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A Jet All the Way: Brian Friedman Honored at CFO Studio Reception

It’s not every day that CFOs get a chance to sit in the seats where NFL players hold their strategy meetings. And it’s not every day they can enjoy a reception while gazing out at the field where one of the area’s biggest sports franchises practices. On March 27, about 150 New Jersey–area finance execs had both those experiences when CFO Studio held a reception at Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, NJ, honoring the CFO of the Jets, Brian Friedman, featured in the Q1 2014 issue of CFO Studio magazine.

Andrew Zezas, publisher of CFO Studio, introduced the “very accomplished” CFO of the Jets and noted that Friedman joins?a distinguished group of cover subjects at the magazine, including Harald Henn of Mercedes-Benz, who was in the audience.

“With on-camera interviews (111 of which are ready to view at CFOStudio.com), and the magazine, CFO Studio provides CFOs with the opportunity to position themselves as thought- leaders and to promote their companies,” Zezas told the finance execs in attendance. “On behalf of my staff, please accept my sincerest thanks for permitting us to serve you in this way!”

Friedman, in his remarks, focused on how CFO jobs have changed in recent years. Strategy, once the smallest part of the job, fills substantial hours now, while numbers and accounting are no longer the basic CFO responsibility they once were. He said, “Strategy, operational focus, things that were outside of the CFO oversight historically are not only part of the daily routine, but they are critical functions driving the organization that the CFO is directly responsible for, especially at a midsized company.”

He went on to say that “the amount of data available to analyze is greater than ever before in every area, and these areas are all requesting millions and millions of dollars. So somewhere between shooting from the hip and overanalyzing is where the CFO has to live.”?In his own world, he said, the “undebatable goal of the organization is improving the fan experience,” so from many competing priorities, these will get the biggest invest- ments: 1) technology, 2) security, and 3) digital ticketing. In the area of security, high- megapixel cameras will show every seat in the stands, allowing facial recognition, “even after the fact, without losing any coverage.”

Tying together his themes, Friedman said, “Fan satisfaction drives interest in the sport and keeps fans watching on TV and buying merchandise. That being said, it certainly does not have the clean, direct connection we learn about in school: Investment A drives Revenue B and then the return works or doesn’t work. At the Jets, the biggest part of my role is understanding what is truly an investment in the fan or just an unnecessary expense in the fan experience.” All CFOs face similarly difficult choices of strategy and prioritizing.

CFO to CEO: 5 Pieces of Advice from Irv Rothman

Irv Rothman leveraged a successful career in finance to become president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Financial Services. At the recent Executive Dinner Series meeting, “From CFO to CEO: The Next Natural CFO Progression,” Rothman shared five pieces of advice for any CFO looking to follow a similar path.

1. Learn to Work in Gray

Often a finance perspective, can mean gray — ambiguity— doesn’t go down well with you. You’re a quantitative kind of person. You need information. You want the liabilities and the assets to look the same on the balance sheet. If you’re a leader of an organization, you have to be able to deal with ambiguity, and realize there is no such thing as perfect information. If you wait for perfect information, you could miss opportunities.

2. Visit Customers

From the finance perspective, there’s an in-depth knowledge of what your shareholders want and what your bankers want, but there’s not necessarily an in-depth knowledge of what your customers want. As CEO, you need that knowledge, and the best way to get it is to go out and visit customers on a regular basis [while you are still CFO].

3. Embrace Risk

CFOs tend to be risk averse but the world of business today is faster and very unpredictable. It’s much more complex than it has ever been and it’s globalized. If you’re not going to consider change, you’re going to miss out on some very important business. Be more open minded about evaluating, taking and managing risk.

4. Develop Your Leadership Skills

As a CFO, you are in a position with significant visibility; but the sense of leadership with respect to the organization’s operating principles and operating philosophy is not necessarily uppermost in the CFO’s mind all the time. It’s very important for you to believe in whatever your organization’s operating principles are. It’s very important for you to have conviction about them, to live them, and to be consistent about role modeling them.

5. Master Communication on All Platforms

If you’re going to be a CEO, communication skills, platform skills, the ability to explain a vision, get people to rally around it, and to feel motivated by it, is a skill that needs to be acquired.

From CFO to CEO: The Next Natural Progression

Irv Rothman, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Financial Services and author of Out-Executing the Competition, recently moderated a CFO Studio Executive Dinner Series meeting, sponsored by Robert Half International. The event, held at Highlawn Pavilion in West Orange, New Jersey focused on a topic with which Rothman has first-hand experience, “From CFO to CEO: The Next Natural CFO Progression.” Andrew Zezas, CEO of Real Estate Strategies Corporation, host of CFO Studio and publisher of CFO Studio magazine hosted the event.

The dinner kicked off with Rothman detailing his rise from CFO of AT&T Credit Corporation to the position of president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Financial Services. The conversation then turned to how other finance executives could carve a career path that leads to the chief executive desk.

Demonstrate a Broader Business Perspective

According to Rothman, the key to moving from CFO to CEO is to actively demonstrate your value beyond finance. “You have to place yourself in positions where you can [do that],” said Rothman. “You exhibit broader knowledge by sitting at the table at Board meetings, leadership team meetings and participating in conversations about strategy, about M&A targets, about markets, etcetera, from a point of view that is not limited to your area of specialty.”

In order to demonstrate your knowledge and ability when it comes to business areas such as strategy, M&A, and markets, Rothman and several of the other meeting participants recommended learning how to “talk the talk” across functions. “If you’re looking at operations, and [your comments are all] about debits and credits, inventory levels, and other financial terms, you’ll only be seen as a CFO,” said Barry Lederman, CFO at Wedgewood Pharmacy. “You have to talk to the business people in their own lingo regardless of the functionality. Whether it’s operations, marketing, or sales, you have to understand what their business is and understand their mindset. When you do that, you’re not seen as just the CFO, but as a business partner, and your relationship totally changes. Then, when you sit at the board meetings with your colleagues, and they’re talking about their functions, they will bring you into the discussion. You’re brought into the dialogue differently.”

According to Zezas, many CFOs already have responsibilities beyond finance. “The best CFOs that we encounter are telling us that they’re spending 20 or 30 percent of their time on pure finance,” said Zezas. “The rest of their time is spent on HR, managing the legal spend, IT, logistics, manufacturing, and sales. It’s my opinion that the best CFOs are really COOs anyway. And, I view COOs as CEOs in training.”

While in theory the idea of working with other functions sounds terrific, many of the meeting participants brought up barriers that exist when trying to branch out. Many CFOs have difficulty overcoming the perception that they are just numbers folks.

“One of the keys to success is having the right relationship with the CEO,” said Robert Dennerlein, CFO of Dialogic. “Number two is taking it upon yourself to really understand the industry. Also, align yourself closely with the head of global sales. Take opportunities to get in front of the customers as well as the sales organization, and empathize with them.”

Make Your Own Opportunities

What if a CEO and other members of an executive team don’t support the CFO’s efforts to grow into a business position with broader responsibilities? Lederman’s advice? Go someplace else.

“You have to have both an internal and external vision,” said Matthew Durkin, branch manager at Robert Half. “Internally, you really need to know the company that you’re involved in, and what every division is up to. Then externally, you have to make other contacts and networking affiliations that [will help] you make other opportunities for yourself.”

According to Rothman, the days of management development programs and rotations may be over. “More and more companies today feel you are responsible for managing your own career,” said Rothman. “You have to speak up and say you want to get involved with other areas of the business. You have to say that when you travel, you want to see some customers and you want to learn more about what you’re selling, why you’re selling it, and why customers are buying it.”

Are You Ready to Be the Public Face of the Company?

While the CFO is probably the second most visible position in the organization, taking the step into the CEO role brings on a much brighter spotlight.

Steve Mullin is CFO of Wurth USA and previously president of a division of Panasonic. He was asked to take that role while he was CFO and VP of operations for a multibillion-dollar division of Panasonic. “It was the best experience of my but there are a lot of new challenges so be prepared,” said Mullin. “You now are the face of the company internally as well as to the market, head ‘cheerleader’ so to speak. To be successful, among other things, it takes high energy to hone and utilize different personality attributes than that of a CFO.”

According to Rothman, even if you regularly meet with the customers, talk to Wall Street, and have had business roles before becoming CFO, you must also demonstrate the ability to lead.

“Of all the things that have to be demonstrated if you want to be considered for a CEO position, leadership is key,” said Rothman. “You’ve got to have the ability to get people to follow you when you say, ‘This is what we’re doing. This is why we’re doing it, and this is how we’re going to win in the marketplace.’”