Staria was one of the main partners in Strategy Talk CFO event organized on May 10, 2023. CFOs across all industries and companies gathered to hear keynotes from the top names in the field and talk about trends and timely topics. This year's main themes were global megatrends, digital transformation, supporting management with data, ESG metrics and the effects the changing world has on business.
Staria’s CEO Artti Aurasmaa was also seen on stage accompanied by prestigious guests: Kris Beyens (CFO, Wolt), Ville Koskenvuo (Partner, Vaaka Partners) and Kim Väisänen (Growth Partner, Evli Growth Partners). Aurasmaa led the panel discussion on the topic “What to expect after the next turn. And the next next – managing the finance in different stages of growth”. Read more below or see the panel in action by watching the recording!
The panelists know growth
The panel discussion starts with an introducing round. All the panelists are so called growth champions representing different stages of growth – starting with an angel investor Kim Väisänen, who has a strong background on start-up scene and acts as the chairman of the board at Finnish Business Angel Network. Next up is Ville Koskenvuo who is a Partner at Vaaka Partners, a Finnish private equity firm helping mid-sized companies become business champions. Third panelist is Kris Beyens, the CFO of Wolt, the well-known food and merchandise delivery company.
CFO’s role is not stable
The discussion is sparked off with a question on CFOs’ role in start-up companies: does every start-up need someone to manage their finance and when is the right time to start building actual CFO office? And what capabilities does a CFO working in start-up scene need?
Kim Väisänen states that at the beginning those who are responsible for a company’s finance, whether they are a CFO, controller or financial manager, their role is mainly to tell how much money the company has at the moment. As the business evolves, the role becomes more and more about forecasting and looking into the future. Väisänen says that starting companies have 4 key roles that they need to cover first and those are CEO, someone responsible for HR, CFO and a salesperson.
Ville Koskenvuo answers the question in his point of view from working with a bit more matured companies. Even though every company is different, and the CFO’s role and needed qualities depend a lot on the company’s needs for the next 5 years, he states that more matured companies require a more of a “business CFO” rather than a controller type of CFO – meaning someone who can act as a business partner for the CEO.
Read also: NetSuite Day 2022 – Panel discussion with record breaking growth companies
Kris Beyens works also with start-up companies and has seen Wolt growing from a start-up to a listed company and becoming a part of Doordash. He speaks about the evolvement of CFO’s role and what type of qualities and characteristics are required from CFOs in different growth stages. He says that he tends to call himself more of a Chief Janitor than CFO as there is so many things that CFOs are responsible of, especially in the beginning when there are not many business functions to help with taking care of things. Therefore, CFOs need a certain level of maturity and confidence to make decisions on things that are not necessarily on their field but affect a lot of people. In nutshell, Beyens says that the evolution of a CFO is from a “Swiss army knife” to a leader who can not only lead people but also lead leaders.
Another thing he points out is that CFOs need to evolve into storytellers, as they have an important role on backing up the company’s story and answering questions about the company’s future goals and ways to achieve those. One interesting point Beyens mentions is that over time CFO’s role becomes more about instilling the morality of employees and keeping the company exciting rather that managing processes. Unfortunately, not everyone is able handle this transformation and grow from a doer to a leader of the leaders.
From left:
Kris Beyens (CFO, Wolt)
Artti Aurasmaa (CEO, Staria)
Kim Väisänen (Partner, Evli Growth Partners)
Ville Koskenvuo ( Partner, Vaaka Partners)
CFO’s role in company culture
As the panelists move on to discuss CFO’s role in company culture, Beyens talks about trust factor which people in high performing jobs (like Navy Seals) use. Beyens says that companies need employees that are out there for the company rather than making name for themselves. Trust factor helps to measure if you trust your employees or colleagues to have your back or so you see them throwing you under the bus for their own benefit.
Koskenvuo states that CFOs have a great impact on company culture. After finding the right people for your company it is important to keep them engaged by giving them a great working experience and CFOs have an important role in shaping companies’ leadership.
Regarding start-up companies, Väisänen says that they tend to have a very loose culture when it comes to titles, and it can sometimes be a little bit problematic. If CFO’s title is given to someone very early, there is no room to start building the finance unite upwards. Worrying thing is also the fact that CFO’s title is often given loosely to people who don’t even understand much about finance. As they are the CFO, you can’t appoint anyone above them, which is challenging and hinders growth if the person is not able to scale fast. Koskenvuo backs this up by pointing out that when hiring CFOs for start-ups or growing businesses, it’s very important to find the right person that fits the current requirements and plans for next two years.
Uncertainty – the new normal?
Aurasmaa asks the panelists if it's different to manage finance now with all the uncertainty in the world or is it just the same old? Six months ago, Beyens would have answered this question by saying that you need to be very careful on every decision you make as there are many factors creating uncertainty such as war, high inflation and growing interest rates. In a peculiar way, he actually is now more comfortable with the uncertainty – this is because even though there are many worrying things going on in the world, at some point the uncertainty stabilizes to a certain level and you can start planning and preparing again. Still, how you go after growth and how you allocate capital is very important.
When it comes to interest rates, Väisänen says that now the situation is actually back to normal. The fact that couple years back there was no interest, was an exception’s exception and now that the situation is normalized, Väisänen sees it as a good thing – start-ups need to lead with less resources, be more creative and efficient.
Koskenvuo tells that despite uncertainty Vaaka Partners is being active on the market. They’re doing both exits and investments, but the matter of the right timing is emphasized.
Beyens adds that in a way making decisions is now easier as people are being more rational. Väisänen backs this up by saying that two of his portfolio companies are now spending 50-70% less but still growing at the same pace, so forced rationality is not always a bad thing.