Ep. 76: Shaila Bettadapur - Future of Work

Contact Shaila Bettadapur:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettadapur/


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)
Welcome back for episode 76 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about
all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Technology
had previously changed many roles and forced management
accountants to upskill and grow at a rapid rate. Then recent
events have caused the accounting and finance profession to
evolve even faster than ever, but that only leads us to believe
that the future of work will look even more different. In this
episode, Mitch talks to Shaila Bettadapur, Corporate Treasurer
and VP of Investor Relations at Mohawk Industries. Shaila is a
global executive with deep knowledge across multiple disciplines,
industries and geographies leading to an informed perspective on
what the future of work will look like and what finance leaders
need to do in order to best prepare their organizations. So let's
head over to the conversation and hear what he has to say
now. 


Mitch: (01:01)
So we're at an interesting time now where the future of work
really came at us pretty quickly, but I'm just curious if you
have any perspective on what the future of work may still evolve
into and, you know, what does that really look like in your eyes
for the accounting and finance professionals? 


Shaila: (01:19)
I think, even, you know, pre COVID, you were starting to see,
changes in the workplace overall. Just as, you know,
telecommunications gets better, AI gets better, and so on. And of
course yesterday you saw a news article where Facebook and others
were talking about certain people working from home or working
remotely kind of forever. Right. You know, we'll see if that
actually happens. But I think, you know, so even pre COVID, you
know, let's dial back the clock a little bit. If you went back,
let's say  30 years or even 20 years for that matter, what
an accountant might do or what a treasury person might do, is
materially different than what they do today. A lot of what
people did in those days, which was really, you know, getting the
data, you know, recording the data and so on, which is what a lot
of data entry , you know, kind of basic stuff is all automated.
So for example, as the treasurer I had, we installed a treasury
workstation close to eight years ago now, which automated a bunch
of these things, and allowed, my people, which, you know, have it
fairly lean staff, allow my people to, do higher level analysis
and actually stuff that matters, as opposed to just data
manipulation and so forth. I think that's true on the accounting
side. I think that's true on the legal side, you've been reading
a lot of stuff about how, you know, people coming out of law
school or having a little bit more trouble finding work, because
you know, a lot of stuff is being done by paralegals. A lot of
stuff is being done, through AI simulation, right? My computer's
right. You don't need to go to a lawyer to do your estate
planning anymore and so on and so forth. So I think to a large
extent, the middle starts to go away. That led to what I call the
middle, being the, you know, where you're not really adding
value, but you are, basically doing something that a machine or a
computer program can do as software, it gets better as artificial
intelligence gets better. That's going to happen more and
more. 


Mitch: (04:11)
So that's really interesting perspective because, you know, it
leads us nicely into what exactly have you noticed as a finance
leader, as far as changes to your, whether it's day to day
responsibilities or overall responsibilities because of AI and
everything that has changed in the work environment, you know,
how have you realized some of these changes before they actually
become wholesale changes like you just referenced? 


Shaila: (04:40)
I think, the mistake that people make, is thinking about finance
as a numbers oriented exercise. It is true that you need to
understand the numbers. That's true. But again, if you dial back
the clock, you know, 30 years let's say, a chief financial
officer, and by extension everybody who works with the chief
financial officer, just focused on the numbers, right? Not so
basically, okay, the numbers are this and this X and Y, but less
about why those numbers look that way, and what does that mean
for the future? Because at the end of the day, the past is only
as good as, you know, I mean, it's great for a topic of
conversation, but it's only good if it informed you of what will
happen in the future and therefore, what kinds of decisions you
have to make, going forward. And that I think is the biggest
difference. So if you look at the role of a CFO today, it is, it
is more around strategy and the decision making process. Yes, you
have to obviously, do the, do the accounting work. You have to
obviously do the reporting that you have public filings, you have
all of these things. These are all necessary things that you have
to do, but they are not sufficient, to be a good CFO or a good
treasurer or a good controller. It's really about what should I
do next? How should I behave next? And that's really the key. And
so the extent to which, you know, you are focused on just pulling
numbers and putting numbers down on a page, but not being able to
translate those numbers to a broader audience, that is a flaw and
that will get exposed rather quickly. 


Mitch: (06:55)
I like how you just mentioned, you know, what should I do next?
How should I behave? Because from our perspective, you know, the
foundation of the management accounting profession is really
rooted in ethics. And when you have a number of decisions to be
made as a finance leader, and there is so much data at your
fingertips and there's AI to be aware of. Ethics becomes a very
strong part of your job, I would assume on a day to day basis,
especially longterm planning. So, you know, as far as the future
of work, your role, what role does ethics play in the behavior of
you and your organization? 


Shaila: (07:33)
Well, and so I don't think that this has ever changed why ethics
is huge. And I would go so far as to argue that, the rise of the
whole Western world, is, is built on, you know, fundamentally on
ethics, because in the end, contracts can only protect you to an
extent. In the end when you do business with someone, or when you
enter into any sort of agreement with someone you are, and you're
doing so based on trust, based on your counterpart acting in good
faith, and conversely your counterpart is doing that, assuming
that you're acting in good faith, at the end of the day, if you
don't have that, then it's very difficult to do business. And so,
I would argue that ethics, if you want to call that ethics, but
being open and transparent and ethical as you put it, is the
foundation of doing business well and doing it properly, without
which nothing actually works. So from an accounting , you know,
you know, treasury and what we report to the banks, what we
report, you know, to, you know, the, when we go raise money in
the in the bond market, you know, all of those need to be honest,
they can't be that you are not going to be, you are not going to
do well if you are deceptive, particularly deliberately
deceptive, because, because frankly, people aren't going to trust
you and people are not going to lend you money. And if they do,
they're going to charge you a premium, and so all it does was
raised the cost of everything and that in the end, doesn't help
you. 


Mitch: (09:38)
So with everything we've talked about so far, I'd like to kind of
wrap things up by offering some kind of advice, or, you know,
your perspective on this, going into the future of work, the
changing role of finance and finance leaders, and again, rooted
in ethics. How do you go about prepar...