How does finance impact my strategic goals? - Scott Geller

Scott Geller – The CFO Perspective

Episode: How does finance impact my strategic goals? 

Date: February 22, 2021

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INTRODUCTION
I have 20 years of experience in the finance realm that started with the Federal Reserve Bank as a bank examiner, moved on to 7 years at a Fortune 300 insurance company, and then a 50-70 person spin-off technology firm under the Allianz umbrella of companies. I was with the spin-off from day zero all the way until the unfortunate end and I had to close down the business. 

I am now a financial consultant serving primarily as a fractional or part time CFO for companies that range from start ups to young and scaling to established with stable growth. I take over from the accountant as a lean cost effective option for Profits Engineering, Cash Optimization, Strategic Acceleration and Executive Partnering committed to your success. Please contact me at scott.geller@capitisadvisors.com.

PROBLEM STATEMENT/SHOW OBJECTIVE
“Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to succeed, but more importantly, what’s your plan to succeed?” - Jim Rohn.

Strategic planning is tantamount to succeeding beyond the immediate horizon and I firmly believe the CFO should be at the center of this collaborative effort. The CFO should expand their traditional role from the figures to serve as the enabler, challenger, innovator, and intersection for quantifiable actions. The current world is pushing companies strategic efforts toward a consistent flow of information and decision making in place of an annual event. The CFO needs to be involved if not driving the ownership of tracking the flow of info, comparing results against objectives, and facilitating the entire process.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. Strategic Planning Process
2. Traditional Annual Effort
   1. Where am I?
   2. Where am I going?
   3. How am I going to get there?
3. Agile and Transparent Effort
   1. Continually answering questions
   2. Identifying ever changing obstacles
   3. Aligning new paths or avenues
   4. Decision with real-time data
4. Examples
   1. Annual Budgets vs. Monthly Forecasting
   2. Reviewing Actuarial Models annually - issues with reserves but wonder about finding cause and making changes if more frequently reviewed/assessed
   3. Larger corporations might need more structure
   4. Smaller businesses have ability to move nimbly
   5. Requires continuously thinking about the business strategy

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

1. Parties Involved
   1. CEO or Owner
   2. Entire Executive Team with specific roles
   3. Include bottom up approach for input
   4. Zero based budgeting
2. Output
   1. Answering questions
   2. Mission
   3. Customer approach
   4. Team development
   5. New markets
3. CFO Actions
   1. Challenge the answers
   2. Explore innovation
   3. Quantify Strategy
   4. Collaborate for better solutions
   5. Create proactive strategies
4. Challenge the answers
   1. Status Quo fails if not today then "tomorrow"
   2. Elicit and draw out the details
5. Explore innovation
   1. Fight the CFO stereotype
   2. Enable ideas
   3. Find "easy" with high impact
6. Quantify Your Strategy
   1. Leverage CFO skills
   2. Sales Pipeline
   3. Risks and Challenges
   4. Capital for grow and retraction
7. Collaborate for better solutions
   1. Leaders should perform own brainstorming
   2. Work together to prioritize, combine, and/or build
8. Create Proactive Strategies vs Reactionary Adjustments
   1. Know your levers - controllable and uncontrollable
   2. Scenario Planning
9. Track progress against Plan and Goals
   1. Quantifiable Milestones, Goals, and Actions
   2. Metrics and KPIs
10. Self-managing organization
    1. You've hired staff so let them perform the job
    2. You've hired a management layer ... let them perform their job 
    3. Dashboards with KPIs allows that intersection b/t owner or manager and the operations 
11. Dashboard in front of the people doing the work
12. Initial questions  
    1. What information should the employee have;
    2. What should they do with the information;
    3. How to build it; and
    4. How to roll it up into management scorecards.
13. What You Need to Know
    1. Setting Targets
    2. Setting Target Values
    3. Setting Intermediate Targets for each Objective 
14. How do you set up a process? 
    1. Start with your management team
    2. Decide on the tool ... excel vs. paid system 
    3. Talk to the next level of management and/or divisions depending on how you are structured
    4. Let them decide on the specific KPIs 
    5. Pull back together with the team leaders 
    6. Go back to viewing across the business
    7. Be agile and adjust as you move forward ... what makes sense today may or may not make sense tomorrow and tomorrow is an open period 
    8. Stay with it and keep at it b/c otherwise you lose the value 
15. CFO at least involved if not driving the ownership of results

PREVIOUS : Episode 7 - 2021_02_15 - Should my CFO be involved in my tech and innovation efforts?
NEXT: Episode 9 - 2021_02_29 - Do I have options to price my services and/or goods?


Resources:
You can connect with Scott via his website or LinkedIn
Connect on LinkedIn
See Scott’s Website

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