S1, EP12: Vahistad Patel | Staying curious and positioning yourself for growth

Do you want to become a CFO and take control of your career? Our podcast series from Go To CFO will give you a unique insight into what it takes to become a successful CFO. Posted by the three amigos at AXR Recruitment and Search, myself, Greg O'Shea and my colleagues Kunal Gupta and Nick Constane, we speak to inspiring and successful CFOs from our network as they share their career journeys with us. The closest thing you're going to get to delving into the mind of a CFO, we hope you enjoy it. Vahistat Patel, hailing from Mumbai. Welcome to From Go To CFO. For the benefit of our audience, would you mind introducing yourself? Thank you Kunal and thank you AXR for giving me the opportunity to share my story. I came to Australia 20 years ago from Mumbai. In interesting fact, the population of Mumbai is equal to the population of Australia at that point in time. I came here as a 22-year-old with a $40,000 loan at 14% interest to invest in myself and do a course at Macquarie University, which was Masters of Accounting and NCPA. So my journey began at Macquarie University and while studying, my first job was in a very small business called Willow Fashion Group. And they were producing designer garments, a very tough business in terms of cash. And then from there, I worked across multiple small to medium businesses while I was studying in university. From there, while studying at university, I also had an opportunity to work in Singapore and for my luck, I was implementing US GAAP, which was very, very interesting. So I got good work experience in Singapore. From there, I graduated and then started working in the shipping industry. From then, the hospitality industry. From there, again, back to an IT startup and then going back to professional services. And then I stepped into the energy industry. Luckily, when I was in professional services, a lot of engagements that I did were very closely related to the energy industry. And that's what got me into Osgrid and where I spent my last seven years. Yeah. Okay, how interesting. Now, before we get into your professional career, one thing I want to touch on is, you mentioned on your start and you're taking a loan where you invested in yourself to study in the first place. Now, I guess, what has that taught you from a perspective early days in your career around how you needed to then approach your professional life in order to be successful? And with what mindset did you start your career? So when I was a 22-year-old and I got a loan at $40,000 at 14% compounded interest, being an accountant, you would always check the bank statement every time, every week, to see what interest charges you need to pay and how they're compounding. And that mindset got me to think of a situation how I could minimize my loan drawings and maximize my output in Australia to make sure that I'm making the best use of my time. And one thing I did very differently was when I was a student, a lot of my colleagues and my peers were doing odd jobs, but I thought the only way to maximize my time was to actually get into a professional job. The difference in pay rate was almost double and it took a lot of effort, but I didn't give up and I persisted and I persisted, probably would have applied for about 1,000 odd jobs, done about 50 to 60 odd interviews and also strategized in a way to target small to medium businesses. And that's what got me, one way was to maximize my time and making sure that the 20 hours I get as a student was maximizing my return on that 20 hours of work that I was doing. The other thing that I did was very interesting was I rented an accommodation and then I subled it. And what that could do... How much of this was legal? Oh, no, it was all legal. It was all legal. Basically, what it would mean that you rent a house, you take the responsibility of running the house and then you sublet it to students. I mean, I made sure that if I had a three-bedroom house, I would not keep more than five students. That's how you keep it legal and everybody's happy. And what I did through that journey was making sure that when I had new students, new tenants coming in, I made sure that I got people from different cultures. So what that helped me do in my journey is to understand different cultures and Australia is such a multicultural country. Living with people from different cultures and background makes you grow as a person where I came from. I only would interact with people from my background and race. But when I was a student by doing this, I really understood different cultures, living with them, whatever biases that they bring. And that really helped me in my professional journey. Yeah, wow. I think what he said, some of the points you've raised are living examples of showing resilience in being able to withstand doing thousands of applications, persistence in doing 50 to 60 job interviews, having some clarity around what you're actually goal-seeking towards, focusing on small, medium-sized businesses, showing a lot of creativity and ingenuity around how you organized your accommodation, essentially significantly reducing your own cost basis, probably a lot more time, investment, sacrificing, compromising as that you've had to put in to achieve those outcomes. But you have been willing to walk the talk, not just talk the talk. So that's really impressive. And I think that's a great example for anyone listening, whether that's early days in your career or also through your career on the sort of attributes you need to have at various stages. So let's talk about your career a little bit then. One of the things I find quite interesting, and it's a bit atypical, is you started in corporate and then moved into professional services and then back into corporate again. What's that journey been like for you? It's been very interesting. And in the early part of my career, naturally, I didn't work at any organization for more than two, two and a half years. Two reasons. One is I was a very curious soul. If I found out that I have learned enough of the organization and I have given enough value to the organization and my growth path was limited in an organization, I would quickly move. I did that early on in my career. And that kind of helped me to understand different industries, different operating models, different challenges. I had worked for businesses that were very poor on cash. I worked for businesses that didn't have cash problems. I worked on businesses that were very, very stable with very stable growth. I worked on businesses that grew four or five times their size. And what that gave me is a broad exposure of the challenges that different businesses face. My journey from corporate into professional was, again, me just reaching out to my peer network and having conversations. And in one of those conversations, what came up was in the professional business that I worked in, they wanted to set up a CA for advisory practice and they wanted somebody with a different background than what the core team was over there. So I was probably, you could call it as an experiment. First one. You were the experiment. I was the experiment. If I want to use the harsh term, a lab rat. And Levin from Stranger Things. And it was interesting because, well, the team was mainly people from an audit background who had moved into a CA for advisory practice. And the firm's strategy was let us bring somebody who's got more practical corporate experience to make sure that our offering is more balanced. And I went in knowing the challenge head on. I was told in no uncertain terms that we are experimenting and we want to see what value you bring to the table. And I liked that challenge. And I would thank my wife at that point in time because I had to take a huge pick up. We had a mortgage. But my wife said, you're stepping down and this is an investment for you to reap rewards in the future. And we went ahead with that mindset. It was a joint decision. She supported me. I'm very thankful to her for that. And I'm very thankful to the leaders who gave me the opportunity. And yes, I had a very successful time in professional services. What I realized is when I was in my professional services, I realized one thing. It's more about the experience. So it's a given that you need to deliver on the technical work. That's just given what you're supposed to deliver. But I think two things that stood out for me was the experience that you give people in delivering that service, the way you make them feel, and then the value. What value you can bring to that engagement is what kind of I think there were two things that I focused on and helped me to get through engagements that were sometimes difficult and challenging. Understanding people, empathizing with them was helped me give the client a good experience through the engagement. Yeah. That's so interesting. And the point you touched on there around making a conscious career decision from a REM perspective, taking a step back, because you looked at the opportunity for what it is and what that could do for your career, not in the next 12 months, but in the next five years plus. And that view to people to have that level of career planning, I think there's a lot of people in the market are striving for it, but not everyone is following through on that either. So I think that's a really interesting conversation that we have with a lot of our candidates and clients as well on hiring decisions that we're looking at it from a career perspective, not just that next move. So where is that leading to? How does that align with your broader career objectives? Sometimes you do need to make those kind of decisions where you're taking a bit of a step back or a step sideways in order to get what's important for you. I think the other point that you touched on, which is very, very interesting, and it's something which we often, from a recruitment perspective, see it from the other side is the versatility you've shown in moving from different businesses, whether that be it in size, small or large, also different industries. You're living proof that for the people that believe that you need to hire from a certain industry and have that experience. And if you don't, then you're not going to quite be up to scratch or be up to speed. You're living proof of that. My question to you is when you hire now and you've done, I'm sure, a fair bit of that at Osgrid. What do you look for in people you're bringing on into your team? I think what I look for is what the vision for me is in the future, where I want to take the team to, what I want to deliver for my clients, what value I want to add, and then look for people who have got that sort of alignment in terms of attitude, vision, what they believe in, what they're passionate about. I think that is more important to me, alignment on that versus somebody who's done the same job in the same industry. I mean, done the same jobs important, but I don't really have a very strong need for somebody being in the same industry. Obviously, it's a plus if that happens. For me, the first two criteria is alignment of vision with the passion of the candidate and the attitude of the candidate is more important. Just staying on the hiring piece, when you're for roles that you're hiring, what are some of the skills that you value and that you look for? Also, do you see that changing over time? Yes, I do. I think finance is in a transformational phase as of now. I think it has been happening since the past three or four years, especially with the advent of new technologies coming in with more self-service reporting and tools like Power BI and now moving on to the age of AI, where a lot of tasks that would be mundane could be automated. What I feel is that we're in a transition phase and I think when I look at hiring people, I would like to have a mixture of both, keeping in mind that we need to keep the lights on. You need people in your team who are still there keeping the lights on, but you also have a sideline looking at, hey, we need to make slow improvements and change the way we operate and change the operating model to make sure that we are making our way and progressing towards that future. I look for a balance in the team. Got you. Okay. Going back to your own career and let's use your time at Ausgrid. You joined Ausgrid six years ago, 2017, in a commercial finance manager capacity. Over those six, seven years, you've progressed through the ranks into a very CD position. Essentially, head of commercial finance, control as well, reporting into CFO directly and playing a very key strategic counseling role to the CFO in such a large organization. What's that journey been like for you in terms of what have you found to be the keys to success in moving up the ranks, so to speak? I think my keys to success in moving up the ranks was to volunteer for difficult projects, to go to places where people fear to go. I think from a technical side of things, I've done a variety of projects for Ausgrid, be it setting up new businesses, helping with acquisitions and then assimilating those businesses in the operating model of Ausgrid, going through ERP transformations, setting up of data and analytics for their unregulated business. I think I'd really thank Ausgrid for giving me the opportunity to learn quite a lot. I don't know any of these things before I joined and I'll be very thankful that I've been given that opportunity to learn. I'd thank my leaders in believing in me and giving me that space to shine and create what I think has been valuable to the organization. I think that's one part of it. The other part of it is relationships. I think when you look at an organization structure and you look at any organization structure, it's quite a very structured matrix. However structured the matrix is, if you want problems to be resolved, generally the problems that you want to resolve and when they're challenging problems, it's not your team that can resolve it. It's getting that support outside of your team and it's leveraging the broader business to help you resolve those problems. Again, helping them resolve their problems. I think navigating through that structure and building relationships, whether it's through other areas, it's through our contractors, I feel that is especially when I was in middle management or when I started early on in my role, I put a lot of value on that because that helped me solve problems for my leaders. I would say two things. One is trying to be curious, take on the difficult projects and secondly, build your relationship across the organization at all levels, whether it's below or above sideways and treat people with respect. My motto is everybody comes into work trying to do their best. That's really impressive. Again, a lot of the points you've touched on is something which we talk to and hear from our clients, candidates all the time. It's that ability to have high accountability and high ownership, not just of the areas that are prescribed to you, but actually taking ownership over even stuff that isn't and going above and beyond, putting your hand up for the difficult stuff. I love that quote of yours where others are afraid to go. You're actually willing to put yourself out there, which shows a lot of vulnerability and also a lot of drive to be able to help businesses solve difficult problems that they're facing. If you tell me that I wasn't fearful, I would be lying. I was fearful. Probably a lot of doubts. Yeah, yeah. I think that's been my journey. I've doubted, I've feared a lot of things that I take, but I think I just don't want to give up and try my best and see how to overcome the problem and achieve the objective and the target. Yeah. On that, talking about those challenges, so what are some of the big challenges that you faced? Because it's all well and good to talk about all the positive things, the bits. Often, though, people are grappling with all these issues as they're going through their career. What were the real challenges that you faced and how did you deal with it? I think one of the biggest challenges that you face is the more senior you get, the more you get through your ranks, you're making decisions. And not all your decisions are going to be popular. You're going to make people happy, you're going to make some people unhappy. And what you need to live with is we are a human society. That's just a part of human nature. I think if on an average, you make more people happy than less people happy than nothing, your decisions are successful. But yeah, profitable too. And profitable too. I think that's and if I lift that upper level in our role as business partners or commercial finance, one major role that we pay as business partners, we are a conduit between the CFO and an executive. And there are times where there would be conflicting objectives. And I think our role is to make sure that we put the facts and figures in front of the table and give an objective solution and recommendation. And I think if even if one party doesn't like the decision, if they can see your rationale, how you rationalize that. And they've seen how you've come to that conclusion, they might not like you but they'll respect you. Yeah, that's really good. And I think that's a big part of it. That decision making, you know, a lot of people struggle with that on making a decision that's going to make some people unhappy. And one can get caught up with that whole thing. So that takes experience, it takes coaching, it takes mentorship, it takes strong inner core to work through those things. Right. That's excellent. Now if you were to give a younger Bahista some advice, so, you know, from where you are now and where you've got to in your career. And let's say you were talking to yourself 15 years ago. What do you know now that you wish you knew then? I think if I was younger, I would invest more in my education in two aspects. Really, I think IT professionals do this very well. They really keep themselves up to speed with training and technical aspects of their role. So I think one aspect would be I would invest a lot of time, I think I did invest, I would invest a lot of time in future of finance as a finance profession and future of finance, tools, systems, technologies. I think if you look at a lot of breakthroughs that happen today, they're all on the back of technology. So keeping abreast of all the technological developments that are out there, having speaking to your peers more often, understanding what they're doing in terms of technology, how they're improving processes. I think that is something that I would encourage young professionals to do, so network, be aware of the technologies that are out there. Because that can help you come up with ideas that can help you provide value. And then the other bit is communication. And I feel that investing in yourself in soft skills, communication, presentation, I think goes a long way. So three things, technical aspects of technology, networking, and communication is what I would give my advice to young professionals. Right. Okay. And yourself. And to myself. A 15-year-old younger. Yes, that's what I would do. Love it. Love it. Now, from a whole work-life balance perspective, it's always, everyone's got a different take on how they manage things. What do you do to make sure that you're performing at your best at work every day? So for me, work-life balance is very, very important. I personally think that I can't perform at work if I don't go and give my mind a break and refresh it. I think my activities outside my work is like food for my mind. And my mind works best when it is refreshed. So I do do a lot of things. I like kayaking and camping. I live in a very beautiful spot called Barara. And there are some hidden creeks and hidden campsites in the middle of nowhere, which nobody knows about. And you can kayak to these sites. So it's very peaceful, tranquil, really just takes you out of stunning. No mobile phone reception, no way to bother you. So I pick a full moon night, go there probably in the evening about six o'clock and do a midnight kayak when the moon's right up in the sky and the light's shining on the water. Oh, it's beautiful. It's very tranquil. But I also like mountain biking. I like doing some adventure holidays. But on a more regular basis, I play table tennis and cricket. Yeah, I was going to ask you, how did you get so good at table tennis? And we need a rematch. I'm always ready. I don't know whether I'm good. It just depends on whom you're facing. Again, I'm always learning. When you started talking about whether the table tennis bats had little pimples on them, that's when I knew I was in trouble. It's an interesting sport because just like anything when you look at an opponent, you try and look at, okay, what is your weakness that they are targeting and what is their weakness that you are targeting. And again, it's just so much focus on the ball and that just takes your mind out of everything. I can't think of my work. I can't think of social media or anything. I'm just focusing on that ball. So it's very good to just get your mind off something and just focus on something that and just relaxes your mind. Yeah, it's so true because when you're younger, you know, if you're playing sports or whatever it may be, and you never thought about it as an idea of meditating or really what it was doing for you. But now it's so obvious when you think about it that any sport you're playing, whether you're running, anything, it does take your mind of things and you're entirely focused on that one activity and how good it is for your mind to be doing those kind of things. So I really value it now, even more so. I think I've learned a lot from team sport that I've actually taken back to my work. When you play a team sport or somebody's having a bad day, they're not performing to the best of their ability because just they're not that well coordinated on the edge. You're just humans. And generally, you observe how the team's success and failures, how they support that person through that lean patch. And yeah, I learned a lot through sport. Everybody has roles in a team to play. How are they fulfilling their roles? Have they been given a clear definition of what their role is? If they're not performing, how does the team get together to help them? So you can do a lot of learnings from team sport and apply the same in your professional life. Yeah. So true. So true. Okay. Well, now we're going to go on to something a little bit more offbeat to finish things off. So rapid fire questions. First thing that comes to your mind, right? Favorite movie? Free Willy. Okay. Favorite book? Shantaram. Oh, that's a good book. Favorite band? Coldplay. Did you watch him? No. Oh, come on. And dream role. If it wasn't like completely, you know, Greenfield. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Being a board driver on Liddy Elliott Island. Oh my goodness. That is fantastic. Thank you so much for his side. We really appreciate having you. And to all our listeners, I hope you enjoyed listening to this and you took a lot out of it. Thank you. Thank you, Kunal. I appreciate the opportunity to share my story. And again, I thank EXR for the opportunity. Thank you. Great. Thanks. Thanks for tuning in. And we hope you enjoy the insights from our network of inspiring finance leaders as they share their journey from GO to CFO. If you're looking to make the next move in your finance career or build your team, get in contact with the team at AXR recruitment and search today. We're passionate about building careers, not jobs, teams, not just hires. If you enjoyed the episode, hit the like button and subscribe today. See you next time.