Biggest Challenges Faced by a Director of Finance at Paramount
Tim's biggest challenge as Paramount's Director of Finance is "being able to...influence decision makers on the highest levels," requiring nimbleness and self-awareness. A further challenge involves creating "a completely new financial model without precedence," while also proactively addressing unforeseen events like potential writer strikes and their impact on Paramount's stage rental business.
Executive/Leadership, Influencing Decision Makers, Financial Modeling, Predicting Unforeseen Challenges, Problem-Solving
Advizer Information
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Job Title
Company
Undergrad
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Traits
Tim Gardner
Director of Finance
Paramount
University of Scranton 2008
UCLA EMBA Class of 2023
Finance
Arts, Entertainment & Media
Finance
Video Highlights
1. Influencing high-level decision-makers (VPs, Presidents, SVPs) effectively requires being nimble and self-aware.
2. Creating a completely new financial model from scratch demands creativity and foresight.
3. Predicting and mitigating the impact of unforeseen events, such as a writer's strike, on the business is crucial. This involves understanding how various aspects of the business are interconnected and developing contingency plans.
Transcript
What was your biggest challenge in your current role?
The biggest challenge for me is being able to influence decision-makers at the highest levels in a nimble and self-aware way. At my level, as a director, the people I'm trying to influence in their strategy decisions are vice presidents, presidents, and senior vice presidents.
You really have to be nimble and self-aware to effectively influence their thinking. Beyond that, I'd say creating a completely new financial model without precedence is a challenge because that takes a stroke of creativity.
Honestly, there's an art to creating something completely new. Then there's also attempting to see the unforeseen. I'll give you an example: there's potential for a writer's strike later this year.
If that happens, productions will be shut down. A big part of our business is renting out stages to these productions, whether it's Apple, ABC, NBC, or whoever needs to use a stage they don't have themselves. So a big challenge is trying to predict: if productions shut down because of the writer's strike, how does that impact our business?
How can we find ways to recover and deal with an issue like that?