Controllers Classified NetSuite’s Tom Kelly on the tech driven evolution of finance
In this engaging episode, we're joined by Tom Kelly, the Director of Product Marketing at NetSuite. The conversation starts with an overview of Tom’s career and his blending of experiences across finance, technology, and marketing at companies big and small. The theme throughout his experiences has been leading teams through technological leaps in search of greater process efficiency.
The conversation then shifts to Tom’s priorities at NetSuite. His role encompasses product marketing, product management, and analyst relations - and all of it pulls from his past experiences as a finance leader and his deep understanding of the problems that NetSuite’s products need to solve. He shares how he has influenced the NetSuite roadmap to date, and his high level goals for the years to come given where he sees the ERP and broader finance ecosystem headed. AI and automation of course feature heavily as finance leaders look to reduce manual work and free up time for strategic thinking.
This episode is jam packed with invaluable wisdom from Tom amassed over the years. Above all else, Tom passionately advocates for the embrace of technology by finance leaders, noting that they need to become “astute technologists”, especially if they are at companies with ambitious growth projections where scalability will be key.
The episode closes with Tom’s favorite joke that highlights a truth around making sure finance teams and senior leadership have a shared language of success.
Key Quotes
- On making choices related to your financial tech stack: “Be very careful about how you choose them and make sure that the interactions work well. You don’t want to have to worry about the connectivity”
- On setting up scalable processes: “You have to be honest with yourself. Yes you could just put something in a Google sheet and get it done in two seconds. But if you have growth projections, you should probably think upfront about how to build a process that is maybe run on a Google sheet right now, but could be baked into an ERP or procurement application in the future.”
- On the role of finance leaders: “The CFO needs to be a strategic business partner. Businesses want CFOs who can win the hearts and minds of others. They want CFOs who have got data analytics skills. They want CFOs who understand technology.”
Time Stamps
- (1:46) Tom’s journey in finance
- (5:40) Helping companies embrace new tech
- (13:20) Tom’s role & priorities at NetSuite
- (27:55) NetSuite’s roadmap & how AI fits in
- (36:05) Finance leaders are fun too!
Links