is a unique business leadership, mentoring and peer-to-peer network programme designed for ambitious senior finance professionals who are one or two career stages away from a group CFO or equivalent-level role. Hugh Watchorn now brings all this experience with him to GrowCFO’s mentoring programme His passion for business and people I delved deeper into Hugh’s passion for both business and people. He has already had a long and successful career. Hugh could easily retire and just watch cricket. Instead, Hugh remains highly motivated. He is no longer working as a full time CFO, but he is still involved in a number of businesses. He is a portfolio CFO and has a number of non executive roles. His current project is supporting Prestige Pawnbrokers as part time finance director. We went on to talk about communication. Hugh believes that it is communication skills that set the good CFOs apart. We also discussed charisma. The really great communicator is also a charismatic character. I asked Hugh if charisma is a quality that you can teach. His answer was very interesting. Listen in and find out what Hugh thinks. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

GrowCFO mentor Catherine Clark often finds assertiveness to be an issue when she is helping aspiring and new CFOs. She tells Kevin Appleby why that is and what you can do to be more assertive. Catherine and Susana Serrano-Davey recently covered assertiveness in the GrowCFO Women Finance Leaders group and on this episode of the GrowCFO Show she shares the key messages from that session Why do some CFOs find it difficult to be assertive? Catherine believes that the rout cause of a lack of assertiveness is closely tied in to a lack of confidence and to imposter syndrome. We covered imposter syndrome in Episode 15 of the GrowCFO show Often the new CXFO hasn’t risen to be co-pilot to the CFO, instead one of the other c-suite members is first among equals on the board and has more influence both in the room and with the CFO. A new CFO may feel unworthy because she is underpaid, and does not feel on an equal footing with the rest of the leadership team. What can you do to be more assertive? We discuss a number of things you can do to become more confident and more assertive. These include: Improve the quality of relationships, take time to get to know people better and understand their problems Make time to think and reflect, often there’s more than one way to approach the situation and you need the right game plan Understand the other persons viewpoint, find out the root cause. Often the immediate issue you are addressing isn’t the route cause to their resistance You can’t change the other person, but you can change your own behaviour. If you keep approaching things the same way and don’t get results then doing more of the same rarely works. The DEAR technique to be more assertive Catherine has an interesting model to help you be more assertive. There are 4 parts to the request you want to assert D = Describe the situation Start by describing the situation as you see it to the other person. “It appears that…..” E = Express your feelings Next, bring emotion into the conversation. “This makes me feel……… A = Assert your belief need or want. Make sure there’s an action. Not a place to say sorry. Be clear what you need from the other person. “I would appreciate you doing……” R= Reinforce other person Let them know you appreciate them. A thank you in advance is a great way of getting the action you want. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Mike Whitmire is CEO and founder of FloQast. He’s based in Los Angeles and is a CPA turned Entrepreneur. Mike loves building software that helps accountants go home early. Mike and Kevin catch up to find out how you can use technology to improve the culture in your finance function. About Mike Whitmire Mike founded FloQast in 2015, but it isn’t the first venture he’s been part of. He was previously senior accountant at Cornerstone OnDemand during their successful IPO. His earlier background is at Ernst & Young where he started as an auditor and specialised in working with media companies in the LA area. Kevin thinks this was a ploy to get himself on screen in some major production or other! What is FloQast? FloQast is the leading provider of accounting workflow automation created by accountants for accountants to work smarter, not harder. By automating common accounting workflows and helping to streamline and make them more efficient, FloQast is the place where accounting teams want to work so they can focus on what matters most, even when that’s just going home on time. What does Mike Whitmire look for in a CFO? FloQast are currently recruiting a CFO to work alongside Mik. I asked Mike what he thought made a good CFO and what skills he’s looking for. He gave me a great insight. Mike recognises 3 types of CFO, all of which are good. He wants one particular type. Listen in and find out why? Technology driving culture Mike Whitmire is passionate about people, and believes technology needs to support the workforce and make people feel part of the team. He understands that millennials really want to know how they fit into the big picture. Having an engaged workforce is important, and creating a great team and culture are core parts of this. FloQast introduces a transparency into the finance team, everyone sees what everyone else is doing and it introduces a new dynamic. Peer pressure! Mike explains this in far more detail in the audio recording. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Do you feel that you are delivering your full potential within your finance leader role? During this week’s episode of The GrowCFO Show, I talk to GrowCFO’s Founder and CEO Dan Wells. Dan explains how your CFO Programme will help you to maximise your performance within your finance leader role. What is the CFO Programme? The CFO programme is a blend of workshops, self assessment, and online learning. This programme will take you from being a back office function leader to becoming the co-pilot to your CEO. There are two elements to the programme as described below: Nine group mentoring sessions lasting 90 minutes covering our nine modules over a six-month period. We deliver these online with a maximum of six people. Each session is run by an experienced CFO and professional mentor, with additional input from other CFOs and also CEOs. During these sessions, you will also build up a strong peer group buddy support network. Six months of one-to-one executive mentoring support from an experienced CFO, with flexible timing. Each session lasts for 90 minutes, including a bonus up-front strategy session. You will also get ad hoc support during this period. In addition, you will benefit from a strengths assessment, workbooks and tools to support your mentoring journey. What are the key activities in the CFO Programme ? There are three key topics within the programme: Catalyst for Change helps you to transform your team into an essential business function that creates value and transforms operations. Strategic Business Partner supports you to deliver data-driven strategic insights to challenge the Board, influence strategy and drive key decision-making. Inspirational leader will develop you into an externally-facing leader, a vital Board member and the co-pilot to your CEO. We’ve broken down each of the three sections into three modules, giving nine modules in total. You can find out more and take your first steps to join the programme here: Here is a diagram that provides an overview of your nine modules: What will you achieve? Our CFO Programme will help you to: Discover and work with your areas of strength and development objectives; Determine ways to overcome any barriers to your success; Provide different perspectives when thinking through issues; and Improve your knowledge and confidence to maximise your performance. Mentoring is a great way of supporting your development and personal growth by ‘stretching’ you, helping you to move out of your comfort zone and closer to your full potential. Who is the CFO Programme designed for? Our CFO Programme will appeal to passionate finance leaders who are keen to develop a well-respected finance function that provides vital support, influence and value creation across your business. To qualify, you should be leading a finance function and reporting into the board. For example, acting as the CFO, Head of Finance, Finance Director, VP of Finance). You may be fairly new into the role or still learning the traits of becoming a successful CFO. Participants understand the importance of investing time to help achieve your full potential. Alongside your peers, you will become the best version of yourself and act as a positive role model who challenges the status quo. You will also learn how to develop a mindset for success, whilst living by your values and demonstrating a willingness to expand your perspectives. Who leads the CFO programme? All activities are led by an experienced CFO and professional mentor. Our mentors are experienced CFOs who have made the journey before, conquering the challenges that our mentees will face. Think of us as your motivator, sounding board and biggest supporter – your number one career buddy! The programme will also feature various guests who can provide additional perspectives across several of the workshop modules. How long does the CFO Programme last? The programme lasts for six months and requires a time commitment of around one hour per week. Your peer group workshop dates will be communicated to you in advance so that you can fit them into your diary. Each of these will be arranged around your existing commitments to avoid any clashes. Participants can also select the most convenient dates for your individual mentoring sessions by liaising directly with your mentor. How do you get started? Finance leaders should click here to fill in our short online enquiry form. You will then receive a message from a member of our GrowCFO management team to schedule a call. Following that, you will be able to make an informed decision about whether this is the right programme for you.

Iain Nairn is an experienced insolvency practitioner. In this episode of the GrowCFO Show I chatted to Iain about the role of the insolvency practitioner. Why and when and why a company should call on his services? We also took a look at the state of the economy following Covid-19. We discussed how great the negative impact on business actually is. Listen to the podcast to find out more. About Iain Nairn Iain Nairn started his career in corporate recovery and insolvency. He has also been a finance director, an business development manager and an investment manager. He now heads up the team in North East England for Leonord Curtis Business Solutions Group. Iain is an accomplished sportsman. He is very proud to have been captain of the England Physically Disabled Cricket team. Iain lead them to victory in the inaugural multinational cricket tournament for people with disabilities in 2015. The team then went on to win the World Series in 2019. When might you use an insolvency practitioner? If your company is experiencing financial distress, you may be considering appointing the services of an insolvency practitioner. The insolvency practitioner will help you navigate your current situation. For most CFOs its unlikely you have dealt with an insolvency practitioner before. You may be unsure exactly what they do. An insolvency practitioner can add a lot to your business if engaged at the right time. During the early stages of financial distress the role might be vital to saving your business. What is an insolvency practitioner? An insolvency practitioner is someone who is licensed to act on behalf of companies and individuals. He will act when they are facing insolvency or acute financial distress. Practitioners are also able to help directors of solvent companies who have chosen to liquidate their company. In the majority of cases, a company director will voluntarily approach an insolvency practitioner. In matters of compulsory liquidation, the courts will appoint an Official Receiver who will act as the provisional liquidator. They may later request that an insolvency practitioner be appointed to take the liquidation forward. Is an insolvency practitioner the same as a liquidator? A liquidator is one of a variety of roles an insolvency practitioner assumes. The role depends on the case they have been appointed to deal with. In matters concerning limited companies, the three main roles an IP will undertake are as follows: Liquidator – Acting as a liquidator in both solvent and insolvent company liquidations. The insolvency practitioner’s role here is to realise company assets and ensure these are distributed appropriately to creditors. In insolvent liquidations such as Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations, creditors typically comprise of suppliers, banks, and other lenders. In an MVL, which is the liquidation of a solvent company, directors and shareholders are often in line to receive the proceeds. Administrator – An insolvency practitioner will be appointed the administrator of a company in both administration and pre-pack administration cases. They will work to realise a better outcome for creditors. This is through arranging a sale of the company or facilitating an ordered shutdown of the business. Nominee and Supervisor – In Company Voluntary Arrangements an insolvency practitioner will take on the dual roles of nominee and supervisor. They will first act as a ‘nominee’ and will be responsible for putting together a viable proposal for the CVA. A Statement of Affairs (SOA) will be produced. Creditors will be informed how much they could expect to receive should the CVA be implemented. Once the CVA has been passed by creditors, the insolvency practitioner will become ‘supervisor’ of the agreement. He will oversee matters throughout the duration of the CVA. The ongoing performance of the business will be monitored to ensure the company remains on track to complete the CVA. Hopefully the company will emerge with a good chance of enjoying a successful future. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Catherine Clark leads GrowCFO’s mentoring team. One thing Catherine discusses regularly with her CFO mentees is how to create more thinking time. Finding the space to think is so important in so many areas. In particular thinking time impacts the quality of the decisions you make. So in this episode of the GrowCFO Show we’re going to talk about decision making and lack of thinking time: Why is thinking time important for you as a CFO what can you do to increase your perspective and enhance your performance How can you reduce the stress that comes with lack of time to think things through. What are the main issues Catherine explores with her mentees? The lack of thinking time comes up under a number of different guises. The main issues that Catherine explores include: Proving you can think and act strategically as a leader Balancing the day to day with strategic focus Being stuck in the weeds and unable to see the bigger picture A struggle to communicate succinctly The good news is that there’s plenty you can do to better equip yourself. Lets take a look in more detail. Why is thinking time important? Clarity of thought gives you a wider perspective. It reduces overwhelm, and allows you to focus on what matters. You need to make smarter decisions. The right decision is critical particularly in times of change. You can add greatest value to the business by making more of the right decisions. Doing more of the day to day rarely adds value. You are likely finding yourself in a period of huge change. The last 12 months has seen many businesses rethink the way they operate. Its often been a financial imperative so the business survives, and you the CFO have been more involved than ever before in the new ways of doing business. Not only is your business model changing, so too are customer expectations. Your relationship with employees and how they work has changed, and will likely change again in the new normal. Ongoing change will mean you need to continually adapt your business strategy. You will need to make critical decisions quickly. Pressure to perform impacts thinking time Some pressure is good for you, focussing your mind. This motivates you to take action. Too much pressure can do the exact opposite. Too many hours leads to a drop in performance. This pressure will impair attention, your ability to multi task and your ability to think clearly. Your decision making ability suffers. Stress narrows your focus and perspective. The fight or flight instinct kicks in. Everything looks worse than it is. You forget the resources you have at your disposal and the possibilities available to you. Catherine finds that this is the key area most people need to focus on. Catherine and I explore this in much more depth in the audio recording and give a number of strategies you can use to both reduce stress and create space. Listen in to find out more. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Susana Serrano-Davey is an experienced finance leader, mentor and coach. She even ran her own business for a while. Susana is joining the mentoring team we have here at GrowCFO. On this podcast I catch up with Susana to find out more about her. I also asked her “What makes a good finance leader?” About Susana Serrano-Davey Susana is a Spanish national, and currently lives in Marbella on the Costa Del Sol. She is a Chartered Accountant and a PwC alumni. Her experience includes roles in financial control at Tui Travel and CFO at Cash Converters Espana. You can find out more on LinkedIn. What makes a good finance leader? Susana has been, and still is, a CFO. She has worked with many senior finance people. She mentors both business leaders and finance leaders. Who better to ask “What makes a good finance leader?” Naturally, Susana gave me some good answers. Her initial take was around what makes you the CFO special: Pursue your own authenticity and build on what you have. Don’t be afraid to bring skills that aren’t on the traditional list of finance leader skills Understand who you are in addition to all the training you have. This will help you to shine A good finance leader knows his strengths and plays to these. You will know things you are weak at, and you need to recognise these. Theres nothing wrong with delegating or outsourcing things you don’t like doing or aren’t strong at. Even core finance skills. The GrowCFO competency framework identifies 45 areas. You can’t be equally strong in all 45, that’s just about impossible. If you are weak at something you might develop yourself and become mediocre. On the other hand, if you are strong at something and like doing it you can develop yourself to mastery. Which is the better use of your own limited personal development time? What makes a good team leader? Can a finance leader be good without being a good team leader? Susana thinks not. You need to invest time in your team. What makes a good finance leader be a good team leader? Susana gave us some pointers: understand their strengths and weaknesses Difficult to do when the typical CFO has back to back meetings and a never ending to do list. Don’t believe you have all the answers. Listen to your team, they often know what’s going on better than you do. Have a vision, but be prepared to modify this. Take your team on a journey, as long as you are moving forward you don’t need to worry too much about the ultimate destination. Be aware of your personal style, and be aware of the culture of your team or organisation. You can’t change your personality but you can tone certain things down where necessary. What makes a good finance leader a good co-pilot for the CEO? To be a great CFO you need a first class relationship with your CEO. You need to be a true business partner with the CEO. This means going well beyond just looking after the financial numbers. It means going further than just giving a finance perspective on things. A great CFO will understand the business, and will bring commercial insight along with his finance skills. You will need to compliment the skills the CFO has, so that your joint skills are rounded. We discussed how you build this commercial acumen. Susana has some great insights, and to find out more then listen to the audio recording of the full show. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net