It’s an all-too-familiar tale among the ranks of senior finance executives: A private equity firm acquires a company, reshuffles the finance team, and reserves the top finance spot for one of its own portfolio CFOs.
At Qlik, though, this story had a less familiar ending—or at least one that did not include a portfolio CFO. Instead, back in 2016, when Thoma Bravo acquired King of Prussia, Pennsylvania’s Qlik, a seasoned veteran of the latter’s own finance team—Dennis Johnson within two years would be entering the CFO office.
Read MoreFor Johnson, there’s little question that his appointment validated the 9 career years that he had already invested with the company, a period during which he had sought to routinely contribute to the company’s growth and ongoing strategic transformation. It turns out that his senior finance roles—and in particular his involvement in the transition to a subscription-based model—had demonstrated his strategic vision and capacity for managing change effectively and thus opened a new door.
Made Possible By
CFOTL: Tell us about Qlik … what does this company do, and what are its offerings today?
Johnson: The roots of this firm go back to its start as a self-service business intelligence company. Since being taken private, we have been able to accomplish about 11 acquisitions, including two that have been really transformational in terms of the size of the new firms.
Today, we’re an industry leader in data integration, data quality, and analytics solutions. Our technology helps our customers to identify opportunities, as well as enables better, more efficient decision-making. It really helps our customers to thrive in markets that are quite dynamic. The technology is underpinned by AI, which really ensures seamless integration, quality, and insightful analysis to help to drive tangible business results.
Read MoreWhat makes us unique is our focus on transforming AI into more practical, scalable applications for real-world challenges. What we do best is to help our customers to solve their most complex business challenges. What makes us unique when compared with some of the other, larger players in this space is that we provide independent, flexible solutions that aren’t confined to a specific tech ecosystem.
When it comes to the smaller players in the market, we have an advantage simply because of the length of time that we’ve been doing this. Our extensive expertise and proven success enable us to exceed the capabilities of some of the smaller new firms to really help our customers to effectively scale AI for the enterprise. jb
“Be confident in your ability to steer the direction of your organization. You are in this position for a reason—a combination of technical expertise, work ethic, and good judgment. Build a great team, set the example for them every day, and stay focused on their continued development.” –Dennis Johnson, CFO, Qlik
Qlik | www.qlik.com | King of Prussia, PA