Welcome to The 6 a.m. CFO, where finance chiefs share how they jump-start their days and engage with the tasks that are in front of them.
Today, Komprise’s CFO Craig Gomulka, who joined the company in January, shares how he structures his morning, his favorite number, and the app he uses to teach him how to speak German.
Be sure to check out the entire 6 a.m. CFO series, and if you’d like to be featured in a future post, please email us here.
Komprise
- A SaaS for unstructured data management and mobility designed for petabyte-scale environments which helps organizations save significantly on storage and backup costs and discover new value from data.
- Founded: 2014
- Size: 130
- Growth: New subscriptions doubled in the last fiscal year and grew average annual contract value (ACV) by 60% with multiple seven-figure deals throughout the year
MORNING ROUTINE
Walk us through your normal workday morning routine: I have recently joined Komprise and am still setting priorities and processes with my team so most of my comments come from previous roles. Having said that, my morning routine is not much of a routine as the companies I work for are typically very dynamic and the demands on my role are varied and constantly in flux. Hence, each day tends to depend on the specific needs and priorities of the company at that time and relates to the time of year.
Generally, my morning routine involves a combination of financial analysis, collaboration with other team members, strategy work, and addressing day-to-day operational matters. I try to get a head start on important tasks and prepare for upcoming meetings and tasks. I may also review financial/sales reports and key performance indicators to assess the company's performance and identify any areas that require attention.
Once a week, I hold a morning meeting with members of the finance team to discuss priorities for the week, review progress on ongoing projects, and address any issues or concerns.
Tell us about a recent morning when things didn’t go according to plan, and how you adapted: In a previous company, we would invoice our companies regularly on the first day of the month, and 90% of our customers paid their invoices automatically via credit card. But on this day, our processor was unable to process transactions, so we unfortunately had to do some fast work to switch to a backup processor that we had in place.
All in all, everything worked out, but we had to push other items that we were planning to work on that day to solve the immediate problem.
How do you engage with your teams? I’ve been working remotely and managing fully remote teams for eight years now. I have found that with a combination of video calls and messaging applications, we can stay well-connected and operate very efficiently.
I have experimented with some virtual collaboration tools to boost productivity that allows for continual engagement such as "Around" from Miro Labs and Slack "huddles." Occasionally we used group chat tools to get together as a team, but with no agenda. That way, it simulated an office-like setting where we could ask each other questions and have impromptu discussions.
INSPIRATION AND LEADERSHIP
Favorite quote: I have several quotes I like, but one of my favorites is from Clinton Hurdle, former manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team:
"If you're the smartest person in the room, you might want to look to add staff."
Another one I like is from Israeli politician Shimon Peres:
“I have observed that both optimists and pessimists seem to leave this world in the same way — but optimists lead better lives.”
Favorite leadership lesson: I'm a strong believer in the importance of leading by example — meaning, your actions speak louder than your words. I try to be open, transparent and approachable and encourage open communication among team members.
I would publish the agenda for our upcoming Monday morning team meeting in Confluence the week prior and allow every team member to have input on the agenda: nothing was off-limits. This encouraged team communication and problem-solving.
I tell my staff that finger-pointing and scapegoating, of anyone in the organization, whether finance or not, is not acceptable. In finance, we should think of our colleagues in other departments as “customers" and treat them as such. We are here to help them solve problems and move forward rather than act as a roadblock.
For example, if sales executives aren’t properly completing order forms, rather than complaining and trying to force compliance, we would evaluate how to change our process to encourage the behavior we are looking to achieve. In this case, we conducted educational sessions and training and switched to a more interactive order form technology that helped guide the AE through the process.
Something important to know about you that you wouldn’t know from your business bio: In my day job, I strive to limit and manage risks that face the company and mitigate adverse outcomes.
My hobbies tend to involve endeavors that involve some risk, such as motorcycle racing, which helps keep me balanced.
The last job you did at your company that fell outside your traditional scope of work: At one of my companies, in addition to providing a software solution, we offered a hardware device that we charged a monthly subscription to use. We owned the devices and provided them to customers for "free" but we charged a monthly subscription fee to allow the customers to use the software on the devices.
The costs associated with supporting the hardware and shouldering the depreciation cost were significant. I led an effort to switch the ownership of the hardware from being us to the customer; the customers had to purchase the devices going forward. We outsourced the hardware support to a third-party vendor. The effort ultimately provided a better support resource to the customers and saved the company significantly on overhead expenses.
How do you manage work-induced stress?: I try to get in some form of physical exercise and spend a little time outside daily. I live in Boulder, Colorado, so that’s easy to do as the environment here is so beautiful with many options for outdoor activities.
Favorite number: It is the base of the natural logarithm, constant, and irrational real number "e", approximately equal to 2.71828. I find numbers like "e" that go forever with no repeating block of numbers are fascinating.
Also, "e" also has interesting financial implications in that it represents the maximum gain that you can obtain out of the compounding interest process.
Most noteworthy items in your workspace: I would say my HP12C RPN-style calculator and my brass and leather CFA Charterholder coaster. These are relics from before the turn of the 21st century but items I still use to this day!
Do you have a pet sitting in your office right now? We have two dogs — Maverick and Macy. They both are rescue mutts and spend a large portion of their day hanging in the office with me. They handle critical matters such as deciding where to sleep at that moment and ensuring that visitors like the delivery driver do not go unnoticed.
Favorite phone app that is unrelated to work: Duolingo — I'm using it to learn some German now. Our niece who lives in Austria had a son recently and I would like to be able to converse with him a bit when we go to visit.
The most important piece of literature you’ve recently read:
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. The book is essentially Marcus Aurelius’ diary, which expounds on several stoic concepts but stresses that we should focus on what we can control, do the best you can, and live with virtue.