Name: Future of Finance 2024: The Evolving Role of the CFO
Uploaded: 2024-05-16
Duration: 18 min 27 s
Description: Yanela Frias, Chief Financial Officer, Prudential Xihao Hu, Chief Financial Officer, TD Securities Wetteny, Joseph, Chief Financial Officer, Zoetis Moderator: Sheryl Estrada, FORTUNE

Yanela Frias, Chief Financial Officer, Prudential Xihao Hu, Chief Financial Officer, TD Securities Wetteny, Joseph, Chief Financial Officer, Zoetis Moderator: Sheryl Estrada, FORTUNE

Future of Finance 2024: The Evolving Role of the CFO

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Hi, everyone. Thank you all for being with us today. So traditionally, when you think of the role of the CFO, you think of maybe managing financial recordkeeping and things of that sort, but the rule has since evolved over the years to be more encompass many more things. So I wanted to get your take on how the role has evolved from your perspective. I'll start with you, Janella. Sure. Um Yeah, it's definitely evolved incredibly and, and part of it is the, the complex world we live in, but I'd say what you just mentioned, sort of the table stakes and we just spend much more time on what the strategy and the direction of the company should be execution of that strategy and making sure that we're executing appropriately operational efficiency, technology, understanding it and I implementing it throughout the organization A I. Um and, and then, you know, we're, you, we're really becoming a second spokesperson for the, for the organization, right? So you've got the CEO and then the CFO and, and in our industry highly regulated, that means you're spending time with investors, analysts, regulators, uh customers. And so like I like to say, we end up having to know everything about everything. I feel like we're talking about this topic for a long time. I think when I met you, we were talking about the future of finance and, and CFO and I was looking at one of the, um, uh, um, blueprint that we had put forth to our colleagues in finance. Uh, last year, it's called Finance blueprint. And look at four areas that, that future, uh finance person or CFO would need to do. The first one is deliver a strategic advice like J I just said, and uh and, and with the enterprise angle, so each of the CFO S for the segments have their segment views like a small home and they have a bigger home for enterprise. That's number one, number two is to build strong capabilities and tools uh for our people to deliver the stuff we need to deliver because it's much more complicated. So we need to have better tools. Number three is to provide effective challenge and effective control, which is very important as well because CFO should not be a cake watch and should not be just a rollover. When someone asks for, you know, resources, ask for investments, you should stand up to what you believe is, right? Give a, a voice at the bank. The last one is to give a rewarding experience to all of our colleagues in finance so we can grow together. And so I think those four areas represent the future of finance as CFO as well. Thank you, Whitney. Yeah, look, the danger in coming in third is that you get to agree what, what's already been said? Uh But look, I think Janella uh is correct in that you're in the middle of everything and over time and I think it's going to continue to evolve, but you're becoming a lot more like a coo because it's, it's one thing to be really engaged and involved in the set of the setting of the strategy and deploying capital. But we're operating in a world that's so dynamic that you wake up every day to something that's shifting and changing, whether it's with your customer or the markets, you're in your competition. And that means that you then have to redeploy and find opportunities to shift and move while staying focused on the main strategic objectives that you have. And so that means it's a full contact sport that you're constantly having to do that and operating like a coo whether you have a CEO in your company or not, you're wearing that hat. And so I do think there's a big stewardship responsibility that you have uh in terms of the company's assets, leading the finance function, engaging with investors and so on. But then there's this other component which is really actively engaging in how you execute that strategy and all the changes that come in. Uh So Shiha in the role of CFO uh you're always looking for ways to improve efficiency across organizations. Um What are some of the ways that you do that at TV? Yeah, I think General said earlier as well, you got to improve efficiency, improve the execution, to make everything run a little bit smoothly and hence your comment as the chief operating officer. And recently we launched a program at TD Enterprise Wide and I'm part of preservation and finance leads that and we call it C three. So it's capacity, complexity and cost. So it's essentially increase capacity, right? And reduce complexity and then save some money at the end. And so, so when you position that way, it's not always about just taking a few dollars away from the budget, it's trying to create better ways of doing things uh whether it's how you execute a project, whether just simply getting a sow approved through the process, how do we save some steps uh still have effective control, but then get the best experience to our people to get stuff done within the company and at the same time, reduce our expenses. So that's one of the things we're working on recently. Yeah, you know, we obviously every company focuses on operational e we think about it as continuous improvement, right? You constantly have to improve and keep up because we have inflation. We have all the challenges that we're dealing with. We need to continue to invest in our businesses and our growth. So it's a continuous improvement and I always talk about it as we are making a lifestyle change. We're not in a diet here. It's a lifestyle change and it's continuous improvement. And you always have like innovation in mind as well as you can just make those changes to create ideas and implement those ideas to self invests in a way. Yeah. Look, there's a never ending sort of demand on our time and our people's time to address more and more on the stewardship part of the equation, right? Uh whether you look at regulations that are coming in, uh ESG CS RD, et cetera, you can go on and on and changing shifts in the business are going to require that we and our teams are engaging to do those things. And so if you don't deliberately look for those efficiencies, then you won't have enough capacity or resource to then uh proactively engage in the business in a way again, going back to that coo mentality and that execution and actually getting out and understand what's happening customers so that you can then be able to understand what the value is and what you're doing and how you can shift uh uh sort of allocation of capital as well. So it's actually a requirement and if you don't do it, you have less and less of your time actually devoted to that part in regard to efficiencies. Where does technology come in? Is it is it an aid um in, in order to reach those goals. Um we, we're talking here about, you know, the future of finance A I things of that sort. So just wondering um maybe see how you can. Yeah, I think technology definitely plays a big role and also data played a pretty big role as well in order to execute some of the technology studies, especially A I, you got to have a good quality data and also can fetch those data much more easily. I think one of the things for banks are like we cover a lot of banks together through acquisitions. Sometimes we don't quite streamline the data piece. So right now like we're building a good foundation, hopefully we can have efficient data delivery and accurate data delivery to people so we can use those data to create more value using technology. Yeah, Cheryl I would add, you know, technology has always been an an enabler, but now it's a strategic enabler and a critical one like you just can't operate, you can't meet the customer needs, you can't provide the customer experience that is required without technology. And that's really the way it's evolved over the recent years and it's just a critical enabler. It's a competitive edge now and you know, you get your table steak done and then a little bit more so you can win over your customers and and actually make your colleague's life a little bit better as well. And it becomes a critical part of how in the context of finance and then we think about it in the context of the enterprise. But in the context of finance is just another tool that help you to be able to free your resources uh to do things that you can then be able to go out and actually ask questions. I mean, we look at a I it's a, it's a tool that can help drive productivity. But quite frankly, I always say one of the gauges I use is is my function asking as many questions of the business as the business is asking you of my function, right? And it's a sort of a loose gauge that says, how well are we uh you know, looking at what's happening on the outside? What does it mean to us on the inside in terms of the products and services that we're offering? And are we challenging the business enough? And sometimes it's not just being the recipient of a business uh sort of um case to evaluate and say yes or no to make these adjustments, actually asking the questions on what would it mean if we had this much more to invest in this area? So actually being a growth ally for innovation, ally and so being able to do that and using technology to free up. And A I is another means to ask a lot of questions by the way. And so we're gonna have to sharpen our, our, our ways of, of doing that, whether it's directly with, with each other or through the prompts that we, that we put in uh into the A I tool uh Janella, since uh technology is going to kind of, you know, change the way the finance organization functions that brings to question uh talent, you know, and when you're looking for finance talent to join an organization, are you looking for like data sciences or, or what, what is your take on that? No. Absolutely. So, first of all, you know, the way we think about talent, it's our most valuable resource. We, we don't make widgets, we don't make phones, we create financial solutions to serve the needs of uh retirement needs, protection, needs of Americans, right? So it's really all about our people. So when we think about hiring people, we're looking for athletes that can play different positions on the field. We're not, we're not hiring based on experience. We're hiring based on a skill set that then we can really attract, develop and retain over a long time. We also focus a lot on mobility. So I've worked in every US business, I've been in finance, I've run businesses within Prudential and it's that mobility and that diverse experience that allows you to be a huge value to the organization. And then when you link it to technology, um you're looking for different skill sets. So yes, we have data sciences and within finance, we have technology people, within finance and we're focusing on training our workforce to really understand technology. So an example of that is we are about to launch a three day program for our top 40 people in the organization and immersion in technology. And then over time, that will actually be rolled out throughout the entire organization. But we think it is that important for business people to understand technology as much as technology, people need to understand the business because it's, that's when we come together to really solve problems and create solutions. I feel like it's learning a foreign language. You need to have multiple foreign language in your in, in your tool kit. So like technology speaks technology language, finance speaks finance language and business speaks business language. So a good finance person can merge all three together can explain things to different parties in a very clear concise fashion and that's the finance talent that you want to have for the future. Yeah, look, I might be aging myself a little bit here, but there was a time that you had to basically sit down with a business analyst and describe what you need. And then they would go and translate that to a programmer and they would write a report for you and bring you back and do all that, right? But over, over time and more and more these powerful tools are put in our hands. And so we have to also make sure that not only we are hiring, developing our team so that they can be that much more technologically savvy to be able to interrogate, get the, get the value out of those tools. And I think more and more is going to continue to push into more power in our hands. Yeah, actually funny you, when you said that you reminded me of something when I ran the retirement business, a big part of our retirement business, you know, we model all these liabilities and we price all these liabilities and it's done by actuaries. And what we ended up finding is that if we could find actuaries that could code, they could actually create the models and they already knew what they needed the model to do. And if you took the actuarial knowledge with the coding knowledge, it was so powerful. So we used to say we need actuaries who can code. That was the, the hiring uh terminology. That's actually exactly a point. And, and the other thing is you need to find people that have that curiosity because uh when the bank first doing C car, you know, you have lots of models to run, right? And uh not everyone knows how to coding, but people on the team actually spend their own time learning how to use Python, use staff studio, self taught. So if you find curious talent, it would enhance your team's capability a lot. Sorry, I cut you off, we see the same thing. Um I wanted to ask under the purview of strategy, you know, growth strategies as a CFO, how do you manage the short term and prepare for the long term? Uh Yeah, look, I think it's um it's definitely a focus of our, in our business. It is a long cycle business, right? Uh We're a animal health company developing uh drugs that will solve the unmet needs out there. And the cycle runs, you know, seven years, give or take. And so you have to be disciplined and focused on continuing to make the investments to drive innovation based on what the customers on met needs are and, and improving the lives of animals around the world. And so then, but then you have friction in the short term that you have to address. And so I do think this goes back to the point earlier around driving efficiency and productivity, not just in finance, but across the business because that's your opportunity to be able to reallocate resources from where they are. There's always some underutilized uh asset, better utilization of your, you know, more productivity that you can drive year in and year out to then take those funds and drive them to the places that are going to drive the long term in terms of where you strategically are headed uh as, as a business. And, and if you don't do that, it might take, you know, a year or two years and our business might take longer. But you will see uh the pain from that uh come back. So you really have to remain disciplined uh in terms of making those. Yeah, we, we have a similar experience. So we are public insurance company uh that is making 30 year promises and guarantees to our, our customers. So, um it is very much a long term investment. We have to make sure we have the right amount of capital that we can withstand, you know, pandemics, you know, recessions. And then yet as a public company, there's the pressure of OK, are you paying a dividend? Are you buying back stock? Right? And it's that constant balance and you just have to have the conviction of this is what I'm investing for in the long term. And yet that may mean that I'm retaining capital that in investors and analysts may think I need to repatriate, but you have to have conviction in your strategy and in what you're investing in and that it will pay off over time, not next quarter, but over 2 to 3 years or five years. Now, we are talking about the evolving role of the CFO. Um I wonder what actually prepared you for the CFO role, you know, for people, maybe who want to take the same path. Whitney, look, I've had an opportunity to um be in a lot of different roles over the years and there was a 13 year period in one company where I had five different positions. But I think, you know, each one had an effect and impact whether it was when I was a controller or when I ran finance for business, when I went off to the UK, to live there to, to partner up with a business to, to help drive that. But one of the most impactful roles that I had was actually going out of finance for a little bit and, and I ran a business uh for, for just over three years. And that's when I, I think I always had this sort of um interest in what, uh you know, a customer sees and how do you drive value for the customer in their eyes? Right. And, and that led me to be very curious about a customer. But when you're running a business, you have no choice, right? And I remember going out in a very short time horizon, uh the 1st 90 days I went and visited 70 customers across the world. And at one point after that, I reflected on a core part of our offering, which was having project managers that would help customers, you know, sort of manage their clinical trial processes on, uh um, and, and at the time before I took the role, I was in finance, I always thought it was, it was not a profit center and we kept hiring more and more. And after meeting with our customers and seeing how the dynamics of their worlds were changing. What I realized was we needed to have more project managers that were even more experienced and they would be willing to pay for that because I could understand the value uh of that uh really in terms of their current world and where there was headed. So, uh it, it sort of changed the way I look at this and this is why I now consider myself a customer obsessed type CFO uh and, and get out to customers as often as possible. There is nothing like sitting across from a customer and hearing what their challenges are, how you need to up your game. You know, this is what you guys are not delivering, this is what you're doing well and that is very powerful and I have a very similar experience. I grew up in finance and then I went off and ran a couple of businesses and now I'm back in finance and that perspective of living the challenges of the business, having to deliver sales every day, having to solve those challenges that customers have managing expenses, dealing with the, the volatility in the marketplace that gives you an incredible background to then be the CFO and, and make decisions at the enterprise level. Yeah, for me, I, I didn't get a chance to, to, to have a customer facing which hopefully one of the, those days I'll have it. But for me, the, the learning coming from the technology and data side of the house. So I was chief auditor for about two years. One of the focus is to look at T DS technology stack and how it's paying out on a control side. Also on the delivery side for our customers, for our colleagues. The second one is uh when, when I joined the US finance for the first time, I was asked to build a data warehouse, I have no clue how to build data warehouse. I don't know what data look like. But that, that learning process changed me quite a bit and let me appreciate the importance of data. And then when you allocate capital to invest in the future, you know where the important critical part is importance of data. Well, that's our time. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you.