In this episode of the EMEA Recruitment podcast, we were pleased to welcome Andrea Masnata, the Finance Director at OLX Group, which operates the world’s fastest-growing network of trading platforms.

“Financial success doesn’t happen without mastery of your operations.”

Andrea is well travelled, but has been settled in the “fantastic city” of Berlin for the past three years. From his home in Germany’s cultural capital, Andrea spoke to our Founder, Paul Toms, about the changing role of Finance in business and how he stays up to date with new technologies.

Andrea explains how he’s seen the corporate world change before his eyes. When he started working, business still heavily relied on faxes. He’s witnessed the introduction of email, smart phones, online retailing, and now the development of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

It’s a topic that Andrea loves talking about, as he’s “eager to learn something new every day”. He offers Paul some of his favourite reading material, as well as revealing which guests he’d like to listen to on a podcast – this is where Andrea shows his sensitive side.

We also questioned Andrea about changes in the Finance department and how this is being affected by BI & Data. Alongside being key buzzword nowadays, Andrea explains how Finance business partners are deeply important now. Not just focused on number crunching, Finance professionals today need to have a knowledge of how the business works and a full picture of success drivers, he says.

Andrea uses Amazon as a great example of why money is just one side of the story. He tells Paul how Amazon was not significantly profitable in its first 15 years, but had a vision that was built into the strong foundations of the business. Now, we all know how profitable Amazon has been.

In addition, Andrea is optimistic about emerging technologies. He describes the way that new technologies worry people and industries before they’re introduced, until we look back and see how the economy and societies have benefitted from them.

However, from a recruitment perspective, Andrea notes that technological skills can be taught, but it is hard to change someone’s behaviour and character. He’s insistent that strong values are the glue that keep people and organisations together – it’s an important note for those in the Financial recruitment field!

We hope that you enjoy this episode of the EMEA Recruitment podcast and share it with anyone in your network that you think would benefit from the advice.

Please use the timestamps below to help you find the section you’re looking for:

02:00 – How the world has changed and its impact on Finance
06:02 – Andrea’s curiosity as a child
07:10 – What Andrea reads every day
09:03 – Andrea’s optimism over the COVID-19 pandemic
10:22 – How Finance professionals should forecast
14:22 – How to measure the success of a Finance department
18:28 – What it means to be a Finance business partner
23:08 – Emerging technologies and their impact on business
32:19 – What Andrea finds important when recruiting
37:12 – Who to connect with on LinkedIn
40:55 – The book that has most inspired Andrea
43:00 – Andrea’s ideal podcast guests
45:57 – How to reach out to Andrea

You can listen to the full episode here: 

Or at: https://emearecruitment.libsyn.com/emea-recruitment-podcast-episode-64-andrea-masnata

We are proud to bring you the EMEA Recruitment podcast in partnership with international medical charity Operation Smile. We hope that you can support this cause, by raising awareness or donating through this link: https://www.emearecruitment.com/pages/operation-smile

The EMEA Recruitment podcast is hosted by our Founder, Paul Toms, and Jenny Callum, Executive Recruiter and Senior Consultant.

You can find out more about us here: https://www.emearecruitment.com/

And follow us on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/emea-recruitment-limited/

To connect with Paul, follow this link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultoms/

Or Jenny at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennycallumemea

If there are any questions or topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes, please get in touch through LinkedIn and we will look to help.