If you compare the financial world to a journey, flexibility and adaptability are indispensable to survive, develop and conquer increasingly more challenging journeys. Ms. Loan Cao, who is holding the position of CFO (chief financial officer) at B., a famous startup, has been going through an impressive journey full of such experiences.
After a period of more than a decade - 14 years working in the audit industry at BIG4, Ms. Loan decided to challenge herself by moving to a completely new environment - a startup with a speed of change and development. calculated per hour, per working day.
So, let's explore with Bizzi why Ms. Loan Cao made such a bold decision and what's interesting in her journey!
Decided to leave the "legacy" at BIG4 to continue the journey with the startup
Ms. Loan shared that the decision to move from a senior audit expert at BIG4 to the position of Head of Corporate Finance (head of corporate finance) and then take on the position of CFO at a challenging startup was not the right time. any way is easy. But with strong determination, belief in her choices and career path, combined with strong leadership, integrity, and a goal-oriented mindset, Ms. Loan Cao has created a journey. full of inspiration and certain successes.
“Even for many senior financial experts and battlefield-experienced CFOs out there, her successes are not significant. But that is the foundation for you to be more confident in your decisions in the past, in the journey you are embarking on, and in the good things that will come in the future.", Ms. Loan Cao said with a smile.
With more than 14 years working at a BIG4, Ms. Loan has accumulated an impressive amount of professional knowledge. This has helped her build a solid foundation “hard skill” and "soft skills” in the financial sector. However, besides expertise, the decision to move from a senior audit expert to a CFO position in a startup requires her to equip a lot of additional equipment, one of which is leadership ability and leadership skills. business mindset.
Promote Leadership and Business Mindset
One of the most important elements of the CFO position is leadership. Ms. Loan has developed this ability through managing and directing her finance and accounting team. The Finance and Accounting team itself is a back-office department, needing to always be strong to support the frontline, so even though she is managing a team with members with different personalities, Ms. Loan always tries to balance. and harmonize people, creating a unified whole, for unified goals.
Besides being a tough boss, she also shows softness when motivating and motivating the team to develop within a common standard, strategy and towards a common goal. This has helped her finance and accounting team complete their work excellently and overcome difficulties and incidents.
Business thinking is also a decisive factor in the success of a CFO in a startup. Each CFO will have a different working style. Starting as an auditor, her data analysis expertise is extremely strong, so Ms. Loan aims to use data to make choices that can fit with the company's overall strategy. company.
"So if you ask me between two types of CFOs: one who likes to take risks or one who will "play safe", I think I am the third type: offering many options with specific advantages and disadvantages for the business owner (CEO). can make the most appropriate and best decisions for the company based on her analysis. You can call her “make recommendation” CFO is fine.”, Ms. Loan laughed again.
Put yourself in the business mindset - Adaptive
Startups often face rapid changes in the business environment. A company can continuously expand or streamline depending on economic fluctuations and the financial health of the business, so the CFO needs to be flexible and ready to change to meet those fluctuations. In any situation, put yourself in the owner's mindset to clearly understand the goals and direction of the problem.
Ms. Loan shared that: “You need to change flexibly and put yourself in the mindset the company needs as well as put yourself in the mindset of the owner.”
At the same time, according to her, there is currently no fixed standard for managing and leading financial teams. Therefore, being flexible and improvising depending on the job is the nature of the team and should be given top priority.
"As a CFO, we need to create impact for the company. We always need to self-review to improve ourselves, from the perspective of the business to learn from each project. Then come up with appropriate coping strategies for the next time.” – Ms. Loan added.
“Don't rest on your laurels” – Objective Centric, Learning Curve
From Ms. Loan's point of view, one should not let success destroy one's integrity. She believes that perhaps Loan's journey is not a success story that inspires young people.
Or in other words, I may be successful in this business but I am not sure I will be successful in another business. Therefore, we must always focus on the goals we set. Even though there are changes in the scope of work or spending a lot of time OT, she has realized that the most important thing is not to forget her original goal.
“For example, when the workload increased, at first I worked with a rather resentful feeling about why my work was increasing but the things I received were not worthy. However, before I ask for something from the company, I must really do my job well. After that, I realized that my goal when working here is to improve my expertise and develop myself." – Ms. Loan said.
If you are a young person starting your career or facing challenges at work, Ms. Loan's story may be something worth learning.
Ms. Loan may think that her own journey is not enough to inspire young people, but for Bizzi, her story is a strong testament to her willingness to change and adapt to the situation. business and constantly learning to first achieve personal success, and then help the business you work for grow.
Thank you Ms. Loan for accepting Bizzi's invitation to share her very interesting perspective, helping financial managers, financial controllers and many other young people who are setting the CFO position as a career goal. my path in the future!
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