Latest / The Diary of a CFO / How to Cut Your Board Reporting Process From Weeks to Days (with Fabian Ferrada)

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How to Cut Your Board Reporting Process From Weeks to Days (with Fabian Ferrada) · The Diary of a CFO

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Today's episode is brought to you by Insight
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solution that will lift the burden of endlessly
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board dash reporting. Welcome back to the Diary
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of a CFO podcast. I'm your host with Sia Kamon,
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a sitting CFO with a background in accounting
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and FP &A. I started this show because I believe
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that the way companies build and lead their finance
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function determines whether they scale or fall
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apart. Each week, I sit down with CFOs, CEOs,
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strategic business partners who talk about what
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actually looks like, building the right teams,
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getting systems and controls in place, partnering
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with the business and doing it all without burning
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out. Today, I'm so delighted to have with me
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Fabian Ferrada. Fabian is a Senior Solutions
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Engineer on Insight Software, EPM Pillar, where
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he helps finance leaders modernize a full journey
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from financial planning and analysis to board
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ready disclosure. Before moving to tech, he spent
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over a decade in financial and operational leadership
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for a publicly traded infrastructure services
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company carrying P &L responsibility on major
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pipeline projects across South America and the
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Middle East. Welcome to the show, Fabian. Thank
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you, Wasiya. Pleasure to be here. The pleasure
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is mine because what I like about your career
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journey is that you went from being in the trenches
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to now being on the other side of the table helping
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finance leaders with their board reporting process.
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When it comes to board... presentations, I would
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like to hear from you. How would you describe
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what a great board presentation really looks
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like? Yeah, it's a great question. I always start
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with context first. I think it's important that
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the information is always readily available.
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And then that way you have the information behind
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it as well, because whether it's a good number
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or a bad number, that the context is always most
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important. So having a system that allows you
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to be able to have that at your fingertips. It's
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always going to make board reporting or any type
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of reporting that you're doing internally or
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externally much, much easier. Nice. So having
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contacts and having a great system. Speaking
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of system, here's what usually happen, right?
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Inside most companies, the typical process of
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preparing a board meeting takes about two weeks.
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Okay. And that's after month and close. and yet
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another two weeks. And then you're going to the
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meeting and some board members may look maybe
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at a few slides, a few minutes, maybe they can
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ask a question and then they move on. Like how
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do you make sure that the two weeks of preparation
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actually adds value to the process? The two weeks
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of building and then moving on in 10 minutes
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is something that a lot of us have dealt with
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before. So because the document answers, you
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know, what happened, but not what does this mean
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for us? So what should we do about it specifically?
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Those two weeks matter when the report is straightforward,
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you know, it's for the conversation itself but
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we want to make sure that you know all of our
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CFOs or all of our executive leaders who walk
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out of those rooms that they're the ones that
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have the information readily available to them
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and then from there you know you're not finishing
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and working on formatting that it's just they're
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readily available quickly. Okay. And so what
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would you say is the difference between a board
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that leaves a meeting feeling informed and one
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that probably leaves feeling confused? Like sometimes
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the underlying numbers are exactly the same.
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Yeah, exactly. And that's a great point, right?
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Because it's almost never just the numbers. So
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the board that leaves confused, they're usually
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the ones that were handed a document and they
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read it in real time. Boards that leave informed.
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They had someone that guided them through it
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itself. So there's explanations. It wasn't just
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the numbers, but again, it's kind of going back
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to the context itself. Those decisions, it's
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in front of them. So we want to make sure that
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the data is the same throughout. It's completely
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different experience in those regards when you
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can have that better story in that context. Okay.
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And then when you say context, can you dive a
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little deeper into that? Because sometimes I
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think because we sow so much into the number,
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we assume that the other people also do. And
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so their elements of the context that we may
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leave out. So how would you define making sure
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that we provide enough context for the information
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we're presenting? Yeah, absolutely. So typically
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with disclosure management itself, we're always
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tying some type of narrative with a number output
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itself. So the context around why revenue went
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up, why revenue went down. So those specific
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items that are going to tell that story. And
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then from there, you can start to ask questions,
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identify root causes, and then... take actions
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on those. So if I just tell you, you know, revenue
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was up, but there's no context as to why it went
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up, we can't keep doing those best practices.
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Or if something needs to be modified or changed,
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we want to make sure that we have a good understanding
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of why it changed. And that's what I'd mentioned
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before, that system itself, if it's supporting
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you, and it's giving you all of that information.
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you'll be able to get that context at your fingertips
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for, for everything. True, true. And so thinking
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about, I like you to say revenue went up. Um,
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I feel like we have to get now used to presenting
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bad news to the board. And so how would you say
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someone can effectively present bad news to the
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board and live with their confidence still intact
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and don't feel like it impaired their reputation
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or maybe damage a relationship with the board?
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Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think taking ownership
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is most important, right? If a number is bad,
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your leaders are going to find out. So your job
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is to make sure that they don't find out cold.
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The finance leaders who handle this well, they
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already have the answers and typically they're
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answering three specific items. So what happened,
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why it happened, and what we're doing about it.
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So they own the story. The one who struggles
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are usually the ones who spend the whole reporting
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cycle building the document and had five minutes
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left to think about the narrative or that context
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that we were just discussing. When the story
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owns you instead of the other way around bad
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news, it feels and lands like a crisis. Wow.
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I like how you say you don't want them to find
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out cold. No surprises. Exactly. So as we thinking
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about preparing for a board meeting and we know
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there is bad news. Um, I know typically for myself,
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I've learned to have like meetings before the
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meetings. Um, but what are other ways maybe you
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found that really helped kind of lend that story
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better with the board? Yeah, that's a great question.
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Building in feedback loops within the process
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is really important. And a lot of the customers
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that we end up speaking with and that we've kind
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of had these discussions with, typically it's
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a broken process. So making sure that we can
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help automate that process and then having that
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feedback loop to provide context at every stage
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is really, really important. Hmm. So everybody
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knows what's going on and there is a, yeah, I
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really like that. I really like that. So what
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would you say is an ideal feedback loop in the
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board reporting process? What does it look like?
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Yeah. So a lot of times we're managing, you know,
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multiple revisions, a lot of different contributors.
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There's a lot of individuals that are involved
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throughout that whole process itself. Um, everyone
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owns a specific portion of that document and
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say a larger organization or for a smaller organization,
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there's going to be one individual that wears
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more. hats. So making sure that we have again
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those those feedback loops ahead of time that
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we can go through that process quickly and then
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ask the necessary questions that are meaningful
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that are going to help drive decisions moving
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forward. That's the biggest thing is making sure
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that the process can help facilitate that. Yeah.
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And the version control. I, when you said multiple
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version, I was like, Ooh, I wonder what version
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I'm on. Is it five or seven? Yeah. And we have
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a lot of technology today that allows us to be
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able to communicate quickly and effectively.
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But when we don't have a version control or a
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system in place to make sure that we can manage
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that with proper documentation, it's very easy
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to get lost in kind of who's reviewing what.
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And so since you've described what a great presentation
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looks like and what a great process will look
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like, what are the things I usually get in the
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way of financing actually being able to deliver
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that? Yeah. So a big thing, again, I talk about
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process and a lot of the time is you want to
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spend typically about 20 % of that time. You
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want to make sure that we're spending as to why
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that report changed. And then 80 % of the time
8:05
is going to be the other way around. So gathering
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the data, formatting, reconciling information
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and chasing updates. So, you know, in a broken
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manual process, it's typically the other way
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around, but in a great process, we're able to
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flip that around. So the goal for that well -structured
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disclosure process really puts you in a to make
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sure that you're saving time or compiling, you're
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being strategic about thinking about all the
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necessary items to make the system and the process
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better, but then also making better business
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decisions. Okay. And in that 80 and 20 rule,
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what does it actually look like during the week
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before the board meeting or during those two
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weeks, right? Because if I'm spending just 20
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% of my time putting it together, which is like
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ideal, what am I doing with the other 80 % of
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my time? Yeah, absolutely. So ideally we have
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an opportunity to have meaningful conversations.
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with all of our contributors, right? So there's
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a lot of different individuals that are going
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to be contributing. So now you have an opportunity
8:57
to understand the intimate nature of your business,
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the whys. Again, going back to revenue, why did
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it go up? Why did it go down? Everyone that's
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part of the process, they're very intelligent.
9:08
They have a lot of insight and we want to make
9:10
sure that we can spend time with them understanding
9:12
what's going on and not just putting them to
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work on a manual process where 80 % of their
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time is gathering data, compiling, formatting,
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building presentations, et cetera. Yeah, that
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formatting. It hurts. Yeah. You'd be surprised.
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We actually have a lot of our customers that
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we talk to. That's one of their biggest complaints
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is when they go to generate a document, you know,
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font is off, margins are off, columns are off,
9:37
you know, small things that just have no value
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added to the process. A lot of that can be eliminated.
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Oh, gosh. I remember when I started in FPNA,
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because I was a controller and then I went to
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FPNA. I would hate the time of reporting because
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I felt like my time was more spent on formatting
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the green arrow or the red or the stable. And
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then if there was an extra digit and we went
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from thousands to millions, that's a lot. And
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sometimes it's hard to quantify what is the real
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cost of that, right? Like not just a dollar amount,
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the frustration behind it. I mean, the person
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doing it, the quality of what comes out, you're
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probably frustrated. Like what would you say
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is a real cost of not having the right process?
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There's an interesting metric that we always
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look at. we're talking to our customers, a lot
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of our questions up front, we're asking, you
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know, what does your process look like? Who's
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doing what? How long does that take? And that
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boils down to what we define as a cost of inaction.
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So the cost of inaction specifically, it's a
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pretty simple calculator, but it's a really good
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metric that you can actually start to apply when
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you're looking at wasting inside of your process.
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So the fact that we have individuals that have
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a salary, they're fully burdened, they're being
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paid regardless from say an overhead perspective.
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And then that individual, have them working in
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Microsoft Word and or Excel formatting cells,
10:55
making sure the font's correct, the margins are
10:58
aligned, those types of tasks just become very,
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very wasteful. So regardless of what's going
11:04
on, you're going to have a cost and the cost
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of doing nothing is very, very high sometimes
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when you sit down to look at that process versus
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fully automating it with a solution, let's say.
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Wow. Tell me more about that cost of inaction
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because it's time, like you said, you're going
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to pay them anyway. Yeah. how are you really
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adding value, especially now that, you know,
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with things moving that the way they are with
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technology advancing so much, there's so much
11:28
pressure and then also a need for finance to
11:31
be that strategic business partner. But formatting
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arrows from green to red and changing margins,
11:38
that's a lot. So when you think about the cost
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of inaction, what would you say is something
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you want people to really consider when it comes
11:44
to that or think about? Yeah, I definitely say,
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you know, the cost never shows up on an invoice
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itself. You know, it's the conversations that
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don't happen in the board meeting themselves.
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So when a finance team spent the week building
11:56
the document, they walk in exhausted and they've
11:58
had no time to prepare for say questions. So
12:01
the CFO who should be saying, you know, here's
12:04
what this means for our Q3 strategy. Instead,
12:06
they're hoping nobody asks about the footnote
12:08
on page 11 that they didn't have time to verify.
12:12
So that's a real cost. Not the overtime, not
12:15
the stress. It's the insight that never made
12:17
it to the report itself. into the room. Those
12:20
types of items themselves, it's really hard to
12:22
quantify. But again, when we look back at kind
12:25
of that cost of inaction, it can become very
12:28
high, especially when you start to take into
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consideration all the different contributors
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times, what they do and the amount of time being
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spent on non -value tasks. Yeah. And I feel like
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there is so much of that still in financing today.
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So not just for board reporting. I mean, accounting
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and I feel like COVID accelerated us, a lot of
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companies going digital, but there's still a
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lot of broken processes. and information not
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flowing the right way. And you get to a point
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when you think about reporting, because at the
12:58
very end, does it even make a difference? Can
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I send the same report to this person versus
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that person, to this stakeholder versus the next?
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So there's even, I think, a bit of confusion
13:08
between the difference between board reporting
13:11
and investor reporting, right? Because you're
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doing so many reports, you're trying to streamline
13:14
everything. And then you wonder, is a report
13:18
you give to the board the same as one you would
13:20
give an investor? And should it be? Yeah. And
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that's, that's a great distinction. And the kind
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of high level, simple answer is no. And the distinction
13:27
does matter. So your board report, it's a, it's
13:29
a governance. conversation that you need to have.
13:33
So the board needs to understand what's happening
13:35
in the business, exercising judgment, and then
13:38
making decisions. They know the context. Your
13:40
investor report itself, or say your regulatory
13:43
filing, it's a comparability conversation. So
13:46
the audience itself has measured you against
13:48
other companies, against prior periods. against
13:52
the standard itself. So they don't have the internal
13:55
context, same underlying numbers, say two completely
13:59
different audiences, two different purposes,
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and then two different levels of required precision
14:04
when we're reporting. So the challenge itself
14:06
is the most manual process can't actively serve
14:09
both audiences well because the process was barely
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handling one itself. Wow. So it goes back to
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having the right context and system. at the beginning,
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so that whether it's reporting to the board or
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reporting to investor, it's easier, right? And
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it's because, yes, both needs to be different
14:28
because, you know, like governance for one. But
14:31
when you think about what happens when the numbers
14:34
in one don't quite match the numbers in the other.
14:37
right? So you present something on the board,
14:40
something is weird, and it's not the same. How
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do you handle those kind of situations? Yeah,
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so an interesting stat that we can kind of look
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at is three or four manual disclosure processes
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contain at least one instance of the same number
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appearing differently across the documents themselves.
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And again, this is coming from conversations
14:58
that I've had with existing customers and prospects
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as well. So that's one of the most common stories
15:04
I hear, and it's almost always a manual process
15:07
story. So in roughly three out of the four manual
15:10
kind of disclosure processes that we evaluate,
15:12
you do have that inconsistency. There's multiple
15:15
documents in some cases. You could say have your
15:17
annual report, your preliminary press release,
15:20
and then say an internal board deck. All of those
15:22
things need to be saying the exact same thing.
15:24
And it's not always a good situation to be in.
15:27
We start to lose credibility when those things
15:29
start to be misaligned. And nobody that's caught
15:32
in that type of situation is always. I'm going
15:35
to be walking away, you know, feeling comfortable
15:37
at the end of the day. So there's nothing worse
15:39
than that. Yeah. And I think sometimes too, the
15:42
person doing the board presentation is not the
15:45
same person doing the investor presentation.
15:47
So if you don't have the single source of truth,
15:51
if I can say like, It's hard to be consistent.
15:55
Like that's, that is scary. Yeah. And then say
15:59
you bring in a multi national organization with
16:04
different time zones and different individuals
16:06
that are all reporting up to, uh, you know, the
16:09
head office and then having to collate and then
16:12
compare and consolidate that becomes very, very
16:14
tricky. Let's take a quick break to talk about
16:17
a problem most finance teams face when creating
16:20
narrative reporting for their boards and investors
16:22
at year end. You make a copy of your previous
16:25
report, spend hours searching for the latest
16:28
data from different systems or people, then copy
16:30
and paste those numbers in manually. By the time
16:33
you're done, the data has changed and you have
16:35
to start again. That's where today's sponsor
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16:45
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16:49
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16:51
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16:55
you're stressed by a reporting deadline, a simple
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Break Free from Manual Disclosure, and visit
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17:11
and banish copy paste errors forever. The link
17:14
will also be in the show notes. And let's get
17:17
back to the show. Yeah. So at that point, what
17:20
kind of tool or system can really help bring
17:23
that together? Right. The fact that I could have
17:26
somebody else working on the broad presentation,
17:28
somebody else working on investor relations,
17:30
somebody else working on different entities across
17:33
the globe. Like what kind of tool can really
17:36
help bring all these numbers together and provide
17:39
that single source of truth. So we're not just,
17:41
you know, increasing our margin of errors just
17:45
by doing it every quarter. Oh, yeah. So within
17:48
the Insight software that we have a disclosure
17:50
management solution that actually helps with
17:52
that. And when that solution itself is being
17:56
kind of discussed, we want to make sure that
17:59
we understand the full use case of the business.
18:01
So just as we had mentioned before, the individuals
18:04
that have internal reporting versus external
18:06
reporting, who are the key stakeholders? We want
18:09
to make sure that we're managing version control.
18:11
You have a proper audit trail. And in many cases,
18:14
there's individuals that are dealing with internal
18:16
and external auditors as well. So having a clear
18:20
understanding of the version, what changes happened.
18:24
And then if the auditors come back and say, hey,
18:26
I'd like to see a version of you know, this report
18:30
with my comments and then all the changes afterwards.
18:33
That can become very time consuming and can become
18:36
very complicated as well. So making sure that
18:38
you can have all of that in one solution becomes
18:41
really, really important. Then you layer in data,
18:44
making sure that you can support multiple data
18:46
sources. So again, going back to say a multinational,
18:48
there might be someone in say Chile that's operating
18:51
in a different ERP system. There might be someone
18:54
in the United States that's operating on another.
18:56
And we want to make sure that you have a means
18:58
and a mechanism to collect that data and then
19:01
consolidate it appropriately into these reports.
19:05
That's the big, big factor there. Oh yeah. And
19:07
I can see how it can make life so much easier
19:10
in those instances, right? Because I feel often
19:13
time what we forget about company growth, a lot
19:17
of time it's not organic, right? acquired another
19:21
entity. There was a lot of integration that was
19:24
not organic. And so maybe we build for being
19:27
at, let's say, a size of 1 ,000 and we end up
19:30
being 5 ,000 within like two years. And then
19:33
your solutions didn't catch up. They didn't evolve
19:38
as fast as you did. And so now you find yourself
19:41
in those situations where, oops, the business
19:44
expecting me to operate at such a higher level
19:47
than my systems allows me. to operate in. So
19:51
I'm curious to hear from you for the finance
19:54
leader that is listening right now and they recognize
19:56
themselves in this conversation. What should
19:59
be their first step? What will be the first thing
20:01
that should change? Yeah, you know, I always
20:03
think about, you know, how do you eat an elephant?
20:06
It's one bite at a time, right? Like we hear
20:09
that often. I tell my kids that as well. I'd
20:13
say you want to start with your most painful
20:15
process. So you can't tackle everything. Just
20:18
the one that costs your team the most time and
20:21
stress every cycle. So going back to that cost
20:24
of inaction, you can actually quantify that with
20:26
that metric itself. So identify every step in
20:29
that process where a number is being manually
20:31
re -entered somewhere. That's the list that you
20:35
want to make sure that you're compiling. And
20:38
all of those are risks that you're building into
20:39
the process as well. So that becomes your roadmap.
20:42
You don't have to overhaul everything at once.
20:45
You can access one source, automate one link,
20:48
and then run it in parallel with your current
20:50
process for one cycle. So you can see the differences
20:53
between that switch. You can start making comparisons
20:57
and then making improvements as well. So for
21:00
smaller companies, the whole journey can take
21:02
about four weeks. You don't have to stop reporting
21:05
to fix. the reporting problem itself. Well, that's
21:08
very encouraging because, you know, there is
21:09
always that wonder, is it going to be a big IT
21:11
project? Like, will I have to freeze my team
21:14
for so long? So it's very encouraging to hear
21:17
that. So after the four weeks, like what what
21:20
actually is different? Well, like when they start
21:23
the process, what are the first things that they
21:25
go? Oh, that is so cool. I'm just curious. Yeah,
21:29
you know, it's. It's going to be different between
21:32
every organization, but there are a lot of commonalities,
21:35
right? So it's not a change to your accounting
21:36
system at all. That's the thing most people assume,
21:40
and that's not the case. So if you think of it,
21:43
say, like, you know, plugging in appliances,
21:45
the power source doesn't change. You just get
21:48
to use a new piece of equipment there, right?
21:51
A new appliance itself. So your accounting data
21:53
stays where it is. the disclosure management
21:55
solution connects to it. It'll go ahead and pull
21:58
in the numbers through the data connection automatically.
22:02
You change nothing on the source side. And one
22:05
of the things that makes the transition feel
22:07
less scary is that we are able to load previous
22:10
year's report information into, say, a template
22:12
on day one. your team's going to look at their
22:16
own document in a new system. So it really doesn't
22:19
feel foreign. It feels like their report, just
22:21
working in a different way and the way that it
22:23
should be. Nice. So all you have to do is maybe
22:26
change your period and the whole report is like
22:29
brand new. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's the biggest
22:31
kind of wow factor. Yeah. So that would have
22:34
resolved my red arrows and green arrows problem
22:37
I had when I started. It's a PNA for that. Yeah.
22:40
And you think, I mean, you're describing the
22:42
roll forward process. beautifully, right? I want
22:46
to be able to click a button, set a few fields,
22:49
and then I get my new data for the new quarter,
22:51
new period, new year, whatever that might be
22:54
and how you're reporting is going to update automatically.
22:56
And that can take a matter of minutes instead
22:59
of days where you have a manual process that's
23:02
broken, right? Yeah. And your mouse is as tired
23:05
as you because you're like literally dragging.
23:08
Yeah. We need to get a new mouse. Yes. That's
23:13
when you start understanding why people have
23:15
huge mouths. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny.
23:18
I'd show you the mouse that I use because I have
23:20
to make sure that I don't like get cramps in
23:23
my arm from being in a weird position all day.
23:27
Exactly. You know how bad it is, but it's size
23:30
of the mouse, right? Yeah, exactly. That's too
23:35
awesome. Yes. So I'm curious, like once you get
23:38
to a point where you don't need a bigger mouse
23:40
to do your reporting, right? Like because you
23:42
have a better system and now you have time on
23:45
your hand. Like what, at that point. How do we
23:49
get our teams to be better strategic partners?
23:52
Because now you save time. I have more time to
23:56
review, more time to check. What will be now
23:58
the next steps for the team so that now with
24:02
that time saved, they're able to add even more
24:05
value beyond just submitting a board report.
24:09
Yeah, absolutely. So I'll go back to another
24:12
stat. that as we're kind of going through and
24:15
preparing for this conversation today, we did
24:18
a case study with a company called Sheri SE.
24:21
So they had 12 subsidiaries. They were in six
24:23
different countries, four different currencies.
24:26
And we were able to do a 60 day implementation.
24:28
So it was literally weeks, weeks to days. So
24:31
the first thing that they noticed is that when
24:33
a number changed, they don't have to manually
24:36
find every place that it appears and then update
24:38
it itself. So it just updates automatically.
24:42
So that sounds small, but it changes the entire
24:44
rhythm of the reporting cycle itself. So for
24:47
that week, those two weeks that we were talking
24:48
about, it becomes much, much easier. So Share
24:51
ESC, it was a publicly traded technology company
24:54
with the 12 subsidiaries that I had mentioned.
24:56
They had a process where a single number change
24:59
could restart their entire approval cycle all
25:02
over again, because they were managing different
25:04
languages in German, English throughout their
25:07
process. So having to translate all of that and
25:10
then make sure that things link back together
25:11
was very, very... So after implementation, their
25:14
consolidated financials are ready in one to two
25:17
days, including all the schedules. And their
25:20
disclosure process went from several weeks to
25:23
a few days in all reality. So their group of
25:26
accounting specialists put it this way. They
25:28
no longer have to worry about numbers getting
25:30
lost in translation, you know, pun intended.
25:33
Yeah. And that's the difference about, about
25:35
the week itself. That is amazing. That is amazing.
25:39
Um, curious to hear, right? So now they have
25:42
more time to review. Definitely your headache.
25:44
When you said how many times that that number
25:46
P I went like, ouch indeed. Right. Because you
25:49
change one revenue number is going to change
25:52
your margins. It's going to change everything
25:54
else. Versus one little thing in the expense
25:59
section, right? And so I know we think about,
26:03
again, strategic business partners. How can we
26:05
go back and really add value internally and externally
26:09
as well? Yeah, so the biggest value, I'll use
26:13
your example where you have an individual manually
26:15
ticking and tying out the document. Value can
26:18
be measured there immediately and it kind of
26:19
goes back to that cost of inaction discussion
26:21
we had previously. How long does it take that
26:24
individual to do something that that shouldn't
26:26
be happening. That's an instant value back to
26:30
the business. And then we're able to take existing
26:32
resources, give them time back, potentially get
26:36
home to their families as well. So we can talk
26:38
about the cost to the business, but what's the
26:42
cost to the individual themselves? We want to
26:45
make sure that we can retain that talent also.
26:47
So making sure that we build a process around
26:49
them to help them and be cognizant of that is
26:51
really, really important. And that's a big value
26:53
that gets understated many, many times. I agree.
26:56
Like that human element is so important because
27:02
yeah, yes, I didn't like the mouse I was using.
27:04
I was frustrated most days. Like I was extra
27:07
grumpy. I know probably snacked a little extra
27:10
Cheetos those days when I had to present it.
27:13
And I think we often forget how this wears on
27:17
us as human beings, right? So I'm curious to
27:20
hear from your experience when you're on the
27:22
other side of the table. First, is that what
27:24
made you run away from being in the trenches
27:28
to advising? And like, what was your best way
27:32
to cope? in those moments, like while you were
27:36
trying to make the change. Yeah. So for me personally,
27:39
you know, I spent time as a financial and administrative
27:42
manager for a business unit in South America.
27:44
I ended up transitioning into project management
27:47
and I had that large P &L responsibility. The
27:50
biggest thing that I disliked about the process,
27:53
we had a manual process, was the fact that it
27:56
was just non -value added tasks that I was doing.
27:58
And I knew it was coming every single month,
28:01
right? It was something that I knew. So on this
28:03
day, starting here, I gotta go heads down and
28:06
I'm not gonna see family, I'm not gonna see friends,
28:08
and we're gonna be in the trenches doing the
28:10
work for as long as it takes to make sure that
28:12
we meet our deadline. So for me, that was kind
28:14
of the biggest thing. You say it kind of jokingly,
28:18
but it was true. That was something for me that
28:20
I had a young relationship, I should say, just
28:22
had recently gotten married and I wanted to make
28:24
sure that I could stay married as well. So that
28:27
was a big transition for me. And then moving
28:30
into the other side of consulting, project management,
28:34
reporting as well. All of those things kind of
28:37
drive you down at the end of the day to... be
28:40
able to do internal reporting or external reporting.
28:42
So all of the activities, all of the business
28:44
processes, operational processes, everything
28:47
ties together, weaves together to make sure that
28:49
we're reporting and doing things accurately.
28:52
So a miss on my end will have a large impact
28:54
on the business. Let's say If I don't get my
28:57
forecasting correct, if I don't have a system
28:59
around me to be able to understand the context
29:02
and then tell my board exactly, hey, we had a
29:06
$60 ,000 overage because equipment got caught
29:09
in customs and we're getting demurrage charges
29:12
and I didn't know about it, now I have a $60
29:14
,000 explanation that I have to give. But at
29:16
the same time, I was able to tell them, now we've
29:19
identified, we've contacted customs, we're moving
29:22
to make sure that we don't keep hemorrhaging
29:24
money. And those types of things happen, right?
29:28
I mean, it's life. And thank you so much for
29:31
sharing your perspective on that because yes,
29:34
if you don't allow your employee to have effective
29:37
systems, like it does wear on you. I'm sure that
29:40
you're probably very happy that you're helping
29:43
other teams actually get out of reporting hell
29:46
with this culture management now. Yeah. And when
29:49
we have those conversations and I tell my story
29:52
as we're going through that, that process itself,
29:55
it really helps kind of ground the conversation
29:57
to say, I was in your shoes. Like I really understand
30:00
it and I want to help. I'm not here just to try
30:02
to sell you something. I truly want to make your
30:05
life better. Yeah, because I know how it feels
30:07
that time of the month where you know you're
30:10
going to be miserable. I knew. That's why I like
30:13
when you said you know you're going to be miserable
30:16
at those times. So now I'm curious, what are
30:19
some of the things that you like to do outside
30:21
of work now that you are? on the other side of
30:23
the table. Yeah, absolutely. So the big thing
30:26
that I spend a lot of my time doing is trying
30:28
to be outside with my family. We have a small
30:30
little off -road camper. We do get outside a
30:34
lot, mountain biking, rock climbing. I'm an avid
30:36
rock climber as well. I do Brazilian jiu -jitsu.
30:39
I just got my black belts about a year ago. So
30:42
I do that three to four times a week. Yeah. And
30:45
there's a lot of lessons that I'm able to learn
30:47
from that that I bring into the business world
30:49
as well. And then I also roast specialty coffee
30:53
as well. I had a beautiful trip to Australia
30:55
where I had a friend that was a master barista
30:59
and coffee consultant. I didn't even know that
31:01
was a thing. So that brought me down the world
31:03
of specialty coffee. And now I roast my own coffee
31:06
as well. So just a few activities like to stay
31:09
busy. Oh wow, that is so cool. I'm curious to
31:12
hear what is one lesson from jiu -jitsu that
31:15
you bring into the business world. Yeah, I'd
31:17
say the most difficult thing for starting jiu
31:22
-jitsu is getting on the mats day one. It's deciding
31:24
to make the change, right? You're going to go
31:27
through a process and to become a black belt,
31:29
it can take a long time. But understanding that
31:32
you're taking one step and you're learning something
31:34
new, taking on say that new process and then
31:37
making sure that you're committing to that process.
31:40
Ultimately what ends up happening is you start
31:42
seeing the systems in place are there to support
31:44
you to make life easier and then you can get
31:46
through very, very challenging situations. So
31:48
it's not often anymore that I get an opportunity
31:52
to kind of tie both of those things together,
31:54
but it is very, very true. you know, sometimes
31:57
you're the hammer and sometimes you're the nail
31:59
is a big saying that you'll hear jiu -jitsu.
32:02
Oh, wow. Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much, Fabian,
32:05
for being on the show. It was such a joy having
32:07
you. Awesome. Thank you so much, Wes. I really
32:09
appreciate it. Thank you. And that's all for
32:12
today's episode of the Diary of a CFO podcast.
32:14
I hope it was as insightful and enjoyable as
32:18
it was for me. If so, please leave a review and
32:20
subscribe on whatever platform you're listening
32:22
on. It really helps this conversation reach other
32:25
finance leaders who need them. As always, if
32:27
you have any questions or want to go deeper on
32:30
anything, reach out at ask at thediaryofacfo
32:33
.com or visit thediaryofacfo .com. Thanks for
32:38
tuning in and I'll see you in the next one.