Ep. 154: Michael Burdick - The Future of Finance via the Freelance Economy

Contact Michael Burdick:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldburdick/


Visit Paro: https://paro.io/


Blog Posts from Paro:
https://paro.io/blog/modern-finance-department-functions-roles-approaches-evolving/https://paro.io/blog/democratization-of-professional-talent-transforming-how-we-work/https://paro.io/blog/save-costs-through-freelance-talent/https://paro.io/blog/expert-success-story-cfo-marine-journey/


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)
 Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host
Adam Larson, and I'm pleased to introduce Paro's CFO and Chief
Strategy Officer, Michael Burdick, Michael founded his company
with the goal of reimagining the finance and accounting industry
via the freelance economy. In this episode, he talks with Mitch
about how the future of finance really comes down to the freedom
of choice and the ability to quickly solve problems for the
business. Keep listening to learn more about on-demand fractional
talent and the future of work,
 
 Mitch: (00:45)
 The future of work, or more specifically for our listeners,
you know, the future of finance. It's talked about a lot when it
comes to what the profession needs to know. And I think as we
were kind of just discussing it, it's been a popular topic, but
obviously much has changed in the last year or so since the
future of work really came to light. So I'm curious from your
perspective, why is it talked about so much? How do you define
the future of finance, the future of work, you know, and what
does it really mean to you?
 
 Michael: (01:17)
 Sure. Well, first off, thanks for having me. And I'm
excited to dig in on this question and related topics in terms of
the future of work. I think taking a step back, we need to
discuss, you know, the, the changes that COVID had on worker
preferences and how we all approach work in general. It was COVID
was a giant mass social experiment in remote work. We're all
forced to do it. And, and being forced to work remotely, all
business professionals for the first time realized how mobile
they can be. I think that's an important thing to call out here
because prior to COVID, pre pandemic, people wanted to express
that choice and have that flexibility and work on their own
terms, but didn't necessarily have the platform or the burning
platform really for that change specifically to occur. And now
what we're seeing is a big shift in how worker preferences are
popping up and specifically that people want to work remotely.
You can't put that genie back in the bottle, business
professionals want to work on their own terms. You know, you see
all these big public battles going on at, major tech companies,
even PWC announcing that, you know, I don't know something like a
hundred thousand of their workers will be permanently remote. And
the thing is in the future of work, it's all about that choice
and flexibility that people want, and aligning that with what
company's demands are. So that's a little bit of context and
backstory, but I think this is really a major change, a major
period of change, specifically as it relates to how financial
institutions, accounting firms, enterprises approach work in
general. And I think it's, foundational in a few different
regards, specifically, allowing people to exercise that choice in
an industry that was previously very hesitant to adopt. you know,
we're talking about a pretty risk averse industry in general, so
pretty hesitant to adopt futuristic approaches and demands that
are being forced on finance departments are multifaceted and
what's valued is flexibility and agility, which by the way, the
future of work does offer. So I don't know, I think this is just
a major period for change. You know, what the context being that
COVID accelerated a lot of that change.
 
 Mitch: (03:43)
 Yeah, that's exactly it. And I think we did a lot of
research on the future of work, and this is going back, like you
said, pre pandemic, and a lot of the ideas were quickly put into
place, right? So the idea of future of finance, future of work,
it's evolving just as fast as, you know, what we're seeing
underneath our feet. So, you know, taking this a step further,
where else can this really go in your opinion? You know, the
future of work is, is now essentially. So what differentiates the
current state of finance from what the new future of finance may
look like?
 
 Michael: (04:18)
 Current state from new future of finance? Well, let's take
a step back. I think it's important to define future of work a
little bit more and unpack that if it's okay, because that's a,
that's a very big, bold statement that can mean multiple
different things. Future of work can encompass the technology and
tools that are necessary for working remotely. For example, it
can also refer specifically to worker automation, right? Machine
learning. It can also refer to how people work specifically for
Paro and how we're looking at worker preference changes is
related to the freelance economy. So I did want to highlight that
for us future work and freelance economy, we sort of use those
interchangeably because there are additional forces at play here.
that dictate what the future of work is going to look like. But
specifically for us, we're, we're looking at the freelance
economy.
 
 Mitch: (05:18)
 I appreciate you sharing that context because it does, you
know, there are different interpretations, different definitions
and, you know, to speak to the freelance economy, as you said,
that's actually the first time I've heard something like that. So
I think now getting your perspective on, you know, kind of, like
I said, what do you anticipate becoming more prevalent in this
freelance economy? I would say, freelance was something that was
futuristic almost for the accounting profession, not too long
ago. And now you're saying it's, it's pretty much, you know, a
part of your company. so what do you see becoming more prevalent
and, you know, how do you kind of differentiate the current state
from your definition of the future of work?
 
 Michael: (06:01)
 Yeah, so I think there are three key things that are
gaining momentum very quickly, specifically as it relates to the
future of work and freelance economy. One is on-demand expertise.
If you really think about what a firm model or a job or working
at a large company entails pretty much requires the worker to
morph and change into. It's almost like a fitting around peg into
a square hole. The worker has t...