Ep. 60: Chris Clulow - Embracing Technology to Lead in Accounting

Contact Chris Clulow:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-clulow-3832911/
Cummins: https://www.cummins.com/


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Adam: (00:05)


Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast of all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. I am your host, Adam
Larson, and today's episode covers a few different topics. Chris
Clulow, Corporate Controller of Cummins, talked with Mitch about
leadership technology trends in the industry and the combination
of the two for managing challenges associated with today's crisis
and its working conditions. At the end of their conversation.
Chris also shares a unique perspective on the future of the
accountant. Let's head over and listen to the conversation
now. 


 


Mitch: (00:40)


So I know in recent times we've seen a number of changes to the
role of the accountant and the controller. So from your
perspective and your roles and responsibilities, how has
technology really impacted the job that you do on a daily
basis? 


 


Chris: (00:56)


Yeah. It has changed dramatically over the course of my career,
particularly as within Cummins. I've been here about almost 16
years we've invested a lot in technology and using tools, where
in the past, we may have, may have used a lot more human effort,
a lot more things like Excel, a little bit, more archaic,
technology tools to help drive our decision making and now we
have tools and processes that enable us to spend more time doing
analytics and doing, doing the work, doing the thought and I
think that's really, really key where you spent a lot more time
in the past, pulling information together, compilation, and you
didn't have as much time putting the data to work and that's,
that's the real value you can add, both in an accounting and a
greater finance area where you provide, some, just some analysis
to the business to help them drive better decisions, to make them
aware of trends that maybe imperceptible, to those outside of the
accounting or finance arenas. So it is really become quite
powerful things that we rely on. And it's gradual in some ways. I
mean, we've seen the change, but sometimes you don't even notice
how much, you know, how different it is now than it was say, a
decade ago. 


 


Mitch: (02:28)


Right. And you've just touched on it slightly where you said it's
really about presenting this information to those who may not be
as familiar with the financials. So from a leadership
perspective, somebody who is, you know, in the front of the
finance function, what is your leadership style in bringing other
functions up to speed and how do you go about communicating this
information, these new insights to them? 


 


Chris: (02:55)


Yeah, I think the key is to really understand what they need,
what they really need to know. So oftentimes, you know, when
you're working with business partners, they'll ask a question or
they'll ask for an analysis, a piece of information, without
maybe an understanding of the effort that is involved or really
what they're asking. So being able to kind of dig into that and
ask the questions back to make sure you understand what they're
looking for, is really critical, to kind of come back and say,
Oh, you're asking this question, but I think you really mean
something quite different. Something that could take you, you
know, right off the, off the top of your head, you can answer
versus doing 40 hours of analysis. So I think being that good
business partner really is, pushing back at times, and making
sure you can provide things. But going back to the first
statement with, with technology and tools, what I've found is
they've enabled our business partners, people outside of
accounting and finance to understand finances and even the
accounting side, better because it's just more consumable. It's
easier to understand when you see things in more standard formats
or things that are just, calculate for you. People are more adept
at, being able to understand those, what was very complicated
finance and accounting. There's still areas certainly within
accounting that, people do not understand and it's breaking it
down to what do they really know, need to know instead of going
into the depths and plumbing, the depths of what came out from
the FASB and why these things are important. Oftentimes a
business partner doesn't need to know that level of depth. You
can just kind of bring it up to more of a 50,000 foot level of
what they need to know and why. 


 


Mitch: (04:48)


That's great. And I think obviously today, everybody dealing with
the crisis that's going on in the remote work, you know, I'm sure
the technology that you're implementing has certainly enabled
business continuity and you're able to just kind of go about your
day, business as usual. But there is a little bit of a setback I
would guess when it comes to the interaction and the
communication and the leadership cross-functionally because you
might not be able to have these face to face conversations or
these explanations. So I'm just curious if you've noticed
anything along those lines at Cummins and what your experiences
have been since kind of shifting to this new remote work
style? 


 


Chris: (05:34)


Yeah, you definitely miss out on the informal, communications and
the, and certainly the nonverbal, oftentimes you may do some
video conferences here or there, but you're oftentimes talking on
the phone and talking on Skype or zoom and you miss out on the
bumping into somebody in the hallway or just seeing somebody at
lunch where you have the conversations where, you can actually
keep things moving forward at a greater pace and you can kind of
make sure you're understanding the needs of the business. I am at
the same time, very pleasantly surprised at the continued
progress we can make in that is somewhat open to technology, but
also to the creativity of the people, of being able to continue
to do their jobs, working remotely and finding different ways to
connect. Whether it's, you know, just having informal zoom
sessions daily with their teams, using WhatsApp or text or
anything under the sun from a technology perspective. I know even
teams, within my group are having FaceTime happy hours just to
keep that connectivity together and making people feel like part
of a team. And I think that's really important. it is definitely
more difficult. I think one of the, this sounds strange to say it
in this way, but one of the advantages we have colleagues, within
China who've been through this, just very recently and they've
been incredibly helpful in how they steer it through it. Many of
them are still in lockdown for those. We have some plants in
locations in Wuhan that are just coming out of it now after over
over eight weeks, but they found a way to communicate, to keep
the business going, and to really keep it moving forward and I
think that was, their coaching has, has helped us a lot. 


 


Mitch: (07:37)


You actually beat me to my next question because I know Cummins
is global and particularly your role. Overseeing a lot of the
global accounting. You touched on it a little bit, but have there
been any global challenges since going to this, you know, remote
work and, I assume much of what you did was done obviously
remotely anyway, but was there any part of this, that maybe your
global offices are feeling the effects and you're kind of
coaching them through it also? Is there any reverse to this, ...