The Hallmarks of a Modern, Mature Finance Team

[00:00:13] Melissa Howatson Welcome to The CFO Show. I'm your host, Melissa Howatson, CFO of Vena. Today's finance leaders are redefining what it means to lead with insight. A modern, mature finance function isn't just about balancing the books. It's about strategy, partnership, and enabling better, faster decisions across the business. Over the past year, our guests have shared how they see that evolution taking shape. And we've asked them a single question. What is the hallmark of a mature finance team in terms of how they operate? Their answers reveal a consistent truth. The best finance teams don't just report on the business. They guide it, shape it, and lead it into the future. Finance has moved beyond reporting about the past. Today's finance leaders use insight to shape what happens next. The best finance leaders see beyond the numbers. They understand the story those numbers tell and use that story to drive decisions and push the business forward.

[00:01:21] John Hagerty They think holistically. I think that one of the key things that I've seen is that finance organizations who don't look at their role as controlling the business but look at the role as guiding and managing the business. Those are the ones that I view as being much more highly effective and also much more forward-looking.

[00:01:40] Sandra Clarke They know the business. They are proactive. They are curious. They take a look at the long-term as well as the short-term, that they don't just deliver a financial report, they deliver information, and it helps to guide the business in the choices that we need to make.

[00:01:58] Tom Panther My North Star has always been value-added. Be a value-added finance organization. And that means you can sit at the table and give real advice around the health of the finance organization. You're able to distill a lot of complex information and you're able to deliver it to your audience, whether that's an executive team, a board, externally, but you're about to give advice that helps the business move forward. This isn't a role that is about the past. It's about the past and the future and helping an organization be more successful in meeting its objectives.

[00:02:43] Melissa Howatson The most effective finance teams don't work in isolation. They're deeply integrated into every part of the business. Partnership means being proactive, not reactive. Showing up early in the conversation, not after all the decisions are made. To earn this seat at the table requires trust, effective communication, and an ability to influence. It's this strong collaboration that evolves finance from a reporting function into a trusted partner.

[00:03:16] Amy Ward Across all those other departments and over communication.

[00:03:21] Hugh Cumming I think it starts and ends with leveraging all of the best tools and technologies to provide business stakeholders the most up-to-date answers and just really just being part, not just of the request-response, but actually part of the ideation cycle. I always have my FP&A partner in my team meetings, in my senior team meetings. If they can't be there because there's too much toil, that's not the ideal state for the finance team. The assumption is they can be at every one of our senior team meetings because things are working really well in the back office.

[00:03:57] Kaz Takemura I'm working with a company right now and what I really, really admire about them, so the CFO, she's assembled this really strong team, and when I see them in action in workshops and things like that as we're working through the project, it's a really collaborative environment where she's given them the ability to speak up and contribute. It is this collaborative environment that eventually gets to the right answer.

[00:04:25] Aaqil Kassamali I think partnership is, has been great. When I've seen and worked with the best finance orgs, they always have that same mindset. Whether they're in accounting, tax, financial planning, payroll, they always have a mindset that they're looking to build those relationships and they're going to get the best outcomes for the business instead of saying siloed and just heads down.

[00:04:49] Rajat Bahri A strong business partner involved in every aspect of running a business is a sign of a strong, mature organization, fully integrated into the business decisions.

[00:05:01] Scott Engler The hallmark of a really mature finance organization is when they want to include finance in any type of decision as it gets going. Anytime you find you're the third person to know, you've got a maturity problem. It could be a data problem. It could be a team problem, but that, I think, is a true hallmark. They come to you before they want to do anything because they want to make sure that you are going to set them up for success.

[00:05:29] Melissa Howatson A mature finance function thrives on stability, the consistency that keeps the business grounded. But it also knows when to challenge the playbook. It has the confidence to question assumptions, adapt to change, set the pace, and make space for smarter, more strategic thinking.

[00:05:48] Anisha Sood As a mid-size organization, we are always innovating and changing and adding new products. Being able to have enough policies and procedures in place, such that you get the 80 percent of that done right, but the other 20 percent, your finance team can take a step back and say, hey, that's a little bit different. We have a mature organization because we know the majority of what we need to do is standard, but for the other stuff, we're going to spend extra time on and think about it a little differently.

[00:06:15] Darren R. Campbell Well, I think there's got two attributes that focus on one is flexibility and the other is really understanding how their role contributes to the bigger picture. With all the changes that need to be made to be nimble and help drive efficiencies across the organization, we have to break down those silos. So, we do want people that specialize in areas, but it's really critical and companies that do this well, they understand both the upstream processes as well as what they're doing and how that impacts the downstream.

[00:06:45] Matthew Ennen I try to foster a culture of where curiosity is valued. You know, well, it's okay to challenge the assumptions, make mistakes, and then you kind of offer regular training, open forums, mentorship programs I've done in the past. So that really helps not only myself, my team, but an organization really stay ahead of the curve and adapt to change.

[00:07:07] Tom Seegmiller If every day feels like a fire drill, you haven't gotten there. Things come up occasionally, that's okay. But there should be a degree of predictability and order in what you do. So, when those fires come up, it's no big deal to find the bandwidth, to go tackle them. Everything else, you've got to get to the point where it's lather, rinse, repeat.

[00:07:32] Melissa Howatson Technology isn't replacing finance. It's amplifying its voice. It brings clarity to complexity, connects teams through shared data, and gives finance a stronger role in how organizations plan, adapt and grow.

[00:07:48] Janelle Gorman Clarity on data and alignment with the full leadership org is how you can know that your finance team is running tip top. Because in order to have crisp, clear data, KPIs, financial reports, you get the same report every month and it's usable, there's so many things that happen in the foundation of that. It means that your financial data is accurate. It means it's timely. It means that you've talked to your leadership team about what's important for them to know, and you've really kind of nailed, like this is how we do things. And so, when you have clarity and alignment in your financial data, you've done a lot of things right to get there.

[00:08:28] Troy Anderson Data and technology-driven, collaborative and strong business partnerships. They're respected advisors with a seat at the table and people-focused, strong talent development type pipeline.

[00:08:40] Dave Helmer An optimal function is always looking at the future and developing a plan, right? Things change so rapidly and actually having a view of your operating model, how do I drive efficiency and effectiveness today, but then also looking three years out, what's happening to talent? What's happening to legislation? How can I leverage AI? What are all of these developments? And so, I say a strategic function is solving today's problems, but they're also looking forward three years and developing a plan, so they're not surprised.

[00:09:17] Craig Schiff To me, it's a finance department that's open to sharing information is transparent. I mean, in the early days when we were doing this, going in and helping them find systems. It was a bunch of finance people sitting in a corner and they're going to use the system. We'd ask them, how many users do you expect to have? And they say two or three, just us. How are you going to get any value? What, what did you mean using this for budgeting? It's just you guys. And yeah, in a corner, they would set this up and then they would tell everyone what their budget is. That's obviously terrible. And they were also reluctant to share information because, on one hand, they were afraid it might get into competitors' hands, so, you know, if I share it with an employee who's not an employee tomorrow. But secondly, they didn't even trust their employees to use this information appropriately. Let them know how the business is performing and how they can contribute and help improve that performance. Get buy-in and accountability by letting them participate in the budgeting process and contribute their own budget instead of just basically a top-down, dictated budget. I mean, today, a hybrid approach typically, you know, top down and bottom up is what's going.

Today, we see most companies have advanced way beyond that, and they're involving everyone in the process, both on the input side, sharing the output, helping them understand their performance, and then you get that ownership and accountability, which itself helps improve performance and employee morale and satisfaction.

[00:10:37] Igor Stelea A mature finance team, in my mind, operates as a strategic partner, not just as a reporting function. So, a finance partner that focuses more on time on storytelling and analysis versus data gathering, I think, is a really good example of a strategic partner. They drive decisions with insights, not just data, and they proactively challenge the business instead of reactively explaining variances.

[00:11:01] Brandon Sharp The hallmark would be that the finance organization leans on the IT organization for support, and the IT organization isn't pushing their way into supporting the finance organization.

[00:11:20] Melissa Howatson Transformation is an ongoing mindset. One that grows as your team grows. It's about building momentum through collaboration, learning, and a shared commitment to doing things better every day. The most mature finance organizations understand that real change doesn't come from a single initiative or a system, it comes from people. Finance teams that stay connected, support one another, and evolve together are the ones that truly drive transformation forward.

[00:11:53] Nick Mckeehan The best finance organizations are viewed as leaders in the company. They tend to have a really good talent, and that talent tends to move throughout the company. I've seen the best finance functions, they don't just keep their talent, they actually share that with the rest of the organization. They're change drivers, they're out there, they're integrated with the rest of organization working side by side, have really good relationships internally, and they're at the forefront of technology adoption. So, you know, if there's technology that they view that can benefit them, and there's a good ROI on that, the best finance groups are looking for ways to take advantage of that.

[00:12:30] Melissa Howatson What is the hallmark of a mature finance team in terms of how they operate?

[00:12:34] Charlie X.W. Liu There's clear owners for different tasks and processes. They know their gaps and pain points and weaknesses.

[00:12:40] Peter Emerling Is really the cohesiveness of the team, right? They're a team that understands each other's roles and responsibilities, understands how to work together and leverage the systems they have. The common denominator to a highly effective, mature finance function is a team that understands the value of transformation and how to achieve it. And an understanding that transformation isn't always a big thing, right. Transformation can come in small bits like you talked about and comes over time, right. We don't just flip a switch and things change. We've got to build up over time to be able to achieve that transformation and ultimately realize the benefits of it.

[00:13:18] Melissa Howatson If I can leave you with one takeaway from this episode, it's this. Maturity in finance isn't measured by size or tenure. It's about mindset. The teams that guide, collaborate, and continually transform are the ones who will lead the organization forward. Thanks to all of our guests for sharing their perspectives. I hope this episode leaves you inspired to think about what a modern, mature finance team looks like in your organization.

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For The CFO Show, I'm Melissa Howatson. Until next time.