One of the key lessons that helped advance Jim Benson down the CFO path was one in clarity and focus during his tenure as FP&A leader for the customer service division of Compaq, freshly acquired by Hewlett-Packard. Eager to influence how the division’s performance was presented, Benson dedicated himself to crafting detailed reports and narratives. However, each time he handed his work to the general manager—a skilled storyteller in his own right—his carefully prepared materials were distilled down to two or three essential points.
Read MoreAt first, Benson found the process frustrating. “You work very hard to prepare a set of materials and a narrative,” he recalls, “but he would take my materials and build his own narrative.” Yet over time, Benson began to see the value of simplicity and focus, especially in conveying complex financial information to large audiences. The customer service division was in the spotlight for HP’s earnings, so every quarter required a clear, compelling story that was rooted in financial reality and accessible to diverse audiences.
Through this process, Benson honed his storytelling skills, learning to construct narratives that cut to the core of the message without sacrificing key details. This foundational experience shaped his leadership style, setting a high standard for strategic communication throughout his career. Today, as CFO of Dynatrace, Benson applies his hard-earned proficiency for clarity and focus to ensure that every financial story aligns with the company’s mission, balancing growth, profitability, and innovation.
“My career path has been very much one of building breadth and depth… Sometimes you have people that very early in their career are looking for progression, and progression to them is a promotion. I would say, in order to become a seasoned executive, what you really need is experiences.” – Jim Benson, CFO, Dynatrace.
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CFOTL: Tell us about Dynatrace. What does the company do, and what are its offerings today?
Benson: Dynatrace is a technology company operating in what’s known as the “observability segment.” Simply put, when companies have applications and different workloads, these workloads need monitoring. Dynatrace’s software monitors these workloads to quickly identify potential problems—whether they’re application issues, infrastructure issues, or server-related.
Our platform, even before AI became a buzzword, was designed with AI capabilities. It can pinpoint specific pain points in software, diagnose issues, and guide users on how to fix them. This function is particularly critical today, as data and workloads migrate increasingly to complex environments like public cloud platforms—such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud—or private networks. In these dynamic settings, telemetry is essential to ensure that end-user experiences remain seamless and uninterrupted.
Read MoreDynatrace is a B2B company with revenues surpassing $1 billion, growing rapidly, and maintaining strong profitability. Its growth reminds me of my journey at Akamai, where we also navigated rapid market expansion and infrastructure development to meet evolving customer needs.
CFOTL: Tell us about your CFO priorities for the coming 12 months.
Benson: My biggest priority is alignment. By that, I mean aligning all functions within Dynatrace in an integrated, cohesive way. I like to use the phrase “the ropes have to touch the ground,” which signifies the need for operational integration across all business areas to achieve better outcomes. My finance team is heavily involved in working across functions to ensure we’re aligned on mission-critical goals, identifying key leading indicators that will help drive us toward these targets.
Dynatrace is a growth company, so our initiatives are largely growth-oriented. Beyond alignment, another priority is enhancing leverage within the company—specifically, exploring efficiencies in G&A to optimize our operations. AI is also on our radar; we’re in the early stages of understanding its potential to drive productivity. Right now, we’re still learning how best to apply it to our processes.
Lastly, because our finance team is geographically dispersed, we’re focusing on establishing global standards. These standards will help guide our practices across regions and improve decision-making regarding where certain work should be done. Overall, while there are many smaller initiatives, alignment remains my primary focus.
Dynatrace | www.dynatrace.com | Waltham, MA