Learning and Leading as a Modern CFO, with Basem Waheed

TRANSCRIPT

Wassim Kamon: Welcome back to the diary of the CFO today. I'm so pleased to have my first international guest all the way from Saudi Arabia, Mr. Basem Waheed, he is a CFO of a company called golden chicken company. You have such an incredible background. Welcome on the show.

Basem Waheed: Thank you Wassia for having me today. And I'm very happy to be with you and the first international guest with you.

Wassim Kamon: I'm so glad that we connected a few years ago. we get to talk.

So my first question I always wanted to ask was what was your leadership journey? Like what are some of the big moment? Like, how do you get to the role where you are now and successful at it? Cause you have a lot of awards too.

Basem Waheed: Actually, I love the finance because this is the place where you can see always the business.

So I have this passion about the business and how is the businesses work, you know, and how you can manage the business. This is from the early days. My journey is go through a lot of steps, starting from normal accountant journey start. And then again, I find I'm passionate also with learning. So I need to learn something new every day, not to keep myself only.

Overwhelming with the numbers and crunching only the numbers and what I realized from the beginning Crunching the numbers or knowing all the rules of the finance like the gap I for instance or will not handle the business I work in the beginning in the mid and small size company where you know you do a lot of things and Things is little bit open when it's coming, you know, for the knowledge and you see the conversation between your boss and the CEO of the company or the other management company as well.

So you learn, okay, what is the topics and what, how this. higher management, the discussion is there. What is the board? They are saying what is the shareholders he needs. So actually it's coming to this point. I realized, no, I need to learn and they need to have this lifelong learning. And it is not about one time.

And also I feel, and it is not all about technical. It is. A technical plus a leadership as well. So technically, yes, you need it at some point where you are managing a team and you become supervisors in a managers. And but when you reach this level, or you need to reach this level, or you have to think differently.

Okay. It is not about how much technical you have. Right? So, uh, so I realize it is about need a soft skills as well and need the communication. I realize also I am good in communication and then good communicator. So this is by natural. Sometimes I get advised I should work with the sales team, not in the finance team.

Wassim Kamon: I get the same too.

Basem Waheed: What do you think, how to balance between the technical and, you know, and, uh, the soft skills and how this can impact in this roles as a CFO? What do you think from your experience?

Wassim Kamon: So from my experience, you have to be technical when you start your career. So like you said, you were an accountant, right?

So you needed to understand, okay, what are the debits or credits? You needed to understand how a transaction will end on your financials. But as you get into leadership, you probably now have people working for you who are into those aspects. And now your role is to make life easier for them for making life easier for an accounting or finance team means understanding what are the roadblocks.

Maybe we need to have a better systems, but in all that to implement it. You need the soft skills. You need the communication. You need to be able to motivate your team to get people to stop bothering your team and help them better and say, Hey, I need you to turn around this quicker so we can close, for example, the month on business day three or whatever.

So I think it's as you grow. Yes, technical skills are very important, maybe in the first one to five years at most. But then as you rise in leadership, now you need the extra stuff. And that is usually a soft skills. So why don't you tell me how did it work for you? Because you probably started as working by yourself and then you started leading people and then you started managing managers and then you started managing directors.

So what was that progression like for you?

Basem Waheed: Yes, actually, as you mentioned in the beginning, you need to work by your hand and you need to know everything about the business. And you need to communicate also with the people to know how is the business work and put all the numbers and look for the numbers by yourself.

This is what will reshape your thinking about the work, right? Then you need also to ask yourself what is beyond numbers? So always this is take my my attention. Always. What is beyond number that I need to ask a people why we reach or why we have this numbers? Why we? Okay. Right. Then secondly, you will manage a team and you will feel sometimes at some point when you manage the team is.

To do it by yourself is easier than to teach anyone for doing right. So I still to myself, no, I need to do this investment. I need to teach my team what I'm doing to be afraid to advise them. Whenever you grow in your career, your position will become more advisor and less technical. So you need to, to make the people, uh, uh, the life of the people be better.

Mm-hmm . So you will feel, okay. I tell my team always, we will start from 60%. Okay? I will ask you to do by yourself and 60% right? The 40% will complete it together, right? The next time when you do it, you need to reach 70%. Once you reach a hundred percent, I'm happy and they will not do it again. And I will not believe me.

I will not work by my hand, not because I don't want to work by my hand, because this is not the time to work here. And I might, my, my role now is only advisor to advise you and where you go and what we should do. So this is how I built the trust with my team and I give them also their space to be creative and try by, by themselves, right?

Here I have a good word I'm using with my team. Let's embrace the failure this time, but make sure next time it will not repeat. This is the most important thing. It is about doing some mistakes or no. So this is how it work with the team and how you build the trust. And this is how you should manage the team.

Wassim Kamon: Okay. I love the example you just gave 60, 70, 80%. It gives you milestones.

So how do you build a trust then with the other stakeholders, right? Because as a CFO, you're managing your team, but you're also dealing with people in other department, like marketing, production, and so on. How do you build that trust there as well?

Basem Waheed: First of all, I realized one thing. Sometimes you go to a meeting to debate the numbers, not to discuss the numbers, right? Oh, okay. What's the

Wassim Kamon: difference between the two?

Basem Waheed: So, as a finance, we always love to have accurate numbers. And sometimes if also the company working in silos, everyone come to the meeting, have his own numbers.

So let's say we have a sales and you have to system on the finance system, and maybe you have a system and everyone will come. So they said, No, it is not. This number is this number. It is not. Not this, but instead of you should discuss why we, we have this number, how we can improve our numbers, how we can have better next month.

So you start saying, no, this is correct or wrong. This is what I'm trying to do. No, before any numbers go from the finance. I mean, try to check with other department, make it one number. Sure. What we're going to discuss the meeting, all we agreed for the number. Let's now go to discuss this number, how we can improve our numbers, why we have this months such as this numbers.

So this is, uh, managing the accuracy of the finance going or the number going out from the finance, because you need to take like a conscience for your number, right? So people have to agree. This is the right number we have from the finance easily. You will lose the trust. If your number is wrong or one time one report true out from the finance, you will lose the trust of the finance number and if this happens, you lose a lot.

So what I'm saying also finance, it is the reputation is about reputation.

Speaker 6: Yes,

Basem Waheed: reputation with the team and ensure what you have is the right thing. So you have in the beginning, you have to spend this. What I'm saying, you have to spend with your teams a good time to teach them. Ensure all the reports we have, even the completed.

60 percent the 40 percent new still till you reach the 100 percent then now also, you'll have a start the communication because why I'm saying the finances, you know, it's the most important people can influence the company decision because finally, if you are data driven decision and the decision take based in the data.

And so if you have any wrong numbers, this means you drive the wrong decision. True company not go, you are not, the organization is not going to take the right decision. Mm-hmm. So you have to take the, the, you have to ensure your numbers is correct. Free bias, this is the first and important point. Mm.

Should be free and bias. You don't have any agenda to discuss these numbers because you always, you have to remind yourself, you are supporting the company, you are not supporting the people. And second, you are supporting the people. This is what will help to take the right decision. If you are feel and if you believe in this data driven decision is very important for the company.

So this is how we will build the trust with all the stakeholders. You will feel at sometimes even though you build this trust, you are. Go to for the people, right? So, okay. Yes, let's discuss with the C4. Let's discuss with the finance team before we take any decision. This is how we build the relation with other with other stakeholders in the company.

You always remember it is a win win. It is not only you need to force your your opinion in other people. No, you have to hear the other perspective. Why we achieve this one. Most of the time, it is not about quantitative. It is quantitative and qualitative. And this is very important as a C4. If you not understand this importance of qualitative factors, you will not be able to drive the decision in the campaign.

Wassim Kamon: Yes. And I'm very impressed by what you said on so many points, right? How you make sure that Your reputation matters because people will not take stuff from you if they don't trust you, and it's easy to lose that trust. So you never arrive. You always have to check. And I like that you said that you always want to make sure you align with your team, align with other department, because a lot of time our systems don't always talk.

Now, I think you led digital transformation before and trying to bring systems to say the same, the same thing, but it's not always easy. To make sure we are all on the same page, right?

So can you tell us a bit more about what are some of the things you try to do to get there in terms of accuracy of numbers, especially when you have a lot of manual processes, a lot of different systems.

Basem Waheed: Digital transformation is very important and crucial for any company or especially when this company is relying in data driven decision. So, first of all, and the most important point to understand your company culture, right? So, how is the culture of the company? And now, if you think about the digital transformation, you need to think how the top management will buy in from us.

What we are selling to them, the important of the digital transformation. The second point, what is your team and the other team also the mid, mid management or the lower, the lower team, what they, they will buy from you or no, because they will sink. And they will be resistant and they love to do what they do always every day.

Right. And when it's coming to the digital transformation, they will say, okay, this is fine. You are going to replace us with this digital. You're doing now. So, it's a communication, as we said, in the beginning is very important. You have to speak with everyone why we are doing this project explain to them.

Why is it digitally important? We are implementing the digital to improve your life, but to take your place. We know always for any project new project will happen or you implement it will be difficult. We'll have some issues, but our partner to ensure we will overcome this all issues. We will implement it and we will enjoy the life after we have it in the place.

We did a lot of digital transformation here and starting from SAP and now we are trying to also embrace the AI and coming bringing to some work of manual work. We are doing and repetitive task. We are doing everything. What I see the people in the beginning will be very resistant. So your part as a leader, as a leader, you need to do one thing for us proves the concept for them.

I remember a few days before I have a discussion with one of my colleague and we say, we did a lot of things. Now we are eliminates the paperwork now and now the people not printing much paper and we save a lot of time. And the people is still working same and we don't, we don't lay off or we don't, you know, send anyone to, to his home because we bring the digital, but now his life improve and our also life is improved because, you know, when you request a report to request something from anyone, and this is only going manual, it will take long time.

And maybe the decision will not wait to you. To get to collect your data to take the decision right now with this fast environment we have nowadays and the competition and the competitor and what they are doing and you need to be this agility in the place. If you not have the right data, right time.

You're not able to take the decision. It will be always behind your decision. So this is what you need to communicate with your team and all the company. Keep open discussion, be transparent, explain to the people. You don't assume people knows. Yes. What is important, important from this digital you're doing today, right?

No, you go and speak, explain and, you know, explain and explain and explain, help them also show them when you have a problem. During the implementation, how you handle did you get worried and say, no, better we go for the old system. What we have or no, let's continue on. We solve the problem. I remember I have a good discussion with my previous boss.

When we get to implement a CB, he wants the system to be war with the old system. For two months, at least to ensure the data and compared it. I said, no, it will not work because people will always say, first of all, they will complain because we are working in two systems. Secondly, they will say, okay, for for give the priority for the old system, because this is the right result.

We assume we get it every time. So I said, no, we will shut down. We'll take the decision. And let's take this on our shoulders. And we are here to to to ensure any problem we solve. And this is what we did and why we are successful today. And we reach the monthly closing for his day next month. Plus what?

Really? And we have it. Yes. So we celebrate with this one. And we said, okay, this is it is not one time. Let's see what how much we are consistent for what we are doing. So now for six months. Now we are we have the same and they said now means. Every month we'll close the first day in the following months.

Plus whatever data required from the management for any decision now is available all the time and we can submit to them to take the decision. That is amazing because I think your

Wassim Kamon: company is a manufacturing company, right?

Basem Waheed: We are actually, you can say, mixed for everything was here. Oh, okay. When it's coming to the poultry, poultry have FMCG.

We have us moving goods where the chicken, we sell the fresh chicken seven days a week. Okay. This is the shell expiry. Manufacturing and you have a poultry and you have agriculture. So it's a mix from everything, right?

Wassim Kamon: Oh, wow. And you're still closing one day. That's impressive.

Basem Waheed: One day. And we have the full chain.

The company, we have a fully chain and every chain can be a separate company. So it's a great, it's a great journey for the digital. That's why I feel the digital. It's very important now. And this is what I encourage every C4, especially C4s. They go and study the digital. And this is what I did. And study the AI.

You know, the AI now is the talk of town now, right? So I said, no, why I need to stay in this bus. I will go and study the AI and see how I can leverage this inside my company. And with this one was four months. We learned the first project for us to do it. And it is. It's boasting the productivity for the people saving costs, you know, a lot of things.

And you don't need also to think how I implement AI everywhere in my company. No, it is not like this. Take a small project, prove the concept again, success, prove it to the management, prove it to your team, then go for the next step. Case by. Nice.

Wassim Kamon: Nice. Not trying to do everything at the same time. Yes. And I love your approach to leading change, right?

When you say explain, explain, explain, you are basically selling the idea and showing people what's in need for them, right? Like how will my life be better afterwards? And when you think about that, it's really a change in mindset, especially coming from somebody that was in accounting. So what.

Actually helped you shift your mindset from being in the details to being more strategic to think about how you can bring new technology to your team.

What was that journey like? Did you have mentors? Is it a class or is it something that bother you? And like, okay, forget it. I'm going to change it. Like, how was it for you to shift your mindset to where you are now?

Basem Waheed: The first thing happened and the impact to me again, what I'm saying is. Love to speak to the people.

I speak to all the understand the business. I love to have this business acumen, right? So I speak to the cells. When I speak to the, okay, what is happening, what happened in the market, why we have this one, what is our competitors doing? Then you are understand what is your markets landscape happening.

Then I speak to production team, what is happening, what is your problem, why we have this one, how we can improve. So what is your pains? So you, when you listen also to what, what they have, it will help you a lot to understand, to find solution.

Then again, at some point I feel no alone. I cannot do it alone.

Also still now I'm growing. I need a mentor. Yes. I go for a mentor and I ask what am I thinking about the mentor? Mentor can give you what, what you can learn in five, six years, or even 10 years can give you in one month. So he will give you all his experience in one month in one topic. Yes. Yes. Yes. Then I look for a mentor and I work with mentors.

It's helped me a lot.

Then again, as I was saying before, it's learning also. Then I have this passion about learning and I see, okay, yes, I'm good in accounting. Debit credit will not help me a lot, but I need to learn how to be a strategic thinking, how to manage business. How is the CEO is managed the whole company?

What is the talk inside the boardroom? So for this, all I need to go and learn and, you know, by myself, I need to discover this. Because sometimes the experience or whatever you find in your company, especially if you stay a long time inside your company, it will be a limit, have a limit, right? Sure. With this limitation, you need to search outside and meet people, see different things for education.

And I'm not mean by education. Always you have a professional certification. It's very important. And I have to, but at some point I realized I said, no, again, it's not about adding beside my name more and more, more letters. Yes, it is. I start with the same. May I see, I see the same. It's enough more than enough as a C4, as a finance major, the knowledge there can be help me.

But again, why I need to add the CPA to me, it's not because the CPA is good or bad. No, I'm saying why I need the CPA. So this is the reason I'm asking myself questions. Why I need to have the CPA and maybe it will not add anything to me and because knowing all the rules in the world or you know, the study all the gaps, maybe it's not, you'll not use it for what you are doing currently.

Yes. Yes.

Then I said, okay, no, I need to learn something practical. So you have to went somewhere or some courses or some people meet people, even though they do practical. So this kind, kind of learning will help you a lot. So this is, this is how can, how can, you know, do the things and how you can grow and you can, you can help yourself to grow.

And this is the main important point to learn to do this one. The self awareness, if you know, what is your stress strength is and what is your weaknesses, this will help you a lot to build with it. Right? So you will, you will work in your strengths to grow this. And meanwhile, also you'll work for your witnesses to avoid this all witnesses and what you learn.

Ask yourself question. You don't have sick of learning. Ask yourself how I can use what I love for day to day work, right? How I can implement what I learned inside my company. You don't wait someone to give you the project to use what you learn. No, sometimes I think about what I learn. I think, okay, we face this situation in the company.

But if I learn or apply this work to our company and do by myself and try and try, then whatever I found, I speak to my boss. I speak to my colleague. I speak to validate what I'm seeing is correct or wrong, right? So then you will understand. Yes, this is. It's, it's work. Then again, you need to make more reflection for what you learn.

So this is what helped you to grow a lot. And this is when save years of experience to learn immediately and grow yourself or you reach the position, whatever you need immediately.

Wassim Kamon: That's awesome. And it speaks a lot to being able to take risk. Because a lot of time, especially when you're coming from accounting and and finance, we like things to be structured.

We like things to be almost like in a box, right? So when you think about growing your career, yes, the work of accounting, you have to operate within a box. But to grow in your career, you kind of have to break away from any boxes you may have and be willing to look elsewhere.

So for you now, where you are, if you could go back in time and look at yourself 10 years ago, 20 years ago, what advice would you give the young Bicep?

Basem Waheed: If I have one advice only, I will say learning, lifelong learning, and keep learning, learning will not fail. You don't tell yourself now, no, I am, I am good with what I have now. And the second advice, if I want to give, if I have the second to tell, it is self awareness. Sit with yourself and ask. Like you said, always, we said company strategy.

What is your strategy? What is your, what, what you want, where you want to reach, right? You want, you want to be in the blue ocean, or you want to be in the red ocean, or you want to be a different kind of person. The second advice, the third advice, if I have to tell it is. You don't look for other people's journey because you don't see what they face in their journey to reach there, right?

The only thing is you have to learn from their journey. You have to see what is, what can make the journey short for you to reach what they reach.

Speaker 6: So this

Basem Waheed: is the only thing, but you don't say, no, this guy, he's rich early or rich late, or you don't think you don't keep bother yourself with other people, what they are doing.

See what is my strategy. Where I want to go and always jump from your comfort zone against what is mine telling telling you, I jumped to learn digital. I joined, uh, two courses in two big universities to learn digital and AI, right? And data also, which is maybe it is not my comfort zone. It is not related what I'm going to do, but I see this is the future and to be have this holistic view and can be able as an advisor to help the company, you need to have at least the basic things in your hand where you can put all together, but the financial, then you will be able to influence the decision with knowledge, not only from What you feel and that feeling.

So what is your take in this? What's the, what is.

Wassim Kamon: Oh, you said so many great things. You said so many great things for me. The biggest one is always getting outside of your comfort zone. Because what I realized now, especially in the role of the CFO is people will pull you into discussions that have nothing to do with your background.

In a situation and people are talking engineering or deep into the metrics. And you're like, why am I in this meeting? Because they value you as finance being in this meeting. So it's almost like, you can't just say, I'm just going to stay in my box in finance and accounting. You have to be pulled into all these different conversation about marketing strategy, not just business strategy, just specifically marketing strategy, infrastructure operations.

How are we moving here? Are we moving there? To me being comfortable being outside of your comfort zone is always a big one for me and learning to, yes, I'm all time learner, putting myself out there like this podcast, like really what's here. But it, it allows me to talk to people like you and other leaders who understand and to enlarge my perspective.

Because as you said, when you have the right people in your life, you can collapse learning seven years into one month. It is so true. It really resonated with me.

Um, and my last question for you is knowing what, where you are now, there's probably some challenges that You may not have felt prepared for like how you get buying from the board or from the CEO because you have that mindset of the modern CFO.

So you're not thinking as a victim, but how do you navigate those waters where you don't, you don't always feel certain.

Basem Waheed: So this is again, this coming, uh, uh, as we are saying, it is not when you are sitting in the boardroom, no one will ask you how is the IFRS work. Yes, they will talk business and when it's coming, talking to the business, it is the first thing you will, the first talk will come about the strategy where we want to go, where we want to play, how we can win in this all kind of stuff.

The second thing will come. Okay. How always I will help the question come to my mind, how I can help the company and aligns strategy with what I'm doing in my position now. Okay. Financially and everything, right? So it'll come. No. Anyone will know everything. You'll be, have some areas where you are comfortable.

I come from the if fp and e and costing area and budgeting and this all kind of stuff. So when it's coming to this areas, I am answer. I close my eyes and answer, right? Uhhuh, , they know very well when it's coming to other area. Example, maybe you don't see for your day-to-day, like, hmm, going ipo, going public, and this all kind of stuff.

So now, okay. The good thing what I'm doing always, I don't wait for the opportunity to come or the question to come to me. I'm always beyond the question, right? Anticipating. Yes, anticipating. So if I see the strategy for the company now that the shareholders decide example for the exit strategy by IPO or M& A or anything kind of stuff or growth, whatever is good.

I need to involve myself for going to learn something about the M& A. How is doing? What is valuation? What is the best for valuation? What is the aspects influence the valuation? As example, going to the IPO, what is the rules for IPO? What is the rules for the market? How you can do it, even though it is not in your, in your work now, it's not required now, but maybe at some point it will be required.

So that's why I'm always continuously, continuous learning. Then you don't wait for the question come to you. Then you said, wait. I will go search and come back to they won't know anyone will wait. You right? I have a good good thing. I'm always saying you have to create the opportunity to yourself. Nice.

You'll be able to take the opportunity when it's when the opportunity comes to you. Sometimes the opportunity come to us and we are not ready. Um, then what you'll do opportunity will not wait. You're saying, okay, we'll see you in six months, right? So, okay, wait, wait, we'll go and bring someone. He's ready to, to do this one for us.

And we don't need yours. We don't need your, your knowledge or you go and learn and come to come to teach us how we do it or something, or you help us. So this is not there. So always create two things creates opportunity. And be ready for the opportunity. That's nice.

Wassim Kamon: Drop the mic. So much wisdom. I love it.

I love it. I love it.

Now you mentioned one mentor, but I think you probably have a lot of mentors. Okay. Because you don't look like you. 75 years old. So tell us a bit about your mentoring strategy of how you get all this great knowledge into yourself and collapse that learning and be able to grow so fast in your career.

Basem Waheed: The first mentor for me, my father. Right. Oh,

Wassim Kamon: okay. Yes.

Basem Waheed: So I asked him because he's teaching me the life, not teaching me the business. So always I go to, I go to ask him about the life and second, second mentor for me, I'm, I'm very happy with this one and you know, I'm, maybe I'm lucky my boss, and this is very rare when you see your boss is become your mentor because I have an open conversation with him always about the business, about the life.

What he did before, and he told me about him in 1996. What is what I did, and there is no computer now excel. This is how I do it. And secondly, I also get the two mentors for me, and I see, okay, whenever I have a topic, sometimes, you know, you are not able to do or to take a decision because you are to make a decision because you are.

Inside the things you say, always you are overwhelming with what you are doing day to day, so you are not seeing the big

Speaker 6: picture.

Basem Waheed: So I go and ask them, now I'm in this situation, you are outside of this situation, you can advise me now what I should do in this situation. So I get this, uh, two mentors, I love to work with mentors always and this has shaped my thinking big time.

And secondly also when I see, uh, I learn from my peers. I do a lot of training and a lot of courses learning also from, from peers, what they are doing, how they are thinking, how the thing's doing and what is helping me big time learn from peers out of finance.

Wassim Kamon: Ah, okay.

Basem Waheed: So tell us more, tell us

Wassim Kamon: more, download, download, download.

When you say I'm learning from peers from outside of finance, so you're going to other CMOs or like you're going to other people outside of finance, other industries.

Basem Waheed: You have to do this one. So you speak with people, they think about marketing, care about market, see their perspective, how they are doing, what is mean by marketing campaign, why they are doing marketing

Speaker 6: campaign,

Basem Waheed: right?

So, talk to the people, they are doing digital, then you see, learn the digital, how they are thinking, because what I'm looking, I'm not looking for their knowledge in digital, because I don't want to be a technical in digital, I need to see how they are thinking about the digital. Their mindset, they are, they are about seeing when I go to for marketing people, I'm not looking for how to learn how I do marketing, right?

No, I need to see what's the perspective for the market is where always I'm looking. It's little bit psychology. I love to see what is beyond how they are thinking from this perspective. This will give me different perspective from what I'm doing. So. As an example, when you have a marketing campaign, you will always ask first question.

What is our ROI from this market campaign? How much will increase our sales? If you have this marketing campaign in the place, then you'll start all ask all the quantitative questions, right? But no, when there is a marketing campaign, if you know, and you sit with Is it okay? Did you are going to increase your awareness?

What is your, why we are doing this one? What is our, what is our strategy for this market? Can it is to increase the awareness? So it's operational KPIs. Maybe it will increase the sales in the future. It is about bringing new customer. It is about branding wise. It is about, you know, we are launching a new product.

So you will ask this. Then finally. You'll see try to link this all what he's saying. Yes, there is a financial impact. It will come, but you cannot measure now. And this will be in the future. This is only will help will help you to shape your thinking because again and again, I'm saying C4. You are not leading a company or you are not influencing the decision by numbers only.

It is by numbers. It is by knowledge. It is by, you know, so many things together. So please, please, please. My advice to the finance guys, go out of numbers. Think beyond numbers and don't be biased for numbers. Don't bias for your numbers only. No, listen to the people. Maybe today you'll see the sales this month.

It is not because the performance is maybe because of the competition happen in the market, then you will think how I can or how we can help the company with something different to lower our price also, or increase our whatever we do. What is the strategy you choose to help them? Right? It is not about our team not doing well.

No. For the judge. First judge for the finance will come and say, Oh, ourselves down our thirsty, no perform. Right. What do you think about this one as a, you are also, I know you are a seafood also. So what do you think about this one?

Wassim Kamon: Yes, because there is always, there is so much going on because sometimes.

Your sales are down. What about the customer service on the floor? So maybe you had the right banners, the right thing, but when the customer went to actually experience a product, was there quality? What about the customer service? There is so much to, like you said, be beyond the numbers, behind the numbers.

There's so much happening, right? So many reasons. And so I think that's why a lot of companies will tend to go for consultants because they don't feel like. Internally, we understand what's going on and stuff like that, but I think that it goes back to what you are saying. You really have to enlarge your perspective by talking to different people and understanding, okay, what's really going on was a story behind the numbers.

Basem Waheed: Totally agreed.

And remember, remember where the finance guys, they have the helicopter view for the company from outside. So, because you are seeing all the financial numbers, if you link this financial also with what is happening in the market, what is happening inside your company and what is going on, you will be able, you know, to drive the decision in the right way.

So always link, link, link the numbers with what is happening around you. You will get better insights from numbers. Move from only you are a diagnosis guy or you are looking for descriptive always what happened in the past to foresight be analytical guy. Look for the future. See what can happen if we do here.

What is what will have what what will happen if we did this. Today and what will happen tomorrow. Keep the discussion going around you. You don't think you know everything. No. You know everything only when you speak to the people, you will know everything. Yes. You link the dots together.

Wassim Kamon: Yes. Yes. Thank you so much.

Ooh, that was so good. Thank you so much Bassem for being on the show. I really appreciate it. You gave so many insight. So many tips. I'm gonna use some of them. So, , thank you,

Basem Waheed: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to, um, I'm very pleasure to to be with you and, uh, again, uh, all, all best of luck, uh, for this, uh, seafood area.

And, uh, it will go inspire a lot of people. And I think it is not only what you are doing today, you are, you want to.

So please, uh, keep pushing and keep what you are doing.

Wassim Kamon: Thank you. Thank you so much.

That's it for today's episode of the Diary of the CFO. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any topic you would like me to cover in the future, please send it to ask at thediaryoftheCFO. com. Again, send an email to ask at thediaryoftheCFO.

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