Ep. 174: Pedro Barros - Scaling and Managing a Successful Global Finance Team

Contact Pedro Barros: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedromonteirobarros/

Remote: https://remote.com/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Adam: (00:04)
Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Adam Larson and today you are listening to episode 174 of our series. In this episode, you'll hear from Pedro Barros, VP of Finance at Remote. At Remote, Pedro was responsible for analyzing financial performance for budgeting and forecasting, managing all accounting operations and providing strategic guidance to accelerate business expansion. Over the last five years, he has been focusing on high growth tech companies and was previously Head of Finance at Codacy. He joined Count Me In to share his knowledge on building, scaling, and managing a successful global finance team. So keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.
 
Mitch: (00:57)
So I understand Remote, your company is growing very rapidly. And, I'm just curious to kind of kick off our conversation here. How are you thinking about structuring the finance team during this growth phase and what are some of the key positions or key areas within the finance team you're really focusing on?
 
Pedro: (01:13)
Thanks Mitchell. I joined the team as the first finance hire around two years ago, and it's a team of over 50 people today. I started the team top down, so we really went for, expertise and individuals with, subject matter expertise. But, it was a hard combination because we also wanted folks that could settle in, in well, in a very fast and growing, entity company. And, we found them like I've hired, two or three directors that really accelerated all the finance functions, a Group Controller and a Treasurer. And, a bit later than that, Director of Tax and all of these individuals really, really accelerated how the finance function was structured, how we were delivering to the business and how the finance was partnering across the organization.
 
Mitch: (02:17)
And now I know we will talk a little bit, you know, as far as, scaling everything and how all this ultimately plays out, you know, for the finance function, but as far as the individuals go and as you're going through this hiring process, you know, for our listeners who maybe are looking to jump into new finance roles and things that are evolving across the profession in various industries, what are some of the qualities that you're really looking for in a finance hire and, you know, as everything is growing so rapidly, you know, a fast growing company like Remote, what are some of the skills that you're really, you know, targeting?
 
Pedro: (02:50)
I touched, on my previous question around the deep subject matter expertise, it's folks, that can have a lot of ownership in their role. So someone that can compliment what I'm doing and, not necessarily build redundancy. So having folks that have done it in the past and can come very quickly, has done and have a high impact is critical. Someone that can nurture teams, because we knew at the place that we were going, that we would have to grow, teams very rapidly. And at the same time, we had to hire individuals that were very, tech savvy on the aspect of automation and how to make systems work for them and not just grow the team to address the growing pains and the growing needs of the organization as we're scaling very, very fast.
 
Mitch: (03:50)
And you, you kind of just alluded to it a little bit. but you know, we were talking about individuals, the finance team, how does that really fit into the overall organization? Right? So what we're really trying to figure out here is, you know, how does Remote manage the company culture and make sure that everybody, you know, plays their part and, fits in, in a cohesive team?
 
Pedro: (04:11)
Yeah. On your first point, the finance team at Remote is a bit different from many other organizations, as we are core to a lot of the product development that we do, a lot of the services that we provide. So we tend to, it's a subject like global employment is a subject is very close historically with, finance teams. And we have a lot of expertise in the team to help enable the overall company in terms of how Remote culture is managed in terms of fast growing and how we can sustain it. It was something that was designed even before the company was created, which were our values. Both the Auburn, Marcel, our founders, are very committed to the culture of the company through values alignment. We have a lot of cultural diversity, as you can imagine, by having folks in 60 plus countries across the globe working for us. So our expectation is we'll have a lot of cultural diversity, but an ambition is that folks will always work, at Remote with deep values alignment. And this goes with excellence ownership, kindness. It's one of the, I think it's the glue of the company. It is the value of kindness and something I have to in terms of automation and the scalability of the business.
 
Mitch: (05:41)
That's great. I know you, oftentimes historically I think accounting, finance teams, at least the perception is they've kind of been siloed, right. Kind of the smaller group, you know, very focused on the numbers and getting the job done, but, you know, that has evolved so much. And, companies like yours, the finance function is really more or less the backbone for everything. And kind of, you know, what I've seen through various conversations here, you know, the team that's really driving those core values and just the cross-functional collaboration, the finance team, and those are the individuals who can really, you know, portray those values and gain support, and really partner to bring the business forward. So, I think, you know, aligning core values like that is certainly key. With that sentiment, you know, the idea that, global diversity and following these values, what else is it that your company is doing, that we can share with our listeners that would help other accounting, finance functions, finance teams, you know, grow and manage successfully like you are, you know, on this global basis, getting back to the topic here, how can we help other accounting and finance teams scale globally?
 
Pedro: (06:58)
I think there are some fundamental things that the Remote is doing well, and it's working well, for us, in term one is, the working asynchronously. Means that you do your job and you work whenever it fits you, it fits your schedule. It fits your motivation when you are stronger. And it's not from not from nine to five, or maybe it is, it's not, it's independent from that. It's much more focused on objectives and not on the achievements more than on activity per se. And, if you are on, certain hours, and, the way we are doing it, based a lot on, documentation has managed Remote to grow very, very fast. Our finance team has grown massively and, very successfully continues supporting the business and delivering to our objectives. And I have folks from Korea to San Francisco, and, we are very much independent, from where, anyone is because they, they do their thing.
 
Pedro: (08:06)
They understand what they need to do. Their individual has a very clear objectives and drive for excellence. They take ownership on their projects and, the work they need to do. And all these documented when someone is asleep, there's a document for me to act upon. And next day, that person is live at whatever time and they can pick up on that. So there's always this sense of follow continuous work. What Remote has also enabled in terms of, global distributes companies is, hiring the best individuals anyw...