Ep. 147: Jason Whitley - CFOs as Effective Business Partners

Contact Jason Whitley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-whitley-18919711/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Mitch: (00:05)
Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch Roshong, and today's episode is number 147 in our series. The featured guest speaker in today's conversation is Jason Whitley. Jason is the chief financial officer at Phi Inc. And he comes to count me in to share some of the knowledge he's gathered from his over 30 years of global industry experience. While talking with my cohost, Adam, Jason addresses how the CFO can become an effective business partner and emphasizes the various skills one should develop along the way. To hear more about what an aspiring CFO needs to do to contribute to sustainable organizational success, keep listening as we transition into the conversation now. 
 
Adam: (00:57)
CFOs are now being looked to for governance, risk management, business change, business resilience, technology advancement, and the list goes on from there. Are the inherited skills, finance and accounting professionals possess sufficient enough to make decisions? And if not, what are some of the crucial skills they need to evolve? 
 
Jason: (01:16)
Yeah, no, that's a, that's a great question. I would say that the, you know, the CFO role has really transformed pretty rapidly over the last several years and it's become, you know, one of the most difficult jobs in the organization to do really well because of the broad scope that you just mentioned. I know that, you know, myself, me and my colleagues who aspired to the role over the years, but it's really a job that's almost impossible to fully prepare for and I don't think the skills are easily inherited. You're expected many times to have a depth of knowledge in several different areas. The ones you mentioned, including, you know, treasury, accounting, risk management tax, IT, controls. And then on top of all that you need to really have a good in-depth knowledge of the business operations. If you want to be an effective business partner. And it probably even left out a few areas, but the point is that it's, it's really extensive. It's difficult obviously to have depth of knowledge in all of those areas. So inevitably you're going to enter the job with some, some skill gaps. And I've seen this in my role. I've seen it observed in probably every CFO that I've interacted with in my career. And I think the key is really to surround yourself with a team of folks that are they're technical experts in these areas and ensure your weaknesses are really covered by their strengths. I think it's also important to develop a strong network. I need a network of mentors and a network of you know, technology and technical aspects for service providers that you can really draw on to supplement your knowledge and some of the skill gaps that you have, or just to bounce ideas off, as the time comes and things are needed, in that fashion. I guess, in addition to, and as you alluded to in your question, and it's really imperative that you develop and hone certain skills throughout your career. And I think those can be developed in many different functions and many different roles, but you know, you're going to need these, if you really want to lead the team and be proactive and addressing the problems that come up every day in business. And I think some of those skills specifically would be, you know, leadership, analytics, planning, communication, and the strategic decision making. It's really key that you're developing these kinds of skills throughout your career. And those can be things that you develop in finance and accounting. It could be in strategy, business development, operations, or other functions, but, you know, every role should involve developing, utilizing those skills. So that you're really ready, when the time comes to take on all of the responsibility and scope, that comes along with the CFO role. 
 
Adam: (04:07)
So as I hear you talking about all the skills that are involved, one of the things I heard you mention was, having a good network surrounding yourself with people, even people that are smarter than you, I've heard, a lot of people say, it's almost like you're being, almost like you have to be an effective business partner. You have to connect with all these different people. So we've covered some of the skills needed to evolve, then what's next? 
 
Jason: (04:30)
Yeah, then I think it's, it is like you just said, you know, becoming an effective business partner. I think the, you know, the way that you do that, you know, first and foremost is you've got to have the trust and respect of, you know, whoever it is. You're partnering with the CEO, the general manager, plant manager, department manager, you know, whoever it is you're supporting as a finance leader, this comes through, you know, basically experienced performance on the job. You know, sometimes it develops quickly. Sometimes it takes some time, but every one of my CFO roles has really evolved and become more impactful, over time. So it was more impactful, I would say at the end than it was at the beginning, as you know, I've developed trust and, you know, and experience was gained, you know, with the individual that I was partnering with and supporting. So I think you have to realize you have to be flexible and, you know, one approach to partnering is not necessarily going to be sufficient, over your entire career. And I've seen really great business partnerships and I've seen some not so great business partnerships in these roles. You know, the one, you know, the ones that didn't work out were usually sort of doomed from the start. It was just, you know, a lack of trust, lack of respect, or maybe appreciation for the role or function of the, of the other person. and that was just something that was never overcome, for one reason or another. So I think, you know, as I mentioned, that's first and foremost, is that you gain trust and respect. I think it's also important to know you can have two really great people, you know, it can be world-class in their respective functions and they still don't have really an effective partnership because they can't work together as a team. So it requires a lot of effort, you need to share information, there needs to be, you know, information and thoughts being shared on a two-way basis, you're working towards common goals and as are said earlier, you really need to respect responsibilities and the focus of each other. But if you, if you get all of these in place, then you can really maximize the effectiveness of both roles. I don't think either person can be highly effective. I think, you know, they can still be effective and really good, but I don't think they can be highly effective and at their best, without really the help and support of the other person. So it's imperative that the partnership work well, you know, for the benefit of that team, for the company and really for the organization overall. 
 
Adam: (06:53)
Now, Jason, there's something I've heard, you know, other CFOs, your colleagues, your, your peers say and things I've read that in IMA's research that, you know, the CFO of an organization must not also miss not only be able to share insight, but also lead through foresight. So when it comes to innovation data value, how can the CFO navigate the challenges associated with forecasting and best position the organization for sustainable success into the future? 
 
Jason: (07:20)
Yeah, that's another really great question. I think it's one of the biggest challenges for the CFO, but I think, you know, at the end of the day, the CFO really has a great perspective with...