Tag: CFOs

We Are All “Up in the Air”


MV5BMTI3MzYxMTA4NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDE4ODg3Mg@@._V1._SY317_ Back in the Fall of 2009, when "Up in the Air" was released, I didn't see it, but people told me I should have.  I watched it the other day.  Wow!  It is not just an excellent movie and the most realistic piece of American cinema I've seen since 2005.  It is also a gold mine of occupational themes that hit so close to home, it's unreal.  You know, the subtle truths about corporate existence, which are so familiar to those of us, who have been boiling in that soup their entire lives.  Thank you, Jason Reitman!

Our new economic reality of depressed businesses and desperate people serves as a recognizable background to the personal stories unfolding in front of us.  The uncertainty of survival in the contemporary corporate world is so pervasive, nobody knows what tomorrow shall bring.  "Living in the Now" is not a conscious choice of enlightened individuals anymore.  Whether a CFO or a receptionist, in companies large or small – every wage-dependent person lives one day at a time.

As the matter of fact, George Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham, is sent to large companies.  These companies can still afford to hire an outside firm to conduct the "separation" exercise for them, with fancy folders and severance packages. 

In small business environment, even during the best of times, you wouldn't think of spending money on protecting yourself from the brutal necessity of firing people with whom you worked side by side.  As a CFO/Controller, I've had my share of sitting across the table in a conference room, looking into a person's eyes and delivering the bad news.  I developed my own style as well: do it gently, make them feel better, give them hope…  Some even thank me at the end.  Just doing my job, like Ryan Bingham.

He, actually, works for a small company owned and managed by his boss (Jason Bateman), who (how typical!) changes his mind about the company's direction three times in a few depicted weeks.  Ingeniously, the filmmakers reduce smooth and dashing George Clooney to a powerless subordinate: his entire way of life is about to be changed by his boss's decision and there is nothing he can do about it.  "…Here's the boat?.. Do you want to be in the boat?"  You are either in or out.  You have no choice.  You swallow your pride and you go along.  Just doing your job.

What are we doing?  How do we go on and live with ourselves when we fire someone who is good at his job?  How do we sleep at night after dismissing hundreds of hopefuls' resumes?  And what happens when our own resumes get swept into trash?  Do people feel anything at all?  Those are our hopes that get dismantled.  Do we register the weight of what we do?  I don't know.

Everyone's life is up in the air, with no help coming.  Help ourselves? We can try to stay positive and continue struggling on – that's the best we can do.

 

CFO’s IT Conundrum: Owner’s Expectations


In many companies, CFOs and Controllers have absorbed the responsibilities of Chief Information Officers.  Unless the company is in business of creating technology or relies on it as the primary operational tool, it's only natural for the senior financial person to keep IT under her wing.  Even if the entire value chain is integrated into an ERP, 70% of the modules are ours anyway. 

Moreover, a lot of companies are not there yet.  At best, most smaller businesses today have integrated systems that cover all of their Accounting and HR functions, plus a bunch of special-purpose software for other needs.  

Leading IT function is a difficult undertaking for a CFO.  It is plagued by conflicting tendencies:

1.  On one hand, you want to be a strategic thinker.  You want to be an agent of change that will propel your company into the future.  You envision information seamlessly flowing from product design to financial statements.  On the other hand, you are the one standing guard over the company's purse.  Ideally, you don't want to spend any money at all.

2.  On one hand, you don't want to meddle in other VP's business.  They run their departments to the best of their abilities.  On the other hand, if you are to make decisions about informational support of their functions, you will have no choice.

3.  On one hand, you adore technological progress and  you love trees.  You dream of paperless offices.  On the other hand, you cannot let go of the comfort the filing room with all the source documents gives you.

This list of woes can go on and on.  However, none of the IT management issues can compare with the pain of your Boss's Expectations.  I am not talking about a techy entrepreneur here.  I am talking about your all-other-industries business owners.

Small business CEO's software expectations are usually focused on two aspects: implementation time and reporting capabilities.  In their minds, both are in direct correlation with money. 

As soon as the money are paid to the software vendor, they expect "all systems go" status.  The customization, the setups, the data transfer are all expected to happen with installation, which, by the way, is taking too long ("What are these people are still doing here?").

The reporting expectations are proportional to the amount of money spent.  Here are typical examples:

  • if you've spent around $100,000, the system is expected to "print" a report with any combination of randomly chosen data ("What do you mean, the data needs to be exported into Excel and analyzed? What did I pay all that money for?")
  • if you've spent around $500,000, the system should estimate December cash availability in March; the answer is expected while he is on the phone with you ("Can't you just look it up in YOUR system?")
  • if you spent over $1,000,000, the system must initiate a daily call to the boss's personal phone reporting in a soothing voice, how much profit was generated yesterday.

Anything short of that is "UNACCEPTABLE!!!"  And it's all your fault!   

         

“The Social Network”: A Case of a Failed CFO


Social_network_Andrew_Garfield_04 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.             

 

Job Search: CFO’s References Trap


I have no clue how those big-time CFOs, with seven-figure salaries, manage to get fired for screwing up and immediately land new jobs.  It's like, their skins are coated with teflon and nothing sticks.  And that's fine.  May be they deserve such recognition.   Most definitely, the companies who hire them deserve what they get.

Those CFOs and Controllers who toil in smaller companies, rarely get fired for poor performance.  If they are knowledgeable, diligent and hands-on, they don't screw up.   Yet, no matter how hard they work, they can loose their jobs.  The owner retires; or someone makes him an offer he cannot refuse; or, despite everyone's best efforts, the business goes under.  Very rarely one of us gets fed up with the abuse and quits on his own – I know a few  brave people.

Well, nobody waits for the unemployed small business CFO or Controller with a new position.  Nobody knows who he is.  There are nearly 6 million companies with less than 100 employees in this country.  Recruiters have never heard of them.  So, this erudite, experienced, smart and loyal professional is thrown into the grinding machine of job searching, where every CFO/Controller listing generates thousands of responses. 

It turns out, the trickiest part of the small business CFO's job search is the references list.  Of course, you've got your connections – bankers, auditors, attorneys.  There are former coworkers and subordinates who will be happy to speak about you.  You compiled a two-page long list of excellent professional references.  But… it fails. 

Why?  Because there are no "supervisors" on the list.  Well, technically, if you are a real CFO, no one supervises you.  The only person (sometimes, there are two)  between you and the higher powers of the Universe is the Owner/CEO.   And how many of them did you have in the past 15 years anyway? Two?  Three?

In some instances, they are still reachable and you have permission to use them as references.  However, most of the time…  Who are you going to use?  The one, who sold the company and went back to Thailand?  Or the guy who has  been hiding from creditors and changed all his contacts?

Now you have this prospective employer – another privately-held company.  You passed all interview levels, including the owner.  He seems to like what he is hearing from you very much.  At the end, he asks,"May I have your last boss's number?"  Didn't you just tell this guy that you were cheated out of your annual bonus at that job?

Here is my advice: 

  • ALWAYS expect that someone will want to speak with at least one of your old bosses. 
  • During the interview process, never reveal anything that may come back to haunt you. 
  • If your wonderful reference list is not enough, never show any resistance to providing the former bosses' contacts.  It's very suspicious and will end your chances right then and there. 
  • Give them whatever info you have. Who knows what's going to happen?

This is the best you can do. 

Your Boss: Value and Madness of an Entrepreneur


Many of my correspondents (CFO's, Controllers, Financial Directors) tell me that the biggest source of their stress and anxiety is the Boss.  I am sure we will be addressing this topic many times in different stories.  President, CEO, Owner, or whatever title they have chosen for themselves, more frequently then not, these entrepreneurs are the main reasons for our frustration.

Some of them are courageous and brilliant who actually foster and lead, others are batty and lucky who succeed in spite of themselves, and the others are lazy and disinterested who ruin everything even with our best efforts in place.  Regardless, they have few things in common. 

First of all, we can never forget that they are the ones creating jobs.  That's a tremendous achievement.  They've got to be madly brave to go out in the world and implement their ideas, sometimes against all odds.  If they succeed, they build companies that not only create products and services, but also employ people and pay them salaries.  They take insane risks and end up with entities that can afford to hire CFOs, Controllers, Financial Directors, i.e. us.  And even if the Bosses are not the founders, but heirs and the business just fell into their lap, until they destroy it, they are the employers and our salaries are coming out of their pockets.

Of course, as financial execs we kill ourselves in order to either facilitate their success and prosperity or stop them from  killing the business.  And even though we are concerned with our own material well-being just like anybody else, at the end of the day all of our efforts in a private company end up to be about guarding the owners' private purses.  That kind of a responsibility to a person in the office few steps down from your own brings the level of pressure to a completely different level.  It is not the same when your "owners" are some unknown masses of mutual fund investors.

But the most prominent common denominator of all small and mid-size CEOs is that they are all afflicted by the same disease – something I call an entrepreneurial bug. The business development machines in their heads run forward ahead of everything else.  They want everything to be done yesterday, and those who cannot make it happen or voice their concerns are considered to be obstacles on their way to success. 

Because it is up to us, CFOs and Controllers,  to make sure that the back office, the financing, the structures, the control procedures, etc. are on the par with new developments, we frequently find ourselves at odds with our Bosses.  We are called negative, uncooperative, difficult, etc. etc.  Nevertheless, we must be strong and do our jobs right, because if we fail to cover their fast running asses, everyone will get hurt, including the Bosses.