Scaling FP&A with Growth to Build Trusted Processes and Strategic Influence with Noam Sever
In this episode of FP&A Unlocked, host Paul Barnhurst welcomes Noam Sever, Head of Global FP&A at Cellebrite, for a deep and thoughtful conversation on building impactful finance teams, scaling FP&A processes, and the human side of finance leadership. Noam shares his experience driving financial planning in high-growth environments and highlights the value of simplicity, consistency, and communication in finance transformation. This episode is a masterclass in aligning FP&A with business needs and building trust through data, systems, and people.
Noam Sever is a seasoned finance executive with over 15 years of leadership across global tech and manufacturing firms. At Cellebrite, he leads a multinational FP&A team overseeing full P&L ownership, strategic planning, and operational excellence. His expertise includes business modeling, systems implementation, and data-driven decision-making. Known for his structured approach and people-first mindset, Noam is passionate about building agile finance organizations that deliver real business impact.
Expect to Learn:
Why “tiny gains” and small process improvements compound to drive big FP&A impact
How to scale FP&A processes from startup chaos to structured efficiency
The importance of aligning finance with go-to-market and sales operations
Why trust, communication, and curiosity are the top soft skills in FP&A
The framework Noam uses to evaluate when and how to scale teams, tools, and processes
Here are a few quotes from the episode:
As a company scales, FP&A must shift from being reactive to becoming a proactive business partner.” – Noam Sever
Start simple, make it repeatable, and always leave room to improve. That’s the foundation of great FP&A.” – Noam Sever
Noam Sever offers a blueprint for building impactful FP&A teams through simplicity, structure, and strategic business partnership. His insights emphasize that real value comes from understanding the business, earning trust, and continuously improving processes to drive meaningful results.
Campfire: AI-First ERP:
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close management, and more, all in one unified platform.
Explore Campfire today: https://campfire.ai/?utm_source=fpaguy_podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=100225_fpaguy
Follow Noam:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/noamsever/
Company - https://www.linkedin.com/company/cellebrite/
Earn Your CPE Credit
For CPE credit, please go to earmarkcpe.com, listen to the episode, download the app, answer a few questions, and earn your CPE certification. To earn education credits for the FP&A Certificate, take the quiz on Earmark and contact Paul Barnhurst for further details.
In Today’s Episode:
[00:00] – Trailer
[04:11] – Defining Great FP&A
[07:12] – The Power of Tiny Gains
[10:54] – Favourite Company Stage
[13:18] – FP&A at Scale
[15:59] – Evolving Budget & Forecast
[21:41] – Advice for First-Time Forecast Leads
[25:24] – Scaling Teams & Tools
[33:20] – Traits for Early-Stage FP&A
[36:40] – Rapid-Fire & Final Thoughts
Full Show Transcript :
Host: Paul Barnhurst (00:40):
Welcome to another episode of FP&A Unlocked. Are you tired of being seen as just a spreadsheet person? Will others get a seat at the table? Well, then welcome to FP&A Unlocked where finance Meet Strategy. I'm your host, Paul Barnhurst, the FP&A guy. Each week we bring you conversations and practical advice from thought leaders, industry experts, and practitioners who are reshaping the role of FP&A in today's business world. Together we'll uncover the strategies and experiences that separate good FP&A professionals from great ones helping you elevate your careers and drive strategic impact. Speaking of strategic impact, our title sponsor for FP&A Unlocked is Campfire, the ERP. That's helping modern finance teams close, fast and scale faster. Faster. Today's guest is someone who's earned that coveted seat at the table. I'm excited to welcome Noam. Welcome to the show.
Guest: Noam Sever (01:41):
Thank you, Paul. Thank you for having me.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (01:44):
Really excited to have you. So a little bit about his background. He's a highly experienced finance executive with over 15 years of progressive leadership in FP&A for global technology and manufacturing companies. He currently serves as head of global at Cellebrite, where he leads a multinational team responsible for full p and l ownership, strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, and driving operational excellence across the $500 million business. Previously, Noel headed FP&A at coordinate digital managing teams that supported executive management operational initiatives and m and a activities within a rapidly growing public organisation. His career spans roles at both large corporates and small ones, including leading finance operations at orbotech, acquired by KLA, business plans for NPIs at Partner Communications and Tennova, where he specialised in business modelling, process optimization, and cross-functional collaborations. He holds an MBA in finance and marketing from Tel Aviv University, a BA in Economics and Management from Baron and Advanced Finance certifications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His expertise centres on financial modelings system implementation and enabling data-driven decision-making to support business growth and profitability. So again, welcome to the show. Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about what you're doing today at Cellebrite.
Guest: Noam Sever (03:22):
Thank you, Paul. And again, thank you for having me. So hi everyone. My name is Noam and I'm the head of FP&A at Cellebrite. For those who don't know us, Cellebrite is a global leader in digital intelligence. We provide technology analytics that helps mainly law enforcement, speed up justice and keep community safe. We do this by helping investigators extract and analyse data from digital devices, including mobile phone to find key evidence that helps solve cases and stop criminal. So basically, we are working in doing good for the world. In my role currently, I oversee global FPNA function, partnering with regional and corporate FP&A teams to strength planning, insight and business impact. Currently, my focus is building on data-driven agile FP&A team that connects strategy, execution and insight, turning financial planning into a real business advantage.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (04:11):
Love it. Thanks for that background. So I start every interview with this question. You probably, if you've listened to the show at all, you know what's coming. Tell me what great fp a looks like to you. What is great fp a?
Guest: Noam Sever (04:24):
So when I think of a great FP&A, I don't think about spreadsheets. I don't think about quarter closing or forecast. I don't even think about ai. I'm looking at the bigger picture. I think about a team that drive the shift decisions, connect timing into strategy, and help the business look ahead. To me, the best time of business partnership is give the management insight they didn't even know they need it. That's when you start being the supportive of the business and you start leading the business. Now, in order to do that, you need to be very, very intimate with the numbers, know your data from all around because only when you know that you will find those blind spots, you can raise the flags in advance and really make a difference when you know the numbers, when you know the business, when you understand the business, you can ask the right questions before anyone else does find the problems before they become serious and really shape the future.
(05:20):
Now, when you reach to this level of intimacy, the management wants you to be on the earth speed dials because they know then they can call you before they make big decisions because they trust your judgement and they know you will help them to see the full picture. So for me, if I'm looking on FP and a's individual contributor or FP&A team, the best mix is basically three things. Strong analytics, business, understanding in communication, and I can touch base about communication later on. So the success is not just about accuracy. I mean, it's important to be accurate, it's important to drive the 95, 90 8%, but even if you miss a few percent here with them, the speed, the insight and the real business impact is what really matters and what really move the detailss. So guide FP&A is all about people, curiosity, teamwork and the courage to challenge and really understand the way things are done. The system and the process will follow that, but the basics need to be done within the FP&A mindsets, and that's exactly the fp a culture we're building here in Cellar.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (06:25):
Yeah, so there are two things that I really stood out to me I appreciate that answer is I love how you said, providing insights the business doesn't even know they need that shows that proactive and going beyond just what the business thinks they need, and then the whole idea of them having you on speed dial being that true partner. Those two things really stuck out to me, I think are crucial to fp and a. So thank you again for that answer. When I interview guests, I always go ahead and look out at LinkedIn and learn a little bit about 'em. And on your banner you have the whole idea of the power of tiny Gains. You share that. So let's start with, can you explain what that means, what the whole idea of Tiny Gains is for our audience and why is that so important to you personally? Why is that such an important concept?
Guest: Noam Sever (07:12):
Yes, I agree. I think that the power of tiny gains, it's a concept that's relevant for all of us in everything we do specifically in our professional life because I really believe that small steps can make a big difference eventually in FP&A and in general. Change doesn't happen in one day. It's about improving really every week, and this is what I'm keeping my team over and over again. So I do not expect everyone to block one hour a day in the calendar and think, what are we going to do next? What are we going to improve? But I think it's really important, and yes, it's technicality to really block your calendar, calendar one hour a week, one hour and two weeks, and really think what we can do better, what we can improve, because those small wins build up over time. When a joint cellebrite ing was a completely head up, there were no clear timelines, people react to request instead of planning ahead, it was a bit a mess.
(08:06):
So after we implemented a new budgeting system, we connected it to the bi, which was very visible to the finance management and created a very clear monthly focus with them. Everyone knew the role and deadlines and deliverables by the way, not just FP&A team, everyone, f, p and a finance business partners. Everyone knew exactly what they need to do, and when the accuracy went up, the process becomes smoother. No surprises and management could really rely on the numbers to make real decisions. Now, it's okay to have at the end of the day, we are very go very fast and things tend to be from time to time surprises, which is okay, but the basic and the foundation and the reason was clear, once a month, once a quarter, once a week, everything is very, very, very clear and everyone knows what to do.
(08:56):
That's what helps changing the whole process. What I learned is that as three strong FPNA process, start with the basic, first of all, we need to define what you want to achieve. When do you want to do it? Who is the owner both inside and outside the finance, because once you have the rhythm, the story, the process and the structure, everything is aligned and everything is much more clear. Then it's about the consistency of tracking result versus forecast. Because once you have a process every month, every quarter, it's very easy to try and understand what happens, to follow it, to investigate and to improve. So when FP&A progress come from small, steady wins that build trust and influence, and this is the foundation because once you have the foundation, once you have the BVA, the ongoing BVA, the simple BV, A, once a month, once a quarter, once you have the closing process and all the really ongoing process of the fp a, you will have time and the attention to bring the real value and really make a real impact of doing additional things above the ongoing and the usual day-to-day of the fp a
Host: Paul Barnhurst (10:03):
Thank you for sharing, and like I said, fp a finances those tiny games each month, those little incremental improvements, getting the foundations right and then making tweaks, right? Rarely do we have this big huge breakthrough where everything changes. Can it happen? Sure, but it's not the norm. So appreciate that answer. I like that. And one of the things I know we wanted to spend some time on is just how different companies are different at different sizes. First, no two companies are the same, even in the same industry. No two roles are the same, but you also have the idea that every company's at a different point. So you've worked at public companies, private companies, large, small, all different sizes. Do you have a favourite company stage you enjoy most? Is there a phase that you're like, this is where I really like to work?
Guest: Noam Sever (10:54):
Yes. I've worked in companies of many sizes and form, and each one has its own charm is own uniqueness. I assume that helping companies scale up with 30% year over year is amazing and exciting, but also support restructuring when the business is not heading in the right direction. Both are very challenging, very rewarding. I think that if you take the sizes of the company and we take it from the small mid-size company to the large one, we have many, many differences because in the small ones, you move very, very fast. You have one fp and a, maybe two fp and a, you move very, very fast. But often the resources are limited. The fp a that you have the team, the tools and the time you have to develop and have really, really interesting analysis behind the basic. But when you're going to large organisation, you have much more system.
(11:42):
The team is grow, but things move very, very slow. You have one dedicated person for each process in the FP&A and in the finance and in the business. So things tend to be very, very slow, very, very structured, sometimes too structured. So for me, I like the ST in the middle. This is where Cellebrite is. When the company is growing quickly and still HR enough to make mini changes, that's when PMA can really shape the future and shape the development of the company and really move the needles. I think this is the best solution for me.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (12:15):
So you like that where there's a little bit of scale, but there's still some stability you can have a big impact versus sometimes those very first days when you have to figuring out everything and it's changing constantly or the big huge company where here's your little role of responsibility, do this all the time.
Guest: Noam Sever (12:33):
Yes, exactly.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (12:33):
Sounds like we have somebody who likes some variety, but also wants to be able to create a little bit of the established processes and not just chaos.
Guest: Noam Sever (12:41):
Yes. Listen, I'm Swiss, so I need things to be structured in a way, not necessarily to be 100% structure, but 99% is okay.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (12:50):
Yeah, no, I get it. Many of us are that way and especially when we come from certain backgrounds. So that all makes sense. Yep. So talk a little bit, you talked a little bit about this New York last answer, but like to go a little deeper from your experience maybe what are the key changes as companies scale for FP&A from the early stage to as they get larger, what do you see as some of those key changes that happen?
Guest: Noam Sever (13:18):
Okay, so basically when company grows FP&A has the growers as well. In small teams you have one person that does everything is done. The budgeting, the forecasting, the business support, everything. When the company gets bigger, you need specialist person team dedicated for forecasting and team, which is dedicated to analysis and strategy and top line and expenses and so on and so on. You also need better tools. You need driver-based modules, dashboard and scenarios. But keep in mind that when the company grows and the team grows, the leadership accept more, not just the reports of what happened, but guidance of what to do next and very, very structured, not in high level. So with the burden comes responsibility. So in large organisation, the FP a team itself becomes bigger and the expectation rise. Now when you have the resources, when you have the system, when you have the team, when you have the ownership, and we'll talk about it maybe later, and the accountability, the basics are still very, very important, but it becomes the portion become less.
(14:22):
If in a smaller company, I know the ongoing the BVA, the closing is 90% of your time, I expect that in bigger company when you have more resources and more tools, the day-to-day maybe shrinks to 60 and 70%, and that shift is used to focus on deeper analysis, complex business questions, and I impact project that really move the needle. So fp a changed from reactive function to proactive partner that helps really move the needles and not just doing the day-to-day, and this is what I talked about in the first questions, the proactive approach, the thing that you want to do that the leaders doesn't know they really need, this is when you have the time to do it. When the FP&A is scaling up, you have more resources and you have more time to do it. As
Host: Paul Barnhurst (15:08):
You build out the team, processes become more standard, you have more time for that ad hoc versus sometimes when you're the only hire and you're doing the work of three people, you're just trying to survive. Even though you want to do the analysis, that's harder to find the time.
Guest: Noam Sever (15:22):
Yeah, the basic is very, very important, but you need to find more autonomy sources to do more than that. Yes,
Host: Paul Barnhurst (15:30):
A hundred percent agree. At the end of the day, you have to do the basics and you have to do 'em well, but that's table stakes. People expect you to do that if you really want to have an impact to make a difference. As you said, being the proactive giving insights that they're not expecting, you have to go above and beyond that. The other question I'd love to ask you is a little bit of your perspective. How does that whole budgeting, forecasting process change as the company scales? What's your experience kind of been like in the early days and then as you start to grow,
Guest: Noam Sever (15:59):
It's related obviously to the previous question as well, but budgeting and forecasting? For me, it's perfectly the same because it's the same lady with a different dress, but it's always as the company mature, it's first you have simple Excel, one person, one version, some question from the business. Sometimes you work in a bubble, not necessarily consult the business, but then it becomes more structured. When you have a build company and more resources, you have rolling forecast. If it's first you forecast once a quarter, the current quarter, then you start focusing the rolling forecast. You have four quarters forecast or eight quarter forecast. You have multiple scenarios, you have a very clear ownership. You're not living in a bubble of the f, P and A. You're involving everyone, the fp and a, the finance and the business, and this is the real changes in larger or more advanced companies focusing become very predictive.
(16:52):
We use BI use AI to look ahead and this is what we are doing in cellebrite. The more you improve your data, your owner sheet and accountability, which is super important, the more accurate and valuable the focus become. At Cellebrite, this is exactly the stage that we're now in Cellebrite when the basics are already behind us. Each analyst owns own domain. We have someone that in charge of the HR expenses and someone who is in charge of the go-to market in apac, everyone knows exactly what he's doing, but on top of that, everyone has his own project on top of the BVA, on top of the ongoing ings. Sometimes it's something that's related for the whole group of the fp and a, but we're trying to do something on top of the basis. AI started to take big warning, our focus in processes helping us to improve both speed and accuracy and push the function to the next level.
(17:43):
Now of course what I'm currently talking in cellar, we have about, I dunno, 13 or 14 FBNA. This kind of progress required a very stronger management tension and the right supportive system, otherwise we cannot scale it. So once we had everything, and as I said before, come the expectation and we really need to tell us and we really need to convince the leadership that we are doing a great job, that we are valuable. So again, they will have us in our speed days. I can tell you that one of the biggest and important connection every company has is the connection between the FPMA and the go-to market functions in the sales process. I can say that in ide, we had a weekly, weekly calls with the sales organisation, sales operation to review the top line forecast for every region and every opportunity. We use one system and we have a lot of judgement that being done behind the scenes.
(18:35):
So once we have the system, the ownership, the partnership between the FP&A and the go-to market and the mechanism mechanism, which means each opportunity is tagged and created by its likelihood to close within the sport. Once you have this mechanism and the rhythm and the experience, everything is much more smoother, much more palmer, and much more accurate. I can say that in this domain, we are doing a great job and it's not necessarily just because we have a great FP&A team because we have a very great communication and accountability within all the groups. Once everyone is know exactly what they need to do, when they need to do it and they need to do it together, everything is much bigger and this is part of the scaling gap of the organisation. Almost every FP&A activity touch, touch the budget, all the focus in some way a weekly basis, a monthly basis, quarterly basis. So super important to be on top of everything and try to improve from scenario to scenario. So even if you're doing something on a weekly basis, on a quarterly basis, or even in a yearly basis, we always need to make sure we improve from process to process. This is what FP&A need to do, improve from process to process to give the better insights and better accurate number from the management team.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (19:49):
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(20:54):
Always be trying to find ways to be better, whether it's be more accurate, whether it's drive better decision-making across the business, whatever it might be. I would love to ask one question since I know you've, like I said, worked at all different stages. What advice would you offer to that FP&A person? He's at a small company and he's first time, he's managing the budgeting forecasting process for the company. It's either it's the first time they've done it or his first time. What advice would you offer to someone in that scenario? Because I think that's a really hard one for a lot of people because if you work for a large company, you don't experience that you work for a mid-size company, you don't experience that. It's only when you're a really small startup that you have to be kind of managing that process and figuring it out for the first time. I
Guest: Noam Sever (21:41):
Think it's very really different from company to company, from industry to industry, from A CEO to C-E-O-C-F-O to CFO. But I think that if you are an FP&A individual contributor, it doesn't matter if you have more experience or less experience, you must start with the basics that really matters. First of all, you need to understand the business. You need to understand what moved the needle, what really matters and what need to be investigated by the fp and a. For example, you know that labour is 70% of our costs need to make sure that we are within the boundaries and need to analyse. Again, in a high level, no need to be 100% accurate, but at least 90, 95, we need to keep things very, very simple, big processes you can repeat and improve, not just something which is very, very difficult and very, very complicated that you cannot repeat, improve, and investigate.
(22:31):
So once you have something very, very simple, repetitive and something you can improve, it'll help you be more accurate and give more insight to the leadership you need to get the business involved because the business must be accountable. Once you have that, first of all, they will help you, especially if you're an individual contributor or you have a small tip, you need the business to help you to really be successful in terms of ownership, in terms of accountability, in terms of knowing exactly what goes ahead in terms of top line expenses and so on and so on. For every company, track your accuracy and learn from the mistakes. And most important, I think one of the best advice I can give is be patient. Because building trust, building accuracy, building processes takes a lot of time. You have it once you start with the foundation and you know exactly where you're heading, what is your end goal?
(23:25):
You'll get there. It's a matter of time, it's a matter of open sources, it's a matter of team, it's a matter of systems. It's a matter of accountability because sometimes it's how to build accountability. Once you know where you're heading and everyone around you knows that you'll get there, it can take you a few months. It can take sometimes a few years, but I'm sure you'll get there and you can understand the business, understand the complexity, understand what is the pain points of each industry. For example, for, I dunno, for hardware industry is data cogs for software industry, it can be the hosting, the transition between a CD and a R and so on. But once you understand exactly where you are aiming, what are the pain points? I'm sure you'll get there eventually.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (24:05):
I like something you said in there that I think is really important or critical for most people is the whole idea of keeping it simple at first, don't overcomplicate it. I was talking to a guy who was a CEO and he's like, before we got bought by private equity, I wasn't CEO, I was CRO, he was chief revenue officer. He is like before he got bought by private equity, like all right, we think we can grow 10% next year, and you put some basic stuff in place. Then private equity came in and said, oh no, we want the details of how you're going to get there. It show us the math and it scales and grows and obviously you want to have some math, but very early stage, A lot of it is ideas and you're changing it, iterating. So it's not reasonable to have a complex detailed process a lot of times.
(24:47):
So next question for you, as you're scaling, you're growing from that 200 to 300 or 20 to 30 million or whatever, but as you're growing, there's obviously different points where things have to change, processes, how you think about things, size on and on and on. So do you have any process or framework or something that helps guide you as you're going through that process? How do you think about it to say, oh, I'm at the point where I need to add another person or I need to scale up our technology, or I need to overhaul processes. So how do you kind of think about that?
Guest: Noam Sever (25:24):
I think that for every FP&A leader, and again, it doesn't matter if you're a single individual contributor or a VP or major company, I think you need to start with the basic, which is map reality by the way. It's for every position, not just fp and a. When I joined Cellebrite on or every other company I joined, I had a list of notes and every appointment I had with a leader, with a business partner, I asked what is working and what is not working? This is for first of all, understand what is working and what to be approved, what need to be improved. Once you know that to create the standards you need to create the clear processes, even small processes of weekly updates or biweekly update or monthly update, it depends on the complexity. You create a very clear templates and a responsibility, not just for FP&A for the whole organisation because this is part of the engagement.
(26:18):
When the business is engaged and when the business knows is part of your r and r part of the system, part of the focus, part of the whole FP&A with them, they will be very into it and they will help you. You need to set realistic timelines that everyone can manage. Once you have those two main pillar, which is map reality and creating the standard, you can start and I say start with automation. Now when I'm saying automation, you don't necessarily need to have the best automated systems in the market. You don't need to have all the machines learning helping you, but start with the basics. Again, only after the basics are standardised, you start using the tool to remove manual work. For me, I can tell that I personally, we are using the few tools. We have copilot, we have chat pt, and we have our budgeting system.
(27:10):
But even myself, I have a weekly process I need to do in terms of some process and every week there's something that takes me an hour to do it. So I invested three hours in copilot to change the formula and it saved me 20 minutes a week. Again, it's a very small process that everyone can do, but saving those 20 minutes once a week aggregates to a lot of time savings. So start with small things, start with what really kills, do what really painful and start to improving it day by day. So I think the automation can start on an early stage and you go with it as the company Three, even the company grows once you have it. I think the next step, and not necessarily by this audit, it can be even before is the partnership. Again, we talked first in the math reality.
(27:55):
We talked about the standards and automation. Once you have the basic and once the business knows they can rely on you and you have the value to give them, you need to strength the relationship with the business, build trust and make sure FP&A is seen as part of the decision-making process. Now this part of being seen is kind of like the chicken and the egg because you need to bring value. So we'll be seeing, you want to be seeing in order to bring value. So it's a mix of both. You need to really, as I said, move the needle, bring the good insights, be valuable, and the partnership will go together with you. And obviously the last thing, which is super, super important that I said before is keep improving. Always review and make small upgrades. Those tiny gains that keeps you moving forward will take you to the next step and always ask other peers how they do it, because I can tell you that from my point of view, at least once or twice a month, I get someone from another company asking, how are you doing your focus for top line, what you're doing in your budgeting system, which a tool you just took, and what are you doing with that?
(29:01):
Because I think it's super, super improving. Keep improving in your domain, keeping improving in the company domain and borrow some other insights from other company. At the end of the day, we will be super happy to help each other. So I think those five items are the most important one. One we thing. I think it very, very important that at any given time, before the first item, after that third item, every time, you need to make sure you have the right team around you. And it doesn't matter if you have only two members in your team or you have 15 members in your team. You need to have the right team around you because if there is a gap in skills, experience, approach, it can slow you down and the deliverables and it's like a snowball. So I think it's super, super important for the leader of the FP&A to invest time in developing their people and helping them grow because once you have them grow, they will be engaged with you and together you can grow up and really scale up the business. I think this is super, super important in every stage of every company, scaling fp and a. It's not about system, it's really about the people, the communication and the culture. I think this one is extremely important,
Host: Paul Barnhurst (30:13):
As I always like to say, and you nailed it right there. It's people which includes culture, processes, and then technology is an enabler. It's not going to solve your solutions, but it will enable you to be more efficient and effective when used properly,
Guest: Noam Sever (30:27):
Especially exactly. By the way, I just posted a post on LinkedIn I think a week ago and I said that we have the last backboard that everyone has is AI savvy. You write everywhere. We want AI savvy. This is very, very trendy to write on every JD job description. You want an AI savvy in network that for me, AI savvy is the curiosity. This is the most important because the tools will follow you. You just need to do, you just need to understand what is bothering you and what you want to improve and the tools can come later. I think it's super, super important before the system, before the processes is the people, the culture and the communication.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (31:05):
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(32:16):
You can see it for yourself. Sign up for a live demo of l@campfire.ai. That's campfire do ai. I couldn't agree more and I love how you said curiosity, right? I'll take that person who's curious, proactive has a desire to learn over the person who knows all the tools but isn't curious, not proactive. People can learn systems and systems are going to change. Yes, you have to have a baseline of knowledge, but at the end of the day, curiosity, being proactive, all things you mentioned are just so important, right? Culture, et cetera. So I want to ask you one more question before we move into our FP&A section where we kind of have some fun answers for you or some fun questions around FP&A that we ask every guest. So in your opinion, what are the key skills or the key traits for someone to be successful at an early stage company in fp and a? Are there some key things they need
Guest: Noam Sever (33:20):
In an early stage? The one that owns the fp and a, he needs to know that he comes to an early stage fp a, and it doesn't matter if he comes from a big company or from a small company. He need to understand where he stand. He need to be super hands-on, super flexible and agile and very close to the business because once you have it, as I said before, this is the foundation of the foundation. Once you really understand the business, once you really understand the pain points, you will have more value. Because in some companies in private company, they can say, okay, do a focus only once a quarter or twice a year because it's not that important. We don't have the guidance to the market. We can do it only, I dunno, once a quarter, but once you understand the pain points of the company before they grow, you understand you have the AWS hosting issues, you understand you have the inventory in how the company, once you understand it and you dive in, even if it's not the most urgent, but it's most important, it'll help you and the business scale up.
(34:20):
So I think this is the most important and this is the foundation because when the company will scale up and become a public and everything, sometimes you will not have the time to do it. So you need to really start with the basic and what really painful for the business, for the management and for you once you are getting to a large scale fp and a, I think it's more about influence the processes. As I said before, the accountability of the business, the communication and working together. Because once you go together and you set the rhythm again for all the FP&A or non FP&A budget owners or business partners, it'll help you be successful At the beginning you win by doing everything by yourself, but at the company scale you win by helping other do things better and together. So I think this is the advice they can give. Yeah,
Host: Paul Barnhurst (35:06):
Good advice. Early days, you have to be a good individual contributor in being able to do everything as a company scales, especially if you're going to be in leadership, you have to be good at delegating, working with others, collaborating versus doing it yourself, which is a hard transition.
Guest: Noam Sever (35:21):
Yes, yes, yes. Very. I think it's very, very challenging. Not difficult. We don't have difficult, we challenging. I think it's very, very challenging to change the mindset because if you're a corporate fp a guy or you are a private or a small company, FBNA guy, it's a bit difficult to do the shift between one place to another. You should have some kind of maturity to be able to do this shift and it's not for everyone. Sometimes everyone want to be in the corporate and that everything's structured and organised and sometimes you have someone loves all, everything keep on changing and evolving and everything is a bit of a mess. A bit of you say in Hebrew, so it depends on the person.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (36:02):
A hundred percent agree. There are definitely people personality, they're better fit for a startup and there's others that are better fit for a large company. It's why not everybody's an entrepreneur. It doesn't mean not everybody can do it, but there are definitely those people are just a more natural fit for certain roles, certain companies, et cetera. So I totally agree with you on that. It's a
Guest: Noam Sever (36:25):
Matter of skill, it's a matter of mindset, it's a matter of things you prefer to do. It's everything together as you said.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (36:31):
Yeah, like you said, skill, mindset and then what you prefer to do. Some people can be great at both, but they don't like one or the other.
Guest: Noam Sever (36:38):
Exactly.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (36:39):
All right, so we got three questions here. These are standard ones we ask a lot of our guests. So the first one, in your opinion, what is the number one technical skill that FP&A professionals should master?
Guest: Noam Sever (36:52):
I don't think we have one, but I think that one of the major one that should have for every FP&A driver-based modelling, if you know how to connect the business activity to financial results, you can focus on almost everything. And again, try to touch the pain points, try to understand where it really move the needles and what really changed the business, the p and l or the forecast, start with the basic model it and you can go whatever you want. Each company has its own blind spots and they have been a to understand exactly what is the painful and solve it. As I said before, for that software company, it can be the converting from a CV to a RR or the metrics of the customer metrics. It can be the hosting and for hardware company, it can be the other codes, which is a big mystery. It can be the inventory which can have a big impact. It can be either way. So understanding those pain points and closing those gaps is where bring the value. Even by the way I said if the focus can jump a quarter can jump a few months, but once you deal with the road cause of what bother CEO and the CFO the most, you are on the high rate to do whatever you
Host: Paul Barnhurst (38:03):
Yeah, driver based modelling, great example. And I agree with you, there's not one, it's always fun to see if people have to pick one, which one they share because we all need more than one skill. But what about that soft skill or human skill as some people call it, what do you think? Is that the one you put at the top of your list?
Guest: Noam Sever (38:20):
Yes. If I had to choose one, I would choose two because I think that the most ones are communication and trust, which is basically can be transitioned to one thing, but it's both. People need to believe you can help them trust both you and the number you provide. So it's a matter of time and results. Once this trial start scaling up your own personality, not necessarily the company. You scale up your own personality, you give value, you give accurate numbers and people know they can trust you. You own the partnership and you, you'll grow together with the management team, with the company and with your team. So I think communication and trust are the most important. And in general, communication is super, super important to know how to work with everyone, how to engage everyone. So I think this is it. Yeah,
Host: Paul Barnhurst (39:08):
Communication and trust is definitely important. Alright. Excel wouldn't be an fp, a podcast without an Excel question, right? We all love our Excel. So what's one trick or tip you have learned that's helped you the most working in Excel?
Guest: Noam Sever (39:24):
Use plug number. No, I'm kidding. Plug.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (39:27):
Just plug it and be done.
Guest: Noam Sever (39:29):
Just plug it and everything will go away. I think the most important, and I said it before is keep your model clean, separate inputs, calculation and outputs. Because once you have a model, and it doesn't matter if it's three years model, if it's a consumption model, if it's just travels analysis model, once you have it very, very clean, organised it simple, everyone around you can use, it can challenge, it can add the value from it, you can share it with your peers, you can share it with the team members, you can share it with the leadership and everyone will really understand and will let the benefits from it, it'll make your light easier and your model stronger. So I think this is super, super important and I think that for all models it's always important and this is something that not everyone is doing. And I think that once you're adding sensitivity analysis to your models, first of all it present maturity of you as a business person because it present what you think is the risk and the opportunities. And once you have the model, very, very clean, very, very simple, very, very separated with what I said, and you have the sensitive analysis, you have the old package, you have everything and you know exactly what is the risk, what are the opportunities and what can really change the numbers if something happens.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (40:43):
Got it. Appreciate that. We're going to move on to our next section and I agree with you on that last one. I'm a huge fan of designing your models. Well I think it's incredibly valuable. I wish I had learned earlier in my career how to do it better. Alright, so this next section is where we get to know you a little bit personally. So we have a couple personal questions ask you. First one is, what do you like to do in your spare time? What's your kind of hobby or passion when you're not working
Guest: Noam Sever (41:09):
Excel? What do you mean? Not everyone likes to
Host: Paul Barnhurst (41:13):
When you're not in Excel, I mean I know you like to go to sleep with your spreadsheet open.
Guest: Noam Sever (41:19):
Yes I do actually. My hobby is mainly being around family and friends. We love travelling together on weekends, vacation and I try to stay very connected to my friends as well, even during busy times. Thank this is the most important thing for me.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (41:36):
I love it. So big family, friends, you're spending time with people. A lot of value in that favourite travel destination. If you go anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go?
Guest: Noam Sever (41:46):
I'm a big fan of nature. I'm Swiss, so I have a special office of Switzerland, but every place has its own uniqueness and everything. I like to see new places in the past I travelled to South America with my wife. It was amazing. The view was amazing. But again, I'm a big fan of just being outside and see nature in its beauty. Well,
Host: Paul Barnhurst (42:06):
If you ever get a chance, Utah has some beautiful, beautiful nature.
Guest: Noam Sever (42:11):
I've been in Utah about 10 years ago. It was very nice. Yes.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (42:14):
Did you do southern Utah go down to the desert area or what part of Utah?
Guest: Noam Sever (42:19):
I was in the desert area. It was only about four or five days. It was on the way to another place, but I remember it was very nice. It was about 10 years ago. It, it's been a while, but I love it.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (42:29):
Well, great. Love it. Obviously one of my favourite areas. Alright, so this is a fun one. We're going to ask you if you could have the job of any person in the world or kind of any job for one week, what would you pick and why?
Guest: Noam Sever (42:43):
Only one week.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (42:45):
Fine. You could have it for a year if you want.
Guest: Noam Sever (42:47):
Okay. Years. Okay. I think maybe it's not surprising, but to be honest, I think I would like to be an architect because I love building things from stretch in fp NA and not in fp NA. And I think this is something I would be good at and I would love doing it.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (43:01):
All right, architect. I like it. And I could see definitely some similarities, designing models, designing buildings. There's some both design principles in both roles for sure. All right. So any final advice or anything you could add to kind of what we've talked about today to our audience, particularly around the whole idea of being a better business partner? If you could give some advice for them to be a better business partner, what would it be?
Guest: Noam Sever (43:27):
I think the most important, and especially when you start your journey, I know it's not easy, but ask questions and ask good questions. It's two things that combine to one. First of all, ask questions. There's not a question that cannot be asked because you must understand everything. You must to be super, super intimate with the numbers and the business. So ask good questions. When you ask this question, you have the ability, not just report the number and really explain what they mean. Focus on the insight, not the outputs. Don't be shy, be curious. As I said, it'll make your work better. Improve the personal brand of yourself and the FP&A team. Of course, remember that every cycle in fp a, we have so many cycles. Every cycle is a chance to learn and improve every forecast, every budget, every process, every model with a chance to improve, to do better for the FP&A team, for the company, and for your own branding.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (44:23):
Love it. Alright, last thing. If someone's listening to this episode and they would like to get in contact with you or learn more about you, what's the best way for them to do that?
Guest: Noam Sever (44:32):
You're more than welcome to get me through LinkedIn. Always eager to help to support. I always answer. Feel free to reach out.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (44:40):
Well, thank you for that and thank you so much no for joining us today. It's been a pleasure to chat with you and I'm excited for the audience to get to learn from your wisdom. So thanks again for carving out some time for me.
Guest: Noam Sever (44:52):
Thank you very much. It was a pleasure.
Host: Paul Barnhurst (44:54):
That's it for today's episode of FP&A Unlocked. If you enjoy FP&A unlocked, please take a moment to leave a five star rating and review. It's the best way to support the FP&A guy and help more FP&A professionals discover the show. Remember, you can earn CPE credit for this episode by visiting earmark cpe.com, downloading the app, and completing the quiz. If you need continuing education credits for the Fpac certification, complete the quiz and reach out to me directly. Thanks for listening. I'm Paul Barnhurst, the FP&A guy, and I'll see you next time.