GrowCFO Show

Justin Leigh from focus4growth joins the GrowCFO Show to discuss the CFO's role in supporting profitable business growth. We look at the Psychology, skills and systems needed to drive that growth and why the CFO is well placed to drive the business change that is needed. About Justin Leigh Justin's background is working in large corporations including 3M. He has worked in sales, sales leadership and business leadership. He set up his own company 3 years ago, specialising in providing training coaching & consultancy to unlock growth potential in businesses Over his career Justin has worked alongside a number of CFOs. He sees the CFO role as vital to delivering profitable business growth. The key role of the CFO in this context is to help map out strategies for growth programmes, and provide resources from the finance team to undertake more detailed business modelling. Why is profitable business growth so important? Thats actually quite simple. Delivering extra profitable revenue can make a huge Impact on the p&l. It can be a game changer, and is the easiest way to remove other obstacles & issues in the business. Growth unlocks all sorts of opportunities. Executing profitable business growth isn't quite that simple though. It takes planning and focussed execution. Lots of analysis of plans and seeking out opportunities is where it always starts, with one key question. How do I over deliver revenue growth? role of CFO in this analysis is key, but the role of the CFO is so broad that focus on programmes that drive the top line can be overlooked. How does the CFO support profitable business growth? Revenue comes from a portfolio of products, but not all products are equal. Some will be more profitable than others. Growth by itself is not sufficient. First there's a need to identify the most profitable parts of the portfolio. Then address product & portfolio mix, developing the most profitable parts of portfolio. The CFO helps with high level strategy, his team supporting with the detailed analysis. Understanding product and customer profitability isn't always straightforward. The CFO has a big change role during implementation. The budget is a very effective way of driving the change. ZBB can be used to make sure the right areas are emphasised, and budget is taken away from less profitable bits of the business. The budget drives a change management approach. What stops the CFO getting involved? Volume of work is often the biggest obstacle. The CFO gets involved in a broad range of initiatives and is often overloaded. Big tech projects don't help, the CFO is increasingly getting involved in these. Aside from this, Justin believes the biggest issue to overcome is restrictive beliefs. "We tried that before" is a common thing that needs to be overcome. You need psychology to be right. To break through and unlock the opportunities. You need to change the perspective of what is possible. The 3 Step process to profitable business growth Justin teaches a 3 stage process. Psychology Skills Systems A growth mindset is vitally important. The business team rarely meets just to discuss growth and how each function contributes to it. In workshops Justin will challenge each member of the business team with the same question. How does your role contribute to growth in the organisation? Once psychology and mindset are sorted only then can you move on to step 2 and consider what skills are lacking. Usually its about relationship building and becoming provider of choice. Its rarely about pitching. CFO and finance has a role here. Finance need to build models to support deals. The CFO might be involved in meetings with clients. The clients finance people might work with his own team to help structure deals and consider how to make it affordable. Finance needs more customer facing skills. Moving from functional head to business leader Justin's experience is that outstanding individual contributors get promoted.

Andrew Waters has been involved in finance search and recruitment for the last 15 years. He's recruited quite a number of CFO roles. So when it comes to securing that elusive first CFO role then Andrew knows a thing or two. On this episode of the GrowCFO Show we chat about the qualities that a first time CFO needs to have. We also take a look at the state of the recruitment market. we conclude by talking about how the future CFO programme at GrowCFO can help you secure that first CFO role About Andrew Waters Andrew waters is co-founder of Zanda. The biggest challenge in securing your first CFO role CEOs look for experience, and the biggest challenge is to demonstrate you have this. Generally they want someone who has done it before, an experienced CFO, so getting the first role is a huge challenge. Its likely that the candidate will have to demonstrate an ability to: Be a true business partner to the CEOlead an investment roleProve commencial awarenessmust be able to influence board The last point is one of the most difficult if its a first CFO role. Its likely other board members will have years more experience and are better placed to understand the business and the sector it operates in. The new CFO has to hit the ground running with a helicopter view of the sector and how it works. So How do you leap from head of finance to first CFO role? within FTSE or large private equity can manage several in eternal promotions and eventually het to partner with divisional CFO. Then make jump externally In smaller business work way up to no 2 to CFO with controller & FP&A reporting to you, prove you are a strong no 2 and been across all the detail, had some exposure to transactions. Does a first time CFO need all the skills? Whether you need all the skills in your first CFO role really depends on the individual opportunity. It will hinge around the skills of the CFO and whether there is good finance support from a strong group controller. The balance of skills required by a CFO is also constantly evolving. 10 years ago it was important the CFO had an operations focus. In the next 5 years the CFO is more likely to need strong data skills and have an information officer as a direct report. Sometimes a roll can need strong tech skills, other times strong transactional skills. It all depends on the company and the other people already in the team. Whats the market like right now? The CFO recruitment market is very strong right now. From March - July there was virtually virtually no movement. Lots of roles were put on hold, many of these have come back and are now being actively recruited. This August has been better than previous years, September is on a par with a normal year. Zanda deals with a lot of tech firms, lots of venture capital needs to be deployed and for many of these pandemic has been an accelerator. GrowCFO Future CFO Cohort Programme GrowCFO are actively developing future CFOs through the Future CFO programme. This includes a Cohort Andrew started planning the programme with Dan Wells just before lockdown. Each cohort is formed from a group of peers all pursuing a CFO role in the next 12 - 24 months. It comprises a group of 10/12 people from diverse but complimentary backgrounds. The peers support each other through the development challenges. It takes people on a journey over 12 months with a 2-3 hours a month commitment. The first 6 months focusses on the CFO development toolkit. This looks at all the skills and experiences a CFO will need, and is broken down into 10 core competencies: LeadershipCore qualitiesTechnical strengthTechnology advocateCommercial awarenessStrategic Business PartnerOperational driversClosing the booksTransactionsFinancial Planning and Analysis This identifies strengths & development areas and gives a development plan and a route to grow into the CFO role over the next 12 months.

Helen Cowan runs The Tall Wall, a coaching company that specialises in coaching ladies in senior leadership roles. Helen also leads the Women Finance Leaders group within the GrowCFO community. We chat about the issues that affect women finance leaders and the typical challenges she helps her lady clients overcome. About Helen Cowan Helen Cowan is an accountant and worked extensively on M&A projects within the big 4 before discovering her passion for coaching. She was fascinated by the way people performed. Helen was asked if she wanted to train to become a coach. She took that opportunity to re-skill and become part of KPMG's team coaching directors and partners. Ultimately this has led to Helen setting up her own business, The Tall Wall, and pursuing her passion. The Tall Wall is an executive coaching business that specialises in working with female leaders and high potential women in professional services and large corporates. The business supports women, helping ladies go as far as they want to in their careers. Helen also leads the women finance leaders group in the GrowCFO community. If you want to take part in the monthly meetings of the women finance leaders group, they are open to all members of the free GrowCFO community. If you haven't already done so, why not join the community today? What issues does the women finance leaders group address? So far the women finance leaders group have identified three big issues that they want to work with Helen to address. These are: Imposter syndrome Branding Having difficult conversations The group operates as a discussion and self help forum,. with help and guidance from Helen and her colleagues. Helen uses the collective wisdom of the group to find ways through the challenges. Members of the group are at all sorts of different stages in careers, but have tremendous talent. An impressive group of ladies! Imposter Syndrome We talked about imposter syndrome last week on the podcast with GrowCFO mentor Catherine Clark The group is really powerful and full of wisdom, but most members will admit to suffering imposter syndrome to some degree. Through the group though women can normalise their feelings and thats the start of the way through the problem. Its a surprise finding imposter syndrome to be a problem among such a high calibre group. Helen and Kevin reflect that its something they have both seen among newly appointed partners in the big 4 even though the individuals are more than capable. Helen believes that a good deal of the problem stems from comparing your inner to every one else's outer. You see someone who is apparently performing well and full of confidence, but you never realise that the other person has all the same insecurities that you do. When people, men or women take on big roles, whether partner or CFO, it's natural to have some self doubt. Remember that 8 out of 10 people have the same feelings as you. Personal branding for women finance leaders Harvey Coleman's research in the 1990's shows that excelling at your job is only 10% of getting ahead. 30% is about impact and the impression you create. The remaining 60% is about your exposure. Who of influence knows how good you are? Many women will take the view the if you keep your head down and do a good job someone will noice you. Trouble is Harvey's research shows this is not true https://amzn.to/2GgOXBN Women are often conditioned not to brag and not veto blow their own trumpet. This is the crux of the matter and must be addressed, but in the right way. Stage one is an audit of your network: who has noticed the good work Who is missing from that list, What opportunities have you to shine in front of that person Stage 2 is what gets in the way of you shining, and in practice this is often back to imposter syndrome. Maternity leave What are the big issues and how do you address them? Helen believes that the best organisations invest heavil...

Catherine Clark is this week's guest on the GrowCFO Show. Catherine provides mentoring for CFOs and is part of GrowCFO's own mentoring team. We discuss the role of a mentor, the common issues that Catherine finds with her CFO clients, and how mentoring for CFOs can add value for both you the CFO and your organisation. About Catherine Clark Catherine Clark is a chartered accountant, she qualified with KPMG, and worked for several companies before taking on a role as CFO of a global consultancy, giving her 10 years of boardroom experience. During this time she became really keen on both developing herself and her team. The CFO mentoring her own finance team Catherine mentored her own team members. She found conversations with the team very honest. Because she saw people every day she knew their strength & weaknesses. Her people knew she was coming from a position of support, so this led to good quality trusting relationships. Mentoring CEOs in the not for profit sector Alongside her day job Catherine joined a scheme that matched women from the commercial sector to women CEOs in not for profit organisations. Supporting these CEOs made her realise she had a real liking for being a mentor and supporting other C-suite individuals. Catherine found she was addressing two common issues; self confidence; and self esteem. She discovered her real passion is to help people overcome these. These same problems are common across everyone. Catherine finds that its not just CEOs in the not for profit sector, but just about every leader she mentors. Imposter syndrome is a common problem At the core of these issues is something called Imposter syndrome. In short, people think they don't deserve to be where they are. This, of course, isn't true. Catherine finds people need to understand what holds them back before she can help them move on. She generally does lots of work on limiting beliefs. Catherine works with people on their strengths, this makes them affirm why they are so good. One of Catherine's techniques is to take folk back to successes they have had in life, analyse the success, and appreciate the strengths that made it happen. What makes for a successful mentoring relationship? A successful mentoring relationship is all about developing trust. This starts with a chemistry call of about 30 minutes. Thats where trust first established, but builds over time. Mentoring is always confidential. The mentors job is to actively listen and be a sounding board. It's as much about the mentee realising they can get to their own answer as it is supplying the answer. The mentor needs lots of energy, being present in the conversation is vitally important. Catherine finds she must be in right frame of mind for every mentoring call so can't do lots back to back. She gets into right mindset by maintaining right balance in her life. Yoga, walking and some kind of personal mental or physical activity every day get her in the right place. This way she can turn up in every session as the best version of herself. Mentoring for CFOs. How does it work? What does mentoring for CFOs look like? How does it work? Catherine likes to have a flexible arrangement that can be tailored to the needs of the individual CFO. Mentoring for CFOs will usually happen across 6 or 12 sessions. These sessions usually take place monthly. Catherine has a structure, but prefers to work on what is affecting the CFO at the time. She works from current issues, but using a toolbox of things that can be adapted to the situation. Its a very practical hands on way of giving support. What key issues crop up? CFOs often believe they can't ask for support, so turning to a mentor for help doesn't feel natural. Often the CFO feels isolated, and therefore might need reassurance. The mentors job is might be to validate the CFOs thinking. For example the CFO checking a strategy process is being driven in the right way. One big challenge is the amount of new stuff the CFO needs to quickl...

In April 2020 GrowCFO undertook a major finance systems survey. Dan Wells surveyed the entire GrowCFO membership, so the survey combines the experiences and opinions of several hundred CFOs. The GrowCFO membership includes CFOs from many industries and a whole range of business sizes. The finance systems survey gives us a great independent view of the landscape. Who took part in the Finance Systems Survey? Good spread of responses across sector, industry and size 32 different accounting systems represented 29% Single Entity Organisations V 71% Multi-Entity Organisations 27% Single Currency V 73% Multi-Currency Organisations What finance systems are GrowCFO members using? Startup / Small Business - majority will complete implementation inside 1 month / Mostly self service implementation without support (Less than £1,000) Xero is dominant. Quickbooks, Sage 50, Free Agent less so Mid-Sized Businesses - majority will complete in 1-3 months / Needs support to implement by the provider (£10,000 - £100,000) Aqilla and Netsuite performed well. Financial Force, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics and InforSunsystems less so. Enterprise Businesses - majority over 6 months to implement with many > 1 year / Help required typically from a Third Party (£250,000 +) Workday and SAP Hana performed well - Oracle ERP less so - Unit4 not representedA number of people still only using Excel (Not just startups) To what extent are businesses using a cloud solution? 70% suggested using cloud products / 26% suggested using On-premise: with remote access / 4% suggested using On-premise: without remote access We suspect this is misleading as some have answered cloud despite using known on-premise (hosted) solutions. Highlights the mis education of true cloud. The ability to access remotely does not necessarily imply a cloud solution. What does the finance systems survey tell us about quality of software? 66% of responders rated their software's sophistication lower than 7 64% of responders with multiple entities say their software cannot manage consolidations 43% of responders with a multi-currency requirement said it performed average at best 30% of responders had done no integration yet Of those that had done integration,, Expenses, CRM, BI, Excel were most popular Only 42% people felt they would be using their system again in 5 years 11% would not recommend their solution to anyone! 92% of responders can access the software remotely (cloud or remote access to on-premise) Only 50% of responders get automatic updates 25% of responders rated their finance system a 5 or less with respect to it how closely it meets their current requirements / 46% 8 or above 10% currently looking to replace Of the 16 mainstream systems reviewed, only 7 performed 7 or higher for 'Meets Requirements' Its generally accepted that you're doing well if your system does 80% of what you need it to. Once you are doing more outside your system than inside, its a true sign you need to make a change. What does the survey tell us about the future? The top 5 innovations responders plan to implement in the years ahead are: API Integrations Advanced Business Intelligence Workflows Mobile Expenses Cloud Technology Only 5% suggested they would not be implementing anything - the adoption of tech is in front of mind In summary the GrowCFO Finance Systems Survey shows: Modern cloud tech was the overall clear winner A lot of businesses appear to 'settle' for their software and find workarounds to fill voids Many poor systems are still in use. This may be fear of cost to change Current system might do more than you suspect - especially if handover from your predecessor lacked information in this area. Poor account management may also be a factor - challenge them about what is possible. If foundations are not right, future plans will eventually suffer. Clearly still a big miseducation around cloud

Stuart Trood is a portfolio CFO. He undertakes the CFO role for a number of different clients, each on a part time basis. We caught up with Stuart to find out more about the work of the portfolio CFO and find out how to become one. Stuart also explains to us the importance of a support network of fellow portfolio CFOs. Stuart Trood portfolio CFO Stuart Trood has undertaken previous full time roles as both a CFO and a CEO. He worked for a range of businesses from large corporations to startups over a period of 30 years. Stuart wanted to take this experience and use it to help smaller businesses. Stuart wants the choice of working for businesses that interest him. He also wants freedom in the way he can use his time. He manages his commitments to maximise the time he can spend working on the things he enjoys most and to achieve a better balance between work and family life. Stuart became a portfolio CFO following the sale of his previous business. Following the sale he wanted to do something completely different and ddeliberately chose not to return to corporate life. Does a portfolio CFO work fewer hours? The portfolio CFO has the ability to work as much or as little as he chooses. The big challenge is balancing what you want to do and how you want to work with demands of the client. Stuart doesn't work any less but has more choice in what he does and when he does it. He wants to be involved in managing the business and not just the numbers. The portfolio CFO has more choice and can easily get involved in direction and strategy of the business in a hands on way. This may mean he works more rather than less. How do you switch from corporate to portfolio CFO? Stuart was fortunate. His transition was relatively easy. Following a business sale he got his first portfolio role quite quickly, but didn't have the financial pressure of needing to immediately find other roles. He had time to develop his portfolio. Stuart found networking a key requirement. Joining the right networking groups is important. No matter how much you network its unlikely that everything will come together immediately. You need to be patient while your portfolio develops. You also need to be dogmatic, and stick with your vision. Its all too easy to give up too soon or take an opportunity that doesn't align with what you really want to do because you simply need the income. There are various agencies for portfolio CFOs that will help you find work. Its worth investigating these. You can register with more that one. Covid-19 has changed  the market Covid -19 seems to have increased the opportunities for portfolio CFOs. This has happened in two ways: Some businesses are struggling to afford a full time finance professional.  They realise they can buy part time support from a portfolio CFO rather than employing their own CFO. Other businesses  may never have employed a senior finance person. They are realising they need extra support. Many of these can't afford the extra member of staff but may be able to afford one or two days a week from a portfolio CFO. What does Portfolio CFO do? The portfolio CFO isn't necessarily doing the books and the accounts. He may take on more of an oversight role. Alternately he might have more of a project focus. This can be business turnaround, or doing finance transformation. On the other hand, the portfolio CFO might find it interesting to go back to the basics. It can be refreshing after corporate to be more hands on again. He can do some bookkeeping and  use systems like Xero "hands-on". Stuart has found lots of variety. Covid has meant he has been involved in loan applications and managing the furlough scheme for his clients. Can GrowCFO help the portfolio CFO? Stuart originally came into contact with Dan Wells and the GrowCFO network because he wanted new networking opportunities with his peers. He has ended up running the portfolio CFOs community within GrowCFO.

This week's GrowCFO Show guest is Chris Tredwell. Chris runs the Future of the Finance Function topic in GrowCFO. Chris hosts a regular weekly live session over Zoom discussing the many different aspects of the topic. These sessions are free for any member of the GrowCFO community to attend. Introducing Chris Tredwell Chris Tredwell is currently part of the team at Aqilla. Before Aqilla he worked for a series of innovative tech companies from various industries. This led him to working with business and individuals all over the world. His passion is  to help his customers address their toughest problems and work with them to find best in class solutions. Chris has international experience that spans SME’s, blue chip organisations, government entities as well as Industry associations and startups. He has managed relationships throughout the business hierarchy from entry level professionals through to C suite executives. Who are Aqilla? Aqilla is a modern Cloud based, multi currency accounting solution designed to suit the needs of demanding mid-sized (mid market) organisations. Its one of the systems to look at when you have outgrown Xero and Quickbooks. Gartner describes Aqilla as "Post modern ERP". What is the future of the finance function? The aim of future of the finance function is to allow CFOs to collaborate and understand the issues that the modern finance function needs to tackle to stay abreast of technology. The format is a weekly meeting, every Tuesday, using Zoom. The Zoom call is open to all members of the GrowCFO portal. These sessions can be discussions amongst members, or a subject matter expert giving a presentation followed by a Q&A. Chris arranges and chairs each session. Though he works for Aqilla, he remains impartial and the future of the finance function sessions are generally technologically agnostic. We record each session. Recordings are published within the premium section of GrowCFO meaning that premium members can access the back catalogue of topics covered whenever they need. What topics has Future of the Finance Function covered? The very first session was an open discussion amongst members and this highlighted quite a number of areas that the community wanted to explore further. From this Chris compiled a list of topics for future sessions, the things that CFOs wanted most. So far these have covered: Remote finance function, a very timely session as many CFOs were struggling with remote working at the beginning of lockdown The results of the finance systems survey, where the community pooled their combined experience. Automation and integration. This continues to be one of the hottest topics CFOs want to know more about BI tools helping CFOs provide more insights into their business. Managing change. Most CFOs haven't been trained in change and lack skills in this area. Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, the Wild West for many CFOs. Digital Transformation, which impacts the whole business and draws the CFO out of his comfort zone. Just joining GrowCFO now? Don't worry, you haven't missed out on all of this. We record every session. Become a premium member and theres a whole back catalogue of recordings you can access. How does the Future of the Finance Function community work? Many CFOs have made the leap from a financial accounting role into the boardroom. GrowCFO helps those CFOs develop the skills they need to become a strategic advisor to the board. Some members aspire to be the next generation of CFO while others have many years of experience. GrowCFO's role is to allow you to collaborate and network. The future of the finance community is all about sharing knowledge. You can learn from other CFOs who have been there and done it. Many CFOs feel isolated and the CFO community can help break this. Future topics There's still lots to talk about. Some of the topics in the pipeline include: Making tax digital which is fast  becoming a hot ...

Welcome to the very first episode of the GrowCFO Show. In this episode Kevin Appleby chats to GrowCFO founder, Dan Wells, about why he left the "big 4" to set up the GrowCFO network. We chat about GrowCFO and what it offers to both existing and aspiring chief financial officers. Play the audio version Or watch the video https://youtu.be/IzGeW50AehU Who is GrowCFO founder Dan Wells? Dan is a chartered accountant with almost 20 years experience in the big 4. Latterly he was an equity partner in KPMG. His role made him a trusted business advisor to entrepreneurial businesses who have built and sold their companies for a combined billions of pounds. He is an FCA member of the ICAEW (ACA-qualified in 2004) and has a first-class degree in mathematics from Durham University. Dan has a great working knowledge of most common business challenges and opportunities, and a strong track record of supporting businesses and their key executives throughout their life cycles. You can check out Dan's LinkedIn profile Why did Dan Found GrowCFO Dan met many CFOs as part of his last big 4 role. There was a common question that they all asked him. He found that CFOs always wanted to know what their peers were doing. Dan realised the finance community needed a easy way to collaborate. CFOs needed a place they could share their knowledge, network, and talk about shared issues. Dan observed that CFOs often feel lonely, and have few people to turn to within their own organisation or immediate circle of associates for good advice or to debate issues. Dan decided to do something to solve the problem and started GrowCFO. The initial GrowCFO portal contained interesting articles and allowed the community to start talking and sharing. GrowCFO arranged many Zoom session, allowing members to chat about interesting topics. These really developed during the early stages of lockdown when CFOs were keen to chat to their peers and find out how each other were coping in crisis. These discussions lead to GrowCFO developing white papers, particularly looking at how individual industry groups were being affected by Covid-19. Polls and surveys have followed, and these have been a great way of bringing together the expanse of members knowledge into easy to distil findings. Who is GrowCFO intended to help? Dan sees four distinct groups of GrowCFO member Future CFOs; those that aspire to take on the CFO role in the near future.1st Time CFOs, still growing into the role and wanting to extend their skills and knowledgeExperienced CFOs with lots of experience to share with the communityPortfolio CFOs, working part time across a number of different organisations. GrowCFO gives something specific and unique to each of the 4 groups, but the dynamics of these 4 types of finance leader collaborating and sharing with each other collectively is very powerful. The role of the CFO is constantly evolving, and there are always new things to keep up with and learn about irrespective of your background or years of experience. The Future CFO programme The GrowCFO Future CFO programme has been borne out of lots of discussion with our community of aspiring CFOs. The next generation of finance leaders. We realised that something needed to be done to help folk who had moved up through financial controller and head of finance roles to transition from back office to boardroom. Most business accountants qualify early in their career, and learned about the basics of accounting, law, tax, and financial reporting. They now need to be future facing and operate strategically at board level. The big challenge is learning how to become the catalyst of change in the organisation. The Future CFO programme is mostly online self paced learning, and can be found in the GrowCFO learning centre. It contains lots of individual lessons, many with video input from our experienced CFO community.