Ep. 80: Michael High - Digitalization and Business Transformation

Contact Michael High:

linkedin.com/in/michaelhigh

Michael High in the Media:

https://www.afponline.org/ideas-inspiration/topics/articles/Details/bridging-the-gap-between-it-and-finance/

https://www.afponline.org/ideas-inspiration/topics/articles/Details/the-power-of-diversity-in-finance/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social_media&utm_campaign=May20_week2

Michael High Articles:

https://www.afponline.org/ideas-inspiration/discussions/afp-conversations-podcast/Details/shell-oil's-michael-high-on-the-challenge-of-bringing-fp-a-to-deepwater-drilling

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-vacuum-cleaner-youll-replaced-one-michael-high%2F/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/senior-management-do-your-best-leaders-have-ax-grind-michael-l-high/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Adam: (00:05)
Welcome back for episode 80 of Count Me In I'm your host, Adam Larson, and this is IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Today's episode features Shell's, Deep Water Gulf of Mexico Business Unit CFO, Michael High. Mike is passionate about thought and people leadership, diversity and inclusiveness, digital transformation and personal development. In his upcoming conversation you have with my cohost Mitch, Mike highlights the different states of going digital, finance's role in business transformation, and what it takes to effectively lead a business transformation. Thanks for joining us, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

Mitch: (00:49)
For a little background and context and this conversation, can you please tell us what finance digitalization is?

Michael: (00:57)
Thanks for the question. So in terms of what the finance digitalization is to me, I like to start a bit with a kind of vocabulary for me, at least a lesson that I learned on this journey, and there are three terms that seem to get thrown out together at the same time, and sometimes try to mean the same thing, but I think they have a bit distinct meaning. So the first one for me is just this idea of digitization, which I think is something we've experienced mostly through our lifetime. This is that switch from analog to digital, where we went from filling out paper forms to doing so electronically. And so for some people, when they hear digitalization or even finance digitization, they're, they're thinking about that element of it. And for me, that's at a minimum step one, and then most places were far beyond it, but there are still pockets where actually this is an important part of digital transformation. The second one is digitalization, which for me is kind of a second phase to that. And this is where we're for me thinking about the current ways that we do work and how can we make those current ways and this current business models more productive or perhaps simpler, or make it a little bit easier to collaborate, but it's, by and large within the paradigm of the existing way that work is done. And the third phase for me is this concept of digital transformation, which is actually where you're opening up entirely new ways of doing business, perhaps even new business models, new ways to even approach the market and fundamentally different ways of working. And so, for me, that's where the most value ultimately lies is in that, and I think it's also where you get beyond things like just looking at the IT cost or even the IT side of the equation to actually looking more fundamentally at a minimum data, but also process and also business models.

Mitch: (02:39)
So with all those considerations, what is the role of finance in the bigger business transformation for an organization?

Michael: (02:48)
I think are some of our foundational skills, even around understanding value management, understanding cost management, these, these core skills actually come to the forefront. And it's really important that we help our business colleagues let's say frame the decision appropriately and evaluate it appropriately. I think it's kind of easy, especially if you're thinking about digital transformation, just simply from that digitization or even digitalization perspective, the kind of first and second steps that are referred to that, you only think about the first order cost effects of this. And I often have found myself in conversations where it's challenged by, well, Excel is free, so why would I possibly spend more money to do something? And of course, when it's framed that way, it is hard to actually talk your way out of that argument. But when you actually step back and say, actually what we're after here is a fundamentally different way of doing business. You start to realize that the cost side of the equation is actually only a ver...