{"id":10236,"date":"2019-08-08T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T19:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=10236"},"modified":"2023-06-20T12:06:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T16:06:22","slug":"building-the-finance-team-of-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/building-the-finance-team-of-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the finance team of tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/category\/strategy-legal-operations\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Strategy, Legal &amp; Operations<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBuilding the finance team of tomorrow\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2019-08-08T15:21:00-04:00\">August 8, 2019<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"Building the finance team of tomorrow\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/building-the-finance-team-of-tomorrow\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/jesse-weber\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/08\/Jesse-Weber3721-Medium-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Jesse Weber<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Private equity operating partners and finance leaders of private equity-backed companies face unique challenges as they try and execute against the strategic growth and value creation plan post-acquisition. I was fortunate to lead a discussion panel on value creation in finance at the <a href=\"http:\/\/events.privateequityinternational.com\/events\/operating-partners-forum-san-francisco-2019\/event-summary-a6e57ebb65f4450ea9991138be61b414.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Private Equity International Operating Partners Forum<\/a> in San Francisco recently. Four operating partners shared their insights, best practices, and common pitfalls around value creation through finance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Chris Chang, Principal, KSL Capital Partners<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dan Fletcher, Vice President, Value Creation, Vector Capital<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Brian Regan, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, Spectrum Equity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Girish Satya, Senior Vice President, TSG Consumer Partners<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I came away learning a great deal and wanted to share their best practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Build the Finance Team of Tomorrow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Two big shifts will impact finance teams in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">First, the skills and backgrounds of CFOs are changing. The CFO no longer needs Big 4 experience and a CPA; strong accounting and finance skills are now table stakes. Given many finance and accounting function are automated, finance teams are freed up to focus on strategic priorities and partner with the business. Our panelists felt social skills and the ability to influence other departments is now more important than ever. So, many top operating partners are changing the CFO hiring profile: more people skills, and less spreadsheet mastery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The second trend is the structure of the finance team itself. &nbsp;Given the rise in technology to integrate once separate functions (AP, AR, FP&amp;A), more technology ownership is falling to the CFO\u2019s team to manage. Put simply, it\u2019s now better to hire a systems administrator and teach them accounting and finance, not the reverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scale with the Right Tech Stack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Many investors find a \u2018technical debt\u2019 as they review the tech stack at potential acquisitions; most companies wait too long to address scaling the front and back office with technology, exacerbating the inevitable growing pain. This impacts everything from visibility into key metrics, having a single source of truth, and even employee satisfaction and retention. Solutions like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/sage-business-cloud\/intacct\/\">Sage Intacct<\/a> serve as a foundation for rapid growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The best employees expect consumer-grade experiences from their employer, which makes legacy software a recruiting liability in 2019 for CFOs. The finance and accounting team you plan to build is no fan of a 20-year-old software that existed before user experience was a consideration in enterprise IT. It\u2019s one overlooked area that can differentiate portfolio companies as they try and recruit top talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alignment on the 100-Day Plan is Critical<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">More and more PE firms are going beyond leverage and getting deeply involved in operations. Our operating partners learned the hard way that growth can hide a lot of sins, in this case, poor processes and systems. Even with a controlling stake, few firms mandate their 100-day plan or use a pre-defined playbook. Ultimately, the management team at the portfolio company needs to own and execute the plan, and flexibility was valued far more than the consistency a playbook would offer. Most firms have some basic guidelines and recommendations, but the rest is developed in coordination with the portfolio company. There are certainly firms out there that have had great success with a pre-defined playbook, but they remain the exception rather than the rule. This brings us to the last important takeaway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Operating Partners work with their CFOs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">One thing that came up consistently was how much time operating partners spend on coaching their CFOs. My favorite line was \u201cI\u2019m not a CFO coach, I\u2019m a CFO therapist.\u201d Sharing best practices in working with the board of directors, including preparing for and presenting at board meetings, was most common. Also, gaining censuses on the budget across departments to align with the overall investment thesis and growth plan came up often, as we touched on earlier regarding the influence and people skills now required of today&#8217;s and tomorrow\u2019s CFOs.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to our Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Get our latest business advice delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-ab515c6e-7e90-4c2f-a67e-113872516e8b\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"Working from home with tea in hand\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Private equity operating partners and finance leaders of private equity-backed companies face unique challenges as they try and execute against the strategic growth and value creation plan post-acquisition. I was fortunate to lead a discussion panel on value creation in finance at the Private Equity International Operating Partners Forum in San Francisco recently. Four operating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1509,"featured_media":9098,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158,44,48],"tags":[334,420,168],"business_type":[312,41],"lilypad":[],"context":[418,429],"industry":[57],"persona":[150,100,99],"imagine_tag":[222,435],"coauthors":[888],"class_list":["post-10236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accountants","category-strategy-legal-operations","category-technology-innovation","tag-automation","tag-cloud-financial-management","tag-sage-accounting","business_type-accountants","business_type-growing-business","industry-financial-services"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-us","author_name":"Jesse Weber","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1205070587.jpg","imagine_tags":{"222":"Accountants","435":"Intacct Accountants"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/9098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}