Lancaster drive

Last week, I took a road trip. It was a calm, breezy afternoon in bucolic Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Rolling hills, lush greenery, amber waves of grain, and I think I actually saw a baby foal being born.

Two horses and buggies were trotting down the road in single file, taking parents and children from one work responsibility to another.

And that’s when I saw a Porsche Boxster convertible zip around the buggies, accelerating down the road, inevitably to get to wherever Porsche drivers need to be in Lancaster.

Now, lest you think I’m going to make some oft-repeated point about the juxtaposition of the priorities of life between people who rely on a horse and buggy, versus those who need something with a tad more, ahem, horsepower, that’s not quite my point. Because what it did was make me think about CFO’s value drivers series. 

“CFOs are the people that should be the custodians of value in a company.”

What this little scene reminded me of is that finance leaders are responsible for guiding the pathway to greater company value but, in order to do so, they must understand the first principle of what somebody else actually wants. I could be digging the most glorious ditches in all the land with my customized nickel-plated shovel, but if nobody actually wants the ditches that I have dug, I have not created any value at all.

In reporter Adam Zaki’s interview with Rene Ho, the Taulia CFO reveals corporate finance is not what first drew him to the job. First, he learned engineering, then moved into product development, marketing, and even taught internal communications classes. The totality of these experiences equips him to drive value with the company’s AI platform to solve working capital solutions. 

For Chicago Transit Systems’ Kevin Bueso, 68he too must think about the intersection of technology and finance, but in his case, it is to move nearly half a million people around the city every single day. And although both Ho and Bueso talk about the application of AI in the workplace, Bueso knows his approach to delivering value for the city must focus on the practical, rather than the evolutionary.

Lastly, Bear Walker, who founded a company that designs custom skateboards, is aware that “almost everyone would think we are a skateboard company — which in its essence, is true.” But there are many skateboard manufacturers out there. What Walker and his CFO Brian Chaney know is that their true value goes beyond the materials of production and connects the owner to the larger pop cultural world as well. 

A Boxster and a horse and buggy both represent value, but only in the context of the intended application it serves for its intended owner. But misapplied? Now you just have an expensive piece of shiny machinery that is stuck in a ditch.