Strategic Finance: Applying the CAMELS Framework to Financial Leadership

Mar 6, 2024

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This week on the Expert Voices podcast, Randy Wootton, CEO of Maxio, speaks with Mark Gandy CEO of G3 CFO and the founder of the Financial Operating System. With an extensive career that started at KPMG, Mark has a background rich in accounting and financial expertise. Randy and Mark discuss the importance of a financial operating system and how it can help businesses get unstuck. Mark shares his insights on the CAMELS system, which stands for capital, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity planning, and sensitivity to market risk. Listen this week as Randy and Mark explore growth trajectories, operational successes, and future relevance for CFOs in an ever-changing market landscape.

Quotes

“My definition 25 years ago of a CFO is the same as it is today. It's a financial expert, with deep domain financial expertise, who has a really good grasp on marketing, sales, and operations, who could take over being CEO for one entire year. Sales don't go down, cashflow doesn't go down. The value of the business might even go up. Oh, the culture might even improve a little bit. But after that one year, they're extremely happy to go back to being the CFO because that's what they love doing. That is the definition of a CFO.” -Mark Gandy [30:57]

“Unless you have a very clear sense of what's happening with your cash and then your growth model growth engine, that's going to show why you're going to generate more cash, EBITDA as a proxy, over time, VCs may take their bat and go home and say, give me back my cash. I think what we're seeing with a lot of companies that are going out of business, or declining, is that maybe that pressure from the investors is saying, look, it's not clear to me that you have product market fit and that this is going to be a company that's going to be viable for the next two or three years.” -Randy Wootton [28:07]

Expert Takeaways

Financial Operating System and modified CAMELS Framework: Applying the CAMELS framework (Explore capital, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity planning, and sensitivity to market risk) to a financial leadership construct.
Liquidity Planning: The critical nature of having a clear and actionable understanding of the company's cash flow and forecasts.
Role of a CFO: Explored through the historical lens of John Rascob as well as Mark's personal definition, tying in a strategic grasp of marketing, sales, operations, and the capacity to lead as a CEO.
Operational Efficiency: Challenges companies face in transitioning from startup to scale-up, particularly in streamlining the 'finding, getting, and doing' process within the business model.
Relevance and Sensitivity to Market Risk: The imperative of continuously assessing a company's future relevance and positioning within the market.

Timestamps

[01:33] Mark discusses the founding of G3 CFO and his background.

[04:18] The financial operating system and the use of the camel system in consulting

[13:00] The plateau in business growth is due to lacking marketing and sales skills.

[16:28] CEOs need to consider the broader context of earnings, including units sold and average transaction size.

[19:19] Above the fold: focus on unit economics and what drives the growth engine.

[20:08] Below the fold: consider operating cash flow, debt service coverage, and unfunded tax liability.

[25:48] The best liquidity model is no liquidity model.

[30:17] CEOs should focus on tomorrow's opportunities, not yesterday's problems.

[33:27] The CFO: financial expert with a grasp on

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