Gina Mastantuono didn’t foresee herself becoming the CFO of a major technology company. Early on in her career, she was laser-focused on job security. “As time went on, I pushed myself and I took risks in my career because I never saw CFOs who looked like me,” she says. “It’s the hard road and those twists and turns are where the magic happens and where growth happens.”
Now the CFO of ServiceNow, an enterprise software company that brought in over $10 billion in revenue last year, Mastantuono is paving the way for other women who are aspiring finance leaders.
In this episode, Jack McCullough sits down with Mastantuono to uncover the strategies and insights that have driven her career, from her first role as an accountant at E&Y, to CFO of a Fortune 500 company. Listen by clicking below. The Q&A, lightly edited and trimmed for clarity, follows.
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Listen to the episode here
Secrets to ServiceNow’s $10 Billion Success with Gina Mastantuono
We have a phenomenal guest today. We’re going to get right into it. Rock on. My guest is someone I’ve known for a while. An interesting story about her that she may not be aware of is I published a book called Secrets of Rockstar CFOs, and it was largely from things she shared with me when she spoke at a conference several years ago the first time we met. If it generated more money, I’d give her some royalties, but it wouldn’t add very much. Our guest is Gina Mastantuono. She is the CFO of ServiceNow. Gina, welcome to The Secrets of Rockstar CFOs.
Thank you so much for having me. I didn’t know that story. I love it. Thank you very much for sharing it.
We met at the MIT event, and you were on a panel with the CFO of JetBlue. You both are fantastic at sharing what it means to be a modern CFO. I took copious notes and years later, a lot of it ended up in the book.
I love hearing that. Thank you very much.
When we met, you were with Ingram Micro. I had you as a person who was going to retire at Ingram Micro. It’s rare to meet somebody who loves what they do so much. About four years ago or a little more than that, I believe, you joined ServiceNow. Maybe you can share a little about what ServiceNow does at the 10,000-foot level.
ServiceNow
Thank you. ServiceNow is very special. We are a wildly successful enterprise software company that turns the mundane offline processes at work into beautiful digital experiences. We were founded in 2004 by Fred Luddy, an incredible man. He believed that technology should serve people better at work.
Think about how technology has helped us in our home lives. Why can’t it do that same thing at work? We started by digitizing the IT help desk. Fast forward to today, we’re across the enterprise and across the entirety of the company platform that modernizes processes throughout the IT organization, the HR organization, customer service, as well as application development.
We have generated AI capabilities, as well as process mining and machine learning built into the platform that helps people at work do their jobs better. It’s our 20th anniversary this 2024. We’re now a Fortune 500 company and have achieved our goal of surpassing $10 billion in revenue run rate last year in 2023, which few other software companies have ever done.
In prepping for this show, I did some research. Since going public back in 2012, 12 years ago, we had growth of more than 22 percent, and subscription revenue growth of more than 22 percent for each of those 47 quarters consecutively. Only three of those quarters was the growth rate below 25 percent. It’s a testament to the success.
The power of this incredible company is in the culture and the people who execute the strategy. Our culture is second to none and it’s full of big dreamers and innovative leaders. We’ve been named Glassdoor’s best places to work, number three in the American Opportunity Index, number five overall in America, number one in software and several years as one of Fortune’s most admired companies.
It’s an incredible place to be. We’re led by the greatest CEO in the business, Bill McDermott, and have the best leadership team in the business as well. We have no plans to slow down. I loved my time at Ingram. I didn’t think I’d leave either, but the opportunity at ServiceNow was too big to turn down.
I have an investment strategy. I’m going to invest in companies where you’re the CFO. That might be a career strategy in my next life. I’m going to find out where you’re working and go there because it seems like you certainly can pick some great companies.
I love it. Thank you.
Gina’s Journey
I’d like to chat a little about the early years. I believe like me, you’re an East Coaster in your childhood. Where did you grow up?
I’m a native New Yorker. I grew up in Long Island, which is outside the city, with my three brothers, not thinking twice about being a CFO because, in all honesty, college wasn’t necessarily even a given. I started working at the age of 12, babysitting and working as a hostess, and then a waitress at several different restaurants and put myself through college. I was the first in my family to do so. I take that responsibility pretty heavily.
I was focused on job security. I wanted to make sure I didn’t have to rely on another human being to be able to take care of myself. I was determined to put in the hard work and carve my own path. I studied accounting at the State University of New York at Albany. State University was my only option. I chose Albany because it had an incredible business school. I knew people always needed accountants even in a recession. I went and became an accountant. I came out and I worked at E&Y.
As time went on, I pushed myself and I took risks in my career because I never saw CFOs who looked like me. I was focused on getting as much experience as I could. I also believe that having those lower expectations enabled me to push myself harder, build my character and lean into challenges even when they were super risky. I always say take the risk. I encourage people to lean in, take risks and push themselves outside of their comfort zone with their careers because it’s the hard road and those twists and turns are where the magic happens and where growth happens. That’s a little bit about my background.
That’s fantastic. Although I’m stuck on you working at 12, that was babysitting, right? You weren’t waitressing at 12. I hope not yet.
Babysitting at 12 and then hostessing and waitressing when I was 15 or 16.
It sounds like maybe we came from similar backgrounds. I had a cousin who was the first to graduate, but it was my generation that was the first in our family. Parents worked hard. Education wasn’t available to them. They were working class but most of my sisters and cousins have done it. Like you, I picked accounting because I wanted a job.
Same. I remember talking to a friend of mine before I had to choose my major. At Albany, it had an incredible business school, but to get into the business school, in your junior and senior years, you had to apply to get in. You had to have great grades and you had to apply to get in. As I was choosing my major, I was torn between accounting and one of the majors. I remember talking to my friend and he said, “They always need accountants even in a recession.” That clicked. I want to make sure that I have job security. Best decision I ever made. It sounds like we’re very similar.
That’s great advice. Accountants have something like 100 percent employment in the last two decades. Not that you’re an accountant at this point in your career.
Not anymore, but as you think about the start of my career, while the path wasn’t straight and narrow and I zig and zag, I focused on learning every facet of finance and taking a lot of risks along the way. EY was where I started. I landed at the big four right out of college. I was there for about six years and it was instrumental to my career growth. I tell everyone the education that you get in one of those big four, or even one of the bigger consulting firms, is life-changing. That’s where you start to learn. College is important but when you’re actually in the workplace is when you start to learn about what’s required, learn the tasks and get that work ethic that’s needed to be successful.
I had a wonderful college experience, an undergraduate bachelor’s degree in accounting. That’s interesting because I have a similar observation: I learned more in my first six months working at what was then Peat Marwick and Mitchell than I did in four years of college. That learning at a big accounting firm is incredible.
I couldn’t agree more.
You left EY after about six years and you worked for a few companies that were pretty well known, IAC and Revlon. What were some of the things you picked up there that prepared you for an eventual CFO-type role?
It’s interesting. Back then, I tended to switch industries every six to seven years. I was in consumer products for a while at Tri-Arc, and then at IAC, it was media, entertainment and internet, and then at Revlon, it was cosmetics and consumer products again. For me, it was all about learning a new skill. The great thing about finance is that for the most part, it’s transferable to different industries. You can continue to learn the craft of finance, but then you can learn it more broadly in different industries.
The story from when I left IAC to go to Revlon was that Revlon was a dollar stock at the time. It was going through this big revitalization and I took a pretty big risk going there. A lot of people said, “I can’t believe you did that.” I had met the new young CFO at the time and I’d gone in for an assistant controller job but I didn’t want that job.
I had the assistant controller job and I wasn’t going to even take the meeting, but the recruiter pushed me and said, “Go meet this young CFO. He’s got a different perspective. They’re going through big changes. Take the meeting, Gina. Trust me.” I did. I walked out of that interview with a job offer for their international CFO role. I had come from all domestic-based companies. I had no experience internationally and I had only done accounting up until then.
He took a huge risk on me. I took a risk on the company and it turned out phenomenal because I learned so much. It brought in my perspective pretty remarkably. From my perspective, taking risks and putting yourself outside your comfort zone, I could have said no to that opportunity as well. I’ve never done this, but I was confident enough in my abilities to go for it.
He’s still one of my greatest mentors. After about seven years at Revlon, I took another risk when I left Revlon to go to Ingram. I moved my whole family. My kids were two and five at the time, very little. My husband, who was working in the city, gave up his job. I took this big risk going to Ingram, which was on the West Coast. We had no family here. Revlon, while an incredible company, was about $2 billion in revenue and Ingram was about $42 billion in revenue. The scale and the breadth were very different.
I put myself out there, pushed myself past my comfort zone and learned a lot. It brought me to where I am today at ServiceNow, which I say all the time is my dream job. I get to dream big and have a platform to show the next generation of women that they too can be CFOs. I never thought about it when I was coming out of school because I never saw a woman at the top of finance.
It’s important for me to use that platform to show women that they can do anything they want to do and they can be anything they want to be. My time at Revlon and Ingram is all about risk and global experience. All the zigs and the zags brought in my skillset across finance and were critical to my growth in getting here. Don’t say no to that call, don’t say no to that meeting and trust yourself to take those risks.
Mentorship
Someone told me, it’s a sales thing, the answer is always no if you don’t try. Why not give it a shot? You seem to have anticipated a couple of my questions, which is fine but you mentioned someone at Revlon being one of the most important mentors. That’s one thing I’ve learned almost without exception. People who have excelled in their careers had important mentors along the way. Have you had any, whether they be in finance or accounting? A lot of people have told me that their mother or their father was their most important mentor, but have you had any mentors that influenced you?
What I’ll say about my mom and dad is that while education wasn’t top of mind growing up, they instilled in me an incredible work ethic. First and foremost, I also believe that you can’t be successful and you won’t be successful without putting in the hard work. They instilled that in me. With respect to mentors, I credit a lot of my success to the people who supported me and guided me along the way.
That CFO at Revlon took a chance on me and was an incredible mentor. He later became the CEO of Revlon. As you think about the ability to go from finance more broadly, he’s been an incredible mentor to me. I still talk to him often and always before I take a new role. He is a great friend. I also had the opportunity to pay it forward, which I think is important.
I have the example of a senior director when I was at Ingram who knocked on the door and said, “I see you doing such a great job. Would you mind having a coffee with me and let me ask you a few questions?” It developed into this beautiful friendship. She left Ingram after I did to go to another company, but then I hired her at ServiceNow as a VP. She’s now my senior vice president of global services.
It’s important to think about mentors and not wait for formal mentorship programs which we have at ServiceNow. I often say no one is going to care more about your career than you. You have to take it under your guise to find those mentors. Not necessarily knock on their door and say, “Hi, will you be my mentor?” Talk to them at the coffee, at the water cooler or get a coffee and ask them to pick their brain. Usually, they’ll say yes. You don’t always have to wait for an invitation. A lot of it can be organic. It’s important that as women leaders, we pay it forward to the next generation for sure.
That’s great that you have that type of relationship. For me, one of the most rewarding things that happens from time to time is when people come up and thank me and tell me what a great mentor I’ve been to them. I didn’t think of myself that way. It was that we met pretty often. I do have people that I am actively mentoring. The big one right now, I have a reverse mentorship. I have a Gen Z mentor. She mentors me on the mindset of the next generation. If you don’t know, they’re going to be ruling the world pretty quickly.
They are. I love that. Reverse mentorship is important. I do it all the time, especially from a technology perspective. I ask how they’re thinking. It’s fantastic. It can be two ways. I love that, Jack.
I’ve gotten more from the mentorship than she has, but I do think I’ve brought some value to her.
I bet you she wouldn’t say that.
Perhaps, but she’s more humble than I am. I wanted to chat about ServiceNow. I mentioned I was a little floored when you left Ingram. I didn’t think that you’d retire there, but I know you loved it there. Tell a little about what motivated you to join ServiceNow. You had the interesting timing of joining right before the breakout of COVID.
ServiceNow’s Growth
I loved Ingram Micro and I still love Ingram Micro. A lot of my peers there are still great friends. We vacation together and we enjoy each other’s company. I could have very easily stayed the rest of my career there but what happened was that the opportunity for ServiceNow was presented. There were a few things. Number one, the opportunity to have a larger platform where younger women and girls could see more women at the top and more women in the C-Suite was important to me.
The other very important side of it was the opportunity that I saw for ServiceNow, the platform, the technology and the ability to make work better for people was super resonant to me. I joined in January of 2020, right before the pandemic. The pace of innovation here is incredible and I love that about ServiceNow.
Earlier in my career, I used to change jobs every six to seven years, the seven-year itch. I would change industries to continue to learn and develop. At ServiceNow in tech, the pace of innovation is fast. You’re always learning. You have to keep up. I love that about this place. I joined in January 2020, before the start of the pandemic.
About 60 or 70 days in, we all went home and we had to transition immediately to work from home. I was very young in my journey here and had to start to build relationships with the employees, my peers and my investor base all remotely. It’s one of my proudest accomplishments in my career because I truly believe that I and the whole leadership team here navigated that period so well and it wasn’t an easy thing to do.
If I look back at where we were in 2020 versus where we ended 2023, in four years, we doubled our revenues. We went from about $4.5 billion in revenue in 2020 to under $9 billion in 2023. We more than doubled our employee base. We went from about 10,000 employees to 23,000 employees. Our market cap tripled in that time. From under $50 billion to under $160 billion now.
We’re only one of a handful of enterprise software companies that have achieved this scale. It’s been fast. The growth and the pace of innovation is pretty remarkable. That opportunity was too big to turn down even as happy as I was at Ingram. The one thing that hasn’t changed here in the four years is the customer obsession.
Part of ServiceNow was built on such a huge amount of customer centricity, and that customer obsession, the speed of innovation and our commitment to our people has not changed and it continues to grow. It enables us to preserve that innovation engine that we have and retain top talent. I say often that I’m in my dream job. I don’t remember I said those words at Ingram, but I am saying it here. I couldn’t be happier. The company is such an incredible place to work.
In Ingram, I remember you used the phrase, “The biggest company that no one has ever heard of.” I remember about 100 people crowded you after the panel discussion and wanted to give you their resumes. That’s great.
Talent brand is important. One of the reasons why I do shows like this is I want people to know about ServiceNow and know how incredible this company is.
You mentioned earlier the ludicrous growth, which for one quarter is not that high. Did you say 23 percent at least every single quarter since 2012 or something like that?
At least 22 percent for 47 quarters consecutively since we went public, and there were only three quarters when it was below 25 percent. It’s pretty remarkable growth for sure.
It’s crazy because your customer base and the tech space generally are night and day. It’s different than it must’ve been in 2012. You must have one of the most innovative cultures of any company out there. You’re listening to your customer demands and somehow you can adapt quickly because, in your position, you’ve got a lot of little startups nipping at your heels. Over time, typically some of the lead engineers go and start their businesses. You have a lot of competitors and yet you managed to do it consistently now for over a decade. It’s remarkable.
There are a few reasons for that. The innovation flywheel here is pretty remarkable. I talked about starting at the IT help desk, but what has helped us be successful is where we’ve continued to innovate and where we’ve brought in the portfolio and the platform has all been around where customers were asking us to go.
Customers saw the value of the platform. They say, “If we can do this incredibly in the IT help desk, we can do it here and we can do it there. Can you help us get there? Can you help us build?” It’s that innovation flywheel, but also that focus on the customer. Those two together have been a l part of that success.
Building A World-Class Team
Let’s talk a little about the team because you inherited what sounds like a world-class finance team, and yet you’ve had your chance to develop your team and the company continues to evolve and grow. What is your philosophy on building a world-class team in this environment?
Talent is very important. We must find the right talent. I did inherit an incredible and world-class finance team. At the same time, it’s turned over a little bit as well. I had two of my lieutenants, incredible women, who went on to be the CFOs of their own companies. At the same time, it’s important to find the right skills to help innovate and build a team that operates well together.
You can have a subject matter expert, a great chief accounting officer who is great at accounting, a great head of tax and treasury, great head of FP&A. If they’re not working together as a leadership team to help solve problems and connect the dots, then it’s not operating as effectively as it could be. I say this all the time. One of the reasons why the role of the CFO has evolved much is that we’re one of the only folks apart from the CEO who has a bird’s-eye view across the entire enterprise.
The role of the CFO is not just about reporting the numbers, which is very important, but it's so much more than that. Share on XBecause of that, we have the responsibility to help connect those dots. Talent is important to be able to do that. You can’t just be a subject matter expert in your one area. As you rise in the ranks, you have to be able to connect those dots and lean into technology. Technology is at the forefront of business strategy. You need tech-savvy finance talent as well.
What I’ve been doing is not only building what I think is a great individual team but how they work more broadly across the enterprise together to align behind a vision and a purpose of what I want for finance. For me, it’s about empowering the business to dream big and be the first call. I want finance to be the first call from the business to solve problems, connect the dots and help drive the strategy for the company, while at the same time ensuring that they’re all living their best lives and having their best careers.
What that means for me is looking not just at what we need today but at what we need in two, five and 10 years. What does that talent need to be? How do we assess skills and give training to ensure that we are always continuing to get better and better? Being deliberate with my actions and understanding what it needs to collaborate as a team. The team is very important.
You mentioned the bird’s-eye view of the thing. It wasn’t that long ago within the course of my career that a lot of CFOs got their jobs largely because they were the best accountants in the company. In the opening line of this show, I say that CFOs no longer record history, they make history. There’s a lot of truth in that. Within your role, you are certainly doing that.
The best CFOs can be accountants. They can’t only be accountants. They need to help drive growth and strategy and think much more broadly. The best CFOs today are all doing that.
Every great CFO that I’ve met and I’ve been fortunate to have met several, they’ll tell you that they have a great controller or whatever the title of their second in command is, and someone who can make the trains run on time. They also invest in developing those people. One of my friends lives locally in Boston. In Boston, there are a lot of venture-backed companies. She’s been a CFO 10 times probably in her career. She told me a couple of years ago that 14 controllers worked for her and 11 of them are CFOs today.
I’m not surprised because the skill set is important and required but the development outside of accounting is as important there. You’re continuing to see a lot of accountants become the CFO, but you’re also seeing CFOs come from different areas as well. There’s not only one road. That is what I tell all my finance staff. There are multiple ways, but the breadth of experience and not being siloed in one place is the best advice that I can give. Push yourself outside your comfort zone to try new areas and to get exposure and experience as broadly as possible.
CFO-CEO Dynamic
That’s great advice. I want to ask you a little bit about your relationship with your CEO, Bill McDermott. There was a study probably five years ago now by the consulting firm Accenture. They determined that the CEO-CFO partnership is the most important relationship across the C-Suite. I know this from your social media posts, which I hope everybody will start to follow because they’re fantastic. You two have a phenomenal amount of mutual respect and it’s a true partnership. It’s not just a buzzword with you guys.
That’s 100 percent. Broadly, I couldn’t agree more. The CEO-CFO relationship and alliance are important. It has to be built on trust. That’s certainly true for Bill and me. Our working relationship is important. There is inherent trust both ways. Bill joined ServiceNow in November 2019. He’ll tell you that his first job as CEO was to hire me as CFO.
They announced him on the earnings, and then he got on a call with me to talk through and start the interview process. Bill often talks about the fact that trust is earned in drops, but lost in buckets and I couldn’t agree more. That trust is important. The great thing about us is we complement each other very well.
His customer-first lens is unwavering. He instills that in the entirety of the leadership team, and he pushes us to up-level every single day to meet with customers to get in front of employees. I’m an introvert by nature who pushes herself to be an extrovert, to be a better CFO. Being front and center doesn’t always come naturally to me, but taking risks did and still does. Bill pushes us outside that comfort zone to get in front of customers, get on stage, big scale events like our big knowledge event, which is a 10,000-people customer event.
It’s putting yourself outside the comfort zone. Leaning into the work never stops. There’s always room to grow, develop and learn. As we said before, the role of the CFO is not just about reporting the numbers, which is very important, but it’s much more than that. Being front and center and pushing myself outside my comfort zone, to be a face for the 23,000 employees we have is important to me.
That’s interesting that you are an introvert because you hide it quite well. I’ve seen you on stage.
It’s work. For true extroverts, this comes easy, and then they can go and do 10 more of these and have no problem. For me, it’s work and it’s a little draining after it. Practice makes perfect. Doing it more, you get more comfortable and it gets less draining. It’s not natural, but I’ve been doing a lot of it to make myself better at it.
I was an introvert and I pretended to be an extrovert. My professional responsibilities required it. It was almost like an actor who played a role and then became the character over time. That’s what happened to me because I’m certainly an extrovert now.
I’m much more of an extrovert now. What’s also important is to be authentic and be yourself. I tell my story. I tell people where I come from. I tell people why I came to ServiceNow. I’m open and transparent and I try to be authentic. That rings true even if I have to push myself a little harder, but I’m much more of an extrovert today than ever before.
Social Media
I wanted to chat a little about social media. I don’t know a CFO who’s more active on social media than you. It’s not the same old stuff either. It’s interesting stuff. How do you get into being active on social media? Maybe the real question is why did you get into being active on social media?
Thank you for noticing. The CFO of LinkedIn said the same thing, “You’re one of the most active CFOs on here,” and they love it. It became the platform of choice for me to share who I am beyond being a CFO at ServiceNow. A couple of things. It allows me to show people how strong our culture is here. I talked a bit about talent brands before. It’s important. We are focused on culture and talent at ServiceNow. We call it our People Pact. It’s about our company’s commitment to doing our best work, living our best lives and fulfilling our purpose together.
Being active on LinkedIn enables me to represent that more broadly. I get to share my point of view on how the role of the CFO has changed. I get to connect with my peers and highlight what’s important for me. I talked a bit earlier about having a platform where the next generation of women can see a female CFO at a high-tech, big company, but at the same time, show that I’m not just a CFO. I have a family, I have kids.
For me, it’s about empowering the next generation of women. We did a LinkedIn takeover of my account throughout March to recognize International Women’s Month and give women and allies at ServiceNow a platform to elevate their voices. It’s been exciting. Every step of the way, it reminds me to stay hungry and humble, to be the CFO that I never had the opportunity to see when I was coming up. I don’t take that for granted. You can’t be what you can’t see. That’s one of the reasons why I try to do as much as I do.
I predicted a year ago publicly that in 10 years, I suppose nine years now, women would be a slight statistical majority amongst CFOs. I’m seeing it in our group where it’s 58 percent men and 42 percent women. If we were to do the ones that are less than 20 years experience, it’s slightly female majority. I’m seeing a demographic trend that more women are staying in the profession and they’re embracing leadership roles.
There are also a lot of the skills that people are looking for in CFOs. I don’t want to say one gender is better than the other at it. The communication, the collaboration style, the strategic thinking, the inspiring trust. These are areas that women do well in. With the evolution of the job and some demographic trends, and thanks to role models like you, even if I get it wrong by a couple of years, I think that the change is inevitable.
I love that. I love hearing that your base is skewing much more toward women because the last number I saw for Fortune 500 CFOs was only 16 percent. It’s the highest ever, which is great, but not where we want it to be. I love that the next generation is seeing themselves here and knowing that they can do anything that they want to. It’s pretty incredible.
I’m not one of those people. I would never say it has to be 50 percent. I don’t sense you would either.
It doesn’t have to be 50 percent, but 16% is quite low given the population.
I entered the workforce in 1986. There were zero partners at Peat Marwick and Mitchell and whatnot. It was like, “Let’s make it a point. Let’s get more female partners. Let’s get more female executives.” Thirty-six years later, we’re at 16 percent. I think public accounting firms have done pretty well.
Public accounting firms have done much better.
How is it that 36 years later, we’re still only 16 percent above the big companies?
We’ll get there. I’m optimistic.
The beautiful thing is because of the 10-year window in my age, I’ll be long since retired before that proves to be correct or incorrect. I’m not going to be accountable for a crazy prediction if it ends up that way.
I like the prediction for sure.
The nature of financial leadership itself has changed. Where do you see it going in the future, particularly with GenAI. It’s the biggest game changer since the internet and maybe even more so. What do you see as the future of financial leadership?
There are two questions there. I think GenAI is 100 percent going to be a game-changer. At the end of the day, I think it’s a once-in-generational shift in how technology is going to work in the enterprise, as well as at home. I’m focused on the enterprise, but GenAI is already adding to our top-line growth for ServiceNow. We’ve been investing in AI for years and years. Our first AI product was launched in 2018.
One of the first acquisitions that I greenlit when I got here in 2020 was an acquisition of a company called Element AI, which brought 100-plus incredible AI scientists into ServiceNow. That enabled us to have a first-mover advantage when it comes to GenAI in our platform. We launched GenAI across our platform on September 30, 2023.
One day left in Q3 and we sold a couple of multi-million dollar deals in that one day, then Q4 happened and now Assist, which is our generative AI experience, has become the fastest-selling new product in our history. We’re seeing a revenue uplift that is meaningful and equally justifiable to customers because of the value that we’re unlocking for them.
We are customer zero for all of our products. We’ve launched these GenAI SKUs in about 15 use cases and we’re expecting more than $5 million in productivity gains in 2024 alone. This is one quarter into the innovation. You’re going to see a difference across the enterprise, as well as within finance.
I talked earlier about how the skills required for finance and technology are going to be a big part of it. It’s no longer just the debits and credits. How can we utilize technology to make work better for our employee base to drive better productivity? More important for me is how you drive better insights so that we’re able to help the business make better decisions every day. GenAI is going to be a big part of that. It’s early days so far, but you’re right.
I don’t know about you, but did you know what GenAI was three years ago? I did not and I’m usually pretty current about that stuff.
I knew AI. I knew machine learning. I knew what predictive AI was. I had no idea about generative AI. I think the pace of evolution here is going to be faster than anything that we’ve ever seen. It’s not going to change our world in six months, but it will be faster than we’ve seen in many other technology innovations.
Work-Life Balance
You’re on two public company boards. You’re a CFO for a highly visible public company. You have a lot going on. I know you’ve mastered the work-life balance thing, at least from what I can tell. Any secrets you can share about doing that?
I don’t know about master but I’m on one public board and one private board, just to clarify. I don’t know about mastering. The whole thing about work-life balance is it’s never a balance. That means that everything is 50-50 and that’s never the case. Mental health and well-being are critical to the success. We’ve talked a lot about my focus on health and well-being.
My exercise and quality time with friends are important, but during earnings, that always takes the backseat. It’s never evenly balanced, but you have to be okay with that. When you’re with the family, you need to be present with the family, not on the phone, not checking emails. When you’re at work, you need to be focused on work. You have to take care of yourself.
What do they say on airplanes? You have to put your oxygen mask on first before you help anyone else. I tell folks all the time, you have to give up the guilt and be present when you’re present. I talk to my kids all the time about what’s important. I got this advice earlier in my career. I forget where I was exactly. I think I was at Ingram already. My kids were still little though.
You have to give up the guilt and be present when you're present. Share on XI spoke to this woman whose kids were older at the time. She said, “Ask your kids what’s important to them.” Half the things that you’re having guilt about not being at, they don’t care about. I thought that it was a great idea. Who thought about that? I was all stressed out about not making it to soccer practice. They said, “I don’t care if you have soccer practice, but the soccer game on Saturday night, could you be there?” I make it a point to be there without my phone.
Future Of Financial Leadership
I think it’s always important to give yourself a little bit of slack and know you’re never going to be perfect. There are going to be times when you’re not 100 percent with the family and not 100 percent at work. You have to be okay with that. The other thing that I do is check in with myself periodically about the way I’m living and the choices I’m making. I always go back every year. I revisit my internal purpose and goals and make sure that my decisions reflect what I said that I wanted to do and be.
I have a good example. I was invited to go to the Grammys and it was a women’s CFO event. They were getting a bunch of women’s CFOs together to go to the Grammys. I had a board meeting on Monday at 8:00 AM. There are so many reasons why I should say no, but I thought, “I’m going to say yes.” It was my husband’s birthday as well and he wasn’t invited.
I was intentional about saying yes to spending time with my girlfriend who came with me, as well as these incredible women CFOs, some of whom I knew, but many of whom I hadn’t met before. It’s important to always know that you have to give up the guilt and be who you are, be authentic to what you want out of life, know what you want, and then check in every few months to make sure that the decisions you’re making reflect the person that you want to be.
Was this the most recent Grammys?
It was. It’s amazing because it was the night of the woman that Grammy night. It was very cool.
Tracy Chapman was the big reason for me to tune in.
I didn’t know that she was going to be there. It was a surprise for me. She was the first one on. It was an incredible experience across the board.
Before she was famous, she went to Tufts. Not that I knew her, but she used to play in the subways. You’d throw money in the open guitar case. Who would have thought that she would grow up to be such an icon later?
Her performance was incredible.
You mentioned it was the woman thing. I have to admit, it wasn’t until recently that I thought Taylor Swift was a guy. There’s somebody named Taylor Hicks who won America’s Got Talent or one of those shows. He’s a country singer. I had confused the two. What’s funny is I’d seen her on Saturday Night Live and she’s a fantastic talent. I wasn’t curious enough to figure out who it was.
That’s funny.
My nephews and nieces think I’m kidding.
You don’t have young kids.
You may not know, but I have two special needs kids. They’re both autistic.
I did not know that.
They’re life-altering things. They don’t keep me current with pop culture.
How old are they?
Twenty-one and 19. They still watch Barney and Sesame Street and stuff like that. That’s the way it is. I’ve never appreciated her talent. I would not without knowing who she was. She’s huge. The biggest solo artist ever, Elvis, Michael Jackson and probably her.
My niece from New York is coming to visit. My brother is coming with his family on Friday for Easter and my niece is all excited because she wants to see the Taylor Swift movie. She’s waiting to come to watch it with Auntie Gina. That’s on the agenda for this weekend.
Good for you. Have fun with that. Gina, this has been fantastic. I want to close. You touched upon a lot of things, but any advice you can give to the next generation of CFOs?
Advice For Next-Gen CFOs
Take risks. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. That’s where the growth happens and that’s where the magic is. Own your craft. Make sure you’re the subject matter expert, but then broaden it and learn all disciplines of finance if you have the opportunity. If you don’t have the opportunity and you want it, go after it and push.
Don’t expect things to come from you. Raise your hand for projects. Let people know what you want to do. Let people know that you’re interested in something else. I have a story. I did International Women’s Day and I have a board member, Anita Sands. I did something like this for our finance team. She was telling a story of being a board member on a board where the CFO was talking about succession.
She brought up the name of one of his direct reports and he said, “She doesn’t want to be a CFO. She doesn’t want to take on any more. She has young kids. She’s not interested.” She said, “Really? Maybe you want to ask her.” He went back and asked her. She wanted to be a CFO and wanted to take on new things. Don’t assume that people know what you’re interested in. Make sure that you’re letting them know because no one cares more about your career than you.
No one cares more about your career than you. Share on XThe last thing I would say is to speak your truth and be authentic. Growing up in finance. I always thought I had to be buttoned up and perfect. I was so cautious about my words and so cautious about how I came across. I grew up and realized it was too hard to do that and everything else. If you watch this year’s Oscars, Da‘Vine Joy Randolph’s acceptance speech said something like, “For so long, I’ve always wanted to be different than who I am and now I realize I just need to be myself.” Authenticity, transparency and being you are important, Finding those companies where you can be that authentic self is where you find your dream job.
That’s great advice. Gina, this has been wonderful. It’s such a thrill for me to have you as our guest because I know you’ve got a lot going on in your life. Thanks for coming and if you want to have the final word, I’d love to give it to you.
Thank you so much, Jack. I love what you do to help the next generation of finance folks to be their best selves and be there and have their best careers. Thank you for all that you do, and thanks for having me.
