I help inspire organisations to embrace change and drive digital transformation through the office of the CFO. I do this by speaking at events, talking with customers and instilling a mindset of ‘look to inspire not impress’ into salespeople. I host a CFO whisperer podcast and run CFO whisperer deal clinics and finance-fluency programmes that support sales teams.
My role in essence is to inspire CFOs around their digital transformation journey. Sometimes this involves sharing stories such as how we can take some of the artificial intelligence and machine learning capability used by Nasa to help identify potentially inhabitable planets and apply that to the work of a CFO. Other times, it is about helping shape a particular deal so it's easier for the CFO to say yes – for example, structuring a cloud deal as part of capital expenditure rather than an operational expense.
The key challenge at the moment is cost reduction
Earlier in my career, I was a CFO myself and strategy consultant. These experiences taught me to embrace constant change. In the past, we could talk about changing from a ‘current state’ to a ‘new state’. This meant finding solutions that were fit for purpose for today. That’s now gone. Today, we are changing from a ‘current state’ to an ‘ever changing state’. It means we’re looking for solutions that are fit for purpose for tomorrow without knowing what tomorrow looks like.
A common issue for the CFOs I work with is delivering sustainable, profitable growth for their organisations. The key challenge around this at the moment is cost reduction, followed by how to structure digital transformation deals so they are EBITDA-neutral.
I help CFOs by outlining how to self-fund the transformation journey using a four-pillar approach. This involves simplifying the business through things like automation; using future-facing data and predictive analytics that empowers early corrective action to be taken; creating a collaboration-centred environment; and having an innovation-driven culture that attracts and retains top talent, allowing for continual change and disruption of your market.
My goal for the year is to better understand how the new chat technology can be applied to the role of the CFO. For example, can artificial intelligence tools such as Bard and ChatGPT be applied to interpreting financial information, thereby creating a digital CFO coach to help lines of business leaders drive both productivity and profitability?
Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is reality!
ACCA has given me both the credibility and confidence to make a difference. We are trained to run a business and not just to count the numbers. This strategic perspective has proved invaluable, particularly in times of economic uncertainty (such as now), and has put me at the centre of a lot of change initiatives.
The most important business lesson I have learned in my career is humility. I don't know everything. All I have is a perspective, and every challenge or project is improved when we open our minds to other perspectives. I say this knowing certain truths ring true in times of economic uncertainty – in particular, revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is reality!
