The CFO Playbook

This episode of the CFO Playbook features an interview with Chris Stefani, CFO at DWF, a  leading global provider of integrated legal and business services.Chris is a specialist in performance improvement in professional services, finance transformation and profit improvement. He oversees all of DWF's financial operations in the UK and internationally, with a focus on enhancing revenue, improving profitability and driving working capital management to support the firm's growth. He has extensive experience in advising executive boards on all aspects of financial management and control, and the development of financial reporting and analysis mechanisms. Chris has worked in many different finance function roles in the UK and Ireland and more recently in EMEIA, including as Head of Finance for UK&I Tax and CFO for the Republic of Ireland.In this episode, Chris talks about why the legal sector provides variety for someone working in the finance function. He explains what it’s like to lead an organization through an IPO during covid, the war in Ukraine, and worldwide financial struggles. Chris also discusses the importance of delegation, coaching, and providing leeway and time for teams to process, progress, and be productive.  Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.--------Guest Quotes:“I liken my job to being an air hostess on a plane full of people who are quite easily spooked by turbulence. They look to me to be calm, even when the plane's rattling around. Because I mean, I'm a nervous flyer, and if I look and the air hostess is panicking, I worry. So however much there might be going on in the background. I've got to present a calm face to the business, take questions, understand sentiment,  and also be fixing stuff in the background without making too much noise about it. I think that's what we've had to do in what's been an unprecedented time. It comes down to something as simple as just over communicating.” - Chris Stefani--------Timestamp Topics:01:35 Chris’ career path05:33 CFO experiences at different companies08:55 Pioneering in a novel market13:10 Leadership through challenging times18:53 Achieving balance during stressful times25:56 Investing in the finance team as a CFO33:24 How Chris’ team uses technology37:22 Advice for aspiring CFOs--------Sponsor:This show is brought to you by Soldo, the brighter way to manage business spending and expenses. With Soldo, you can control every expense, track spend in real time, automate financial reporting, and then use those insights to fuel growth. Learn more at Soldo.com--------Links:Connect with Ross on LinkedInConnect with Chris on LinkedInThe CFO Playbook Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of the CFO Playbook features an interview with Alwyn Jones, Group CFO at Luno, a leading global cryptocurrency company with over 9 million customers in 43 countries that provides services for making it safe and easy to buy, store and learn about cryptocurrencies.Alwyn has more than 20 years of experience as a hands-on leader with a track record of delivery in financial and digital services. He strives to deliver exceptional business performance based around a deep understanding of the customer, clear strategic focus, and developing winning teams. Throughout his career, Alwyn has covered strategy development, capital markets, corporate finance, retail and digital financial services, and operational execution. During that time he’s become heavily metrics and results driven, leveraging customer voice and analyses to define strategy, leading change initiatives to obtain and measure commercial results.In this episode of the CFO Playbook, Alwyn talks about the novel and evolving space of cryptocurrency and blockchain. He shares advice on retaining and hiring in a nascent industry,  as well as starting an app based bank from scratch. Alwyn also discusses the importance of building personal resilience and embracing the latest financial technology to improve performance.Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.--------Guest Quotes:“Philosophy is critical, right? You've got to have a clear direction of where you're trying to go. And the faster you can go to that point as a business, the better, but finance is a key enabler to that. If finance isn't on the case, the business will naturally slow down to the tempo that finance operates at. So you can be an active inhibitor and break on the business, or you can be an enabler. And it's building that shift from, are the numbers right? Is money ending up where it needs to be? Do we have everything in order? Are we getting through our audits? To, how forward looking are we and how quickly are we doing that? Which by the way, auditors love as well because these systems, when they work, make their lives a lot easier.” - Alwyn Jones--------Timestamp Topics:01:32 Alwyn’s background in finance03:05 Experience with Monzo10:11 Building a bank from scratch18:59 The novelty of cryptocurrency24:50 Importance of crypto for CFOs27:56 Hiring in the finance sector39:05 Technologies embraced as a finance team42:51 Advice for upcoming CFOs--------Sponsor:This show is brought to you by Soldo, the brighter way to manage business spending and expenses. With Soldo, you can control every expense, track spend in real time, automate financial reporting, and then use those insights to fuel growth. Learn more at Soldo.com--------Links:Connect with Ross on LinkedInConnect with Alwyn on LinkedInThe CFO Playbook Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of the CFO Playbook features an interview with Manish Sarin, CFO at Sprinklr, a leading enterprise company for all customer-facing functions. With advanced AI, Sprinklr's unified customer experience management platform helps companies deliver human experiences to customers across modern channels.Manish is an experienced public company executive leading finance teams, investor relations, and corporate development. He has extensive experience in building finance systems and processes for high growth SaaS companies, defining inorganic strategy, identifying and evaluating acquisition targets, structuring and negotiating transactions, and integrating acquired companies. His prior experience includes working with major Wall Street investment banks. He started his career at JP Morgan / H&Q and earned an M.B.A. from Columbia and B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT, India.In this episode of the CFO Playbook, Manish talks about how he got into finance so he could be in a position to make impactful decisions for businesses, and explains why the role of a CFO is very different now than it was just a couple of decades ago. Manish also describes what he feels are the general misconceptions of the CFO role, how technology is important to the finance function, what current CFOs must do in order to raise capital, and how he achieves cohesion within his team when hiring and retaining employees. In addition, he provides his view on the current fintech market and how to navigate the new normal when dealing with restricted funding availability.Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.--------Guest Quotes:“One of the things that I look for, and probably the most important thing when I'm interviewing people, is what I call fire in the belly. So unless I see somebody's really passionate, the fact that they have lots of years of experience, relevant experience, have worked at compelling businesses, all of that is good. But to me, a motivated individual who wants to succeed is way more important than trying to find that square peg for that, you know, square hole.”“We live in a world of soundbites. If you look at how companies go public, investors have 30 minutes to understand the story, look at some financials and figure out, do they want to make a big multimillion dollar investment? And that squarely lies on the CFO. So distilling complex technology aspects or business aspects, and the ability to explain it in an easy to understand fashion. Super important for a CFO.”“A CFO shouldn't really view that he or she has a particularly well defined swim lane, they should view the entire business as something that they can actually have a say in, and the more comfortable they are with that, the more successful they will be.”--------Timestamp Topics:01:45 How Manish got started in finance05:20 What makes a good CFO07:30 Views on the predominant model of founder led companies12:47 Finding balance in the tech industry15:30 Financing and raising capital18:05 Views on the current market20:36 Advice to other CFOs31:00 Achieving cohesion with your team27:56 Views on technology within finance36:15 Advice for aspiring CFOs--------Sponsor:This show is brought to you by Soldo, the brighter way to manage business spending and expenses. With Soldo, you can control every expense, track spend in real time, automate financial reporting, and then use those insights to fuel growth. Learn more at Soldo.com--------Links:Connect with Ross on LinkedInConnect with Manish on LinkedInThe CFO Playbook Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of the CFO Playbook features an interview with Mark Freebairn, Partner, Head of the Board Practice, and the Financial Management Practice at Odgers Berndtson a global executive search, interim management, talent assessment, and leadership development firm based in London.Mark focuses on advising Odgers Berndtson’s Board as a whole and others, while maintaining the track record the Financial Management Practice has built working with the finance function to identify and develop talent. Mark led the CFO Practice for 18 years before broadening his area of focus to lead the Board Practice. He benefits from seven years of experience as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of GlobalData plc and also sits on the Remuneration Committee for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.In this episode of the CFO Playbook, Mark talks about his current role as a CFO headhunter, his unique approach to solidifying his place as a knowledgeable expert in the finance area, and the importance of building relationships. Given how the role of CFO has evolved and expanded overtime, he explains what it takes for aspiring CFOs to achieve success, and defines the current market availability for senior finance positions in a post resignation world.Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.--------Guest Quotes:“If you want to create a long term sustainable relationship, you create a circular relationship where you advise people when they want help in developing their career and you advise people when they want to hire people that will help them do better and develop their career that way. And if you create this circular relationship where every individual that you deal with benefits wherever they sit on that circle,  think you provide a full service offering, which as a consultant is all I wanna do.” You've gotta be bright. You've gotta be numerate. You've gotta be analytical. You've gotta be independent of thought. You've gotta be robust in terms of your personality because you won't always be popular. “Work out where you want to get to, and then understand the experience you need to get there. Work out the roles that give you that experience, work out how long you need to do them for,  work that backwards to where you are now. If you are on that path, you're heading in the right direction, keep going. But if you are not on that path then, first and foremost, go and talk internally to your boss and your HR partner and say, I wanna get there, I'm currently here, I can't get those two paths to link up which means I've gotta do something different, help me. And if you can't get help that way, because you will always do better internally because you've got your career, your reputation, your network, your knowledge to exploit to get the move you want; if you can't do that internally, then start thinking about how you do that externally.”--------Timestamp Topics:01:48 Mark’s role as a CFO headhunter04:53 Getting started at Odgers Berndtson11:24 The evolving role the CFO18:48 The process of becoming a CFO29:37 Defining the current market for CFO roles40:06 Advice for aspiring CFOs--------Sponsor:This show is brought to you by Soldo, the brighter way to manage business spending and expenses. With Soldo, you can control every expense, track spend in real time, automate financial reporting, and then use those insights to fuel growth. Learn more at Soldo.com--------Links:Connect with Ross on LinkedInConnect with Mark on LinkedInThe CFO Playbook Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of the CFO Playbook features an interview with Chitra Balasubramanian, CFO at CircleCI, a continuous integration and continuous delivery platform that can be used to implement DevOps practices in the cloud or on private infrustructures. With more than 20 years of experience accelerating business growth through data analysis, Chitra is best known for scaling technology startups. As the current CFO, and one of two C-suite females, at fast-growth unicorn CircleCI, she's led the company through major wins to establish it as a leader in the space. Chitra has been critical to the company’s fundraising alongside CircleCI’s CEO, Jim Rose. She has led the company through multiple rounds of financing, raising more than $215 million throughout her tenure.In this episode of the CFO Playbook, Chitra talks about her interest in being involved in technology forward finance, which led her to the startup world. She speaks about using data to identify and model the impact of change to a business, how her company increased its global employee headcount amidst a pandemic, the importance of remaining agile as a CFO, and why you need to remain empathetic and ensure open communication with your company and investors.Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.--------Guest Quotes:“The way I've sort of tackled agility is by really trying to take a long-term view and at the same time paying attention to the short term planning horizon. How can we think about what's really best for the company over the long term, but also make sure to invest in a way where we can remain nimble over the course of the shorter term time horizon, where there's a little bit more global uncertainty around us.”“I think it's important to be proactive. You should be a leader that educates your teams and provides guidance in an advisory role to the CEO. In this type of market for CFOs and other finance leaders, you don't necessarily know what are the right questions to ask, how to make sense of what's going on in the market, or how to navigate through these cycles. But, financial leaders are really in the best spot one because they have access to the information and that analytical horsepower. They've got a team with that economic mindset and can understand different business relationships.”--------Timestamp Topics:01:20 Career Path 06:00 Comparing Crises and their Effects07:50 Changing of Tech Sector Capital Markets 10:05 Navigating Current Market 13:20 Managing Investor Relations and Expectations 16:20 Leading Teams Through Change 18:20 Maneuvering the Market and Employment    20:20 Being a Partner with the CEO 25:50 Hiring, Retention, and Networking 28:20 Use of Technology--------Sponsor:This show is brought to you by Soldo, the brighter way to manage business spending and expenses. With Soldo, you can control every expense, track spend in real time, automate financial reporting, and then use those insights to fuel growth. Learn more at Soldo.com--------Links:Connect with Ross on LinkedInConnect with Chitra on LinkedInThe CFO Playbook Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of the CFO Playbook features an interview with Gemma Castle, CFO at Cult Wines, which blends heritage, expertise, and innovative technology to transform the fine wine industry for producers, wine enthusiasts, collectors, and investors alike. With over 20 years of experience, Gemma Castle is well versed in delivering nuanced and sophisticated financial strategies in the fast growth SME sector. As CFO at Cult Wines, Gemma has been pivotal in providing financial leadership and guiding the company through critical stages of growth, including navigating the implementation of North American offices. Before joining Cult Wines, Gemma worked in the leisure and hospitality industry for 10 years, where she served as Director of Finance for Travelzest and Yotel Limited Global Hotels, as well as CFO for Light Cinemas Limited.In this episode of the CFO Playbook, Gemma talks about the process of investing in wine and how her company ensures a high level of quality control. She explains the importance of collaboration among the finance team, while providing avenues to give them the best chance to be productive and successful. Gemma also gives insight on why she thinks embracing and investing in technology is critical for efficiency, progress, and connection when it comes to employees, clients, and recruiting.  Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.--------Guest Quotes“I think it's all about having good support. My department’s success is not just down to me, it's down to the people I employ and if they work well, then that's obviously a good reflection on me. And if they don't, then obviously I have to carry the can for that. So I think, balancing the demands means having the right people in your teams so you don't feel the need to micromanage. You want to feel perfectly secure that everybody's doing their job.”“To get to be a CFO, I think you have to learn from your mistakes because you are going to make mistakes, but it's how you then move on from them. It includes listening to people. You shouldn't profess that you've got all of the answers and, if someone else does have a good suggestion, don't be scared of acknowledging that person. Because, I've been in a number of roles where some people have made some very good ideas and perhaps more senior people have taken credit for it. So, it's all about giving credit where it's due.”--------Time Stamp Topics:01:50 Professional Journey 05:30 Fine Wine as an Investment09:00 Quality Assurance for Wine Investors09:00 Cult Wine’s Finance Function 14:45 Finance Team Development and Collaboration17:30 Hiring and Retention Challenges20:30 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion23:48 Technology, NFTs, and Blockchain30:30 Technology as a Tool for Efficiency34:30 Time Management, Team Reliability, Being a Good Leader--------Sponsor:This show is brought to you by Soldo, the brighter way to manage business spending and expenses. With Soldo, you can control every expense, track spend in real time, automate financial reporting, and then use those insights to fuel growth. Learn more at Soldo.com--------Links:Connect with Ross on LinkedInConnect with Gemma on LinkedInThe CFO Playbook Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With 7 years of leadership experience, Navpreet Randhawa has a passion for Enterprise SaaS businesses with focus on the financial technology sector. He found himself on the path to being a self-described “accidental CFO” by having a drive to help build companies and be successful. Navpreet has leaned into prioritizing what is best for his business through the help of using technical tools and outsourcing many traditional aspects of a company’s finance department. As CFO at Minna, he strives to be as efficient and effective as possible by being a strategic finance leader that is open to any options that may help the bottom line.To be a successful CFO, Navpreet feels you need to be practical and honest with your time and responsibilities. If you are stretching yourself too thin, then you need to reassess how your role is functioning. He thinks it is important to be open to using outside resources to make your job easier and better supported, searching out the best specialists to handle tasks. This means you need to admit to what you are and are not good at to help you face and solve problems to ensure growth at your company and in your role.Navpreet believes it is important to be willing to rediscover and reinvent the wheel for how finance functions have been run in the past. He thinks you need to try avoiding feeling insecure. If you work hard and continue to educate yourself then you won’t ever fail, you will just be able to learn new things and apply those to new opportunities.In this episode of The CFO Playbook, Navpreet talks about why it is important to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. He provides insight on his path from accounting to founding a company, and ultimately taking the learnings he gained from those experiences to be a forward thinking and open minded CFO. Navpreet explains the importance of prioritization, outsourcing, and why always being driven to achieve success are keys to being a great financial leader.Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.Connect with our guest Navpreet on LinkedIn.Connect with our host Ross on LinkedIn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bijan Moallemi, Co-Founder and CEO of Mosaic, discusses the importance of automation and freeing up time for strategic tasks in finance. He emphasizes the significance of scenario planning in uncertain times and the transition from finance professional to CEO. The challenges of communication and collaboration in a remote-first environment are highlighted, along with advice for aspiring CFOs on building relationships and developing technical skills.

Anthony Rawlinson has more than 12 years of experience working in finance. He joined Papier as CFO four years ago, after serving as a consultant for the brand beforehand. Previously, Anthony worked in investment banking with Greenhill & Co. and PwC, providing generalist corporate finance advice. Since he started  as the finance leader at Papier, the team has grown to 20 people. Not only does Anthony lead the finance operations at Papier, but he also oversees Data at the company. He believes it is important to have synergy between the two functions to help better the organization.To be a successful CFO, Anthony feels you need to challenge yourself to take a holistic approach to business and be as forward thinking as possible. In business it is important to not just think about if you can do things faster, but what are the best ways to accomplish your goals and make sure you’re spending your time efficiently. He stresses that however you solve challenges today, it also needs to be done in a way that helps you achieve whatever is being planned for the future. Anthony believes chemistry within your finance team and organization at large is very important. Having an alignment of mission and vision is fundamental to help you lead effectively.  With the finance team, he has adopted a hybrid decentralized approach model to how it focuses on different aspects of the company. The finance team functions as business partners with different areas within the organization to benefit accuracy and efficiency. Anthony thinks you need to go above and beyond and challenge yourself to encourage continued team engagement, being cognizant of culture and experimenting with ways to find the right balance for your team. In this episode of The CFO Playbook, Anthony talks about how his path to CFO was led by his interests and passions for the product and autonomy that comes with working for a startup. He explains the importance of having a centralized source of truth for data. This allows the company to have a standard reporting function that sets up the organization for success by focusing on insights and action. Anthony also stresses the important traits that every CFO needs to help them learn and grow personally, drive the company to prosper now and in the future, and how to maintain a content and capable support team.Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.Connect with our guest Anthony on LinkedIn.Connect with our host Ross on LinkedIn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Huw Slater is hugely passionate about technology that facilitates innovation and enhances both people’s work and personal lives. Currently, he is COO at TravelPerk, a next-generation travel booking and management platform that is pioneering the future of corporate travel. Previously, Huw served as CFO at TravelPerk and Typeform, with a long career in finance, business, and technology. Huw has helped lead his company through the pandemic and into the new world of corporate collaboration and business travel. Through the use of strategic partnerships, TravelPerk is ensuring the future of travel is successfully supported by top-level technology. To be a successful CFO, Huw feels you need to do whatever you can to remove friction and extra effort when driving towards success. This requires that you bring in modern tools to help free up your team and employ people that can be creative and don’t just follow standard processes. You need to be someone who over-indexes on being a leader, focusing on the company’s goals first, and finding ways for your finance team to be as supportive as possible. Huw believes the job of any leader, and specifically the CFO, needs to be focused on gaining a return on investments. He says you need to run towards the flames and not stand back in the face of adversity. You should always strive to raise the bar, help set the direction, and ensure speed and efficiency. In this episode of The CFO Playbook, Huw talks about how over-communicating and transparency have benefited him as a leader. He explains why taking on hard tasks and surrounding yourself with great people will help you to be successful. In addition, he provides insight on his career path, navigating a company focused on travel when that was limited due to the pandemic, and how partnerships make companies strong and provide better services to customers. Take The CFO Playbook Listener Survey to help us improve the show. You’ll also be entered to win your choice of the latest iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S7.Connect with our guest Huw on LinkedIn.Connect with our host Ross on LinkedIn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices