Brad Perry is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of beqom, the provider of a cloud-based total compensation solution. beqom’s mission is to make the people of the world's largest enterprises happy, with correct, fair and transparent compensation.

Brad has 22 years of experience in senior Finance positions, creating value for customers and shareholders of blue-chip technology companies. He served for a decade in Finance at IT services innovator EDS, which was acquired by HP. At HP, Brad served as a Finance and Operations leader of some of the company’s largest and most complex global IT services engagements and in its largest and most complex market segments. He went on to become VP of Finance for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and then DXC Technology, before moving to his current role at beqom. 

While we continue to face the realities of COVID-19, how have you seen your approach to Finance/Business Operations evolve?

Initially, COVID-19 forced us to take emergency measures – we implemented spend restrictions, some short-term actions, such as taking advantage of some government support programs. We looked at it as a temporary impact that we would need to buffer before moving back into the normal operating mode.

However, we quickly realised that the impact would not be short-term, COVID itself would last for a longer period and, even after COVID-19, a lot of the norms will have changed. So, we started to try to make more permanent shifts, like moving away from things that require physical interaction, like trade fairs, our office setup, the way that we did travel, the way that we interacted with customers, and we invested more in digital activities. We were already pretty big in digital marketing, but we did more around remote webcasts and things like that to build pipeline, to build a view of new customers and, as we looked at the software, we’ve really tried to start to invest to make it more self-service, to allow customer autonomy and not require onsite interaction.

Additionally, the good news for most companies that sell into corporate enterprise is that we found that we can do strategic selling remotely; we don’t have to be onsite, we don’t have to have a single customer interaction. It’s preferable, but we have successfully managed to attract and close deals without a physical meeting.

What do you think is the future of Finance?

I think immediately it is about automation and making the job simpler. We have tried to look at what makes the processes that we run complex and simplifying them in various ways, for example, reducing the number of legal entities, consolidating the way that we make payments, etc.

Automation is a lot about the tools; there’s a lot of products on the market right now to automate tasks around time tracking, billing, everything from payments to preparing your annual financial statements, and we’re working to implement that. All companies are looking to simplify the core activities around Finance and Accounting and it’s important that we do that to free up mind share to do the next thing.

Beyond more the mid-term, we are trying to enable ourselves to manage things more dynamically, by shifting our spending, shifting our resources between areas and quickly being very reactive - being proactive on how we deploy our resources is critical. We need to be very flexible and almost start from a zero-budgeting mentality, where each month we question the base that we have and think about how we would operate in the new environment each day as we see the situation unfold.

Longer-term, I think we’re going to see Finance move not just away from transaction on inter-business partnering, but beyond that, incorporating a lot of operational elements and changing the way businesses operate around IT, Procurement, employing personnel, and that is where the big value is going to be and finding ways to drive the financial performance of a company from all aspects.

COVID has accelerated these changes to a point - it really taught us the need for speed. I think we have seen the same in the recruitment area, too. The workforce is changing quite quickly and, at the company level, being able to attract and employ new skills quickly is super important. On the individual level, it is important for people to be able to evolve themselves and upskill for the future. It was a tough time, but it was an important learning for businesses and people in their work.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your role?

As CFO of a mid-size company, I get to do it all and that is really the most interesting thing about my role. I work on very specific problems that need solving; making payments happen in countries and avoiding VAT, to creating strategic long-term business plans to present to the Board and to drive the performance of the company towards that objective. Working both at the transactional level on very practical things that need to happen and encouraging strategic initiatives at the same time.

Additionally, in my role, I get to work on a lot of things that are not traditionally in the Finance and Accounting domain, which includes how we structure the software to maximise revenue, how we hire the best talent to do that software development, to do the sales and marketing. So, being able to work around all aspects of the company is exciting for me and that’s the best part of my role. I’m fortunate that, in my company, in my role, there is a lot of trust and there is an openness where we can talk about other people’s domain and really have a say and help to make everyone great.

How do you think companies could reduce bias in their hiring process?

It is important that you start at the beginning and you set up a process where you get a good pool of candidates with the required skills and experience. You must make sure that that pool of candidates includes underrepresented parts of the community, so that you have allowed enough of the process to run where you have the opportunity to include diverse candidates in the selection process.

In the selection itself, you need to make sure that everyone’s been screened, has the skills and experience, can fit the company culture, is a solid candidate for the role and you believe could do the job. Then, take a step back and review the top candidates, asking, “Have we brought in diversity for consideration?”, and then as you go into the actual selection, if you find equally great candidates, always try to select the one that would bring more diversity into the company, because we know that more diverse representation in companies - especially in more senior positions - improves the company performance. It’s known that having different perspectives really makes companies better, so when you have the opportunity, lean towards that and take advantage of it.

What risks have you taken throughout your career and how did they help you to get to where you are?

The biggest risk I’ve taken throughout my career is not being afraid to talk to people. I have always been very ambitious and wanted to grow myself in different ways; not just climbing the ladder, but have different experiences, move to different regions of the world, work in different disciplines, manage different aspects of the business, learn how to lead in all different respects. The way that I did that was really proactive networking. I wasn’t afraid to identify people that I thought could help me to progress my career, either directly through giving me an opportunity or mentoring me or opening other doors and introducing me to other people to talk to. I wasn’t afraid to do that, and it really helped me build my network, both within a company and outside of a company, talking and really explaining where I want to go and understanding the path to get there.

A lot of people are afraid of that. They are either afraid to set up the conversation to approach someone or, when they speak to the person, they are afraid to be clear about what they want and ask for help and ask for assistance to get there. As I’ve gone further in my career, I know that more senior people appreciate it when people are proactive and have a great aspiration and want their help and advice, so I think it’s great that I did it and I would definitely recommend it to other folks.

Moving back to the diversity discussion, I think it’s equally, if not more important, for people who are coming from underrepresented parts of society to build those connections and to be more proactive to overcome the natural bias that exists in business.

What is the biggest myth about your profession that you want to debunk?

The biggest myth in my profession is that Finance and Accounting people are boring and very conservative. It’s absolutely not true! Technology is evolving to the point of automating the boring, mundane tasks that go around Finance and Accounting and what’s needed is really creativity, being not risk adverse, but identifying the right risk to take to maximise the business performance, and being really quick and innovative in the way that you approach the role and support the business.

The people that are attracted to Finance and Accounting roles are, by nature, thinking big. They know that the numbers represent the business in a way and understanding the Finances of a company you really can see through and understand the whole company. There’s this big picture aspect that attracts a certain type of person and then there’s the problem-solving element that drives creative thinking, and all of that attracts interesting people who are ambitious and want to take on challenges, think the big picture, think creatively. That’s not boring and I think it’s also not conservative. The other thing is, we are always the most fun – Finance is the life of the party!

What’s the biggest compliment anyone’s ever given you?

I have been told a few times in my career, “Oh, you’re not like the typical Finance guy,” “You’re not the typical Accountant”. So that was always a nice compliment for me, because the stereotype is real, and everybody expects that you’re boring and super conservative. So, personally, I’m trying to debunk that myth.

What kind of advice would you give to someone who was looking to leave the corporate structure and go into something newer and a bit more dynamic?

I worked for 20 years in large corporate enterprises, and I knew when I was looking for the next role, the next change, I wanted to do something quite different. I really wanted to try my hand at something more entrepreneurial for the second half of my career. I made a conscious decision around that, but I didn’t fully understand what it meant until I actually got it. I knew it was going to be a big change to go from a large corporate enterprise to a mid-market type of company, a smaller company, and it was.

I think a lot of what I expected was true; I knew that it would be much more hands-on, I knew that it would be much broader in terms of responsibility, but I think I did not appreciate how much work it would be to really get control of it to work on the details, to worry about things that I never would have had to worry about in previous roles. Bank accounts, payments going through, employment regulations at the personal level, really transactional level things that are super important for the business that I would never have had to have worried about in the past all of a sudden become really important and, in a way, strategic, even though they’re at the very detailed level.

It took me a while to see that and to realise that and now that I’m comfortable with it, having the ability to do that, to get involved where it matters, while at the same time doing the very big strategic stuff thinking long-term, thinking about how we should really change things dramatically and move towards a different direction, and then making it happen at the detailed level.

For people that are considering making such a change, it really takes a certain type of person. First and foremost, you cannot have a huge ego coming into this role. If you think you’re above doing certain things, then it will never work. You need to really be a doer; you cannot be afraid to get your hands dirty, you also need to be really flexible, and able to take a decision and move in a different direction overnight.

Also, being able to tackle issues and not be overwhelmed by the latest problems that might crop up that need to be addressed. I think somebody coming into this role has really got to be able to manage their time really effectively and decide what they want to focus on, what’s the most important thing to close down and to communicate that clearly to the team and to the company. 

Another aspect is, typically Finance and Accounting people work internally in their company in large corporations, interacting primarily with other people in the company, other parts of Finance, the business owners, whereas when you move into a smaller company, you have huge volumes of external interactions with the board and shareholders, but also with lenders, with customers, with partners that supply resources… all of that has a huge responsibility under the CFO.

So, being comfortable to interact with people that you’ve never met that work in entirely different domains, negotiate leases for offices, service agreements, these are things that a lot of people in their corporate roles have never experienced. It takes a little bit of someone that’s comfortable, someone that’s a bit extroverted to be able to make that transition.

You need to have built the skill before taking this type of role; it didn’t come naturally to me in the beginning, I’m not a natural salesperson, but I knew that I needed to build that skill over time, as it was important to my career. Coming into this role, you cannot be a back office person - you need to be ready to engage at a lot of different levels, which is really fulfilling.

At the end of the day, you know that you’ve worked on what you think are the most important things, and you’ve driven the business forward and you feel a great satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment at the end of it.

Thank you to Brad for speaking to our Finance & Accountancy recruitment team in Switzerland.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.

Luigi Maria Fierro joined ING Group in 2015 and is currently Global Head of ING HR Strategy and Advanced Analytics, leading HR’s future strategic agenda with clear focus on analytics and data.

During his journey in ING, he covered several roles as Head of HR Transformation and Head of Performance Culture, leading several strategic initiatives like new HR operating model design and implementation, and Group’s new performance management culture and framework.

Prior to joining ING, Luigi Maria worked for 10 years at McKinsey and Co., serving several leading financial institutions in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Thanks to these experiences, Luigi Maria has developed an extensive knowledge on the financial institutions sector, combining HR business and strategic perspectives, which he is also leveraging as lecturer at Bologna Business School, start-up advisor member and international conferences speaker.

What is the best and worst interview experience you’ve had?

This is a good question. For me, every experience is about the feeling that you have at the end of the interview cycle. It’s really not related to the company or to the outcome of the interview process, but it’s more related to the way you interact with people and, especially, I’m referring to how much the interviewer is looking after you as a candidate, bringing you up to speed about the process and giving you feedback on the overall interview process.

The best interview experience has been when I received a lot of information about the interview process, the stages, the people that I was meeting etc. After every meeting, I was given a mini debrief. The worst interview experience is when you, as a candidate, have to chase the company. In my view, the interview process gives you a lot of insights. The interview process is a fair representation of the company culture, but especially the culture of the people, of the team you would be working with. The role of the people is key - if they do not answer the phone, do not write back, not fully sharing with you what they’re thinking and what they’re feeling about the process, then this is where alarm bells should be going off about the culture and way of working in this particular company.

ING is one of the market-leading companies in the Netherlands, so how would you say your company works to retain high potential employees?

I think there are mainly three elements: we allow them to steer their own careers; we allow them to invest in their craftsmanship; and we allow them to find the right balance between personal and professional life.

Steering your own career means that, in ING, each of us is accountable for taking the lead in moving their careers forward and, therefore, moving ING forward by keeping our skills and expertise up to date. We create the environment in which our people are empowered to develop, taking into account their own history, purpose and ambitions, while ensuring we provide ING the capabilities that it needs to deliver its strategy.

Our philosophy is that people should invest in their own craftsmanship. We encourage people to consider: Where do I belong in ING? Which part of the company? Who are the people I would like to work with? We have a strong emphasis on self-development. Connected to that is a heavy investment on the craftsmanship side. So, if I am investing in you as a professional, I’m also asking you to invest in yourself and to understand what you need as a next learning experience. I’m asking you to proactively think what is going to be the next career path and for you to be on the driving seat of your craftsmanship connected to your career.

And the last one - and this is really being accelerated by the pandemic - we pay a lot of attention to the balance between professional and personal life. It does not mean that we are asking people to do less, but to really focus on the deliverables, on the achievements, focus on the final goal and giving people flexibility. For example, working from home, we give them opportunities and we ask them to make an investment in themselves. I think this is also something that is positioning us quite well on the Dutch market as a very good employer, as we take care of our colleagues by giving them opportunities, and we ask them to invest in their vitality and craftsmanship in return.

What changes have you seen to the employment market in the Netherlands over the years and what in your opinion have been the drivers to these changes?

I believe there are mainly two elements most likely happening in the Netherlands market. There is, on one side, even more focus on non-financial characteristics that working offers. What I really mean is that a lot of especially junior colleagues or new colleagues that are joining are looking for information in terms of the non-financial benefit, the compensation, but there is a lot of attention on work-life balance, having flexibility, healthcare benefits etc. Non-financial benefits are increasingly considered as a value-add, to ensure a very good quality of life and balance between personal life and professional life, and I think ING is well-positioned in this area.

Secondly, there are many fintechs or other start-ups that have entered the market. Many of them have now become scale-ups. They can offer something very different than a large bank. Because these companies are younger, with less clearly defined organisational structures, it can be attractive for some of our employees to join such businesses after working with us for a while. It’s an interesting evolution.

Fun question, what is your personal highlight of your career so far?

It’s another great question and not an easy one. I think the key highlight has been the opportunity in the last year to explore different topics, different functions and different regions. So, if I look back to the last 15 years, I have done consulting, I have worked in financial institutions to telecommunication, I’ve been working on the Risk side, Finance side, HR, now Analytics. I’ve done jobs in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe. I’ve been lucky enough to change the set-up frequently, so I never get bored. Maybe the highlight of my career so far is that I’m still feeling like a teenager in my career; I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up. I consider myself quite blessed for this. I turned 40, but I feel 18 - but it’s still okay for me.

What are your tips on achieving work-life balance?

I learnt that the hard way; it is to listen to yourself and listen to your body. I think your body can tell you when you’re doing slightly too much and when you’re pushing too much. Listen to your body, and then try to really understand whether you need flexibility on how to best balance your working and professional life.

For example, on the family side, bringing the kids to school is something that is giving you happiness that makes you feel proud; if that is part of what you would like to do, do it and then just move the meeting later on, start later in the day, no one will complain. My suggestion is to listen to yourself in case you’re doing too much, and then really think through in terms of which is the part of your personal life that you would like to protect, and make it clear and be transparent to your manager and to your colleagues. By saying I will not start before 9.30 because I want to bring my kids to school, unless there is an emergency, but otherwise, I am going to start at 9.30. If you do this - especially as a manager - people will do the same and everybody will find their own balance, and everybody is going to be slightly happier and more engaged.

So, if you could go back and give your younger self some career advice, what would it be?

Study Middle Age history and become a professor. I think the career advice is: sometimes we can get lazy and follow the flow, and especially when you’re young, you think you have all the time in front of you to do all the experience that you want. Instead, sometimes when you start having the feeling that it’s time to change, go for the change. Don’t wait. Again, you cannot steer your life; life is going to overtake any of your plans, but at least you can try to do your best to change when you believe it is the right moment. 

And finally, what books, blogs or podcasts are you currently reading and listening to? What have you been enjoying and any recommendations?

I bought two books that I was reading this summer. The first one is Excellence in People Analytics. This is about a new field that I am working on, so I want to read cases that different companies are investing. And the other is about the Second World War, it’s Operation Anthropoid, it’s a very nice book, it has also been turned into a movie, it’s very nice reading and watching

When I’m on the move and I can listen to some podcasts, I listen to something that is quite relaxing, so about Italian news or something. I really try to protect my personal time without pushing some working podcast into it. So, I’m listening to something about Italy and my country.

Thank you to Luigi for speaking to Hannah Mallia, Director - Finance in the Netherlands.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.

Valentina Ericson is the Vice President Indirect Procurement & Head of Packaging at Signify in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She was previously the Global Director Indirect Procurement at Nouryon and Global Director Procurement Strategy at Volvo Construction Equipment in both Belgium and Sweden.

How do you feel the workplace will have changed as we emerge from the global pandemic?

I believe there are a few themes as we look at the workplace post-COVID. An obvious one is the philosophy around office attendance, which is something both companies and employees seem to have mixed feelings about in terms of way forward. You can see both extremes, from companies and people wanting to go back to five days per week without exception, to others saying, let’s just work from home and stop this office thing altogether. In my view, the sweet spot is probably somewhere in between, where we acknowledge that working from home can have its benefits, but equally recognize that coming together is key to feel a sense of belonging, form relationships and allow for more spontaneous interactions.

Based on my own experience of recruiting in the recent months, it’s been clear that many candidates are seeking more flexibility and freedom to manage work-life balance, and want the possibility to partially work from home. This will, without a doubt, be a factor to consider when competing for talent in the market.

It’s also clear that the pandemic has taught us that we can do more things remotely and challenged us to be more creative in how we do things. It’s no longer necessary to travel all over the world every week or month. However, the experience of joining a new company during the pandemic by going through an entire recruitment process virtually and initially only working from home was definitely a different experience for me. Building relationships or even just being able to meet people by only using online tools is clearly more challenging and time consuming than doing it in person.

What do you see as the biggest challenges for:

1. Your business? and
2. Your own role over the next 12 months?

I think for many industries, including ours, managing your supply chain has been extremely challenging and it continues to be. Facing the impact from COVID-19, the Suez Canal obstruction, component shortages etc. takes a lot of resilience, speed and creativity to be successful. The pandemic also highlighted the risk and vulnerability of many supply chains, where many companies have had too many of their eggs in one basket creating quite some challenges when that supply fails. I anticipate that we need to rebalance the focus on cost with other aspects like risk and availability, but also challenge ourselves to become even more agile and faster in how we respond to different market situations.

Our industry is also evolving at a high pace and, as such, is demanding us to be highly innovative, fast, competitive and customer centric. Digitalization is a big topic across the company, as well as Sustainability, where we have a target to make our packaging plastic free by the end of this year, as one example. Diversity & Inclusion is another focus area, where we have an ambition backed up by hard targets to bring more females into senior leadership roles and hire more young talents into our company.

For me personally, the focus in the coming months will be to build the future Operating Model for Indirect Procurement & Packaging, to ensure we have fast and efficient processes to support the business, and talented people with passion to make the difference and ultimately take this organization to the next level. I’ve spent my first six months getting to know the company, listening to different people to understand what is working well and where can we improve. The work doesn’t stop in the meantime of course, so it’s a bit like building a plane and flying it at the same time, but I enjoy a good challenge, and I’m passionate about change and continuous improvement.

Describe the risks you have taken throughout your career and how did they help you get to the level that you are at?

I think a common theme for me has been to actively pursue opportunities when they have come up throughout my career. In doing so, I’ve many times been forced to get out of my comfort zone, challenge my fears, and leave the easy and comfortable path behind. More than once have I left a position in a company where I felt comfortable and well recognized in favour of doing something completely new and different, simply because I believed it would be better for my personal development.

As a consequence of taking on new roles, I’ve also several times moved between countries away from family and friends, which is not always easy. However, limiting yourself to one specific geographical location will ultimately also limit your career opportunities. It can be a challenge to be a foreigner in another country, but I’ve also found that living in another country is a very humbling experience that gives you fresh perspectives of the world, and on your own country and culture. I would not have wanted to be without this experience and I think it’s also something that has helped me as a leader of a global organization to understand cultural nuances.

The other advice I would have is to have courage to be different and not do what everyone else is doing or always say what people expect you to say. In the early years of your career, I think many people are keen on being perceived as the A-student employee, but adding alternative perspectives or challenging ideas or concepts by suggesting a different solution can sometimes be a game changer and allow you to position yourself differently. Also, try to be strong enough in your own values and beliefs to say, “No, I don’t agree” or, “This is not right” when you feel strongly about something. This can be uncomfortable depending on the situation or even risky, but with the right people you will be seen as honest and gain trust.

Overall, making tough choices and doing things outside your area of comfort is not easy, and it’s not for everyone. I always say that you need to own your choices and actively make them based on what you believe will make you happy in life.

For someone starting their career in Procurement, what advice would you share?

I would say invest in building relationships. I always say that that Procurement is a relationship sport and you are a bit like a spider in the web working with most functions within the company. I often tell people that, to the outside world, you are the buyer, but internally, you are very much selling ideas and concepts, and typically need to manage a lot of change, so you need to have the skills to do both.

Furthermore, I would advise to get to know your eco system (market, internal stakeholders, suppliers) to build a solid understanding of what their challenges, opportunities, needs, etc. are, because that will tell you what’s important for you to consider when you build your strategy, and for you to find the right way to interact and collaborate with those groups and build relationships to be successful.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your role?

From a leadership point of view, the first would be to work with my people and see them grow, develop and advance their careers. I’m very passionate about people development and I find it to be the most rewarding part of my role. Seeing someone conquer a difficult task or overcoming a challenge or celebrating their new promotion is just a great feeling that gives me a lot of energy. As a leader, your success will ultimately be defined by the success of your people, so investing in your team should always be a top priority and focus. On top of that, having a global team that all bring their unique perspectives and learning from them is something I very much enjoy and appreciate in my role.

Looking at my role as a Procurement professional, I personally like the ability to have a direct impact on the business. Every day, we solve different issues, find a smarter way of sourcing or doing things, and we are a key contributor to the company’s bottom line. I’m a competitive person by nature, so I like to see that what we are doing is generating results that makes a positive difference.

The third and last one is the freedom, everchanging dynamic and creativity of this profession. I like problem-solving and improving things, it’s part of who I am. In Procurement, there is rarely a day that is like the one before and as such it offers a nice arena for creativity. When stakeholders come to me to complain, I tend to appreciate it because it gives me an opportunity to solve and improve something for the future. On top of that, the appreciation you get back from taking the time to listen and understand the problem and then going and fixing it for them buys you a lot of credibility and trust with your stakeholders.

What is the most surprising thing that has happened during your career?

At least on three occasions in my career, it happened as I was just hired into a new role, that the manager who hired me left shortly after. This can be a big deal, because you don’t just choose a job and company, you also choose the manager as someone you want to work with. Additionally, it has happened twice that the office I’ve been based at has closed or been relocated and, a few years ago, I joined what I thought was a public company, only to learn a few weeks later that the business area I was joining would be sold to a Private Equity Company.

That journey became very different from what I originally expected, but ultimately turned out to be an amazing, fun and rewarding experience. Uncertainty about the future can be very hard on your mind, but for me this was an example that what’s beyond the uncertainly can be something great and, if you don’t pull through, you might miss out on interesting things and opportunities.

Who is the most inspiring person in business for you and why?

There are many incredibly inspiring companies and people in the world today doing a lot of good things, so it’s a tough choice, but I will pick the Dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat, who founded the Ocean Cleanup company to help rid the world’s oceans and rivers from plastic waste.

The story began when he was on vacation in Greece and, sadly, saw more plastic than fish in the sea and felt an urge to do something about it. I think most of us feel frustrated with the negative impact us humans have had on the environment, but he actually decided to take it further and started his own company to make a change.

I find it inspiring to see that smart people with plenty of career opportunities in the corporate world choose to deploy their talent and intelligence for a greater purpose, and I like the way he is adapting a business mindset to identify a problem and doing a root cause analysis: Why is this happening? How do we solve it? And then find a clever way to deploy a solution. It’s great to see when people use learnings from the private business sector to tackle Sustainability issues and other important topics in the world.

Do you have any hidden talents?

Not sure if it counts as a talent, but my friends and family tell me that I am extremely good at assembling IKEA furniture. I guess it comes with my Swedish genes and a lot of experience of moving around. I’m also good at making puzzles and, during the pandemic, where we had a few months of curfew in the Netherlands, I’ve made a couple of them with 1,000-3,000 pieces each. I can usually do 1,000-plus pieces in one evening. Fortunately, it’s now summer and no curfew, so I can hopefully develop a new talent.

Thank you to Valentina for speaking to Michelle Ewing, Director at EMEA Recruitment. 

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.

How can companies reduce bias in the hiring process?

We work on the mindset of the leaders, the line managers and introduce varied ways to equip them to experience good quality interviews completely bias-safe. It is a dedicated and persistent proactivity that we deploy to secure the positive mindset change that eradicates potential types of bias. Helping hiring leaders become aware of this topic benefits their efficiency in the process of capturing the best talent.  

I put my trust mostly in an interaction between a) the definition and roll-out of the right HR processes, and b) the respect to the principles that inspire the organisation culture. It is balance between the cultural and spiritual side of the organisation and process discipline. Everyone needs to be part of this communication and learning experience.

In the day-to-day activities, it is indeed a challenge to identify when bias has happened; it’s really a guess in most cases. We need to rely on the clarity and good understanding of the process to follow, which somehow states the avoidance of any type of potential biases.

From my side, I constantly try to align the HR community around these principles, because they are the ones who act as sort of gatekeepers of the compliance of adequate processes.

How do you feel the workplace will have changed as we emerge from the global pandemic?

In general, we all have adapted to more flexible forms of work. Being an industrial company, most of our jobs demand presence in our sites and customers. However, I believe that this pandemic has increased the awareness towards the need to balance work, personal lives and health. But also, in Manufacturing jobs, it is the development of technology that is bringing innovative ways of work.

Another interesting aspect is related to communication and collaboration technology. We have experienced a rise in technology solutions to support this evolution to adapt work schemes to individual circumstances. This has helped to grow the understanding that solid performance can be achieved through different ways of work; this is a relevant transformation overall.

In general terms, I dare say that, as an effect of these pandemic months, we have developed our individual empathy capability. I mean the way we observe, tolerate and support other colleagues and situations.

It’s a real talking point across different countries now about larger organisations and do they keep their huge offices, do they change and have those smaller hub or site offices where there is that flexibility to come and go, because then you can offer employees that mix of both?

Indeed, that is happening. Office design is in line with the idea of building collaborative spaces for people and adapting an engaging work environment to the way each person is working.

We’re now refurbishing some of our offices following that concept. Clearly, the size of the office needed is smaller, but must be more engaging and facilitate collaboration.

Do you mean where some of your colleagues may be working at home on their own through the pandemic, or they’ve got children and they’re trying to work while they’re looking after the children?

Exactly. Personal circumstances that may need a different way of working or collaborating with others. Somehow, during these months, we opened our domestic environment through the public domain of the screens and in the background sometimes there is a dog barking, or there are children running, or your partner is suddenly coming in and out. And this is now part of our normality.

We have been impacted in our workforce, sometimes going through terrible circumstances, and that kind of moral support, compassion, etc. is a regular attitude that is popping up in the organisation. Not solidarity feelings - all that has been re-bunked; I think that shouldn’t be lost.

What excites you about working for LafargeHolcim?

I think the company is definitely an exciting company. I have been here for 15 years in diverse jobs and I have always found that the company is continually changing, transforming at the right pace, and that transformation attitude has opened options for the business and for our people. People in Holcim are proud of the company. Sometimes it’s the cement plans, sometimes it’s the country where they were, sometimes it’s the region, the group or all together, and now it has jumped into a very intensive and proactive strategy on sustainability; it makes this company quite interesting in the day-to-day. I personally find it very inspirational and engaging to be part of Holcim.

It sounds like it’s a place where you’ve been able to flourish, where you’ve been able to be yourself and be able to bring new ideas, but then if you don’t have ideas at that particular time, you’ve probably got a number of people around you that would have ideas?

We work under the principle of people accountability, empowerment and decentralised management.

Our inspiring challenge is to have a chance to explain, openly, our story, because there is a very exciting story behind our strategy related to our contribution to society and environment.

How do you see the Swiss economy evolving in the next 5 years?

Well, I am not an economist, nor a guru. What I can suggest is a modest opinion. I have a feeling that the Swiss economy will be a strong economic engine in the heart of Europe for many years. I think this country is doing the right things, and attracting the right talent and capital. There is a challenge that I comment with my Swiss colleagues frequently: the relevant opportunity in the relations that Switzerland can build with the European Union, which will make this economy and social model even more interactive and strong.

Switzerland is an example in many aspects, and has learnt to evolve and adapt: this is a guarantee for future.

What are the biggest challenges for a leader overseeing a remote team?

My team has been working in a flexible approach for more than a year. Where I find a new element is in the follow-up of the team, because we were accustomed to come together for morning meetings, weekly meetings… We need to address what the engagement aspects that you need to fit properly in a remote way are, so that everyone in the team feels the closeness of being integrated in the team, even if they are hundreds of kilometres away.

One person in my team is based in Singapore, my colleagues in HR are in Latin America, US, Canada, one is in Madrid, another one is in Switzerland, etc. So, it’s a kind of remote team, but by frequent talks on the key topics and the exchange through different channels, including social media, we keep that day-to-day, we keep that closeness, that confidence. There is something that it’s a bit damaged, especially for HR professionals; sometimes we have the feeling that we’re maintaining ourselves with the efforts done in the past to get to know people. Now we start to know new colleagues, newcomers, through screens, through technology, but we are missing the opportunity to have enough time together to get to know each other face-to-face. So that is a challenge that is not 100% replaced by remote contacts.

It’s not so bad with team members that you’ve known for a long time, but when it’s a new person coming in, that chat over coffee will never be replaced by the remote virtual world.

That’s the challenge and there are ways to balance - we do more intensive talent reviews, for instance. We are planning to do it quarterly, instead of once a year, so there are ways to overcome that difficulty.

What risks have you taken throughout your career and how did they help you get to the level you’re at now?

The trick of the question is, when you perceive a risk is when you’re in front of it and you have to do something about it, then you experience a certain mix of panic and courage. When you go through it and you do something right, then you look behind and you do not see the risk, you see the story and how it has turned into a positive experience.

But what are the risks? I would mention attitude. I’m saying this to colleagues, to anyone that I can, that you really need to jump in the water. When someone comes and says, “Hey, would you agree to do something, would you get into this or that?”, then you need to be ready with the answer that day, you need to be ready to say, “Yes, I take it up”. And then you learn the way, and you plan and find a way to do it; that’s attitude. I have recommended that attitude to our young people joining the company any time that I had the opportunity. You may not do it perfectly well, but you gain that experience from every moment you face one of these risks, let’s call it a challenge. It is a huge learning both in terms of job skills, but also in terms of your own maturity and personality, so you grow as you move.

I like the fact that you mentioned throughout your career, if you say yes to opportunities and jump in with two feet and, yes, there may be times where it might not go so well, but ultimately, those are your learning experiences, and you will carry them with you for the next challenge, risk or opportunity.

When I was living in Madrid, one university gave me the opportunity to contribute as a professor and I could make it compatible with my working hours. So, I said “Okay, fine” and I thought he would come to tell me to teach something about HR or labour of law, and the person came and said “No, it’s about legal ethics”. I was shocked, because that was not my comfort zone. Then I said “Okay, fine”, and I ended up doing 5 years teaching legal ethics and professional ethics. One day I asked that professor, “Why did you ask me that?”. She said, “You know, I did it on purpose, because I was sure you had to fight for it”. The risk can be challenged from things that you are not comfortable with, it’s out of your comfort zone.

What is the biggest myth about your profession that you want to debunk?

Well, there are a few, because in HR most of the things we say sound like myths - sorry to be so realistic. For instance, around Talent Management, there are plenty of myths in the concept of feedback - there are lots of them. We want to believe not only that we need feedback, but also that we’re entitled to provide feedback to anyone and that we do a good thing by providing feedback. That’s a dangerous thing to believe. We need to be modest and adopt a helping, coaching attitude when providing feedback to anyone, understanding upfront that what you do is projecting your experience and opinions to produce a positive outcome for that person. I believe that all around methodologies to understand people’s behaviours need to be revisited continuously.

The other myth I want to mention is more related to organisational culture, the importance of corporate values. I am a bit of a sceptic with exercises of definition of values and the implementation efforts that intend to align everyone’s behaviours around them. An excess of prescriptive frameworks runs the risk of killing diversity, innovation and, in an extreme situation, even engagement.

What is the most surprising thing that has happened to you during your career? What have you found that really made you think, wow I wasn’t expecting that to happen or where has this come from?

Every time I was given a nice project or a job, I was considering that as a great thing that was happening to me and a personal reason to be proud.

Also, I have found working with people extremely motivating; people who you could influence, who you could help to work for them, or they work for you. To see them growing, to see them becoming your peers, that for me is absolutely engaging and motivating. If someone tells me when I finish my career one day what is really the takeaway of my career, I’d say, “The amount of people I’ve seen developing with me thanks to my help or who were collaborating and we grew together”, so that is really what’s worth for one’s career in my opinion.

With the Executive Interview and the approach that we have, why were you quite interested to do this? What were you hoping to get from this as well?

Your questions provoke thinking and, in your day-to-day activity, you mostly do a lot of things, but you think in the middle of a rush. Having the chance to talk now to you and share my views is building on my own thinking. So, I found this was a great opportunity. To have some minutes to reflect and to share, to provoke a bit with the answers, but as you speak you will listen from yourself as well and, maybe next time, I will answer it slightly differently because I’ve learnt in our conversation.

Thank you to Feliciano for speaking with our Manager - HR Division, Keeley Cunningham.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.

Can you identify how SCIEX stands out from the market and your competitors?

When I applied for SCIEX, what stood out for me was its technology. The company has been a major leader in mass spectrometry for the last 50 years. What makes SCIEX different is its innovation used in products and systems. If you look at other players in the market, SCIEX stands out for high precision and ground-breaking technologies. 

Personally, it is important for me to work for a company that helps society and contributes to the world, especially now in COVID times, and that is exactly what SCIEX does.

What is it like working for SCIEX and, as Senior Manager of the Finance Shared Service Centre, how would you describe the culture?  

What I absolutely love about working for SCIEX is its entrepreneurial culture. It is also an environment that cultivates teamwork and a do-it-yourself attitude. Since I joined SCIEX, I put a lot of focus on engagement and purpose creation in my organisation. What my management team and I have done initially is to assess all Finance services that we provide towards our internal stakeholders. As a result, we jointly created a vision statement around how we, as Finance, will become a value adding business partner to various departments within the organisation. For us to build those business partnering relationships, we need to become the backbone of the organisation, providing impactful services to enable our front office departments to support our customers better.

Additionally, my team is based in the Netherlands, Germany and India. It is a very diverse team with a mixture of various cultures. Of course, that brings its own challenges with COVID and being remote. Therefore, for me, more than ever, the engagement and the motivation of the team is very important. Hence, my management team and I are constantly looking for various ways to engage teams across the continents, find a common language, have fun together and connect on a personal level during events we are hosting.

A pertinent topic currently, what does your organisation currently do to contribute towards Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)?

SCIEX prioritizes D&I and we are leading our day-to-day operations with inclusiveness agenda in our minds. There is a lot of focus created, not only in terms of gender, but also beyond gender, such as race, ethnicity, etc.

One topic which is dear to me is the awareness and actions taken by Danaher to increase female representation in managerial bands. This is done through development, mentorships and coaching. In my organisation, we also create awareness and focus on facilitating career aspirations of the female members.

What do you think makes a successful and inclusive work culture? What challenges do you see?

If I look at my own background, diversity has always been part of my life. I grew up in the Baltic States, with a Lithuanian mother, Russian father, was raised in Sweden and I am now living in the Netherlands. I have been very lucky in my life to have had the exposure to various cultures, and what I have learned is to respect differences, not to judge and be open. This is just as important in private life as in business.

By being open, respectful and curious towards new cultures, I believe that one can learn new things and get new experiences and become creative. As a result, you will naturally build relationships based on trust. This is key to a successful and inclusive culture.

What do you love the most about your current role as Senior Manager, Finance?

I love the purpose of the company and being able to contribute to society. In terms of my own role, I have a great and talented team around me, who is always willing to take an extra step, seek good results and have fun at the same time.

I also have support and freedom from my senior leaders to evolve and innovate, and that’s what I really enjoy, too.

What great decisions do you believe you have made throughout your career?

To do my Executive MBA study at Erasmus University was a real eye opener for me. The two years I spent working and studying has put me on a personal journey to better understand who I am as a person and as a leader. I have learned to be comfortable outside my comfort zone. I have discovered my strengths and what drives me as a person. Also, I discovered my purpose in life and learned to see perspective in all decisions that I make. It was a great journey for me.

What are your personal motivators?  

This is a very good question; I think I had different motives before I became a mother. I wanted to be very successful in my career and have a certain role in a certain timeframe, and I was looking to find a purpose in life within the job. When I became a mother, my motivation changed significantly; my biggest motivator today is my daughter.

My purpose is to help her to become a fulfilled person, and to empower her to think freely and not limit herself based on whatever limitations our society puts on us. I would like her to grow up feeling that she is empowered to become anything she aspires to be, and I would like to give her all chances to discover her inner voice and her self-confidence.

What would be your advice to someone aspiring to be where you are now?

A very important thing that I didn’t have in the early stage of my career was a mentor. Having a mentor is crucial when various paths open up. When there is an experienced person to give advice on the future and help navigate the career jungle, it can be an important element in making the right decisions at an early age.

As an interviewer, what was the worst/best interview experience you have had?

The most interesting experience was when I needed to set up two teams for a Finance transformation project at short notice and I had 35 interviews in two days. I remember I had to come up with one outstanding personality trait for each person in order not to forget the candidates. It was a fun and intense experience.

Who was your most admired person in your childhood and why?

My grandfather. He’s passed away now, unfortunately. He was a man with strong opinions and a determined mind. This must have come due to his military background. He taught me a great deal of self-discipline. He believed in values such as honestly, perseverance and rewards for hard work. His way of being has given me a sense of my own worth; that my voice and aspiration matters, and if I do my best I will succeed in the end. I was very happy to have him in my life and all the support he gave to me.

What books are you currently reading? What book could you recommend to Accountants that are wanting to progress?

I got myself Notorious RBG by Ruth Bader-Ginsburg. She was the Justice from the Supreme Court. I find it amazing how one person, through knowledge and perseverance, can change an entire society by leading from behind.

Describe yourself in three words.

Ambitious, passionate (and doing things that are important for me) and caring.

Thank you to Viktorija for speaking with our Associate Director, Georgia Wright.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.

What was the best/worst interview experience you have had?

Best interview experience must have been my first interview for AkzoNobel, and one of the first interviews in my life. I was travelling in the US, met the senior director for audit - an old school American gent, three-piece suit and all - and we had lunch together at Chicago O’Hare airport. He was very tough in his questions and had the best poker face. In the end, I had no idea where I stood. He walked me to the gate, and then asked the TSA Agent, “Where can my colleague check in?”

The worst interview process I had was at a company (I will not name and shame), but one that, after the fact, I have heard other similar stories about, so in the end I think even this cloud had a silver lining. What was so strange is that the entire interview process went well, up to and including the interview with the GM, and I had been requested to provide references. I provided these and had been told that I needed to sign by the end of the next week, to make sure that I would be available for the role in good time. I had drafted and printed my resignation letter at work, and was literally sitting on my desk, just waiting for the contract, when things went quiet. I heard nothing until the deadline had passed, and was simply told that the GM had changed his mind and thought I was too corporate for the role. Turned out they were too afraid to challenge him, so burned me.

How does your company work to retain high potential employees?

Given that I have just joined Nexperia, I cannot yet answer this question for them. But, based on my prior company’s challenges, this is the million-dollar question, and it’s getting more and more important. 

We had the usual mix of short and long-term incentive plans, with vetting periods. That by itself doesn’t cut it at the moment, in my opinion, especially as the vetting period is three years (which is different here at Nexperia by the way). 

I think this really puts the accountability for retention with the managers/directors themselves, rather than to rely on the existing corporate structures. I am, for example, always working proactively with my team members on carving out a career plan for them in the company, to get them mentors and to make sure that they are not being forgotten when positions are being discussed. 

One of the lessons I have learned throughout my career is that development plans should not (just) be for low performers, but are especially relevant for high performers in the team. I prefer for someone in my team to make a step internally than to lose them to another company. Ultimately, I believe it’s a mix of the company and the individual leaders that makes people stay; they need to feel taken care of, both in terms of now and the future development.

What changes have you seen to the employment market in the Netherlands over the years? What, in your opinion, have been the drivers for these changes?

There are two major changes in the NL labour market: the attractiveness of the Netherlands as a work location, as well as the skill requirements needed by the Finance professionals, which is a global phenomenon.

I first moved to the Netherlands in 2007 and being an expat at that time was still not standard. English was spoken, of course, but still the labour market, even at larger corporates, was rather locally dominated. This has changed incredibly since then, creating a seriously diverse workforce, with talent from all over the globe. Even the recent tendency by companies to reduce the classical expat has not changed this (the 30% ruling of course helps tremendously).

In the Finance field itself, the change has of course been the growth of technical skills, away from being linked to Accounting qualifications and SAP (still of course very relevant) to also include system knowledge such as Power BI or coding. When I started working, MS Office was considered a skill. When I interview people at the moment, and they do not know Power BI, I am already starting to question the choice of candidate. It’s amazing to see how new talent coming through the ranks has taken this digital leap and I am super excited to see where this can lead us as Finance, with access to all the data that’s out there. This change is driven by the availability of data and will continue to shape our profession.

What risks have you taken throughout your career and how did they help you get to the level you are at?

My first step into operational Finance (away from the ivory tower corporate roles) was as Regional Business Controller for the Nouryon Polymer Chemicals Business in Asia. I was newly married, had never worked in a Controlling role, and had been sent halfway around the world to take over and improve a Finance department, responsible for both Sales and Supply Chain Controlling. Plus my wife had to quit her job as senior manager at EY to follow me. Quite a bit of pressure… I had impressed the GM of the business as part of a divestment I had run, which had helped obviously with the interview process, but my Controlling knowledge was textbook only, not one minute of operational experience.

What I did realise though, once I got there, is that I was able to take advantage of the fact that I knew nothing, by approaching the whole process with an academic curiosity, which, combined with my project management skills, enabled me to get the team together, leverage their knowledge, thus helping me to finally build a super solid team. This made me realise the most fundamental skillset that I think any Controller should have, namely being inquisitive. If you have the right brain and ask the right ways, one can always find a solution.

If you could go back and give your younger self some career advice, what would it be?

I think the one thing I would tell myself, and what I tend to tell all people that haven’t already found the job for them, is to go into consulting for a period; it’s the way to polish the diamond that exists in all the raw talent that one has upon starting one’s career. Having spent a few years experiencing the most structured approach to thinking possible (including which colour of blue to use), it becomes much easier to adapt to new situations.

Having done a trainee program inside a company was a great experience. I saw a lot, both of the world, as well a  the chemical/pharmaceutical industry, but ultimately the structured approach was not quite the same. I don’t regret my choices, but if I could go back, that’ll be it. For the rest, honestly, I would tell him to try to do (most) things like I’ve done. I’ve travelled the world, seen and worked with some amazing people, and have especially benefited from globalisation.

Who is the most inspiring person in business for you and why?

I wish I could say the CFO, but let’s be honest, that’s not really our role. We can be visionary, but this tends to be closely aligned to the real source of inspiration in any successful business, the CEO. I have been able to work with people like Hans Wijers, who truly had a vision for AkzoNobel and was driven by the desire to see this company become the biggest global player.

This was lived by us every day, and people were willing to go above and beyond to make his vision become reality. Businesses need cold numbers to survive, but to excel one needs more, and this must come from the guy at the top. One word of caution, to be truly inspiring, that leader must be authentic, and this is where I have seen things fall apart in other instances. Do what I say, not what I do has never been able to inspire anyone.

While we continue to face the realities of COVID-19, how have you seen your approach to Finance?

What we have seen during COVID has not been a major change from what I have seen during prior crises; its back to basics, weekly volume reporting, combined with more frequent and more detailed forecasting, in addition to continuous cost focus and reduction.

Going forward, I expect much of the same. We need to be as close as we can to the business, garnering information, looking at trends, trying to identify issues if and when they come. I take the positives from this, as we have been able to push through initiatives that would have taken much longer in the past, with better buy-in from the business.

Given that we rely much more on system data, without ability to factcheck via informal discussions, we have seen the need to clean up the system data, and that I take as the biggest challenge for the mid-term.

Thank you to Benedikt for speaking with our Director - Finance, Hannah Mallia.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.