CFO 4.0 - The Future of Finance
Welcome to CFO 4.0, where we explore the dynamic landscape of Financial Leadership in the era of Technology 4.0. I'm your host, Hannah Munro, Managing Director of itas, a pioneering Financial Transformation consultancy.
In this podcast series, we unravel the intricate connection between cutting-edge technologies and the financial domain. It's more than just adopting tools; it's about cultivating the skills necessary to navigate and spearhead the transformative journey within Finance.
CFO 4.0 embodies the archetype of the Financial Leader in the future — a fusion of strategic visionaries and tech-savvy innovators. As the CFO role swiftly evolves from a mere cost controller to a strategic influencer, each transition opens up novel possibilities. Tune in as we share valuable insights and guidance from inspirational CFOs and finance leaders every episode, empowering you to revolutionise your processes, people, and data.
Seize the opportunities, propel your business and career forward, and lead with unwavering confidence. Join us in shaping the future of Finance — this is CFO 4.0, your guide to the Future of Finance.
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CFO 4.0 - The Future of Finance
72. CFO Stories: Getting that first CFO role with Billy Scanlan, CFO at The Marketing Practice
On this episode of CFO 4.0, Hannah chats to Billy Scanlan, CFO at The Marketing Practice.
Billy joined The Marketing Practice in 2021, but has previously helped scale fast-growth, private equity-backed B2B businesses. In this episode, the two talk about getting that first CFO role, and how you can build your skills and capabilities to make you a good candidate for your first CFO role!
What else is covered in this episode?
- What is The Marketing Practice?
- Why Billy chose The Marketing Practice as his first CFO role?
- How to build the skills and capabilities to make you a good candidate for your first CFO role?
- How to find your first CFO role?
- What questions to ask before accepting the offer?
- How to make your first 90 days a success in your new role?
Links referenced in this episode
Billy's LinkedIn
The Marketing Practice Website
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Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance. The CFO role is changing rapidly, moving from cost controller to strategic visionary, and with every change comes opportunity. We are here to help you take advantage of this transition to win at work, drive your career forwards and lead with confidence. Join Hannah Munn Rowe, managing director of ITAS, a financial transformation consultancy, as she interviews key experts to give you real-world advice and guidance on how to transform your processes, people and data. Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance.
Speaker 2:So hello everybody and welcome to this episode of CFO 4.0. So we had some brilliant feedback on our last episode about finding the right CFO role for you, doing some pieces about recruiting into CFO role, and actually I've got a really interesting guest for you guys today. So I've got Billy Scanlan. So Billy's actually come from a slightly different industry and has been in role for I think it's about eight months now, so I'm going to let him introduce himself. but welcome, billy, brilliant to have you on the show.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me. Great to be here, Hannah.
Speaker 2:So tell us a little bit about the organization that you're currently working for and what they do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course, i've been at the marketing practice for eight months now B2B marketing agency focused on the tech industry specifically, so that's why our clients are those big household names. We tips like Microsoft, servicenow, o2, telefonica, that kind of stuff, and we provide end-to-end solutions from them, from brand awareness through to demand generation, through to kind of targeted ABM campaigns, right the way through that whole marketing funnel. It's a super exciting business, very fast growth, backed by Horizon Capital who invested in March last year which is part of the reason for me joining in July time and we're on a really sort of fast growth buy and build journey over the next few years.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a very exciting business to join. So before we get into sort of why you decided to join in that, tell us a little bit about where you came from. What was your background before the marketing practice?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I've had a bit of a I suppose a very career. I've jumped around a few different bits and always taken roles that I really love doing. To be honest, i started out my career in Accountancy Training and Forensic Accounting, so I worked for FTI Consulting for a while and now Economic and Litigation Consulting Team, which is quite a different niche space but amazing place to be in. So it was a bit too niche for me and learned loads and went to work for a big corporate. Went to work for AS Watson, who are the retail arm of CK Hutchison Holdings, so they own Superdog Savers, the perfume shop in the UK.
Speaker 3:So big, massive retail business and went all around Europe supporting their regional businesses for three, four years, which was an amazing experience, and so that was slightly too big and we went into small businesses after that. So trying to be to be energy switching business and then a digital communications business helped both of those grow super fast. Take on some private equity investment as a number two. Then the finance teams and both of those decided it was time to step out and become a number one, which is what I'm doing now.
Speaker 2:So what attracted you to joining the marketing practice? What was it about the role that you you know? that really made you feel like that would be a good first one for you.
Speaker 3:So for me, i think the interesting thing from my background and what I've done the last two roles is a little bit of situational experience.
Speaker 3:So the last two jobs I've had have been growing companies that are kind of two, three million EBITDA level and taking them up into double digit and beyond and then helping them through an exit process. So I was trying to find another company that was on that journey where I could sort of apply that situational knowledge and learning into a first CFO role and that's very much what's happening here and what the guys really liked within. That is that background and I'd also had some slightly complementary industry experience. So the last business I was at, investors Digital, does a little bit of kind of SEO, paid media work, which sits into some of the demand generation work we do now a little bit of creative as well. So actually some of those transferable skills and a little bit of industry knowledge was enough to get me in the door and talk my way into a job that actually sounds like and you as doing you everything about it and actually I'd done it all before and could apply the same thing here and I picked up the battle scars along the way.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely, because I think the trend is isn't there that you work your way up to CFO within a company and then shifts in, that you know and then shift into that role, or it's very industry specific. So, you know, tell us a little bit about what you think you did that actually set you up for success, to shift not only slightly cross industry, even though you had some background, but actually across into a different company, into that CFO role.
Speaker 3:I think taking the time to get to know the company super important. I think when you get into a stage of finding something like and a role you like is really key from that and actually be able to understand and talk about it in a way that is exciting and know that you understand what they do, what they want and what their kind of aims and expectations are within it. For me as well, coming into the process and then being credible as a CFO was really important. So actually having people that I could call on and for this role, i probably had three personal references where the guys at Horizon and the guys at TMP were calling up previous C-suite members that I'd worked with or previous backers and investors and saying, okay, is this guy good? can he get out in order? can he give that strategic finance support that we need? is he ready to step up and take that next spot within that CFO world, which, fortunately, they were happy to do so? so that was a big part of it as well.
Speaker 2:So I guess there's a bit of preparation that people need to go through before they actually make that shift. It's not just about finding the right role, it's about being ready for it. So what do you think? at what point did you really realize that you're ready for that shift and that it was the next step?
Speaker 3:It's a good question. I think I've sort of wanted to do it since I started it. So Make It Cheaper was the first one of these businesses to help grow through it And I wanted to do it from there And I sat down have to make it cheaper. So to ECI you're a private equity business And I sat down with a partner there and asked him what does a good CFO look like in this space? What does it take to get there And how do I tick off those skill sets that you're looking for as an investor to get across the line? And he gave me a list and I hadn't ticked them all off. So I went away again and then worked through what I needed to do to get there and with an investor, to take it up to that next standard.
Speaker 3:And yeah, a little bit of it is just that about understanding. These are the two, three things that I'm missing from my repertoire from year round. It was around M&A experience where I hadn't really done any of that. So we did a bit of that investors bit of international experience where I hadn't really done anything around. That was pretty much UK focused. So actually getting that knowledge and that skill set that would help me prove out those extra few proof points along the way was really important. So that's sort of what I did in that bit.
Speaker 3:And then I felt like I'd gone through this kind of growth process with a couple of businesses. I'd helped both of them exit. I kind of seen that a couple of times and I felt do you know what? this is the time to do it and learn enough. And if for some people, being a sort of career, a number two advice, is exactly what they want to do, but for me that's not what I want to get to, wanted to be a number one, you've got to take that plunge. And if it didn't do it, then I never would have done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's great. So tell us. Obviously you mentioned international experience. Did you gain that on the existing in the role that you were currently in at that time, Or did you actively look for your next step that involves those elements?
Speaker 3:I got. I was actively looking for that type of thing but I got a little bit lucky in that sense. So the way I got into Investus and it's the way a lot of things happen, i suppose and especially probably to a world where people know each other is ECI actually impact Investus as well. And the same partner at the PE house was on both boards And I knew that they were looking for another senior finance person in their team. So I reached out and they put me in touch and recommended me through that process as well. So actually, while I wasn't particularly looking for them and didn't target it, it fell really nicely into what I was looking for to kind of round my skill set off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and having someone that you could shoulder tap and help verify your existing capabilities was really useful. Yeah, absolutely So. You mentioned a list, so you gave you a list of the things. What were the things on that list? Can you share any of them with us?
Speaker 3:The first thing he said actually and it's something that sticks to me now is you've got to get your house in order. So actually, as a finance person or you know your numbers have to add up. It's got to stack up, the business has got to be robust And you've got to be good at flagging things coming down the road. So kind of practicing a culture of having almost no surprise in the business, that you know if you're off your numbers or something's happening good or bad, that your investors know about it and that they can take the time to digest it and say, ok, there's something going on here. But here are the three or four things we're doing.
Speaker 3:It was a business to course, correct or to kind of change that path. So getting the numbers right key to anything else and just being clear on what the variances can be in the future, is really helpful. And outside of that it really becomes about strategic support to the finance team. So can you show these projects that you've delivered on to actually add value across the business and that you are a true partner to a CEO or to a C-suite Kind of member to help them grow a business is really important.
Speaker 2:No, and both really, really good suggestions in terms of that. So I guess one of the challenges is that that partner to the CEO piece. So how did you think about that as a, as a you know, and how you would evidence that if somebody asked you about it? What was your thought pattern around it?
Speaker 3:A little bit of is what you can get involved in And as a CFO now, i encourage my team to do the same thing that if you want to be involved in that conversation, come to me and say, hey, i want to run a project, here's my time, here's my interest, and I want to take over this area to actually partner with any senior member of the business to help drive that and deliver value.
Speaker 3:So a little bit of it is having the guts and the ability to go to your, your own boss, and say, hey, this is the thing I want to do And will you support me on that journey? I think that's the only way to get there really is to go and ask for it and create time and space in your diet, actually deliver on that, and you'll find that. Well, certainly I'm at that and every CFO that I've had has been the same way that you know. If you go to them and say I want to do this thing that adds value in the business and helps me partner with somebody at that level, they will jump on it because in the day that makes them look good, it makes the business work, so it's great.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And talking of sort of your previous CFOs, how open were you with them about your ambitions? Like did you? did you actually talk to them about it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, i talked to them about it in different ways and, kind of going through that journey, i think they all knew that that's where I would go The CFO investors, what I had in my resignation very much knew it was coming and knew I was going to do this, but was surprised just how quickly I managed to find a job, the grand scheme of things. But you know, i think if you don't have those conversations, people can't help you on your journey. So I encourage everyone to be really open about it and say, even if it's not in the business that you're in, then being clear, because I certainly I find as a finance community everyone wants to help people on that trajectory and that career path. So if you're honest and open about it, people will support you on that journey to get the best out of you. And at the end of the day, we're a small profession So you know your name will come back at some point in the future for having helped people along that path.
Speaker 2:Absolutely And a whole pay. I find that a lot in finance, it's a lot of pay it forwards. People are very open to willing and willing to have conversations, to sit on the podcast. You know I speak to a lot of CFOs that want to coach and support their existing team and help them on their journey as well. So I guess that's. You know it's slightly unique in some ways, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it totally is. That's something I would say. I'm very happy to help And in my team and anyone in the wider community. If anyone listens to this and wants to reach out and just have a chat about how they might get there and how I can lend any other guidance and support, very happy to do that.
Speaker 2:That's a pretty enough for it. I'm sure some of our listeners might actually take you up on that one, billy. So be careful what you offer. So, in terms of like, as you went through your journey, especially in your last couple of roles, did you have any mentors or anyone that you ran things past? Was that something that you took advantage of, whether that's a peer mentor or a senior person?
Speaker 3:Yeah, i tend to not have so many formal mentors in the same way, but I either use the CFOs in the businesses that I've been in or the private equity investors just to have conversations about actually where I need to get to. You know what about this idea of within that I've also been quite lucky in the sense that I so I play rugby for a rugby club in London or used to before I got to old called Kings College Hospital rugby club And this will be a shameless plug for them as well which is full of very talented individuals across all sorts of professions and different markets and different areas, and actually, you know, that's given me quite a nice network to just have good conversations with people in other industries where you get stuck on something that is particularly technical or in a particular space where you can just reach out and have good conversations with smart people who can sort of steer you in the right direction.
Speaker 2:No, that's. That's a really good shout in terms of making the most of your informal networks as well as, obviously, your your professional ones as well. So, so what do you think it was that actually helped you step up in terms of make that shift, especially into a different organisation? You know, talk, if anyone was looking to do that, what would be your sort of your recommendations and you know, and a ways to approach?
Speaker 3:I think having the guts to do it and the belief to do it is genuinely the first thing to do. I was surprised, actually, when I went out and I had a bit of a scattergun approach to my job hunting in a lot of ways and went and asked for a lot of recruiters and a lot of different people if they had rules around and was surprised that how many of them genuinely thought this is a great CV to put in front of people to step up. If you believe in yourself and believe in your skillset and ability and say I want to do this, people will put you out there and you will be credible within yourself. That's half the battle actually is getting yourself in the door and having that conversation. I think then when you get into a stage where you can plan for anything, you can think about what it is, but a lot of it is recalling that situation and experience, those times when you've done those things in the past as a number two in a finance team or doing a slightly different role. Actually, if you can bring that to the fore in any conversation, then people can see that that gets you over the line.
Speaker 3:I think probably finding the right business is really important. I've got really lucky with the marketing practice where we are a young, dynamic management team. Our CEOs in his early 30s I'm in my mid 30s. the rest of the board are probably early 40s. Actually, we've got a group here on a great journey together. A lot of it is finding and partnering in the right place where you can feel that you're all a team of equals and support each other to grow as a team on a board as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's also a really good shout, isn't it The cultural fit, because I guess going into a more structured and less dynamic business wouldn't have suited the skillset that you have as well.
Speaker 3:No, it definitely wouldn't have done That. Cultural fit was really important. I think there's probably two bits when you come into a business how you interact with the wider company and how you fit as a person. I quite often get told I'm very softly spoken as a CFO. Actually, that wouldn't work in some businesses because it wouldn't dominate the room in the way I need to. But works really well here, which is a really consultative, open approach to business space.
Speaker 3:The other bit about it is you really need to get to know the business. At the end of the day, you are the senior finance professional in the business. You need to know everything inside out, know where the body is at bay, have gone through your diligence on the way in. Actually, you've gone through the stats. You understand them Here. Horizon had just invested in the business a few months before, so I was able to reach out to them and say, okay, can I see the FTD reports, the CDD reports, legal DD reports? What does that tell me about the business that I can then use to shape my thoughts about how I need to behave within the company and how I can get the best out of my first six months here.
Speaker 2:How much do you diligence? Because obviously you mentioned it sounds like you did quite a bit before you actually either accepted or once as soon as you took on the role. How much did you actually do before you decided on the marketing practice?
Speaker 3:A lot in that sense. Actually, i did all of that. I'd read all the diligence reports in advance, gone through the stats in advance. I had spoken to everybody that I knew that might know about Horizon or might know about the marketing practice to dig through all of that and understand is this business credible? What's their journey like? Who are the people involved? What are the investors like? Do people buy businesses that Horizon have backed All that kind of stuff to understand how that overall shape of the company and the growth and the trajectory could work. So far it's totally paid off. This business is on an amazing journey super fast growth. We've done three acquisitions in the last seven months. It's on an amazing journey, definitely worth putting the time and effort in to get the right place. I had two offers on the table when I took this one. I weighed them up and decided that this was definitely the one for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really interesting. I won't ask, obviously, for the name of the business, but for those both with business. Did you approach the other one in a different way in terms of finding that role? Because to actually not only have one role, that's from an FC to into that CFA role, but to have two on the table, that's a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's one of those, let's say you've got to back yourself to get there right. I just asked the right recruiters and people happen to have the right jobs from the right openings. But I approached it in exactly the same way. And to rest, the other one I knew less about was an industry And then. So it was an FX broker predominantly, but they also did a lot of white labeling, of work for mid-tier banks.
Speaker 3:It was quite interesting space and they were quite disruptive in the market. So it could have been quite an interesting fit, but I didn't really know it as much. It was a regulated industry So it was a bit more out of my comfort zone. But for those guys I still went in, still did all the diligence work. I actually mystery shopped them just to see what they were like as a house, so kind of all that sort of thing where you've got to live and breathe this business and you've got to be an advocate for us. You've got to get in and understand exactly what they do and how they do it in every way possible.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely. Some brilliant advice for anyone out there that is looking for a new CFA role whether it's your first one or not, i think there's some great, great ideas. So, if you know, what was your due diligence checklist, what sorts of things did you look into? You obviously mentioned the buyout reports and the investment reports. What else did you look at?
Speaker 3:So I looked at the statutory accounts. They're a bit, you know, they're always a bit out of date, so you take them with a pinch of salt, but you can start to get a steer for, say, which hairs in the balance here are big. for example, do they have a lot of crude income, deferred income? What does that look like? What are the growth rates like? Where are they? What stage are they at in their life cycle? What has year on year growth really been like? So a lot of that was just you can go and do a lot of digging around the numbers and get to it.
Speaker 3:I also found that just talking to people really helps. So trying to understand an industry, go and pick your brains, pick your LinkedIn network, find someone else that's doing a similar thing and just reach out and ask Daff questions about what does that industry do? Who are these guys? What are they known for? Is that a really interesting space or not? Get a feel for what's in it.
Speaker 3:from a business perspective, if you can get your hands on diligence, reports are great if any exists, or any business plans or any understanding of it, because you can see the growth trajectory. you can see what they're backing and why and whether or not that's really sustainable and whether you can add value within that as a finance professional. So, like the good thing I found with the marketing practice it was reading that it was owner managed, it needed some scaling up and sorting out with some of the finance team and just professionalising a little bit within that and that was really easy to see quickly and know that I could add value super fast and say, okay, here's three things that I can do in the first few months in role to actually improve this business and help it on that journey.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely. And all great suggestions. I think sometimes, when people go into new roles, they underestimate the effort that they need to and the questions that they need to ask on the other side as well. So some brilliant suggestions for our listeners. So for those of you that don't know what we do here at ITAS, we are a financial transformation consultancy that specialises in sales technologies. Whether that is looking at a new solution, evaluating your current solution or just helping you to get the most out of your current setup, we can help. But rather than me tell you all the reasons that you should consider working with us as a SAGE partner or a transformation consultancy partner, I'm going to let our customers do the talking for us.
Speaker 4:ITAS were there from the get go, helping us, talking through what the process was going to involve, setting expectations, making it clear that, how much work we were going to have to put in to make sure that the project was a success at the end.
Speaker 4:And then talking us through all our different options, looking through our current processes, making us reevaluate what was important, which elements we wanted to move across to the new system, how we wanted to configure our new system, and also kind of making us sit back and really think about what is the success of this project When we get to the other end, when we finish the implementation and we're in the system, what success are going to look like.
Speaker 4:And actually putting that question back to us and really making us sit down and think about what is it that we are looking to gain from? this whole process was really useful internally, making us really think about the key objectives and which areas maybe prioritise over others. It was also really helpful sitting down and thinking about it rather than one big, huge project actually splitting it down into different phases, sort of smaller, bite-sized chunks, which made it seem a little bit more achievable within the time. And then, thankfully, itas have been super flexible with us during this process because it happened to coincide our implementation with our first ever financial audit, which just took up huge amounts of our time that we didn't expect. So we did have to slightly push back some of our go live dates and thankfully ITAS were accommodating and actually helped us navigate through that process and like to say that thankfully we're out the other side of our first days of go live and, yeah, loving the move to intact.
Speaker 2:So obviously you got into role. What did your first 90 day plan look like? Did you have a plan going in or was it very much a? I'm just going to get in and see where the land lies.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I had a plan going in and one of my interview steps was to go through what that first 90 day plan would be so people understood it and could really see what I was going to do. For me, a lot of the first bit of the business is listening and understanding. I think there's an attemptation to rush in and change the world on day one and you know that's not always the right decision. Sometimes it needs to happen, but for me it was absorbing, changing things where I could see obvious gaps and quick wins within it. So, but a lot of it is just listening, understanding, working out where we needed to go and where we need to take the business and then making those changes new board packs, new reporting setups, new kind of client structures. And you know my first 90 days actually was more difficult than I would have expected because we did two bolt-on acquisitions in the first 90 days which travelled the size of the business. So what I was coming into is very different from that plan.
Speaker 3:So one of the big things you can have is you can set this 90 day plan out and think you know what this is, what would I do? but you know the cards you dealt can be completely different, and I was lucky enough that it was all improvements. You might be dealt cards that show there's, you know, a big problem there. you need to sort it out, but for me it was all kind of upside from that perspective. I think what's really important, though, is you set your stall out and you set your values out. You set your core things out that you want to be known for as a leader within the business and actually hitting them home. So for me, it's about being accurate in my numbers, being timely and adding value within it and then building that culture, a bit, like the PE guy said at the start, that your house is in order and you're not delivering any surprises. So, actually, when you get that right, you set that out, that sets you up credibly for the future journey, whatever it looks like.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and yeah, that's that. Again, it's a challenging first 90 days with two acquisitions. So, tell me a little bit about. Obviously, you said that when you first came in you wanted to get the lay of the land, you wanted to figure out what was happening. How did you approach that? You know what did you do.
Speaker 3:So team well, team B is good at setting up your first couple of weeks for you anyway as a business. You've got a great onboarding program where they buddy you up with someone to ask all those daft questions that you don't feel confident in asking. But for me it was just sitting down, meeting with people, chatting to them, understanding what they did, how they did it, what they got from the finance team at the moment, what the gaps were within that where they thought the areas of the business were that we could really improve, and kind of building up. That gets a good picture for the overall business environment. It kind of helps you understand customer journey, what we do, how we sell it, what that looks like, how we deliver it as a business and kind of working through that whole process and that was really from almost top to bottom. You have those conversations with the chairman, the CEO, the rest of the board, all the way down to kind of whoever you can find at the coffee machines have a chat about you're kind of all those things.
Speaker 2:Brilliant And in terms of how did you approach it with your team. Did you come into an established finance team or did you have a few new members? What was the setup when you got in?
Speaker 3:So when I joined so the existing CFO of the Martial Bats is still in the business. She's actually moved role to be an FPNA director within the team now and doing a great job there. So we kind of reasonably established team from a few perspectives but it needed strengthening and developing and improving across the board. Just because it's. You know, a finance team in an owner managed business is very different to a finance team in a private equity business. What's expected of them and the amount of insight and improvement is a different sort of level.
Speaker 3:So there's a lot of great people in the business and taking one that journey is really exciting for me and helping them develop through that. So, yeah, it's a lot to do. The other thing that we got with it is we obviously bought two other businesses and inherited two other finance teams. So we're now in the process of trying to allay everybody and get everyone playing to their real skill sets and understanding exactly whatever wants to do where they are in their career journeys and actually helping them develop and grow through that process. So we've got some great people, found a few more great ones And I think you know within any finance team there's always a gap for that next amazing person as well. So, again, if anyone is in the market for a finance role and wants to reach out and thinks that they are wherever they do and want to do it here, very welcome to.
Speaker 2:Brilliant. Do you have any particular roles in mind? You might as well do a shout out if you're looking for them.
Speaker 3:I think we'd be open to anything at any level. It's always good to have good conversations And even if it doesn't work out now, there's always times in the future to know good people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i don't think there's ever a bad time to have somebody good reaching out to you to express an interest, to be very fair, and there tend to be the best candidates as well. We get a lot of that people touching base again When you have a role, we'd be interested in conversation And that's a great place to be. So we've talked a lot about, obviously, your first 90 days. Looking back on it, was there anything that you wished you'd done differently?
Speaker 3:Yeah, take a two week holiday before it started.
Speaker 2:Did you go straight into it or was there a gap in between?
Speaker 3:Straight into it. So I had Friday off and then started on the Monday. Basically, yeah, no, i don't think there is really anything I would do materially differently. I've learned a lot along the way and I've got very lucky through all of it. I think it's been very full on. There's been lots to work to do, lots to prioritize, and a lot of that has been jumping one thing to the other and making sure we land it. But I think I've been very lucky in the businesses I've found the people that are here and the people that are around and supporting me through it. So very lucky. In that respect I think it's been a good first eight months or so. It's been great.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And then I guess one of the things is obviously you came in in your first 90 days assessed and figured out where the challenge is it? Talk us through how you prioritize what to look at. What was the? what was some logic that you use to figure out where to focus?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I think there's always, when you start to divide it up, there's lots of different areas when you can work through it. So I ended up dividing it into okay, what's a core finance thing that we can do and do that quite quickly. What's the kind of more medium term aim and what's a real mindset shift where it takes longer to do and we take a little while to get on that trajectory. So it's kind of dividing up there through and I tend to use for prioritization in general an Eisenhower matrix, which is a really basic tool. But I find really helpful when there's so much going on in my head and in the business, to just prioritize.
Speaker 3:And first two axis is important and urgent. So if things are in the top right and they're important and urgent, you do them and do them very quickly. Down to the other end, where they're not important and they're not urgent, then you don't do them or you delegate them away or you leave them until they get to the stage where they're more important than they push up. So for me it's kind of plotted on that and going okay, what are the big things, the meeting we need to get moving and deliver on now, and here that was changing up the board deck very quickly, so that had to be done and brought up to a level that the private equity guys expected or nothing else. So we did that very quickly. And then it was focusing on some of the more kind of longer time aims both in the finance team and in the wider business about. We did some of our reporting, some of our kind of margin improvement projects, all the other bits and pieces within the business.
Speaker 2:No, and it's a really interesting comment you made there about the shift from owner managed to private equity. So, and I think people sometimes underestimate the requirement of finance when people make that shift in particular, i know I can normally tell from an initial conversation with the team whether, which way they are, whether they are owner managed or PE back. So what are some of the shifts and the different requirements that were on that team that you had to then support and mentor through?
Speaker 3:So my big thing about this was with the private equity backers is they want things more quickly than you get away with it in an owner managed world, and I've done both sides of it. So you have an extra rigor and expectation that things will be on time, they'll be accurate and that you'll get good visibility on future looking stuff as well. So all of that changes For me as well. They also like to work at kind of a level one for most of it in terms of information, but if there's a problem where they have a question, they want you to know the detail of level five. So you've got to be able to hold both those two conversations of high level sort of strategic mindset, but also tell me about why this number in one of our regions has changed completely or this things completely moved, and be able to have both of those conversations with them. So it's a lot about just understanding really everything in the business.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And how did you help your team adjust to that? Were they aware of that need for that shift, or was that something you actually had to coach them through A lot of?
Speaker 3:it has been sort of coaching and understanding and explaining, And some of that's been a lot of it's been doing myself as well to set up some things that help them and templates and support that help them get to that level of understanding. But it's been a journey for all of them And you know they're getting there really fast. So I've been super impressed with the team across all of that.
Speaker 2:Oh, amazing. It's all you know. I don't I never underestimate the amazing, the power of a good team. Having a place to start with does make life a lot easier. To be very fair. So so what's your plans for the future? Like, what's on the road map? So you're, you're eight months in now. So what? how are you looking forwards?
Speaker 3:Yeah. so we've got a lot you know, a lot of growth ahead of us. We've done an amazing year last year. We just bought the business in the US a couple of weeks ago. that closed. We'll do more acquisitions on this journey And it's not about integrating those and creating one amazing business, which we're well on the way to doing, so making sure all of that happens.
Speaker 3:We've got a new ERP system landing later this year as well, so all of these changes kind of help and push the business along the right way. So for me it's about making ourselves a scalable platform that we can sort of bolt on other acquisitions to and really give business insight, which at the moment we're starting to do. But we're on that journey about how we can provide more insight across the business really. And then, who knows, i mean Horizon have got a as a private XT, as I've got a limited time investment. they look to do So at some stage. they will look to move on and then we'll have another sort of round of investment in a way we go. So we've got that to look forward to as well.
Speaker 2:Hey, there's loads in there for you to play with. You know, an exciting 18 months for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So, in terms of acquisitions because that's one of the things I think would be quite interesting just to dig into Obviously you came in at a point where you've done two in quite short succession. Talk, tell us a little bit about how you brought those teams on board and how you approach the integration of those teams with your existing finance function.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So we're still going through that process at the moment of actually bringing everyone together, and you know partly that's system time more than anything else, but actually moving people across systems takes a bit longer than you might otherwise do. For me, i've been in quite a lucky space, i suppose, where we're acquiring businesses that do very different things And actually bringing them all together is quite good. So a lot of it for now and for me is sitting down with everybody in the finance team and saying okay, what's your journey? Where are you on your sort of finance career path? Where do you want to get to? What do you do now? What do you want to put down? What do you want to pick up?
Speaker 3:What can I teach you? What can the business teach you? And trying to plug people into the things that they love doing. And actually that helps to create a finance structure quite quickly where people love what they do, are doing the things excited about and are doing the things that grow the business in the right way. So The removing towards that process, it's starting on a real journey through it and we're getting there, which is quite exciting, so you can see people get What's I did about other bits and pieces within the business that they wouldn't have had exposure to in the past that now really work.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and in terms of sort of the culture piece. how did you? obviously the marketing practice has its own culture and the acquisitions that you're working with will also have their own. How did you approach that sort of divide? how did you bring them into the marketing practice conversation?
Speaker 3:So with a one of the ways we buy businesses and we look at growth first and foremost and complimentary services and strategic fit. But one of the other big things on our acquisition list is cultural fit, where predominantly a people business and what we do for a lot of things. So actually finding businesses that are similar to ours and cultures definitely part of that too. So we're very focused on that and that's To the finance team as much as the wider business. So people in the team have the same mindset, the same desires and growth in the same openness that, again, you don't necessarily always get. So that's, you know, help by finding the right people.
Speaker 3:Almost in some ways, i think bringing them together has been I brought together in person, which was amazing. You can do that for less couple of years. So Together in the UK office and that a day of understanding what our vision is as a team, what our values are, what do you want to be known for, what are our big goals for the year and how do we get there. So actually be able to bring them together and do that was Amazing and we would have done it remotely if we can do it in person through a few people who couldn't, because we've got Part of our team in Australia and part of the US, so actually For those guys join remotely as well. Just building those conversations and building those relationships is the big thing, making it's, you know, everyone understand that we are one team and that everybody gets to know each other and understand what everybody does so they can reach out, have those good conversations and just build relationships with each other yeah, we do think there is a piece about make in a global teams.
Speaker 2:it's so much harder to bring people together, but it can be done and it sounds like you guys have Definitely move forward with that. so, for anyone that is either going global or looking to do a sort of a global acquisition, what are your top tips for them in terms of bringing that cultural piece together?
Speaker 3:Getting getting time is the hard part, right, almost, and being aware and conscious of other people's day and not taking the mickey too much. You know, quite honest, that You know for our guys in Australia is 11 hours time difference. If I asked them to do calls in the evening, being clear that it's not something I want them to do, so actually I'll get up early myself to do it or I'll kind of Stay late and deal with the US guys in the evening, just so I manage my own time in my diary to fit around some of their schedules to make sure that They feel supported and that I'm not asking too much of them And including them in everything. I think that's the big thing. So you know, if you include the meetings, great.
Speaker 3:If you can't include the meetings, we run a lot of Trello boards here. So actually On that, if you used it, but it's kind of let's you put lots of tasks and to do this and check lists up on it and everything like that, and for us That helps people see goals across the business and see, kind of, where they're adding value and what the team is doing and actually move things across and move things along without necessarily having to speak to people all the time to understand that. So it's trying to Be really conscious and clear and inclusive within that space and making sure that they are valued and they are, you know, included in your decision making process and know what's going on in the wider team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely, and it was. I think it was one of the podcast I did last year. We had a conversation about remote working And the importance of sort of on demand, like the pull of information, versus the push, and I think in the typical sort of, you know, pre KVP's, it was very much about a push. You emails whenever you were ready And actually creating different ways to communicate where people can pull down a point that works for them when they're ready is really really important and, you know and obviously globally as well. So the global teams, that's just as important. So, yeah, it was. It was an interesting conversation.
Speaker 2:I might, for anyone that's interested, i'll pop that link in the in the show notes and we'll add that in. So unfortunately we are out of time, but thank you so much, billy. That was a fascinating chat, obviously into both your experience of finding that brilliant and obviously very exciting new CFO role through to global acquisitions and building a great culture. So have you got any last sort of top tips for anyone that is looking to get into that first CFO role that you could share with them? as a final thought, i think it's a poison all the way through it's have that belief in yourself and your abilities to get there.
Speaker 3:You know you will be the best finance person in that business, and that's true almost anywhere you go in. You're the person that knows the most when you get into that first. If it was be, be brave in your decision making and go for it and reach out and I said at the start I'd be very happy to talk to anyone either in and see if we're also going for it. Who's wants to get on that journey?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and for those that do want to, i'll pop Billy's LinkedIn URL in the show notes if anyone wants to check it out. And yeah, thank you. Thank you so much, billy, and I think it's a great inspiration for those. Don't limit yourself to just growing into a CFO role in your existing company. You can make that shift. You just need to just be a bit more strategic about it. So some amazing tips and yet. Thanks again, it's been a really, really great podcast.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:So for those of you that enjoy this podcast, obviously don't forget, we also are now publishing our podcast on YouTube And also we have coming up our new, latest and greatest financial transformation live sessions. So what I love about this podcast is I get to meet some fantastic guests that are thought leaders in their own space and been through some really unique experiences, whereas our financial transformation live sessions that are starting are very much about getting hands on with process improvement, implemented technology on all that great stuff. So if you're interested, please do check it out on our website, wwwitestolutionscouk slash and financial transformation live. So thank you again, guys, and we'll see you on the next episode.
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