Atlab CFO Agenda #1: On driving value from the CFO desk

Atlab CFO Agenda #1: On driving value from the CFO desk

One of Atlab’s key success measures is fostering collaboration, learning, and connections among clients. Here are some key insights from the event.

 

“Chance favours the connected mind.” - Stephen Johnson

Great ideas often emerge from the fusion of individual thoughts or observations. In this particular spirit of innovation and knowledge-sharing, we brought together seventy diverse professionals at Mogens Dahl Koncertsal on May 24th for Atlab’s first CFO Agenda of the year. The event featured three inspiring leaders known for their impact on transformative workplace leadership.

These are a few of their key messages:

1. Managing culture. There is no one-size-fits-all

Led by Kristian Suomala, Head of Business Transformation at Pleo, discussions centred around the unique challenges and culture strategies that leading scaleup companies employ, particularly as they grow rapidly toward IPO status. Transparency was a key takeaway on this topic, and employing tools like Glassdoor can enhance trust and accountability during times of transformation – leading toward better and healthier work cultures.

2. Maintaning good culture requires consistency

Maintaining a healthy work culture requires consistent intentional effort as the company scales. This means taking the time to assess and regulate your efforts at every step of the growth journey, ensuring that no man gets left behind in the charge forward toward success.

3. Transformative Leadership Begins with Authenticity

Pernille Fritz Vilhemson, Chief People and Culture Officer at Hempel, stressed that there is no rule-book on leadership. Businesses with an “edge” are often led by leaders who are brave enough to be their authentic selves, and who trust in their own unique capabilities as a driving force of impact.

 

Click through moments from the day:

4. Beyond Visible Diversity

Pernille Fritz Vilhemson went on to discuss that diversity and inclusion go beyond visible differences. She emphasized the importance of understanding and working with diagnoses like depression or ADHD in the workplace, and gave examples of how to turn these perceived “weaknesses” into unique, diverse strengths.

5. CFOs as Storytellers

Jesper Bramming, Group CFO of Luxplus, shared candid insights on the evolving role of CFOs. He noted that CFO reporting has increasingly become more about complicated, dreary presentations, rather than shaping narratives and sharing helpful insights based on data. CFOs should strive to be better understood within the company by becoming engaging data storytellers who make forecasting an exciting process – rather than an intimidating one.

Engagement and Networking

Towards the end of the event, the high level of interaction between attendees continued well after the event ended, and reminded us of why we do what we do. It also assured us that our work there had been done – with business cards exchanged, new connections made, and big ideas born from beyond the threshold of small talk between strangers

 

Details for the next CFO Agenda will be announced soon.