Upside/Downside - Grow Your Profits and Cash Flow
Poor profits and cash flow got you down?
My name is Matt Cooley and value creation has always been central to my career, from start-ups to multi-billion-dollar product lines. As a finance executive at successful companies, I've noticed a thing or two about what creates versus destroys value. In this podcast, we explore value creation and share a few laughs on the way to higher profits and cash flow.
Check out my website at www.upsidedownsidepodcast.com where you can share your email for my FREE one-pager: "10 places to look for higher profits and cash flow right now!"
I wish you the best on your value creation journey!
Matt Cooley
Upside/Downside - Grow Your Profits and Cash Flow
Ep 9: Moving Beyond Tablestake Skills with Andrej Suskavcevic, President & CEO of Financial Executives International
With a heritage dating back 88 years, Financial Executives International (FEI) has been providing generations of finance professionals with a strong community for networking, learning and professional growth. In this episode of Upside/Downside, Andrej Suskavcevic, President & CEO of FEI, shares how Finance Business Partners are really in the relationship business, and the days of getting by with technical and cost-cutting skills alone are gone. We also discuss why professional associations are an important component to your career resilience strategy. Join us!
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Matt
Hi, this is Matt Cooley, host of the podcast Upside Downside, where we explore what it takes to be the best finance business partners possible. I'm a finance business partner myself and former president of the New York City chapter of Financial Executives International. Prepare to meet professionals on the front lines of value creation and hear their stories. If you would like to suggest a future guest for this podcast or be a guest yourself, please reach out. Now on to today's podcast. Please welcome Andrei Shuskachevich, President and CEO of Financial Executives International. Hey, Andrei. How
SPEAKER_00:are you,
SPEAKER_01:Matt? I'm doing well. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it. Please tell us about your organization, Andrei, and how you came to the role that you have today.
SPEAKER_00:Sure. So Financial Executives International is a professional society of senior financial executives. And we're an 88-year-old organization. And when you think back to what formed this group, and it's similar to the times we're facing now. Economic challenges, uncertainty in the global economy, and businesses needed to get together to help not reinvent the wheel and figure out how to work together. So it's a networking group, a lot of professional development, and a way to advance your career. How I got into this is, quite frankly, I answered an ad in a New York Times back 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_01:That still happens.
SPEAKER_00:That still happens you know this is the late 90s and started in FEI back then you know was with the organization through a number of different roles for eight years and then went off to become a CEO in some other associations and felt really about three years into my experience with FEI that I love the relationship business I love the people that are in it I love the members and how they approach their work so I figured career you know a career in association management was for me and and been doing it ever since.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's outstanding. And you certainly are a relationship guy. I mean, we've known each other a while and I can attest to that. What kinds of professionals join FEI these days and what are the key benefits of membership? And do these benefits change if you work for a small versus large organization?
SPEAKER_00:Sure, no, great question. So who are members of FEI? It's senior financial executives. So typical titles would be CFOs, treasurers, controllers, any VP, SVPs, EVP of finance or assistant controllers and so on. So we really have that kind of upper echelon of the finance profession that are involved. The benefits of is really the networking aspect is by far and away the number one benefit. So when you look at career management, most people start networking when they're looking for a job, but joining a professional society and being part of that is important when you are working, right? Because you could give back to the profession in a way and build your network. Large versus small organizations. We represent all size organizations, public and private, ranging from 10 million in annual revenue up into multiple billions. Walmart is an active member as an example. So it really, there's something for everyone. We are not industry specific either. We represent all different types of industries. So it really focuses around the finance profession and accounting profession is really our core group of active people.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. All right. That's, that's a good clarification. In my experience, most people don't really spend much time building their connections or their, I'll say career resiliency outside of their current roles and companies. Do you see something similar and why do you think that is?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I do see something similar. I mean, People, when you're working, you're heads down doing your job. Everything is good. You're employed. You're receiving an income. And you don't think about the next thing in your career. You might have some aspirations that you want to get a certain certification or what have you. But from a mobility perspective, I don't see a lot of people really thoughtfully thinking about it. And that's a problem at the end of the day. When you look at some statistics in this profession, the average CFO tenure is under four years, right? In some cases, closer to three years. So there has to be that need for thinking about yourself and your career mobility about it. And associations like we are a perfect way to do that and establish credibility within the profession.
SPEAKER_01:You raise an interesting point about CFO tenure. Why is it so short, or at least from my perspective, so short?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I I would say it's a challenging job, and I think it's become more challenging over the last decade. Increased standard, there's been a lot of new standards for companies, both public and private. The regulatory environment goes back and forth depending on the administration and so on, more rules and responsibilities. And there's complexity in a global economy. So it's a tough job. And what we've seen also is a transition of CFOs not just being accounting We're seeing a lot more people come up into this role through the finance side of education versus accounting and becoming true partners to the CEO. So I think the expectation and the level of involvement of the CFO in companies has really grown over the last decade. And it just makes for a stressful job and people move around as a result.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So this podcast obviously is about finance. Excuse me, finance business partners. And value creation is really central to their success. So from your perspective, what makes a strong finance business partner, be it a CFO or another title anywhere in the organization? And how has that morphed over the years?
SPEAKER_00:I think it moves. So understanding finance and accounting are table stakes in the role. And I think the value creation part is being able to get into strategy, risk management, you know, in all the other areas of operation and have an influence on the organization and what it's doing. So I think that's kind of the value creation piece. And really the reason I would say that the CFO role is becoming more of a partner to the CEO definitely over the last decade or so, more so. So it's really moving beyond just your kind of table stakes knowledge that you need to have for your
SPEAKER_01:job. What about avoiding value destruction? So in my mind, this is the other side of the value creation coin, right? And avoiding value destruction is super critical as well. It seems like this is where those core finance and accounting skills, risk management, et cetera, really come into play. What's your take on that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think they really do come into play there. And it's important for this role to not be always looking how to cut costs and expense management, right? So that's really where it comes into big picture thinking. The forest from the trees approach to things to not really do things just for the sake of the short-term numbers, but look at long-term value creation. And that's a tricky one, right? Over depending on what the business is, calibrating risk tolerance is something I think that's important and you'll get a certain perspective I think from the finance function who I would categorize as naturally more risk averse versus you know other aspects of an organization so I think that's a fine line to draw but that's a potential for value destruction if we get too focused on kind of short term immediate needs you know quarterly reporting that type of stuff versus big picture investments and you know long tomorrow. Why?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Excellent. So I'd like to ask my guests, where is the finance business partner role heading from your perspective and what should people be doing to prepare for that future? Let's say five years out ish.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I would say that we will see continued involvement on a much higher strategic level of the finance function in organizations. You're really seeing some, you know, if you just look at reading like the wall Street Journal, you'll see kind of the involvement of the CFOs in critical business decisions and partners and stuff like that. I would think that's going to continue. I think finance professionals need to be constantly abreast of what's happening in the profession on top of things. They need to be able to really deal with people management because you can't know everything, but you have to be able to understand and empower the people around you that are going to be maybe technical experts in some aspect of it or really specialists. So I think the role is going to be much more broader and people-focused. So developing those soft skills along the way, I think, are critical aspects of it. And like I said earlier, I think understanding accounting and finance is table stakes, right? That's the expectation to get in. But to be able to evolve within the role, it becomes more of the relationship business. And how do you enroll people into ideas, into new direction and so on, which I think is going to be more and more critical as the world gets more complex.
SPEAKER_01:What I like listening to you answer that is you can get all of these things in an association like Financial Executives International. That's certainly why I joined. A little bit of technical training, lots of networking, but you can practice all of these skills.
SPEAKER_00:When I sit in on some of meetings of members and they'll get together you know same titles similar size organizations they'll get together for different networking events but the notion is really not to have to reinvent the wheel you know share there's you know a general healthy sharing of practices and how to approach certain problems even amongst competitors because it's not competing over products and services and sales it's really how do we make the best finance function you know as efficient and possible and add value to the whole organization. So that type of networking and sharing is critical. And we compliment that with professional development for not only members that they have access to it, but also their staff, right? Because you want to make sure that if you're a senior financial executive, you have a lot of people reporting to you and you want to make sure that they're at the top of their game. So an organization like FDI is kind of that avenue for them for continuing education. beyond when you're not in school anymore, right? When you're in the workforce.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Well, this is super interesting and I really appreciate you sharing your perspectives today, Andre.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it was my pleasure. It was good talking to you, Matt. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. And thank you to our subscribers for listening to this episode of Upside Downside. We'll see you next time.
