Ep. 134: Karri Callahan - Preparing Finance Leaders for Success

Contact Karri Callahan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karri-callahan-5219676a/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Mitch (00:00):

Hey everyone. Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch Roshong and this is episode 134 of our series. In today's conversation, you will hear from Karri Callahan, CFO of global real estate company, Remax. Karri spoke with my co-host Adam about the role of the CFO and shared some tips for finance leaders. From strategy and technology to diversity, equity and inclusion, Karri has great perspective on many topics business leaders should be aware of. So to hear more, keep listening as we head over to their conversation now.

Adam (00:47):

So Karri, thanks so much for joining us and as you know, the role of the CFO is become very multifaceted and how can aspiring finance leaders better prepare themselves for providing a strategy and insight?

Karri (01:00):

Great, thanks so much for having me Adam, I appreciate it. And I think there's a couple of things to consider. First and foremost, I think it's important that you always keep learning, making sure that you continue to build your network, connect with peers and think about joining the right organization for you so that you can hear from different speakers and industry leaders on a regular basis, I think is really helpful. Some organizations that you can consider and that I've found helpful include Financial Executives International or FEI, and also the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, so the AICPA. Since I've been the CFO of a publicly traded company for the last five years or so, I've also found, NIRI or the National Investor Relations Institute, a great resource, they offer some fantastic certification courses and trainings and have just a tremendous library of events and programs that they offer. So I think that's also another resource for you. And then of course, last but not least, IMA definitely I know you all have a lot of resources to help professionals. I think the last thing I would say is just read things that are of interest to you, so that you can stay current either on recent economic trends, trends that might be impacting your business or your industry, or just business leadership in general. But I think some of the best advice I've gotten is that it's important and critical to really be intentional about how you spend your time. Your time is truly invaluable and making sure that you get the most out of every minute is critical, but if you keep really absorbing information, learning from others, the better prepared you're going to be as life and your profession throw you curve balls.

Adam (02:53):

Yeah, definitely. So, you know, speaking of time, we know that time, technology takes a lot of our time and technology has changed how finance and accounting operate with how, many routine tasks or many, many routine tasks are now automated, freeing up professionals to focus on higher level tasks. How well acquainted should today's accounting and finance professionals be with technology like intelligent automation or RPA?

Karri (03:21):

Yeah. So it's a great question. Remax LLC, president Nick Bailey, who I work closely with, he oftentimes tells our agents that if you know that technology won't put real estate agents out of business, but agents who don't embrace technology will put themselves out of business. And I think that advice is applicable to so many other professions, including mine and accounting and finance. And so I think as you think about technology and as all professionals really think about technology, it's important that we're always learning and evaluating and studying new trends from a technology perspective, that makes sense for your company and the finance and accounting operations within your organization. Our teams are constantly evaluating how to incorporate new technologies and software into our routine accounting and finance processes and the reason why that's so critical is because it frees up our team's time to really help analyze trends within the business, evaluate business opportunities and really work strategically with other leaders within our organization so that we're contributing to strategic growth initiatives. And so technology is a key point to that, you know, as part of that transformation within our business, our company now has more in-house technology expertise and firepower than we ever have. We have now about 50% of our workforce that's directly involved in technology and we've recently announced an organizational change to really create one technology team comprised of all of those professionals so that we can really maximize collaboration, focus on our customer and end user experience and operate with purpose, passion, and excellence from a technology perspective. And I think what that does over time is, you know, we expect it really will benefit the entire corporate team, including everyone from an accounting and finance perspective, as well as other services function by really enhancing the delivery and supportive technology and data to all areas of the business so that we can continue to drive the business forward.

Adam (05:28):

Definitely. It sounds like Remax is doing some wonderful things to, be a leader in the industry. So what do you do to stay ahead on the technology curve?

Karri (05:39):

Yeah, great question. So I think, you know, fortunately the piece of change in the real estate industry, it's incredibly exciting and incredibly dynamic and because of that, our leadership team has really a front row seat to the latest technologies as we implement our MNA strategies as well as just continue to focus on our organic growth as well. For example, you know, despite a global pandemic in September of last year, we announced the acquisitions of Gadberry Group and Weenlow. Gaderry Group specializes in building best in class products that help clients solve geospatial challenges through accurate and precise location data. Weenlow is a Florida based startup that is reshaping the mortgage loan processing, process within the mortgage brokerage channel and they have developed the first service cloud for mortgage brokers effectively combining third-party loan processing with an all-in-one digital platform. And so those are just two really exciting opportunities that we have been able to execute upon as we really look to stay ahead of that technology curve. You know, we're always assessing the latest technologies and innovative companies with in, in the space and in our business pursuits because we are the worldwide leader and we want to make sure that Remax, stays in that position from a real estate technology perspective is clear. That mission is hugely beneficial to my knowledge of what's currently out there and what the space is, is truly lacking. It sounds simple, but another way to stay ahead of the curve is really by surrounding myself with a healthy mix of like-minded individuals and people who really stretched me beyond my own constraints. We have a fantastic network of about 140,000 real estate agents, more than 600 headquarter employees, and we operate in over 110 countries and territories globally and I'm so fortunate to be able to work with and network alongside people who have very similar core values and yet challenge each other to continuously improve and innovate. And I think that collaboration really transcends across our headquarters organization because I think staying connected with leaders on the technology side is really important. I have a standing weekl...