Controllers Classified

On this episode of Controllers Classified, Brex’s CAO Erik Zhou is joined by Sowmya Ranganathan, OpenAI’s Controller. The conversation begins with a discussion on Sowmya’s career and her diverse experiences as an auditor and as a finance leader at both public and private tech companies, including Square and Rippling prior to OpenAI. Specifically, she highlights some of her insights for accounting during periods of business hypergrowth (i.e. when OpenAI launched ChatGPT) and the increasing need for technical savviness even as a finance professional (ex: Sowmya learned SQL as a way to manage the processing and analysis of a large data set of transactions at Square). She concludes her career overview with this advice: accounting leaders need to consider where their processes would break down if they were to grow quickly and focus their time and effort on making sure those processes are as scalable and automated as possible (hint: it requires building relationships with engineering). 

Sowmya and Erik then deep dive into the need for a tech-first approach to accounting that embraces AI to find efficiencies in the financial close process. Sowmya outlines how she thinks AI may evolve the job of accountants and the future skill sets that will be required as a result. She also spends some time considering audit implications and considerations as teams embed emerging technology into their workflows and systems. This episode is a must-listen for finance and tech enthusiasts. 

Finally, the episode closes with Sowmya’s bookkeeping fiasco at a previous company! 

Key Quotes

• On accounting during hypergrowth:  It definitely was a period of amazing hyper growth in user base, customer base, and I'd say we're really fortunate to have a revenue team with a very strong technical skill set. We were already partnering with engineering to automate a lot of the billing transactions. We use Stripe here and the piping of usage-based billing, like the internal usage tables to make its way to actually generate an invoice in Stripe, there's no way. Even at the pre-ChatGPT scale, it would have been really difficult to do this manually. Definitely post-ChatGPT, it would have been just impossible. We would have just come to a grinding halt. I think this is a good thing for accounting teams to look at: if your company were to grow like crazy, where would accounting break? And I think injecting engineering help into those parts early and frequently is the only way to go.
• On accounting automation: When you're building out an accounting function, you're building out a team, sure, and you're executing on accounting, but you're also building products that face your team or customers or someone else. You should think about it like a PM would. What is the problem we're solving? Who are the customers for this problem? If we [don't] solve this, what's going to break? And then you actually define what is your ideal dream state experience? Like if this were working perfectly, what data would flow into what, what would be the outcome here, like maybe automated notifications, automated reporting, what have you, right?
• On using ChatGPT in accounting: Even your best Excel-loving accountant eventually just throws their hand up in the air and is like, what is this nonsense? Why am I wasting my time on this? So what we ask ChatGPT to do is: “Hey, I have an input file that has these headers. This is what I want to do with it. Now write this in a Python script where I can feed it a CSV file and out comes the output you want.” And the most interesting thing is you don't need to know any programming or technical skills. You don't need to know SQL. 
• On the future of AI in accounting:
  •  I'm excited  because I hope that this will be the thing that makes all the manual and routine work of accounting go away and really free up time to engage with the rest of the business and the people that are building the products and helping deliver like better insights, maybe faster, maybe close as we know it goes away..
  • AI is going to advance really quickly, right? I often catch myself in the same thought process that we're in right now, and then I have to remind myself maybe it can't do A, B, and C today, but tomorrow, or in six months, it might be able to do this. So,I think we kind of have to keep evolving what our role looks like and what our team does, and maybe teams will look different, right? 

Time stamps

• 01:30 - Joining OpenAI at the perfect moment 
• 03:46 - Navigating different accounting worlds
• 14:40 - Navigating hypergrowth
• 22:35 - Using AI to create accounting efficiency 
• 33:20 - Incorporating AI into financial tools & systems
• 42:03 -Sowmya's bookkeeping fiasco

Links

• Connect with Sowmya
• Check out OpenAI
• Connect with Erik
• Check out Brex

On this episode of Controllers Classified, Brex’s CAO Erik Zhou is joined by Angelina Hendraka, the CAO at Redis. The conversation begins with a recap of Angelina’s diverse experiences across financial services, biotech, and SaaS companies. Angelina notes that while KPIs shift based on business strategy & industry, the transition from one industry to another in her career has felt seamless given finance is the universal language of business. Erik and Angelina also discuss the transition from big 4 accounting firms to controllership, and the evolution of one’s approach with that transition (i.e. from being deep in technical accounting to thinking more broadly and operationally). 

The conversation then turns to recapping a recent panel discussion that Angelina participated in related to women in the workplace and fostering inclusive work environments. She shares her perspective on what it means to be an inclusive leader, and what more leaders can be doing to ensure diverse representation in finance and accounting. 

The dialogue pivots to some critical financial topics including how to make strategic and thoughtful spend decisions in the current cost containment environment, the role of a strategic procurement function in enabling smarter spend, and important financial processes for post-IPO success, including SOX readiness. 

This episode closes with Angelina’s favorite expense reporting story. Hint: no one is above travel and expense policies! 

Key Quotes

• On data integrity: “You need to get the data right in order to get the numbers right in order for you to really understand how your business is going. And.. in order for you to be able to tell the story to the street, to investors, and analysts about your growth.”
• On the current environment: “Our companies are definitely watching their spend and their cash flows. We're still making investments, but there are a lot more strategic and thoughtful discussions around what we should be spending on and what kind of return we will get from the spend.”
• On working across industries: “To me, finance is the universal language of business, right? That has worked out for me over the years because I was able to transition across industries pretty seamlessly. Now there are obviously some industry-specific nuances but it is all about measuring the state of your business using pretty much the same financial data.”
•  On engaging earlier in career team members: “I think it's very important to communicate that you want to hear their voice as well, and you want to create that psychological safety so nobody has to feel like they don't belong or have no business being there.”
• On smart spending: “ If you want to achieve what we call smart spending, i. e. spending the right amount in the right areas that will drive the business forward, you should invest in a good strategic procurement function.”

Time Stamps

• 6:26 - Transitioning from a Big 4 accounting firm to controllership
• 9:35 - Being an inclusive financial leader
• 19:52 - The importance of a strong procurement function 
• 22:02 -  Effective cost reduction and outsourcing strategies
• 28:11 - Post-IPO financial processes & considerations

Links

• Connect with Angelina
• Visit Redis
• Connect with Erik
• Check out Brex

In this episode of "Controllers Classified," we’re joined by Daniel Hilli, Head of Business Control at Alstom. Alstom is a multinational company that builds and services trains and signaling systems. In fact, millions of people everyday are transported by Alstom trains and systems. Given the size of the company, this episode focuses on how to implement and manage financial processes across different regions and systems at scale. This includes dialogue around when to centralize vs. decentralize reporting and budgeting processes, how to find efficiencies through digitalization and tool consolidation, and the best way to build lines of communication across global teams. 

Daniel also does a deep dive into Alstom’s acquisition of Bombardier and the integration implications that followed - including how to bring together disparate teams and technology and how to gain a holistic financial picture of the business and its spend in a post-acquisition environment.  

The conversation closes with how Daniel tackles long-term projects like ERP implementation - and general thoughts for how and when to leverage external solutions consultants for implementations. 

Key Quotes:

• On the strategic role of finance: “So when you try to put what the issue is in numbers and show that, but how do we generate margin by doing this? All of a sudden people take a minute, think about it. And then you have the tough discussion.”
• On acquisition integration: “So 40,000 people, plus 40,000 people integrating different systems, a bit different cultures trying to do a setup that works. And then we go into what kind of manual processes have we inserted along the way. And all of these things we're now trying to automate.”
• On finding efficiencies: “We have a lot of systems everywhere. And then the question is, how do you do some kind of amalgamation there? How do you now streamline this?
• On system ownership: “It's not automated at all. You go into a meeting and you ask ‘Who did this’ and ‘Why does it look like this?’ You don't want those kinds of discussions. You want the one person to own the whole flow. And then, at some point it becomes apparent where the problem is when the person gets the holistic view.”
• On ERP implementation: “Be a bit aggressive in the beginning because time flies. Time management is key. All of a sudden, the first year just went by and not much really happened, and then in the final three months, all of a sudden everything needs to happen at once.”

Show Notes

• (1:15) -  Intro/journey to success
• (6:10) -  Interactions with departments at Alstom
• (9:25) - Structuring the finance department on a global scale
• (17:20) -  Major acquisitions and implementations 
• (26:12) - Identifying the top needs during an ERP implementation
• (28:14) -  Controllers are fun too/close!

Links

• Connect with Daniel
• Visit Alstom
• Connect with Erik
• Check out Brex

In this riveting discussion, we have the privilege of featuring Lindsey Oshita, Chief Accounting Officer of the Americas at Franklin Templeton. Lindsey shares her journey to becoming a CAO, beginning her career first at a small local accounting firm during high school, before progressing to Deloitte in San Francisco. Listen in as Lindsey talks about her transition into corporate accounting for the Americas at Franklin Templeton and her role in developing a set of global standards to create a shared language of success with cross-functional partners. 

Lindsey also sheds light on the challenges faced during an ERP integration following a merger and the massive IT commitment it entailed. She highlights the significance of a chart of accounts and their potential adaptations, along with her team’s successful implementation of Workday at the start of the fiscal year.

Finally, this episode also touches on the crucial role of mentorship and sponsorship in Lindsey's career. She talks about how these elements, along with her father's advice, have helped her continuously grow and add more tools to her toolbox. This conversation is not just about accounting; it's about career growth, mentorship, team integration, and the ability to find humor even in the most challenging situations. Tune in for an enlightening and entertaining discussion.

Key Quotes

• So to me, it doesn't always have to be somebody that's higher in the organization. You can learn from anybody, right?
• With any ERP implementation, things change and as you settle into the system, there are aspects to that that you continually refine. And I think that's also been a really big part of the culture of the sort of combined organization is how do we make things more efficient?
• Thinking through sort of the financial design and sort of that base level, taking extra time for that, right? How you build your hierarchies, how do you build your chart of accounts, things like that, that feel really mundane and like you could later are actually the ways that you're gonna set yourself up, to have all the other work streams go more efficiently

Show Notes

• (0:01:44) - Accounting career paths and responsibilities
• (0:10:40) - Integration and team building after an acquisition
• (0:19:11) - ERP integration challenges after a merger
• (0:30:15) - How mentorship can expand the accounting career path
• (0:34:55) - Lindsey’s best accounting jokes

Links

• Connect with Lindsey
• Visit Franklin Templeton
• Connect with Erik
• Check out Brex

In this episode of Controllers Classified, Brex’s CAO Erik Zhou dives deep into the evolution of accounting and finance with guest Ron Cook, the VP/Controller at Lightcast. Ron shares invaluable insights from his illustrious 30-year career on the past, present, and future states of accounting, on-the-job anecdotes (ever migrated ERPs in the middle of a pandemic?), and lessons learned along the way (“Leadership is an art. It’s not a science.”).

Erik and Ron also explore the transformative impact of remote work culture on the accounting profession, delving into its challenges, benefits, and opportunities. The conversation pivots to AI and automation as Ron sheds light on where he thinks AI can have the most accounting impact — and what he thinks AI cannot do. He also shares his top skill for managing people and the one line on a job candidate’s resume that still stands out today.

Key Quotes:

“A long time ago someone told me that you're born with two ears and one mouth, [so] you should listen twice as much as you should talk. So I always listen to people, try to get to what they're seeing, read their body language, understand what they're doing, and just be compassionate. And I think that goes a long way in leadership.”

“I think what people don't like is if you tell them this is what you have to do. When you're working on a big-scale ERP or a big project and you have months or years to go, giving people the option to be involved or how to be involved, I think people respect that. You've taken the time to talk to them, to say, ‘Hey, what is your opinion here?’”

“Does [AI] do 80 or 90% of the work for you and help you be efficient? Yes. But does it require you to sit down and look and make sure that [the outputs are] all 100% accurate? I also say yes. So I think [AI success happens] in combination with a person with a brain that can look at it and say, this makes sense or not.”

“I think integrity is something that will follow you the rest of your life. I think that not only in the accounting profession, but in life in general. Integrity and being honest and being open upfront will open a lot of doors and will make you successful.”

“In any company, people [are] your best resource, and you need to learn to take care of people as the world adapts.”

Time stamps: 

[01:35] Intro/Journey to Success

[4:39] How Ron went from analog accounting to the digital world of accounting today

[17:10] When to use AI and understanding its limitations for accounting

[23:45 ] Advice and tips during large scale ERP implementations 

[31:03] Ron's craziest accounting debacle

Links:

• Visit Lightcast
• Connect with Ron
• Connect with Erik
• Check out Brex

Controllers and accountants perform some of  the most critical and dynamic roles in business — and this podcast will share their inside stories and strategies. Join us as they divulge exclusive insights on the topics redefining the world of accounting and finance, from AI to digitization to globalization. Presented by Brex, an AI powered spend platform