Nicolaas: Good morning, Farhaan! 

Farhaan: Morning, Nicolaas! 

Nicolaas: Welcome to our first CFO Club presentation, podcast on LinkedIn Live. So, it’s a first for all of us and you’re the first CFO we interview. So, congratulations!  

Farhaan: Thank you. Thank you for the invite. No pressure, eh? 

Nicolaas: No, none. So yeah, you look fine on my side, on my screen. 

I have my phone open here with me, so I’m checking LinkedIn Live as well as we progress with the presentation. But let us then start. 

Let me just talk a little bit about CFO Club. We started the CFO Club back in 2016 when we hosted the first World Congress for CFOs. Back then, CIBA as a professional body didn’t yet have an offering for CFOs, and we launched our entry into the CFO field to offer professional designations and study routes and things like that in 2016. 

 The CFO club currently has about, I see, 5,000 followers on its LinkedIn profile and you can go to our website if you’re watching this interview. It’s cfoclub.co.za and you can see some of the more than 200 podcasts that we’ve done so far. We post blog articles on trending issues within the CFO profession. And I think our main claim to fame is that we are part of the International CFO Alliance, which is an alliance of CFO associations globally. We recently co-founded that alliance and that gives us access as well as our club members to the global CFO frontier. And that includes countries like France and Germany, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and we’re ever expanding. And the two things that the CFO club via the ICFOA then does is we’ve established work groups to give attention to aspects like sustainability and international tax and automation. 

We have these work groups that we invite CFOs to belong to. And our submissions then we sent to the European Union and IFAC and the IASB Foundation just to help shape, make sure that the voice of the CFO is heard at those levels.  

And then we also have an annual CFO summit. We’ve been attending those CFO summits now for the last couple of years in Cancun in Mexico, I think is my favourite. And then we also had some events in Capri, which is an amazing island just off the coast of Italy. And it’s then hosted by the local CFO Association and global CFOs from all over the world can attend. 

 And I think the biggest draw card for me on those annual events is how the CFOs then network. CFOs is part of the business operations of the company and the leads and the networks and opportunities that you pick up at those events are just amazing. So that’s about the CFO club. We are also on LinkedIn, as you might be seeing us now doing the LinkedIn Live. 

And now let me then introduce our first CFO on our LinkedIn Live – Farhaan Moolla, CA(SA). I’m just going to do a brief overview of Farhaan’s CV. An experienced CFO with a strong ack record in financial leadership and strategic planning, skilled in financial analysis, risk management, compliance, and financial reporting, and excels in team management and fostering a collaborative environment. 

You’ve worked in various roles, which we’ll be discussing today. Currently the CFO of T3 Telecoms and previously as a Group Financial Director at Midcom, also working in financial strategies and business performance and the like. Farhan holds a BCom and a number of postgraduate diplomas in accounting from the University of Johannesburg. 

And as I said, he’s a qualified CA. He started off as a SAICA trainee at Nolands, a very well-known auditing and accounting firm. I know Clive Nolands very well and a big shout out to him. He’s a great guy to know, Andrew Bernier. 

And then he transitioned from there into his role at Midcomp Group as financial manager and later financial director. Farhaan, you stayed there, I think, for about seven years and then moved on into your current role as CFO. And I see from your CV, there’s a host of achievements which we’ll also be talking today about, and that is cutting costs, increasing revenues, and steering your company through the whole COVID affair. So then let’s then kick off with the questions. Let’s talk about your career development as all these interviews on LinkedIn always start. They start with the career development.  

So, can you share with us? Why you decided to study BCom and what attracted you to the profession? 

Farhaan: Thank you again for the opportunity to be on this podcast and thank you to everybody who’s attending as well.  I come from like every other Indian out there, I come from a family that’s very entrepreneurial and has a lot of business acumen. So, growing up in a household, it’s always you’re working around numbers and listening to this deal and that deal happening. 

At the time, my father and my uncle owned a couple of companies, and they were mainly in the property industry. And I admired their business skills and how they presented themselves out there in the world. And that was my first point of saying, I want to be a businessman. So, at the time, obviously studying in that year when I was at school and completing my trick, I needed to find how do I get to becoming at the top or how to become the successful businessman and chartered accounting was the way forward. 

I mean, there was nothing better to achieve and gain that accreditation to get to the top and become the businessman you want to be. So that’s what drove me to become and choose this path. And that’s when I started in 2008 with UJ and I became sorry, I started studying my BCom accounting.  

Nicolaas: Okay. Yeah, it’s a very good qualification to have a BCom. It’s like you correctly said, it teaches you so much about business. I did my BCom at the University of Pretoria, financial management, and then an Honors and I think the articles were the strongest point in my career development. Having those three years as a good practice and learning about business, like you said, the ins and outs, how it’s structured, how it’s set up, that even to this day as a CEO now of CIBA, that really benefits me. You mentioned your cultural background of being entrepreneurial-focused. So that would be my second question beyond your degree. What other experiences played a significant role in shaping your career path? 

Farhaan: Again, it goes down to family. You know, us, Indian people are very family orientated. So I speak about my late uncle, and unfortunately, he didn’t have the opportunity to see the success I’ve made out of myself. But he was one of those men out there that when he walked into a boardroom or he walked into the office, you could see this man was here for business. I used him as my goalpost to become the person that I am today.  

Nicolaas: Oh, that’s an amazing story. 

Farhaan: He mentored me throughout my schooling career, pushed me to always get the best grades. And even if I had like a 90, he’d tell me, why couldn’t you get 100?  

So, it was a typical Indian home, you’re going through. But it’s good to have such a family member or friend or business mentor, just to drive you to achieve more. 

Nicolaas: Yeah. And thanks for sharing that story. My third question, yeah, you’ve just mentioned that would be your key influences or mentors and how did they impact your career journey? I think you just shared with us, your uncle driving you, maybe elaborate a little bit more.  

Farhaan: Back then, obviously the apartheid era was very difficult for Indian men to own businesses or become successful at that time unless only in the areas that they were living. My uncle Matt, obviously at the time, with another individual and he made this individual open up a property company. And from there, he was kind of a silent partner. And from that, he just grew. Hey, once, I mean, 1994 restrictions were lifted in South Africa and apartheid was done. My uncle saw the opportunity and he went on to buy properties throughout the Northern Suburbs. And up to today, we own two properties in the Houghton area where once upon a time Visa Credit Card used to be one of our biggest clients rent in our office space. 

Nicolaas: Very interesting! So, the entrepreneurial thread runs deep in your family.  

Farhaan: Very, very deep. Yeah. My father till today, he deals in Arts and Antiques. He’s one of the well-known dealers out there of Arts and Antiques. So those were their business properties, Arts Antiques.  

Nicolaas: That’s an interesting story. And then both your uncle and your father sound very different, is there a difference mindset? How do you marry the two, from entrepreneurial to corporate?  

Farhaan: So, I must say working at T3 Telecoms, it’s more of an entrepreneurial mindset and it’s more than just being the CFO or being the finance individual here. It’s more dealing with the operations and the strategic part of the business.  I’ve married the two very well and that’s the reason why I enjoy my current role and I really am happy where I am. 

Nicolaas: Tell me a little bit more about T3. I read briefly on the internet, Telecoms company, I think started off in prepaid, but now doing financing of devices, but just share a little bit more.  

Farhaan: Okay, so firstly T3 is part of the larger group, Blue Label Telecoms. We are an associate of them. And what we actually do is we are a distributor of some cards for the major networks in South Africa, being MTN, Telecom, South Sea and Vodacom. We distribute all prepaid some cuts into the informal formal sectors. And then also in the larger scales being wholesalers and retailers. I see. And there must be a lot of competition in that space. And do you see that market growing and expanding? So, competition is a big thing in our space. I mean, it’s always, we’re trying to cut the better deal with everybody on this. You always got to be on your toes and be on top of it. 

In terms of growth, the economy has been constrained and it has taken its knock through the networks. The networks obviously have seen that impact of, especially from a prepaid perspective, the growth in people recharging or using more airtime or data has declined slightly versus previously. So, I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but there is room for improvement.  

Nicolaas: Ok. I recently spoke with somebody from MTN and it was interesting to know how they diversify their business into other sectors other than just telecom. Or just giving what the current products that they have, just applying it in different packages. And there’s this SME development that they’re doing. So that again gives room for professional bodies even that I realized how much closer we need to work with technology companies. 

It’s interesting how the economy develops with technology, it’s this merging of industries. Are you also seeing it with T3?  

Farhaan: Yes, we are, we are.  

Nicolaas: Okay, to maybe expand a little bit.  

Farhaan: Yeah, so when you look at it, the sum card model, the SIM- –card business, it’s growing, and it still continues to grow because everybody needs a SIM- card to operate. I mean, you go down to the fact that your cards have a SIM card in your tracking device. Some cards are needed on iPads. They’re needed everywhere around the world. However, as much as it’s needed, the crowd doesn’t just come from the sale of SIM cards. It comes from the recharges used in, obviously using the SIM card. The more recharges it goes out there, the more revenue that’s earned by the networks and obviously companies like us and our competitors out there. 

So, when you look at it, you’ve got to look at it from the future perspective that is this going to continue to grow significantly over time or is it going to slow down?  

Right now, we’ve seen where the economy is slowing down and hence like you say, the empty internet is now looking into new avenues of going. You look at Vodacom, Vodacom is going into the financial services industry. I can’t give a lot of information out here on this podcast, but in the blue label space, there’s a lot happening on the side that’s not yet made out that is going to impact us. 

Nicolaas: And what you highlight is how the business model must adjust to its environment. And then there’s new strategies developed and the CFO, how do you, and it’s clear that you are very well versed and understanding what that business model is of T3. What advice, is that something that’s new to the CFO profession? And how would a CFO better develop his business acumen skills to get those numbers to speak what the directors want to see.  

Farhaan: We speak of CFOs as traditional accountants. And I’ll touch quickly on a presentation that I did last year at one of our management conferences. I spent hours and hours watching hundreds of YouTube videos trying to bring something to life to show that finance department, CFOs, financial managers, accountants in general, and all those boring people everybody looks at in the back office and things say the budget blockers or I refer to it in my presentation is the no department. And then I still made a joke and said it’s the maybe department because always whenever you ask a guy can you approve or not approve maybe I can do it you know.  

So, my advice to CFOs and financial managers they aspire to interview or in there is you got to adapt to the change. Change is inevitable and yes as human beings we do not like change it’s just part of our lifestyles. 

But the world’s ever evolving. And again, going back to this video and this presentation, something that’s coming big into the space is the implementation of AI. It actually helps you bring in real-time data instead of looking at historic data constantly and reviewing in the past. It helps you actually look into the future and forecast. Yes, it has the issue where there is an inaccuracy that may exist, but you, based in your position, sitting on the other end of that seat, knows your company, knows your business model, knows your strategy. 

Using this tool helps you build a better strategy for everybody going forward. So, my advice to them is please don’t resist change, embrace it, it’s your friend.  

Nicolaas: But it again shows your entrepreneurial mindset. Hearing you speak about the CFO profession gets me all excited about being associated with CFOs. It’s interesting to note that there’s been a steady decline in the number of students that decide to study BCom. 

It’s not only in South Africa but also in the US. They’re even changing the admission criteria, the CPA in the US. The governing body decided to lower the entry requirements and make it wider, to cost a wider net. There’s a serious shortage in the US for accountants and CFOs. But what advice would you give to a student that has to decide, am I going to study, let’s say science or accounting? and why would you recommend them? And maybe address also the issue of accounting is boring, because I don’t think the students understand the variety within accounting. 

Farhaan: Again, it comes down to the individual and where they’re choosing their career path first of all. And if you sit in with a science and accounting, you can do different sides of the scale. So, I think you’re already confused. But looking at it from an accounting perspective, my advice to the individuals out there is accounting is not boring. Yes, I know you sit in university, and you sit and learn how to reconcile a general ledger and you learned how to interpret standards and how to recognize it in it. And that’s all. 

Very important at the time when you’re studying because it lays the foundation for you as an individual as an upcoming accountant. However, accounting is not boring. The conception of accounting being boring is completely inaccurate. And I’ll take myself for example, as a CFO today of T3 and previously the financial director of Midcom. The amount of accounting work that I deal with on a daily basis is minimal, very minimal.  

The reason being is out there you have consultants and people in those areas of expertise being accounting and tax and auditing and the like that. And you pick up a phone or you set up an appointment and you get these guy’s input. Your role has really evolved out there. Don’t look at accounting as sitting and ticking with a green pen or balancing a jail or balancing a bank recon or trying to find the missing transaction. It’s not important, it’s actually evolved. 

And I’ll share something quickly with the guys on the podcast, not to take up too much time because I know we’ve only got an hour. But my financial managers today that reported me, I have two beautiful ladies who reported me. And when I got here, their skills were that type where they would just sit in and think they have to reconcile, reconcile a general ledger. Today they have grown these skills to be analytical that before I could even ask them the question of why this has done this, they can give me the answer. They’ve already taught on that level. So again, please don’t think of accounting as boring. It’s not boring out there.  

Nicolaas: Thank you very much for sharing that to us, especially the students, but I think it’s also valuable for people moving up in their career trajectory from accountant to financial manager to CFO.  

And just thinking back over your career, you start off in articles, which I would recommend for any aspiring CFO. That’s a very good starting point and then you get your first role in function, financial manager, at what point do you add, like you just described, that strategic element, the business acumen element to your, does it come over time? And approximately how long does that take?  

And what should aspire CFOs then do in their current, let’s say accounting financial manager position, to upskill themselves? Should they study? Should they read books? Should they get a mentor? What would you recommend? 

 Farhaan: The transition from out of articles, because my articles ended, I think it was January 2016 and I wasn’t there for much long post articles. Seven months later I left, and I joined Midcomp as a financial manager. And that gap was enormous when I joined Midcomp. It was huge. I didn’t know where I was coming and going half the time because everything was very different from what you did in articles. It was real. Real business experience that you needed to make decisions. And it took, I would say two years before I finally got to understand.  

And I always share this incident, I won’t say incident, this thing that happened with my previous MD. I went in with the management back after I prepared it and I said to him, well, here you go. And he looked at the GP percentage and he said to me, it’s wrong. And I said, no, it’s not wrong. I sat for hours, and I’ve reconciled it. He says it’s wrong, I’m telling you, it’s not our GP. Just going to look. After about another hour or two of investigating, I came back and said: That was the issue and I fixed it and now the GPs like the GPs right. And I sat down with him afterwards. I said to him, how did you know that? And he says, you’ve got to think out of the box. You’ve got to look beyond what’s in front of you. He says the problem sometimes with preparing is you get so stuck in the detail that you can’t see around you. So, you need to take a break and then go into the reviewing part of it. And you’ll see how tough it is. And it comes down again, you know, when you’re in that role, you’ve got to learn. 

You’ve got to be hungry. You’ve got to be the sponge. Wherever you can absorb knowledge, you must just absorb it. That’s the best way to become successful.  

And then again, going to, you know, what gaps are out there, what would individuals do, what should they, what should they do to close this gap? We sat in on the other side of the table and need to be honest with ourselves. 

And I always find this a very interesting conversation that you hear with others out there that nobody wants to be honest to say, I have a gap in my career, and I’ll share my personal experience when I joined T3. It was a massive jump from articles to Midcomp. Was a massive jump from Midcom to T3. 

Obviously now being part of a JSE listed company in that area, there were more requirements, more regulations, and more deadlines. And it was dealing with people on a different level. It’s not like walking into a board of more family-owned businesses. And that was massive for me.  I embarked on a coaching journey, first, with Clive Kaplan of Green Mine Capital. And he taught me teams and he showed me teams in the executive space that I completely did not see.  

And again, I wouldn’t say it’s anybody’s fault or they don’t know this. It’s once you get into this role, because a CFO in one company is not the same as a CFO in another company. Their roles differ on almost every level possible. It’s what you have to deal with on a daily basis.  

So, firstly, you as an individual identify your gap. Once you’ve identified your gap, consider what the gap is and how to close it. Is it a mentor that I need maybe to help me? So that’s the first approach I took. 

Secondly, is it something a skill that I lack that I need to maybe work on? It could be techs, for example. Not everybody is a techs guru or techs master out there. And it’s fine. It’s okay. You don’t have to feel ashamed of it because I think what CFOs and CAs, people have this thing, oh, but you studied for four years in university, so you must know everything. No, guys, we don’t. We actually don’t. There’s things we learn on a daily basis. There’s things we come across on a daily basis that we don’t even know how to deal with it yet. So, you sit along a panel, and you discuss it, identify your gap, find where your gap is lacking and move from there.  

Nicolaas: Okay, now that resonates so strongly with me. It’s been my experience as well and a lot of CFOs when we interview them, they share a similar story. The big jump from qualifying as an accountant, finishing articles and then ending up as a CFO. So, this intrigued me so much, I did some research globally. 

And I found that in the US, interestingly enough, only about 34% of CFOs come from an accounting background. So, they’ve kind of diversified into engineering scientists. And one aspect that stood out for me was the MBA. 

As a professional body, we think hard about the story that you just relate to us. They say, okay, but we qualify people and then they go through this progress in their career, maybe eight to 10 years, and they end up in CFOs. How do our designations respond to that? 

And then we sat down with our international colleagues, and we combined a BCOM with an MBA. Just to kind of, I did my MBA and they say, how do you know somebody did an MBA? He shares it with you, and he tells you. So, and I met a few CAs and financial managers doing that MBA to kind of get that business acumen in place. 

What is your view of maybe really looking at our accounting designations and qualifications to better support a person like yourself moving up in his career into the CFO role? 

Farhaan:  I would say that it’s better to start from your articles. And I’ve always said, I think in articles, we need to have a bit more of a diversity involved in there. 

Again, I can share none of my experiences when I left articles, and I could have done for the first time at Medcom. It was like rocket science for me. But this is what I’m saying. You as an article clerk, you could actually reconcile the vector cells or whatever it might be that you do out there. But to actually fill it in, submit it, not many article clerks have this experience and knows how to do it. They need to incorporate a little bit more of a practical element into it. 

So, it’s all driven auditing and I get it and I understand it and I’m for it. But we need to bring in a bit more financial management with risk and strategy involved as well. This will help prepare our future CA’s, our future FM’s and our future CFO’s out there to be better well equipped to do their job and grow.  

Nicolaas: The lawyer issued a research paper on the same matter and there’s a university in Canada that looked at the issues sues you’ve raised, and they group the CFO functions into four elements. And I hope I remember them, it’s the strategist, that’s the first one. Then there’s the relational, this is how you engage with your team. And I can hear a lot of what you’re sharing, relates a lot about training and development. You mentioned the two financial managers that you invest in. And then there’s the normal transactional and operational aspects of being a CFO. 

Would you agree with this kind of four broad aspects, strategy, operations, HR, and maybe you can put in IT, place in IT there as well. And after that, just share with us, because I pick it up from a lot of the successful CFOs, they have this teaching ability and a wish to develop their own style. 

Farhaan: Yeah, so again, yeah, when I did coach you with Clive, and sorry, I touched back on a lot of practical experiences I’ve achieved during my career because that’s what’s built me and who I am today. Pre-COVID, you’ve always had your CEO at a top level and below you had all your C-suite executives, being your CFO, COO, CIO, et cetera. But post-COVID, the world has actually evolved and realized that the CFO has almost moved on to this mezzanine level, I call it. So, you know, you’ve got your CEO at the top and then it’s like this little mezzanine level being your CFO and the remaining C-execs below it, okay? And when looking at that, that already emphasizes that your CFO has moved more from a how to record an accounting transaction to now being what your CEO implementing, the strategies that are drawn up and how to facilitate downwards into the remaining C-suite execs and they’re on to management level and obviously further down the company ranking.  

Okay. And I do agree with this to see if a role has become more strategic, more operational, you’re more involved in other departments than just the accounting department. You’re now part of the sales meetings. You’re now part of HR meetings. You’re now part of how to bring in a new software. What impact does it have on the accounting part of it? How does this the CFO gets to see almost everything, just like the CEO. And hence I say he’s moved up into this mezzanine level and works even closer to your CEO because he’s building the future of the company and the strategy with him. 

Nicolaas: I totally agree. I mentioned an MBA before, is that something that you ever considered and advice to other CFOs or aspiring besides an MBA, what other post-degree qualifications or courses or mentorship programs that you recommend for their continuous development?  

Farhaan: I’ve got a bit of mixed feelings about an MBA. It’s how you perceive it as an individual. For example, I am now went and enrolled with CIMA, and I’ve now started studying towards obtaining my ACGMA designation, which is more risk strategy focused versus your CA designation, because your CA is more accounting, auditing, tax, and it has its financial management, but not in the depth of your CIMA designation or CGMA. So, I’ve chosen the ACMA/CGMA part first. The reason is when I did research at the time, because that’s one of the gaps identified is how to work around strategy, strategy implementation, and how to be in that space. A lot of people I spoke to, a lot of people I consulted with didn’t recommend MBA to me, which was funny, and I thought that would be the go-to. 

Most of them recommended short pauses in strategy. Most of them recommended that they’ve just achieved a practical experience. Some mentioned going to do CF coach again. That’s also when I embarked on a journey with Claude from Green Mine Capital. 

 And I then considered, w up my options. And I said I’m going to do the CIMA road. I’m going to go and obtain the CGMA because I went through the course material. I did all my research and I found that that is the entry point. And it might be sufficient for me as an individual, that’s all I need to take me to the next level. I have a person sitting on the other side may not find that way. They might feel like an MBA is better for them.  not for it, I’m not against it either. It comes down to you as an individual. You have a gap, find your gap, you know the best way to close it. In terms of other courses, mentoring is always a great thing to do because you always, when you mentor with people, you learn about their experiences, you learn what’s out there. And again, we don’t know everything. We’re always learning. 

So, look at getting a coach, getting a mentor, somebody who can guide you through your process. I really enjoyed my coaching. It took me to a thinking in my professional and personal life on a different level. That’s what I can say. 

And again, when I was looking for courses in it today, I came across an institution called Udemy and I found on there that there were a whole lot of CFOs, financial manager courses should I say. Even if it comes down to someone who’s confused, and we go back to one of your questions previously of a person where they don’t know whether to take science or accounting. It’s like a six-month course. It gives you a brief overview of what a financial manager does, what he touches on, and where he goes. And I would recommend it to people out there. If you’re confused about your career, and look at this course, do it?  It doesn’t cost a lot of money because everybody’s always about the cost involved in it. It gives you an outline. Maybe you wake up and you’re like, I’m not going to be a financial manager. I want to be a neurologist as an example, but that’s fine. At least you’ve done it. 

And on this place while doing this research, I found that on a day have two specific causes that caught my mind. And I’m just going to read what I wrote because I’ve written it down because I wouldn’t have remembered it otherwise. It’s the CFO leadership program. The one in the other one’s called the office of the CFO, a seat at the strategic leadership. And I find that to be really valuable. 

Nicolaas: That sounds, that sounds about right. We, we, we offer similar courses with our academy. 

And then we have a MOU with the AICPA and then CGMA, because we do also want to support our own designation and all those to move into whatever area is suitable in their careers. But I agree 100% with the examples you shared. And what’s very clear is that there’s a big movement between as you qualify as an accountant and then what you need to end up as being a successful CFO. 

Now let’s move on to a bit more hypothetical policy question. We asked this of all our attendees. It’s now soon the Minister of Finance delivering his budget speech. And if you were appointed as the finance minister in South Africa, what key actions would you take in your first 100 days? 

Farhaan: That’s a good question and a tricky one. The one thing we said here, and we all judge government and I’m not going to sugarcoat it because it’s the truth. Okay. We all judge the government. And yes, there are a lot of little things that happen in between that we don’t see and we hear it on the news and it’s made out about corruption, whatever the case might be, but if I had to be appointed hypothetically in my first hundred days, the most important thing that I feel is the finance minister would be is to meet with business leaders across the country, nationally, understand the different industries and sectors of what they’re experiencing. Yes, there’s the usual cut budget costs, cut government expenses, reduce this, reduce this. Yes, that’s all given.  

So, with this question, what I’m trying to say is that that’s the norm. You’ve got to do that as your finance minister. But to make the country great again and to grow that economy, meet with these individuals, meet the CFOs of all the different companies out there, the different industries, the leaders in those industries, and understand what they experience on the ground, what they experience as business leaders, because that helps you as your finance minister to make the right decisions in driving investor confidence and growing the economy.  

Nicolaas: That’s a very good point. I think we need to move you into that position soon. It may be opening up, we’ll see at this year’s elections. But I’ve met the Minnesota finance a few times and attended some of these business meetings that you’re referring to. And it is very difficult. It’s easy for us to criticize government and the officials and sometimes we should, but it’s a difficult position to manage all these moving parts. But I like your suggestion with having a meeting with CFOs. 

 And that leads me to my next question, professional networks. We recently entered into an agreement with the finance minister of Gauteng, the MSC of Finance. And just like you said, thought about why don’t we connect CFOs with the Gauteng government? Let’s make that a starting point. 

 And we launched something at the CFO club called the CFO Roundtable. We had our first launch event with some of our strategic partners in this event. But it’s exactly as you said, CFOs so much to share. They’re not policy minded, so they can give you the minister or the MEC the lowdown on what is needed to grow the economy. And we hope through these roundtables, we will be able to achieve that conversation that I think is needed.  

And then I’ve mentioned previously our membership on the ICFOA, the International CFO Alliance, and I think that is to move beyond just South Africa but start speaking with the finance ministries of other countries. I attended the mining in Daba just now, and the amount of information I gained just by attending one of these events after the end Daba and the connections made and the deals being made, that is significant.  

So, as a closing question, would you recommend CFOs join networks like the CFO club, participate in CFO roundtables? And how can we as a club be more attractive to CFOs? 

Farhaan: 100%. It’s definitely, the guys should definitely join such associations, such bodies and such events. The reason being is we all have experiences from different points of views, which we can add in. And again, like you say, meeting with the MEC Finance Minister of Kao Teng, it helps. 

He doesn’t understand every single thing. He’s not an expert in all the industries out there. And if we all collaborate together and we bring this to the table, it just makes life easy for everyone out there. I definitely think I agree with it. I’m for it.  

Nicolaas: Oh no, brilliant. I just need to check here. We’re going live on LinkedIn. I see the team did post some questions. Let me then move on. 

Just want to see… Okay, that was more like a comment. 

Yeah, so there’s a question here. What can you recommend for non-CAs to move into the FM CFO role at a large company? I had a few interesting engagements. We met or interviewed the CFO of Hall Art a while back, and he’s an actuary. And then I met the CFO of some other big corporates. Their names escape me now. And the one was an attorney and the other did a BCom MBA. How would you recommend from somebody that’s not a CA, possibly the person is reading job requirements and seeing people want CA(SA), there’s not really a concentration of ACCA, CGMA or the CFO(SA). How would you then convince a board or an HR department? as this was one of the questions from the audience.  

Farhaan: Sure. So, if you look at the market at the moment, the market’s opening up to CIMA. There were a couple of positions at the time when I was applying that spoke about CIMA. They wanted CIMA candidates versus CA candidates. So, yes, the majority of South Africa is driven by CA(SA), and hence, Ike has also taken the collaboration to join with CIMA and allow CA(SA)s to do a quick shift by writing one level or one case study to gain a designation. So they’re working with it instead of against it. Iif you don’t have the CASA, look at doing your CMA. It is getting recognized in South Africa. I’ve done the homework; I’ve looked at it. You will get it there. And again, you know, if you’ve just got a sample, become my advice to everybody out there, is go and go do your Honors. Do an Honors in accounting, do an Honors in financial management more, and then branch off from there, because from there you can go into a Master of Finance. And that will also bring you along the same route. But that’s what I would say.  

Nicolaas: Okay, that’s a good response.  

Farhaan, thank you so much for participating in our first podcast. I think it went down without a glitch. We shared some valuable information. 

And if I can summarize, I think you’re into entrepreneurial background. Your parents that you are a very good service to make you the person that you are. You mentioned being open-minded and like a sponge and they’d be willing to take in your information. And then we spoke about the new role of the CFO. We spoke about strategic operational and HR perspectives that that’s now needed. And this continuous drive for learning. And then we spoke about different routes to develop into this CFO role. 

 And from our side, as part of the CFO club and the Carter Institute of Business Accountants, we looked at all these gaps within how you develop and then registered a designation for CFOs. And we’re the first one to do so. It’s on registered with SAQA, requires a BCOM, Honors and MBA. And we’ve been working now with the International CFO Alliance to see if we can develop a competency framework or a competency skill standard that is kind of the norm globally. And we’ve been, our colleagues in Italy have submitted a proposal to the European Union that they are now considering to see if we can say that if a CFO wants to develop, these are the skill sets that they need to do. And once we have that in place, we’ll be able then to talk with employers and universities and then develop the future CFOs. Just final few word from you, Farhaan. 

Farhaan: Firstly, again, thank you, Nicolaas, and to the guys out there for giving me this opportunity to be on this podcast and sharing my experience and knowledge with everyone. 

And in closing, I would say, guys, again, accountants are not boring. Please take away this assumption that we are boring people that sits in the back office. We are here to be your people’s strategic partner. Let the CFOs show you what they’re made of. That’s what our walls have, because they have a lot to contribute and a lot to give out there, as well as the financial managers. Don’t think of them as your number crunches and the person who leases your bank payments on the odd days. They’re more than that.  

Nicolaas: Thank you very much, Farhaan. That’s a good call to action. And I think then we’ll be closing our engagement, and the recording is now available on LinkedIn at the CFO club. So, if anybody is on LinkedIn, go to the CFO club and you can watch it there. 

Farhan, thank you very much. Have a great day! 

Farhaan: Thank you, Nicholas, and thank you to the audience. Nicolaas: Good morning, Farhaan!