It's the Oscars week. You cannot escape the promotional hype unless you cut yourself off from all media.
The movie leading in the preliminary rounds (Golden Globes, various Guilds, etc.) is "The Social Network." It's not surprising – the popularity of this movie is rooted in public's preoccupation with sudden success and overnight rise to riches.
Well, the reason for me to write about this film is that I cannot miss the opportunity to discuss a character, who in 2004 thought of himself as a CFO of Facebook.
When Mark Zuckerberg appointed Eduardo Saverin to be his CFO, it was a logical step for the 20-year-old code-writing CEO. Saverin was a close friend; appeared to be versed in business matters; more importantly, he had personal funds, having just made $300K through savvy oil investments. Is this enough to make somebody an acting CFO? Of course, not. However, one could have learned how to be one. It was not the case here.
If nothing else, the movie provides vivid illustrations to what a real CFO should NEVER-EVER DO.
1. The first thing that Mr. Saverin did wrong was not taking his appointment seriously. He did not bother to define his role, his functions, his practical responsibilities. If you are not creating the product itself, you should be doing other things that make you irreplaceable.
2. When you accept CFO position, you become your CEO's partner. That means you develop common vision, you define company's mission. When it's finalized, you shove your disagreements aside and you do your best to facilitate the success on the chosen path.
3. You NEVER separate from the company. All experienced CFOs know that things can happen behind your back even if you seat in the next-door office. If you are on the opposite coast and out of touch, consider yourself out.
4. With startups, you should always try to utilize your company's growth potential to the fullest and then capitalize on it. If Mr. Saverin wasn't so arrogant and argumentative, he most likely would realize that online advertising brings real money only on a big scale. Hence the right strategy was to look for more investors for the company growing with an astronomical speed. Instead, he wasted his time setting up appointments with advertisers.
5. If you want to stay with the company, you shoud NEVER do anything to damage it out of spite: closing accounts, calling the cops – that's just wrong.
6. And you ALWAYS, not just read, but study every single legal document you sign.
Following the film's paradoxical leitmotif of an awkward kid creating the largest social network on this planet, the filmmakers suggest that Mark Zuckerberg pushed Mr. Saverin out of Facebook, because Eduardo got accepted into The Phoenix Club at Harvard.
"You may say that I'm a dreamer," but I want to believe that Mr. Zuckerberg and people around him realized they have no use for someone who couldn't contribute into the exploding enterprise's development. Just screaming all the time, "I'm the CFO," doesn't make you one.
The Frustrated CFO 