In this episode of “Planning Aces,” finance leaders explore the evolving role of FP&A as a strategic partner emphasizing the importance of reliable data in aligning decision-making and resetting priorities. The CFOs discuss how setting clear constraints enhances strategic planning and drives more thoughtful decision-making. Leveraging AI emerges as a key theme for optimizing financial processes and enabling real-time collaboration. Additionally, they highlight the necessity of educating business units on financial metrics to align organizational goals and improve overall performance. Their insights illustrate how Finance can proactively drive growth and innovation across departments.
Featured Planning Aces:
- Regi Vengalil, CFO, Trax Retail
- Matt Steinfort, CFO, DigitalOcean
- Isabelle Winkles, CFO, Braze
Co-Hosts Jack Sweeney & Brett Knowles
Regi Vengalil, CFO of Trax Retail, emphasizes the importance of reliable data and aligning expectations in Finance and FP&A. He highlights the need for consistent data to prevent outdated information from driving debates and poor decisions. Vengalil discusses resetting priorities from growth to margin focus and fostering strategic conversations around minimum margins with flexibility for long-term partnerships. Additionally, he stresses the significance of bringing FP&A functions in-house to ensure accurate, timely insights, making Finance a trusted partner in guiding business decisions effectively.
Matt Steinfort, CFO of Digital Ocean, underscores the importance of constraints in Finance and FP&A. Drawing from his experience in constrained industries, he learned that setting clear limitations leads to better strategic planning and decision-making. Without constraints, planning becomes unrealistic and wasteful. Finance must provide guidelines to help teams make trade-offs. He focuses on capital allocation to drive growth, particularly in AI investments, optimizing cash flow, and enhancing free cash flow per share as a key metric.
Isabelle Winkles, CFO of Braze, emphasizes the evolving, strategic role of Finance and FP&A as partners to business units. She highlights the importance of FP&A in quantifying implications of choices and aiding leadership in decision-making. Winkles advocates for real-time analysis, quicker reporting, and scenario planning to guide resource deployment effectively. Additionally, she underscores the need to educate teams like Sales on financial metrics, such as revenue recognition, to align organizational goals and enhance overall financial performance.
Support for CFO Thought Leader comes from Planful, the pioneer of financial performance management cloud software. The Planful platform is used worldwide to streamline business-wide planning, budgeting, consolidations, reporting, and analytics. www.planful.com