Books To The Boardroom
Are you interested in how Australia’s best leaders grew into the professionals they are today? The journey from University (Books) to Leadership positions (Boardroom) can take many different forms. Listen in as we interview CEO’s, CFO’s, and Executives, on how they ascended to leadership positions, made critical career choices, and overcame adversity throughout their career. The Books To The Boardroom podcast is co-hosted by Sumith Dissanayake, a CFO turned Business Owner based in Brisbane, Australia, who is fascinated by all things leadership and career development.
Books To The Boardroom
Ilona Abram - Group CFO at Aquatic Achievers Group
From Dreams of Acting to Leading Finance - The Journey of Ilona Abram
In this episode of Books in the Boardroom podcast, Ilona Abram shares her unconventional journey from aspiring actress to Group CFO at Aquatic Achievers Group. Hosted by Sumith, Ilona delves into her diverse career path, including her roles in HR, IT, and risk procurement beyond traditional finance.
The discussion covers her experiences with significant business growth, mergers, and acquisitions, as well as her strategic approach to continuous improvement in finance. Ilona also shares insights on the evolving role of CFOs, the importance of cross-functional relationships, and the potential impact of AI in finance.
This episode offers a treasure trove of knowledge for aspiring finance professionals, emphasising the value of continuous learning and adaptability.
00:00 Introduction to Ilona Abram's Role
00:28 Welcome to the Podcast
01:01 Ilona's Career Journey
03:49 Current Role at Aquatic Achievers Group
05:20 Challenges and Growth in the Role
06:59 Evolving Role of the CFO
09:42 Continuous Improvement in Finance
14:45 Impact of AI in Finance
19:42 Returning to Brisbane: A New Challenge
24:10 Diverse Industry Experience
27:24 Advice for Young Finance Professionals
28:10 Conclusion and Farewell
Ep. 2 - Season 3 - Ilona Abram, CFO, Aquatics Achievers Group
[00:00:00] Ilona Abrams: I think the other area that I've enjoyed is the, it's a broader role. It's not just a CFO role. It's, it's actually looking after HR, IT, risk procurement. So it's all the back end shared services aspect of the business. It does keep me busy because we are trying to look at, setting up new structures and how we operate and support the front office operations.
I really enjoy that aspect of the role, not just purely being finance focused.
[00:00:28] Sumith Dissanayake: Welcome back to Books in the Boardroom podcast, season three, CFO Catalyst, where we talk about CFO challenges and innovative solutions our CFOs are bringing to make businesses better. Today, I'm really excited to talk to a CFO in Brisbane, who has been having a really good career over time and now settling with a group CFO position at Aquatics Achievers Group.
So today I'm talking to Ilona Abram. Ilona, welcome to the podcast.
[00:00:59] Ilona Abrams: Thanks [00:01:00] Sumith. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:01] Sumith Dissanayake: So you don't know if you got a very interesting career starting from the big four and then having that international exposure as well. So I would like to ask you, what inspired you to start or go into the finance career?
[00:01:15] Ilona Abrams: Very good question Sumith. I didn't start as a finance professional. I didn't want to be an accountant when I was young. I actually wanted to be an actress. So
[00:01:23] Sumith Dissanayake: Oh,
[00:01:23] Ilona Abrams: Very different
[00:01:25] Sumith Dissanayake: Difference to where you are today.
[00:01:27] Ilona Abrams: So I thought when I was in high school, I'd be an actress and I even got the papers for NIDA and I was filling them in and trying to get my support of my parents and at that point they said it's not a career that you can actually, make a living from. So I decided, oh maybe I'll have to do something different and I thought I'd be a lawyer then,
[00:01:46] Sumith Dissanayake: Think you still can go into the career as well and you and become a celebrity for sure.
[00:01:53] Ilona Abrams: I hope so. I probably have more, have a face for radio .
[00:01:56] Sumith Dissanayake: And, so you basically wanted to be an actress and then you [00:02:00] changed to finance, so what was that tipping point or what was that triggering point for you to say, no, this is not what I'm going to go into. I'm going to pursue a more professional career.
[00:02:10] Ilona Abrams: First it was, people tell me, you need a proper career. And I did at school, I enjoyed studying and I did, get good grades. So I was in a bit of a bind and thought, I've gotta do something that, I can sustain myself with. So I thought I wanted to be a lawyer then, and then I did.
Do a two years of a law degree at university. but I did struggle cause it was a lot of reading and it was very dry. I like the technical side of it, but at the same time, I've realised that,it was really. not exactly what I wanted. So I did a combined business degree with it just so I could supplement.
And I actually enjoyed the business subjects a lot more than law. And I ended up dropping the law altogether. So it was definitely just a natural progression to subjects that I enjoyed and found easier and. found more relevant in the world. I did banking and [00:03:00] finance as my major and, did a couple of accounting subjects, but I thought I'd do more international business, banking, finance at that time.
and then when I came to the end of my degree, I was working out which direction to go and I applied to quite a few of the big four. and then I got three that gave offers. So I ended up in a big four, but. without any accounting experience specifically. I didn't do the right subject, so I had to do a bridging course.
So if you probably would say I'd felt, I thought fell into finance and accounting. I don't know, it just was a bit of a, where my, I enjoyed it. It was something that made sense to me and I just followed it through. I got my CA through the big four, one of the big four and that's where I started my journey as a finance professional.
[00:03:44] Sumith Dissanayake: So before we talk more about your journey to London and then your experience. I would like to start with your, the current, role at Achievers,Aquatic Achievers Group. So tell me more about the Aquatic Achievers Group and your, current role.
[00:03:59] Ilona Abrams: Sure. [00:04:00] so the aquatic achievers group is actually, it's a learn to swim business. So we teach children from zero to 12 how to swim and it swim safety. and it's in sort of purpose built facilities that we have built and we run. we currently have 31 centers across Australia, and we own them all.
There's no franchise. we as a group are owned a hundred percent by Washington h So Patterson, They're an ASX 50 listed business, and we're one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. it's got their private equity arm. So we are almost like a private equity sort of roll up, if you call it that.
and we have gone through quite a lot of growth. Currently, we, as I said, we've got 31 centres across Australia, and we've got about 1500 people in our workforce that we employ. And then we also have about over 50, 000 kids that swim with us each week. Just to give you a bit of feel of the size,
[00:04:48] Sumith Dissanayake: 50,000 kids is huge.
[00:04:50] Ilona Abrams: and we have really scaled up in the last two years. We've bought, some brands that were quite significant in marketing, into the group from New South Wales, Carlisle [00:05:00] Swimming and then Kirby Swim and WA. we've gone as well through a large sort of growth in. When I started two years ago in the role, we had about 20 million turnover.
We're currently about 70 million right now. So there's a lot of M& A activity, a lot of new centres that we're opening through, our own, we're building our own pipeline. So we've got growth happening on all fronts.
[00:05:20] Sumith Dissanayake: So it looks like, you've got lots of initiatives and lots of changes happening within business and then revenue has grown from 20 to 70 million. That's a tremendous,like a significant change. And how many acquisitions that we, you have finalised last few years?
[00:05:37] Ilona Abrams: since I've started with the group, we had three, one was a smaller one of just a one centre and then there were two large ones within three months of each other in the last sort of 18 months. it really has transformed the business and we're going through a large, integration work right now where we're looking at how do we move forward with systems, people and processes and trying to streamline, you can [00:06:00] imagine.
[00:06:00] Sumith Dissanayake: we've got payroll, there's three different systems to do payroll in and so we've got some real sort of, challenges in terms of just working our way through and,post due diligence and all the acquisition related activity, there's all this integration activity. So it's definitely a challenging role and I'm, I've been enjoying sort of the, that aspect of it as well as the BAU types. so the best part of the role is these acquisitions. Or do you have more exciting things that you want to tell me about the current role.
[00:06:29] Ilona Abrams: I think the other area that I've enjoyed is the, it's a broader role. It's not just a CFO role. It's, it's actually looking after HR, IT, risk procurement. so it's all the back end shared services aspect of the business. it does keep me busy because we are trying to look at, setting up new structures and how we operate and support the front office operations.
I really enjoy that aspect of the role, not just purely being finance focused.
[00:06:57] Sumith Dissanayake: That's an interesting thing. Like these days, [00:07:00] that's one thing that I always talk about in the, in, in the podcast as well. Like now, the CFO's role has evolved beyond the numbers. So we need to be able to have really good skills, across the cross-functional relationships. So how did you acquire, what's your approach for the cross functional relationships?
[00:07:20] Ilona Abrams: it is something that. It's probably not a natural skill set that you have as a finance background. And, it's an area like I've been trying to build out my skill set and broaden it over the last few years, probably the breakout role for me when I was doing, I did a lot of finance related roles and then I worked in a small not for profit, about.
five, six years ago, which was, 10 million turnover. And it was, just looking at, leadership training for principals at schools. but that role was a head of corporate services role. So it was, a bit slightly different to what I'd previously done. And I had the CFO of that business reporting into this role, into my role, and then it had IT, [00:08:00] HR, company secretary and marketing.
so it was a small. not for profit. So that's why, there was a large area of responsibility, but it was a really great training ground for me to test me and it was challenging and I did find, it, it was a challenge and you always have to, I've realized I've relied on a lot of my network to, to learn from you surround yourself with people who know what they're doing.
and, the skill sets that you need to manage those other functions are quite similar. When you're doing, a CFO role, it's just an extension, but obviously there's, a whole area of, you don't have to be a specialist. You just need to understand what the key challenges and how to manage the function and be able to leverage specialists to be able to do, and advise you on areas.
So that was first time I stepped away and broadened the role. And I've really enjoyed that challenge.
[00:08:51] Sumith Dissanayake: that's right. I think, we need to balance our, education. I could see, the accountancy education. So I'm sure now when you get into the [00:09:00] CFO level jobs or roles, so your technicality, the technical accounting is like less, but your human element is more, right? Then you can easily go into these kind of roles and perhaps transfer yourself or the transform yourself into a CEO role one day.
[00:09:17] Ilona Abrams: I guess that is the,the training, isn't it, to get more well-rounded and CEOs don't know everything , but they know how to deal with issues and manage people and have the right people around them. And I think the CFO is a great role to get that training in as well.
So if there are opportunities for CFOs to take those extra responsibilities around shared services. it is a great area to be extending your skill set and challenging yourself.
[00:09:41] Sumith Dissanayake: That's for sure. So let me,take a bit of a turn here to go into a little bit of a more technical conversation with you, Ilona. I know you are very, big in continuous improvements, for businesses. That's something that you stand for. So tell me how you approach this, continuous improvement and how do you get the buy in from the others to go on the same journey [00:10:00] with you?
especially your finance team.
[00:10:02] Ilona Abrams: it's a good question. that is something I think it comes naturally for some people and probably not naturally for others. And I think the tendency for finance people is to like the way they do things and it's the comfort zone. especially, if you challenge them on the, One at the moment that we're looking at is, improving our month end process, reducing the time down.
And how do how do you get sort of those efficiencies? And it's, it can be difficult to take the team on that journey because some people get quite protective of what they're doing and their role and their tasks. And, I think it's just. The way that I found works is just always doing incremental little pieces and just asking, can you just try it this way this month and then try that and always doing a debrief, tending to chat, just ask questions around how about this?
Can you do it that way? I think it's, yeah, it's just a mindset that you need to foster with your team and, always reflect on what went well and what didn't go well. we did do a bit of a session around month end and how [00:11:00] can we reduce it. We said, let's try this.
We did the month end. And then I like to always just check it and go, what worked well, how can we do it different? And I always. challenge in a nice way. just asking, can we get that report automated? can we do that? Can you try that? Can you like always just continually just every time doing it a little bit better.
And I think foster that as a leader and really encourage your team to think in that way that you can continually improve functions in many aspects without it being a big bang change.
[00:11:30] Sumith Dissanayake: So that continuous improvement comes with the change management as well. And sometimes you get their buy in and what I have seen in my career is like, why they resist is if you go deeper time, it's like, they are the uncertainty of what's going to happen because they don't have enough information.
they don't know the big picture of what we're trying to do. So moment they can see the big picture, like how it's connecting to what we're trying to do, they naturally fall in line with what we're trying to do. it's about the communication. It's about how [00:12:00] much information we give and it's about how we're going to get their buying to something bigger.
[00:12:05] Ilona Abrams: think that's the key buy in is it?
[00:12:07] Sumith Dissanayake: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And it's individual,you have to go into the individual people. it's different, like as a team, of course you might get it, but it doesn't mean that whole team is supporting. So we have to make sure that if, most of the individuals are on this side, so that it progress well into what we try to achieve.
[00:12:25] Ilona Abrams: Definitely. And I think as a leader, my style is I lead from the front, but I don't, I'm not autocratic. I like to bring people on the journey with me and I like to empower them and, as people in the team. And so I like to give them the tools and support to be able to excel.
if we can work together collaboratively, that's the style I like to employ. And usually if you take them on the journey, the buy in comes and people own things. But sometimes you just need, I think as time goes on with experience, you just see things differently. it's amazing when you're younger and you're in your beginning of your career, you're very small in what you're [00:13:00] looking at.
And then all of a sudden there's like this. Blind gets taken off your eyes and you just look at things and you see so many opportunities and areas that you can just, and it doesn't come naturally for a lot of people who, who are just doing the day to day, I think where a leader can really add value.
[00:13:16] Sumith Dissanayake: no doubt. No doubt. And so other than the month end,automation, the month end function automation, do you do any other projects,at this point, to improve the system?
[00:13:25] Ilona Abrams: so we're navigating at the moment about 28 entities in Xero. So not an ideal scenario just through the result of acquisition. we're trying to work an interim solution around data and reporting and consolidation. the team's just been doing some great work around interim solutions, trying to find what's out in market and employing tools just to make it.
Consolidation easier reporting easier and we've also been automating some, KPI reporting from the front end systems and just getting a data analyst in to help automate some feeds from [00:14:00] the front end to get some reporting that's consistent across the group, because We've got three different front end systems.
to get consistent metrics out, we have to extract data and put them into the same format and cleanse the data so we can get some information out. So there's been a lot of work around looking at interim solutions, not. Trying to solve the big picture, just trying to get some, quick wins.
And I think the way we've approached this, how do we solve a problem? when you've got an integration, you've got a lot of work to do, but for the immediate, it's what problem are we trying to solve and trying to work out, okay, what do we need? And then working back from there to get an outcome.
So we've been very much on that level, just trying to, Diagnose and solve problems and look for solutions. That's where we're really adding value at the moment.
[00:14:45] Sumith Dissanayake: And Ilona, now these days like AI is a big conversation, especially in the finance industry. So what do you see the big changes or the significant impact that AI is going to bring into our careers and our kind of industry?
[00:14:59] Ilona Abrams: I think there is a [00:15:00] lot of opportunity there. I've heard other people in the podcast previously, and a lot of people in the industry generally, I don't think the finance industry has really embraced it fully yet. And I think we're still trying to work out how do we use it, but there's definitely.
Areas, with copilot and trying to understand how we can use that, to enhance, analysis and reporting. but, we are right now writing requirements for systems that we're trying to look for in the future. And some of the things we're looking at, around AI, around how do you do more demand driven rostering for staff.
And there's a lot of things, tools out there you can start to, incorporate, weather forecasts and demand patterns and forecasts are, we do want to look at how do we leverage it in our system selection and try and make sure that we can take advantage of that without, obviously, we just, at the moment it's, there's a lot of unknowns.
but we do want to try and bring that in, into some of the systems pieces. And,we're always looking at, we [00:16:00] do use, A lot of different pieces for very, I think a lot of consultants are using. I came across a consultant the other day who was trying to say they could do all a discovery now with robots or AI bots.
And, their fee was supposed to be halved because all the interviews that normally would be done with consultants is done with AI bots and they collate information and produce reports. for the consultant to come back and interpret for us. So it's definitely out there and I think that spooked us when we heard that as part of the proposal and I think we're still more prefer to have specialist consultants come in and work with us but that is the way of the future that they will leverage AOA bots to do that sort of work, the groundwork. to gather information for discovery phases of, projects.
[00:16:45] Sumith Dissanayake: that's for sure. I think lots of people are still in early days, but they are trying to do a lot of experiments in that and trying to see exactly how, especially the consultant side, but you alluded to, because there is an element that is like a more clerical than [00:17:00] strategic, right? we can get that clerical part much more efficiently through the AI or the automation.
And then, of course, you can still drive that strategic part yourself. But that it's a bit harder to replace at this point in time.
[00:17:14] Ilona Abrams: I think we're nearly there, I'd say. It's just, trying to understand, I think as finance professionals, we need to understand the use cases. And, I think there are people out there using them in great ways, but I think right now it's, just having tried and tested. Way, examples of it and just moving past, that hesitancy.
I think the businesses are still quite hesitant when people are starting, but I have had a lot of conversations where it is part of the conversation now. So it is coming through slowly and we will, I think in a year or two's time, it'll be a lot more that we'll be using it in our business too.
[00:17:47] Sumith Dissanayake: it's going on with that. we all are waiting for that use case scenario, right? So then we can apply that. So we want someone to do the experiment and then come up with that case study so that we can study. And then, of course. can apply to ourselves [00:18:00] easily once we know how they have used that.
and yeah, it's good in that identifying the patterns because in finance, there's lots of patterns, in what we do.I had a really good conversation this morning with a partner, EY partner. And he said that very clearly,like forecasting kind of thing. Sometimes we do it with, like five year forecast and things, but we we still, like even before we didn't know, whether we can do that or not, whether the assumptions are right or wrong, like it's five years, a long time.
And now we decide to do the same thing, like through the AI and all that, still the same thing, right? You don't know whether that's right or wrong because five years is a long time.
[00:18:37] Ilona Abrams:
I've seen it being used for data analysis and, but you need lots of data to be able to get some great outcomes and information to make decisions from. there's probably a lot of people using it already a lot and, but I think it's finance, we're always a bit risk averse, aren't we?
[00:18:50] Ilona Abrams: but I definitely am keen and I'm always out and. Trying to keep an eye on what's happening and, keeping an open mind to it.
[00:18:56] Sumith Dissanayake:
we have to be that they are like, we are that we are [00:19:00] bringing the dynamics into the boardroom, like that's the kind of, beauty of finance. So finance goes in and slow it down to a phase that the business can bear. Otherwise they try to do everything in one go, but we go in and then, put it into a right, really nice timeframe and then go be more realistic about things.
[00:19:19] Ilona Abrams: Yes, and I think there's boards as well that obviously, a bit hesitant at the moment around how to use it and embed it in the business. So I think that, that risk aversion does come down from the top too. And, it's definitely something I can see. Helping make the role easier and add value and, there's definitely areas where you can supplement what you're doing.
[00:19:42] Sumith Dissanayake: that's true. And you know, I want to take you back to your London story because I think it is a very good story for the young and upcoming finance professionals, like how things can change when you go into a different territory and then trying to get yourself established. It's a bit of an eye opener as well.[00:20:00]
So I would like you to talk to me more about how you decided to go and then what happened afterwards.
[00:20:06] Ilona Abrams: I think every, person in their career when, I did my CA and then decided I want to go overseas. as well as to do some traveling, but also get some experience. And, so we ended up going over and, I was, we're just talking about, London was a very easy place and probably still is to get jobs for Australians who are accounting professionals.
had some really great experiences working in investment banking and retail banking in London. working on various projects and also on trading floors for equity derivatives. And,there was some really great experience, but it was very specific experience to some of the roles that they have in London didn't exist in Brisbane.
it's always in the back of my mind was, Oh, how does this translate back into a role in Brisbane? I ended up staying for eight years. Just life and, things happen and stayed longer than I expected and had a great time over there. But yeah, it was first coming back to Brisbane. It is a challenge because it is like coming back [00:21:00] to a new country I had this amazing experience, but it was really hard because it wasn't, and we've been talking about this too, Sumith, it wasn't the linear, that you start out in here, this level, then you go to this level, then you progress. I went across, I was a tax, specialist, then I went into trading and trade support roles in investment banking, then I did some consulting to finance functions to improve them and did projects and it was a mix of everything.
And then I came back and I didn't really know where I belonged.
I knew I had a lot of experience, but I just didn't know what that translated to back in, in Brisbane. So, yeah, it was a bit of a trying to see where does my skillset align with what the roles were. And I think a lot of it in the end came down to making connections, people that I was meeting.
Connecting with them and trying to explain to them this is what I can offer and this is you know What my experience is and I think it would be good for this role because of why you know,
[00:21:52] Sumith Dissanayake: that's true. Yeah. it's, like a challenge as well. At the same time, it creates opportunities because, you are, you're fresh. Now you come back with a [00:22:00] different perspective and the starting again, but it's about where you start again.
You know in Jobs, when people are recruiting, they always say they want relevant experience in this area, or they want this technical experience. But, there's so much more than that, that you bring to the role.
[00:22:14] Ilona Abrams: When you're overseas and you're in a different country with different cultures, and your mind's opened up to so many different, ways of managing, teams remotely, or the skill sets you acquire are very different, and probably more that softer EQ type skillset. The technical side, I think if you're smart, you can pick it up pretty quickly again, and you have a team who usually, helps with that too. So I think, yeah, having the ability to show what you can offer is probably the first thing. I think if you're just sending off all your CVs to roles, it's really hard to make that impression if they're just going by what your CV says.
[00:22:50] Sumith Dissanayake: So this is an interesting thing. Now I had another conversation with the CFO who is in an industry where they have built an AI driven CV [00:23:00] screening process. that's a nice, wonderful one because it eliminates that subjectivity. So it asks the same questions from many different candidates. And then, of course, trying to navigate through it and then use the past data to profile them.
So it reduces that subjectivity. and then sometimes, yeah, but even I have found that some people are better than their CVs.
So the CV, when you look at it, you are not going to hire, but if you meet them in person, you will hire them.
[00:23:27] Ilona Abrams: So I think, yeah, if you can get over the hurdle and get an interview, which is hard because, if your CV is being screened and you're not getting the opportunity to sit in front of someone, that's a big challenge. I think in Brisbane and a lot of places, networks are so vital too, and having referrals and a lot of the senior roles are a lot, there's a lot of referral based.
appointments thing, that, that does play a big part too. But, yeah, coming back and resetting and reestablishing yourself is hard. And I can imagine for anyone, the first time coming into the country is, rebuilding who you are and what you stand [00:24:00] for and your brand. It is a lot of work.
So it definitely was an eye opener coming back after being away for so long.
[00:24:06] Sumith Dissanayake: Yeah, that's true. And also, I want to ask this question before we wrap up Ilona. The question is now you worked in a wide variety of industries a long list I can see. but certain people are right in one industry but you are across a number of industries.
So what are the benefits for a business to have someone like you with that, wide experience in a really long list of industries
[00:24:30] Ilona Abrams: I know, it looks, again, it looks terrible on a CV, From an early age, I realised that I like to grow as, as a professional and I like to continue to learn. So there's this toolkit that a CFO has, you bring with you and you keep building on it.
And there are a lot of opportunities that I. sort of, saw that weren't necessarily,when I was looking at what I've got in terms of experience, I noticed I might have had some gaps of things that I really wanted to focus on and grow as a professional. And for me, for a while, it [00:25:00] was just trying to build out my general experience so I could be a really well rounded professional.
And so that, for a while, was the main thing of just trying to get as much experience and I guess over the years I've tended to go for, I've been in large international, multinational corporates in banking and I've been in small not for profits, I've been in government owned corporations, I've been in privately owned businesses where entrepreneur has been driving the growth, and now in an ASX sort of owned group.
I think for me, it's been around just the opportunity looking at the, where I sit in the structure. And I've noticed in the last few years, I do really like to work with the decision maker of the business. So the CEO and being able to help look at strategy and drive decision making. so being at the seat of the table.
So that comes with usually a smaller, medium sized type business, or a growing business. So Yeah, some of the opportunities have come up where I've looked at it going on, that's a really great opportunity and the people I can work with, are really great. I can learn from them [00:26:00] and I can bring this to the table.
So, each one is assessing, what is the opportunity? What can I bring to it? What can I learn? who are the people? What's the opportunity? In the last few decisions, it's, how many layers am I down from the decision making, because I just love, yeah, being part of businesses and across, the strategy and helping drive value for stakeholders or shareholders and also, internal customers working with them. Probably a bit of everything.
[00:26:24] Sumith Dissanayake:
I love that. I had the same kind of career,worked in different horizons. So because of that, it makes it easy for me to run the business that I'm running now because I've got experience in all different industries rather than just one industry. So then you don't have the knowledge or some insights about how other industries work.
[00:26:41] Ilona Abrams: And I think it's a continuous learning mindset, isn't it? I love being in, businesses that are complex and, challenge you and. So I feel like, no matter what industry you bring this great toolkit and as you get, understanding what drives value in the business and the real operations aspects are really key, when you can add [00:27:00] value, trying to understand what are the core drivers of the business and in any business, as long as you understand those, I think you can add value.
[00:27:07] Sumith Dissanayake: Easily. that's right. So the basics are basics. They're the same. So it matter what it is, right? So you and I know very well. So you, if you know the basics very well, you can apply.
[00:27:17] Ilona Abrams: Yes. And be a good partner to the business, I think, is the key to understanding and listening to your customers.
[00:27:23] Sumith Dissanayake: Yes. before we wrap up, Ilona has one last question. So what is your message for young and upcoming finance professionals?
[00:27:30] Ilona Abrams: I think again, a couple of things that have come through is, continuous learning and always, look for opportunities to learn and challenge. I think the biggest learnings I've had are in roles that have challenged me,just take a leap of faith sometimes and take an opportunity that might stretch you because you'll learn a lot from it.
and I think just having an open, continuous, and proven mindset is a key in this current, post COVID, VUCA kind of environment where there's so much change. yeah, just look at the [00:28:00] opportunities where you can make small, incremental changes continuously, and you'll get, the big picture.
they're probably the two things, and have fun!
[00:28:08] Sumith Dissanayake: That's definitely a great advice. And Ilona, thank you very much for being on the show. And that's very insightful conversation. And I'm sure our listeners will learn something new from your journey. Thank you very much.
[00:28:20] Ilona Abrams: Thank you for having me again, Sumith.
[00:28:22] 2-CFO - Podcast Guest Intro outro: Thanks for joining us on Books to the Boardroom, season three CFO Catalyst. We appreciate our guest's insights on CFO strategies and our host Sumith. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if you enjoyed today's discussion, share it with others. Join us next time for more financial Leadership insights.
This episode was brought to you by Brisca Global and produced by Disrupt X dot one.
