Not everything is number-driven: Subbu Subramaniam, CFO, Titan
A two year stint as a CEO made him a much better CFO than he would have been without that experience, says Subbu Subramaniam, CFO, Titan.
In a telephonic interview with ETCFO’s Vartika Rawat, Subbu Subramaniam, CFO of Titan Company shares his experiences of corporate leadership, professional evolution and a few things in between.
Subbu is among the rare finance leaders who having made the switch from CFO to CEO found merit in shifting to the finance function back again. He was CEO of BPL Mobile Communication from 2006 to 2008. Subsequently, he started at Essar Oil as the CFO in 2008 and then moved in as the finance head at Titan in 2011. Edited excerpts:
Q: You have headed business as a CEO and then come back to being a CFO. How did that happen?
A: The stint as a CEO that I had in the past has made me a far better CFO that I could have ever been. That stint was intended to be for a short period, it was more like a bridge. I did that for two years. My move from a CEO back to the CFO was planned process. I was supposed to be holding the fort for some period after which I had to move.
The point is that this stint made me a better CFO. (It gave me) an appreciation of all aspects of business, it was a fantastic crash course.
The CFO today is very different – they are no longer number crunchers, nor the ones at the back-end just giving information – they drive the business strategy and growth in large way with the CEO. In fact when it comes to long term projects and plans or inorganic strategy, the role of the CFO is very important. So today, the CFO is as much of a business partner as anybody else.
Getting that business exposure you learn that every aspect of business helps significantly, and that is my personal experience.
Q: What were the other takeaways from that stint?
A: One critical thing was that everything is not number driven. You try to look at things from a finance perspective as a CFO. But the fact is that sometimes the financial metrics are not the only important measure.
For example, consider customer service, employee engagement, brand. Today, the brand is important. I no longer say spend on advertisements today, I use the word ‘investment’ in advertisements.
These are the things that change as a business head. You cannot measure customer engagement in terms of financials. But if you are customer oriented as an organisation, that means that you have proper processes set up in place, which means investment in infrastructure, IT and so on. These are very critical parts of business. All of them can’t be seen from a numerical perspective that is the catch.
Q: You are amongst the very few who have traversed the route to the CEO and then come back to being CFOs? Why not move on to become CEO, why take up the CFO role again?
A: It was more like an interim role, I took the role as it was planned for me – it was like a progression. Anyone from there would have taken a CEO role next and not taken the finance role. But I have been a finance person and to that extent, particularly after doing that CEO stint, I thought I was a better CFO. That made CFO role more exciting.
Q: Advice for CFOs similarly poised?
A: I would advise that you need to get out of the finance role and do something else—it could be IT, HR, some element of operation. Get out of your comfort zone of finance. Understand a function other than finance.
For example, customer service (for telecom it is a big area), understanding that makes you appreciate the rest of the business. That will make you a better CFO.
Q: Do you see a lot of what you expect from CFOs in your finance team? Or overall talent pool?
A: The youngsters who come in today will possibly need to be told what is their potential and what is it that they need to be doing – this is from the experience of my own company. To an extent I would say the younger members in the finance teams are far more aware of things than when I was at their age. I think it is just a question of exposing them to all aspects of the business.
Q: Millennials constitute your employees as well as your customers. How are they affecting your professional life, leadership priorities and strategic plans as an organisation?
A: I work with a lot of millennials and Titan is a very young organisation. So it is exciting. You learn so much from them – the confidence that they have.
The millennials come with so much confidence and technology (savvy). Their pride of India is unparalleled. That makes a huge impact and the confidence comes through very strongly.
We need to realise that, we need to harness that. Therefore, you throw lot of challenges to them – we ask them to follow up and do things themselves, find solutions to things and so on.
You have to keep them excited all the time. That is a challenge. They have done something once or twice they immediately start looking for doing something more. That is good, that is how it should be and that keeps you on your toes. That is why career planning is a big issue. If you ask me how much time I spend on that? Well, I keep thinking about it. Who will go where, what will they do? That is an important aspect.
Retention is another issue because they tend to be impatient, they need a different level of excitement at different times. So you need to keep them engaged as well.
Q: Can CFOs influence the corporate governance agenda of their organisation?
A: Yes, I’m sure they can. The point is that there are corporate governance requirements under Companies Act, SEBI or stock markets regulations. It is something which is driven by both the CS and the CFO.
The issue of corporate governance is not just a tick-in-the box for compliance, it is also about the back-end, the processes, the complete environment. That is something about compliance that CFOs should inculcate.
Compliance as per regulations is fairly straightforward, but internally there to has to be an environment of governance and CFO plays an important role in that.
Q: How important is Big Data to CFOs?
A: The whole Big Data issue depends on the company context. You have something like structured data and unstructured data. Structured data is what is traditionally been online. What is unstructured data is to an extent verbal, non-numeric. It depends on each company’s requirement. It is context driven. Not very sure Big Data will yield the result people are promising.
A: The stint as a CEO that I had in the past has made me a far better CFO that I could have ever been. That stint was intended to be for a short period, it was more like a bridge. I did that for two years. My move from a CEO back to the CFO was planned process. I was supposed to be holding the fort for some period after which I had to move.
The point is that this stint made me a better CFO. (It gave me) an appreciation of all aspects of business, it was a fantastic crash course.
The CFO today is very different – they are no longer number crunchers, nor the ones at the back-end just giving information – they drive the business strategy and growth in large way with the CEO. In fact when it comes to long term projects and plans or inorganic strategy, the role of the CFO is very important. So today, the CFO is as much of a business partner as anybody else.
Getting that business exposure you learn that every aspect of business helps significantly, and that is my personal experience.
Q: What were the other takeaways from that stint?
A: One critical thing was that everything is not number driven. You try to look at things from a finance perspective as a CFO. But the fact is that sometimes the financial metrics are not the only important measure.
For example, consider customer service, employee engagement, brand. Today, the brand is important. I no longer say spend on advertisements today, I use the word ‘investment’ in advertisements.
These are the things that change as a business head. You cannot measure customer engagement in terms of financials. But if you are customer oriented as an organisation, that means that you have proper processes set up in place, which means investment in infrastructure, IT and so on. These are very critical parts of business. All of them can’t be seen from a numerical perspective that is the catch.
Q: You are amongst the very few who have traversed the route to the CEO and then come back to being CFOs? Why not move on to become CEO, why take up the CFO role again?
A: It was more like an interim role, I took the role as it was planned for me – it was like a progression. Anyone from there would have taken a CEO role next and not taken the finance role. But I have been a finance person and to that extent, particularly after doing that CEO stint, I thought I was a better CFO. That made CFO role more exciting.
Q: Advice for CFOs similarly poised?
A: I would advise that you need to get out of the finance role and do something else—it could be IT, HR, some element of operation. Get out of your comfort zone of finance. Understand a function other than finance.
For example, customer service (for telecom it is a big area), understanding that makes you appreciate the rest of the business. That will make you a better CFO.
Q: Do you see a lot of what you expect from CFOs in your finance team? Or overall talent pool?
A: The youngsters who come in today will possibly need to be told what is their potential and what is it that they need to be doing – this is from the experience of my own company. To an extent I would say the younger members in the finance teams are far more aware of things than when I was at their age. I think it is just a question of exposing them to all aspects of the business.
Q: Millennials constitute your employees as well as your customers. How are they affecting your professional life, leadership priorities and strategic plans as an organisation?
A: I work with a lot of millennials and Titan is a very young organisation. So it is exciting. You learn so much from them – the confidence that they have.
The millennials come with so much confidence and technology (savvy). Their pride of India is unparalleled. That makes a huge impact and the confidence comes through very strongly.
We need to realise that, we need to harness that. Therefore, you throw lot of challenges to them – we ask them to follow up and do things themselves, find solutions to things and so on.
You have to keep them excited all the time. That is a challenge. They have done something once or twice they immediately start looking for doing something more. That is good, that is how it should be and that keeps you on your toes. That is why career planning is a big issue. If you ask me how much time I spend on that? Well, I keep thinking about it. Who will go where, what will they do? That is an important aspect.
Retention is another issue because they tend to be impatient, they need a different level of excitement at different times. So you need to keep them engaged as well.
Q: Can CFOs influence the corporate governance agenda of their organisation?
A: Yes, I’m sure they can. The point is that there are corporate governance requirements under Companies Act, SEBI or stock markets regulations. It is something which is driven by both the CS and the CFO.
The issue of corporate governance is not just a tick-in-the box for compliance, it is also about the back-end, the processes, the complete environment. That is something about compliance that CFOs should inculcate.
Compliance as per regulations is fairly straightforward, but internally there to has to be an environment of governance and CFO plays an important role in that.
Q: How important is Big Data to CFOs?
A: The whole Big Data issue depends on the company context. You have something like structured data and unstructured data. Structured data is what is traditionally been online. What is unstructured data is to an extent verbal, non-numeric. It depends on each company’s requirement. It is context driven. Not very sure Big Data will yield the result people are promising.
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