What time do you usually wake up on weekdays? 

I have often found that I work better burning the midnight oil, throughout my corporate career and entrepreneurship journey. This has allowed me to process and consolidate key activities from the day, and respond to key deliverables, whilst also planning for the next day. 

How do you spend the first hour of your day? 

My first hours of the day are spent connecting with my kids and giving them hugs and kisses before school runs, followed by a one-hour gym workout session to get the day underway. 

What sparked your interest in finance?  

Surprisingly, my journey as a university student started with studying towards a BSc Degree, which I later changed into a BCom Financial Accounting in my second year. I believed in the accounting route owing to my passion for numbers, coupled with my personality, and interest in working with people in general. Above all, the desire to solve problems using critical thinking and analytical skills has continued to shape my career and my entrepreneurial journey. 

Can you share some career highlights and defining moments?  

It’s more common to talk about starting a business and not so much the process to end a business. My previous role involved winding-up a business that had a group structure where some entities had to undergo business rescue and/or liquidation process. As part of that experience, I had to be at the center of management of critical business processes which included, retrenchment of employees, selling/transferring assets owned by the business, understanding the full extent of the business financial obligations, active engagements and negotiating and settling of creditors and the fulfilling of regulatory requirements. 
This experience has further given me a different perspective on how to approach business partnerships and associated risks. As a result, this experience enhanced my understanding and awareness of business risk, and I am now well positioned to engage in collaborations and partnerships in my entrepreneur journey.

How do you handle professional challenges? 

I carefully analyse and try to understand the challenges, weigh cost vs. benefit options, communicate and brainstorm with my other business partners and get the necessary technical expertise where required. Furthermore, I believe prioritisation of tasks and tackling them one at a time drives efficiency of my productivity and output. 

What future goals are you excited about? 

Every professional journey is unique, and I believe the path to success shares a common theme, which is curiosity, continuous learning and skills enhancement. Having recently completed a short course with the University of Cape Town – FinTech: Disruption in Finance, I believe the future of finance is about to be taken by a storm of tremendous automation and artificial intelligence. Thus, whenever I interact with my clients, I always seek new solutions that are futuristic, sustainable and fit for purpose for their nature of business, with more focus on income-generating activities that are strategic in nature and reducing wasted time and effort. 

Have you had any international or different cultural experiences in your career? 

As a Virtual CFO – Starting my own company, where I get to interact with small and medium size businesses in my sphere, has given me a variety of exposure beyond the corporate world. Being able to plug in my client’s business where they receive the service of a seasoned finance professional that is able to add value to the business in multiple areas to help transform their businesses. Through this role, I have also learned to adapt to different business environments. 
 
I have also been able to diversify my offering and venture into other partnerships which require collaboration with other service providers. One such example is a partnership that FinAscend has in the provision of a VAT solutions for pension and provident funds (and related funds, CIS’s Medical Aid Funds, etc.), which has allowed me to unearth my business development skills dealing with businesses in both the private and public sectors. 
 
One of the most exciting things that I have been involved in recently is to manage the finance function of an international who completed a musical tour for the South Africa leg where I had the opportunity to work with the event promoter as well as and the production team. 

What key skills should a newly qualified accountant develop on their path to becoming a CFO?  

Data quality and accuracy is the key source in deriving accurate output, it is therefore important to have the ability to understand numbers and how they work. Numbers can be unpacked to tell a story. Learning to map numbers to activities happening within the business (micro-environment) and linking them to the business environment at large (macro-environment) where necessary, interrogate the numbers to arrive at a particular conclusion that provides key insights about the financial health of the business. 
Lastly but not least, learn to build relationships! 

How do you balance your personal and professional life? 

As an entrepreneur, wife and a mom of two beautiful girls, all work, personal and kids/home activities are diarized weekly. I am lucky to have a co-pilot on the home-front and an AuPair for my kids to help run with daily extramural activities and homework, while I spend time building the business and my career. I do not think you ever get the balance, the key word is juggling priorities, and in my world, it means prioritising health and fitness, being able to meet client commitments and deliverables, whilst I create adequate family time. 

What are your interests outside of work?  

I have recently joined a Padel league team, it’s a game that’s played in doubles, which means you will always have a teammate. It provides a great way of getting together and getting to know each other outside work, and of course networking. 

How do you contribute to the development of others in your field? 

Mentoring and coaching young finance professionals. I treasure financial education as a whole, gathering tools that can help people understand their finances better, particularly the marginalised and lower LSM. My primary focus is on the low-income market segment and SMMEs, given their vulnerability, thus with the intention of enhancing financial inclusion in the lower LSM and creating an impact. It is on this basis that I have also incorporated micro lending in my business offering through registration with the NCR. 

What advice would you give to someone aspiring to be a CFO? 

The role of a CFO in a company has evolved over the years, providing key insights through financial analysis is an integral part of the role as this helps with decision making. Investing in technology (smart accounting and data analysis systems, etc.), should be top of mind for any CFO to drive efficiency of current operations while at the same time positioning the business for long-term sustainability. Furthermore, a CFO should position itself as a business partner to the business, spending time interacting and communicating with the business, sharing key financial information, strategy formulation and helping to drive key strategy initiatives, commercial decision-making and leading on in-depth business analysis. 

What’s your favorite quote or mantra? 

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. Colin Powell.

This mantra resonates with me in many aspects, it has helped in keeping me focused and encouraged me to stay the course and understand that failure is part of the journey, whenever you fall, get back up and try again, you will eventually succeed. 

Share your favorite leadership lesson. 

Extreme ownership – As a leader you do not only take responsibility for yourself but for the team as a whole.

All responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and failures, take ownership of them and develop a plan to win. As leaders we have the ability to choose candidates that are the best fit for the job. If an individual within the team is not performing at a level required to succeed, the leader must acquire means to train and mentor the under-performer. But if the under-performer continually fails to meet the standards and cannot improve, then the leader should make a tough call to terminate the individual using available performance management process and tools provided by the company. After all, a leader is measured by the performance of the team they lead. 

What’s something surprising about you that isn’t in your business bio?  

I am a big EPL (English Premier League) fan, I enjoy the fast-paced football of the EPL. I watch a lot of games, and my favorite team being Man City. 

What’s your favorite non-business app on your phone? 

Bodymapp – a 3D body scanning app that helps track health and fitness, Instagram for social – I get to engage with virtual friends. 

If you could have any superpower to help you in your job, what would it be?  

I would say having the ability to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies that work effectively to enhance a finance function. Also, mind-reading and understanding people and recognising each team member’s skills and leveraging the entire team’s skills to work as an oiled machine. 

What’s your go-to strategy for staying productive during long workdays?  

My morning exercise routine helps me maintain energy and cognitive focus throughout the day, followed by continuous hydration. 

If you could relive one day from your professional career, which day would it be and why? 

The day I managed to close a VAT Solution contract with one of the biggest pension funds in the industry, it was a testament of my business development skills and never looked back since.