Michael High, FPAC, has had a nearly 20-year career in finance. He currently works as the Vice President of Finance at Parkland Fuel Corporation and is Chair of the AFP Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Parkland, Michael worked at Shell, where he got his start as a Financial Analyst and steadily rose through the ranks to serve as Business Unit CFO - Deep Water Gulf of Mexico. In this interview with AFP, he shared lessons that treasury and FP&A can learn from crises, discussed the role of finance in driving growth and gave advice to aspiring finance executives.

Don’t Waste a Good Crisis

Sometimes, it takes a crisis to force a company to abandon its old ways of doing things and embrace change. The financial crisis of 2008 is one such example that has stuck with Michael. “What you needed was not just people who thought about risk but also people who could look in front of the headlights and understand where things might go,” he said.

In other words, companies needed FP&A. As more companies recognized the need for people who could help navigate uncertainty, the FP&A function grew. And as these companies developed stronger scenario planning, they became more resilient in the face of crisis.

“Companies who went into the Covid-19 pandemic with a sense of what could happen in the future and a playbook to deal with whatever unfolded were able to get back on track. You can see this at the macro level, where the U.S. economy had the shallowest dip and the best recovery coming out. Companies can follow that same kind of example,” said Michael.

On the treasury side, the pandemic emphasized the importance of maintaining sufficient cash reserves to sustain ongoing operations. “Those who went into the pandemic with a pretty weak balance sheet and all of a sudden saw the top line shrink by 50% potentially went insolvent. You have to have your house in order and save money for a rainy day,” he said.

Overseeing a company’s financial resources means not only mitigating risks but also identifying opportunities — even during a crisis. As an example, Michael pointed out how companies that refinanced their debt during the pandemic, especially those who put longer durations on it, are not as exposed to rate increases.

He explained that companies that had strong cash reserves and locked in historically low rates during the pandemic “came out much stronger than they may have had the crisis never happened.”

Invest Proactively for Agility and Resilience

In addition to having a playbook and money on the balance sheet, Michael advises that companies should proactively consider the investments, people, technology and equipment they need to be resilient and agile in the face of any crisis.

“Companies who went into the pandemic having invested in the right technology and platforms were ready to be agile,” he said.

Looking forward, Michael sees technology as the differentiator between companies that will grow and those that will trail the leaders. “If you're already behind on your data, you're already behind on giving your people the right tools to be able to do their jobs. It's going to get away from you big time,” he said.

Investment in technology is no longer optional, and it affects the talent pipeline. Michael explained that people do not want to work at a company with antiquated, clunky systems and that there is an opportunity to tap into a growing pool of upskilled talent.

The Role of the ‘CF-Grow’

Whereas Michael would describe the finance executive of the past as a “CF-No” — someone who was focused on cutting spend — he sees the role transforming into a “CF-Grow.”

“At the end of the day, winning is more about revenue than cost, so when you run out of creative ideas for growing the top line, you aren’t able to grow your business and have to resort to cost cutting, but very few will win by the cost route,” he said.

According to Michael, being a “CF-Grow” means being a great business partner. This involves helping the business develop a playbook for dealing with changes — even beyond those that are purely financial. “Problems and opportunities are not from a single functional perspective. They are, by definition, general management,” he said.

The lesson, he explained, is that the more breadth you have, the more resilient you are. For example, he described a time when a company that was a key customer and supplier had become a victim of a major cyberattack. At this time, the company deviated from standard protocols and asked for materials to be texted or sent to personal emails.

Because he had some exposure to the issue from a previous job, he was able to lead the internal response, even though it was outside of his functional lane. “That’s what is expected of us as finance executives. You can’t know what crisis you're going to have to help with. It could be anything,” he said.

Employers Seek Practical Skills

According to Michael, the days of learning practical skills on the job are going away as more employers expect their hires to have them from day one. Where do you get these skills?

For current students, Michael advises going beyond the typical finance classes. Classes like marketing, operations management and even HR are useful for developing a general management skill set. He recommends prioritizing breadth over depth when choosing classes, as depth can be gained later through certification programs like the CTP and FPAC.

For those in the profession, Michael emphasized that upskilling and connecting cross-functionally are important. “The world where you were just FP&A or just treasury is over. We need to consider the interconnection between the two now,” he said.

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