Most Important Skills For CFO And Nonprofit Leader At Biomerica And Forge Optima
For a role like CFO/NPO Founder, a strong foundation in accounting is crucial, almost like "the alphabet or language" for advanced finance. Understanding the business itself is paramount to making sound financial decisions that support the company's goals, and leading with purpose requires adaptability, empathy, and strong listening skills to effectively guide and strategize with a diverse team.
Financial Acumen, Business Understanding, Leadership, Communication, Strategic Thinking
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
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Traits
Gary Lu
CFO / NPO Founder
Biomerica and Forge Optima
UCLA
Economics
Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical, Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking
Finance
Worked 20+ Hours in School, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. Accounting is fundamental: Accounting serves as the foundation for advanced finance, similar to how the alphabet is essential for language. A strong understanding of accounting principles is crucial for navigating and making sense of financial concepts.
2. Business acumen is key: Understanding the business is essential for making informed financial decisions. Finance supports business objectives, so grasping the business's operations and goals is vital, especially when making projections.
3. Leadership requires adaptability and empathy: Effective leadership involves being a good listener, empathetic, dynamic, and agile. Leaders should adapt to their team members and create a shared understanding of the mission, especially in for-profit settings where it can be more challenging than in nonprofits.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
When you first start, academics are pretty important. Many people say what you learn in college isn't applicable, but unfortunately, that's not the case with accounting. Accounting is almost like the alphabet or language for more advanced finance areas.
That's my opinion, so it's really important that you understand that part. Knowing your stuff is actually important, which sounds wild to say, but it's true. It allows you to navigate. You couldn't count or make sense of things if you didn't know your alphabet or your numbers.
That's very similar to what I think the basis of accounting is. When you get into high finance, a lot of it involves advanced calculations. Understanding the business is really important because, coming back to what we discussed, finance is there to support and make good business decisions. If you don't understand the business, how can you know that?
We typically call them assumptions, especially when doing projections. You really want to understand what the business is doing and what you're trying to achieve. I think that's really important.
From a leadership perspective, leading with purpose and having people understand the mission is key. That's difficult in a corporation or from a for-profit standpoint. It's not as difficult from a nonprofit standpoint because it's completely about the mission versus profit.
One of the really big areas is being a good listener, being empathetic, dynamic, agile, and able to work with many people. In the end, if you're the leader and can't adapt to your people, and you're trying to have them adapt to you, it won't work, whether you lead 90 or 200 people.
I'd say those are some really important skills, particularly in the finance and accounting world. Know your stuff in the beginning, get more advanced, but it all comes down to knowing your business and spending time listening, understanding, and strategizing.