Beyond Number Crunching, CFOs Must Now ‘Understand the Plumbing’ of an Organization

“It’s an exciting time to be a CFO,” said Karen Townsend, reflecting on 20 years of experience, including the past three months in her new position as chief financial officer (CFO) for organic meal delivery firm Trifecta. “It’s been my first love forever. I’ve done it for all my career, but I think [the role] is really expanding.”

In an interview with PYMNTS, Townsend said if you embrace the diversity of the role and enjoy the challenge, it’s a wonderful time to be a CFO.

“The days of just kind of crunching the numbers are far, far gone,” she said. “I think today’s CFO, you both have to be a strategic thinker and a strategic leader and at the same time kind of marry that with the financial and operational intricacies of the business.”

Soup to Nuts

Townsend has demonstrated that throughout her career. Among many other accomplishments as a CFO, she has developed growth strategies, managed infrastructure projects and worked closely with human resources leadership.

While working with companies that were in an accelerated growth phase, she has partnered with founders and CEOs to develop growth strategies and expand into both domestic and international markets. That has included adding distribution channels, penetrating further in existing markets and making acquisitions outside the U.S.

With expansion comes a need for infrastructure build. In this realm, as CFO, Townsend has overseen the implementation of a range of new systems, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), warehouse management and point-of-sale (POS) systems.

“You definitely have to be on top of technologies and things like that, not only to make your company efficient outwardly, but also your internal teams inwardly, in terms of how you’re processing things,” she said.

While working closely with HR leadership, she also has re-platformed employee benefit programs. Here, particularly during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, she revised and redesigned a program to make it sustainable for both employees and employers.

“I’ve had a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things,” she noted.

Opportunities to Grow

Prior to joining Trifecta, Townsend did her research and what excited by what she found. The company does ready-to-eat meal delivery but approaches it from a fitness, nutrition, health and wellness perspective.

“We’re trying to help people reach goals in their lives,” she said. “We believe we’re kind of a little bit of a differentiator from others that are in the market, and I think our history has kind of proven that for sure.”

While it has that niche in the market, the company is also looking to innovate and expand. Townsend noted that to expand in a direct-to-consumer (D2C) business, a company really has to connect with its customers. That’s especially true in the case of a company like Trifecta, which is devoted to helping customers personally.

“So, one of the things that we’ll be focusing on, and I’ll be helping our leadership focus on, is how do we develop that connectivity with customers and how do we increase that. There’s a huge opportunity to do that and increase your market.”

There are also opportunities to add other channels, such as wholesale or retail, and to expand technologies related to the existing app that comes with a subscription to the company’s service.

A Changing Role

To contribute to that kind of expansion, today’s CFO must understand the intricacies of the organization, develop collaborative partnerships across the organization, be a strategic thinker, be a financial planner, and keep on top of technologies that help keep a company efficient both externally and internally.

“I would say the role has changed tremendously,” Townsend said. “I think it’s largely driven by the competitive landscape, just in the marketplace itself, regardless of what kind of business you’re in. We’re all racing to be the best at what we do, and that creates innovation, creates demand and creates expectations.”

In her new role, Townsend said she is looking forward to developing people. Trifecta has set up a culture in which people are coming up through their careers and are thirsty to learn.

“I would say about my day-to-day role, I’m here to be a partner, I’m here to be an adviser, and I’m here to be a mentor,” she said.

She said she is also looking forward to sharing ideas with others throughout the organization and keeping on top of what makes an organization work.

“I really have to understand the plumbing, if you will, of the organization and all the intricacies,” Townsend said. “That makes you more valuable across the organization.”