Biggest Challenges Faced by a Director of Strategic Finance at Tala
Zu, Director of Strategic Finance at Tala, identifies "folks being on different pages of the same book" as the biggest challenge, requiring significant cross-functional alignment efforts—a task that involves "a lot of...admin work" to ensure everyone is on the same page. This contrasts with their preference for data-driven work, highlighting the importance of data proficiency in strategic finance roles and advising aspiring professionals to embrace data analysis ("data will be part of your job").
Data Analysis, Communication, Teamwork, Problem-Solving, Leadership
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Zu Daya
Director of Strategic Finance
Tala
University of Toronto
MBA, University of Toronto
Biology & Related Sciences, Economics
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Finance
International Student, Honors Student, Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. The biggest challenge is aligning cross-functional teams (marketing, product) to ensure everyone is working towards the same goals. This involves a lot of coordination and communication to avoid misalignment.
2. The role is more data-heavy than many expect. Zu highlights the importance of data analysis skills (SQL) for strategic finance roles and encourages students not to shy away from this aspect of the job.
3. Zu's career path from investment banking to Uber demonstrates the transferability of skills. This shows how experience in financial modeling and Excel can be valuable in different roles within strategic finance, especially with the addition of data analysis capabilities.
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
The biggest challenge in my current role is that people are often on different pages, figuratively speaking. As strategic finance, we're a cross-functional team.
A lot of our work involves ensuring everyone is aligned. For example, if we're working on an elaborate marketing campaign for a specific user type, and my team is simultaneously collaborating with the product team, we might realize there's a misalignment.
Part of our job is to prevent this. It involves administrative tasks like creating Slack channels and bringing senior leadership from different departments together. We need to ensure everyone is on the same page.
This is especially true when it appears different parts of the organization are working independently. As a director, after four years in this role, this aspect isn't my favorite.
For more junior folks and potential CAT students watching, I'd say this role wasn't for me personally. I'm a data-driven person, but many underestimate how data-heavy the role is.
When I moved from investment banking to Uber, I was comfortable with financial modeling and loved Excel. However, seeing the sheer volume of data and having access to it was initially overwhelming.
Despite that, I enjoyed it and learned SQL quickly. I've seen many students shy away from data, but my strongest recommendation is to embrace it. Data will be a significant part of your job.
Ultimately, strategic finance is about making profitable business decisions, and we achieve that through data.