In this episode, Sophie Jackson talks to Terhi Sipilä, CFO for Nestlé Professional Zone LATAM. They explore Terhi’s unique career journey and experience gained from working across LATAM for 13 years, as well as what changes to the CFO function are front of mind in LATAM and much more.

Hello and welcome to Ask A CFO, the podcast series that shines a light on the different paths taken to become Chief Financial Officer and explores the personal stories of those that have made the journey.

I'm Sophie Jackson and in this episode, I'm very excited to be joined by Terhi Sipila, LATAM Regional CFO at Nestlé, the well-known food and beverage company.

Terhi has a unique story. She was born in her native Finland and has had a career and life dedicated to working in Latin America.

Her very unique journey gives her a wealth of interesting insights into the skills and attributes needed to become a successful CFO, as well as much wisdom around the benefits and the challenges of living and working in different cultures and languages.

I am so excited to share our conversation, diving into some of her thoughts around her roles with you all. So first of all, for the benefit of all of our listeners, can I ask you just to introduce yourself and your current role?

Yeah, of course. So my name is Terhi. I'm originally from Finland. I've been with Nestlé for, this year is going to be 17 years. It's flown by. So now I'm based out of Switzerland. I'm the Regional CFO for LATAM. So it's a bit odd mix, I would say. I’m originally Finnish, living in Switzerland, but spending most of my days speaking in Spanish.

Fantastic. So I want us to think, Terhi about your journey.

So reflecting on your journey leading to your CFO role that you're in now, could you let me know what you think was the most pivotal role in shaping your development and preparing you for the responsibilities that you have today?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think really all of the roles have prepared me for the next one. There's been always learnings and then new things kind of coming along. And I started in audit. So I think that was a great starting point with the company like Nestlé, which is a huge organisation.

In internal audit, although it's not so much finance, I got to visit factories, distribution centres, head offices in different countries. So it gives a good perspective on what's happening with the company as well as a good perspective on the processes. And it also gives you organisation on when you start looking at data. Is the data organised?

You lose a lot of time in audit if you start analysing and then you realise the data is not what you needed and then you need to go back. So that kind of helped as well in looking at when I start to look at something, do I have everything I need in order to get to the answer I would need or what I'm looking for? So I think audit was definitely an excellent starting point.

And then going into, I went as a head of audit. So that going into leading teams before becoming a CFO was also very important. And then kind of coming as a country controller where you learned a lot about things that I hadn't seen before on processes, on cash flow, balance sheet. How does it all tie together and how does it impact my P&L and how does it impact the financial performance of the company?

So I think, especially at the beginning of my career, were kind of the most pivotal roles. And then, yeah, after that, every, all roles have been kind of more learning and then getting more information and then getting better at doing things.

And I guess now in these roles, like the last two roles, has been more about how to lead people, how to get people behind on your ideas, on your vision, on where do I want to lead the company and lead the finance department. So it's been more in leading people and leading the organisation.

I guess the answer to your question is everything, all my roles have been important in the terms of shaping me on who I am today and how do I go about in leading as well as working in my current role.

It's interesting that you mentioned that though, because I think there are functions within finance where you can learn the technical skill sets necessary, but there is something more essential, I'd say, about some of the strengths that you need to have in order to be a successful CFO.

We've talked previously about some of your key strengths and how they've evolved over time, but what would you outline as the skills that you see as necessary to be a successful CFO?

I guess the first thing is, I mean, you need to be good with numbers. I couldn't do my job if I wouldn't love my numbers in the sense of understanding the story behind the numbers. I think you need to be also very good at telling the story and kind of simplifying the numbers.

I mean, simplifying complex issues into understandable set of numbers where you can tell a story what's happening and where kind of our projections go and what do we need to do in order to accelerate or change course.

Adaptability, I know it's a buzzword right now, but I do believe it's very important because you get different types of role and there's different situation.

And I've been, I was listening to some of the podcasts and I think somebody mentioned you need to know a little bit of everything. And I think that's very true because I mean, you have an issue with supply chain. It will impact the finance as well. You have an issue with sales, it will impact the financials. So it's really in, wherever you have a situation in the company, the finance person is always invited to the table to see what do we need to do.

So I also need to be interested in understanding the processes, understanding what impacts what. So you need to be interested in different departments. So if you're really focused on finance, then being a CFO, you need to be part of the bigger picture on what's happening with the other departments as well. It is tough at times, but then on the other side, you get to be involved in so many things that is happening in the company. People skills, definitely. I mean, you work with a team, and you need to make sure that team is working the best way possible.

You have the best possible people in the team, as well as working with different colleagues, especially in a multinational company. I have colleagues from Europe, from Latin America, from the US. So adapting to different cultures as well. How do you connect with people from different cultures and how do you work together, get to the best possible results?

Yeah, and you made a great point early on. You said understanding the complex situations of where the numbers are at and so on, but also being able to tell the story and to simplify things that can be very complicated.

And I realise as time's gone on and I've been fortunate enough to interview many interesting people, is that the most intelligent people can take something incredibly complicated and make it comprehensible.

And I won't explain the flip side of that, which I've also experienced often where something very simple is becoming more and more convoluted because the person isn't really on top of what they're trying to explain at all. And that bamboozled me quite early on in my career as well.

But I think that ability is a very human one, the storytelling ability and the ability to take people with you on that journey, which you've also mentioned as key skills there.

One of the most critical relationships for CFOs is with the CEO and their other leading stakeholders, obviously. What advice can you offer on how to manage the relationship with the CEO and also those other key relationships?

Yeah, there's going to be different leaders that we come across in our careers.

Everybody likes to work differently. So what I find is, what does that person like? And then, of course, the personalities. I had a boss that said, it's good to understand on, and it's really much going into Latin culture as well as asking people how they're doing.

So you kind of start seeing what are the things that move their mood on the different days, on what's happening with their family. And that's a way of connecting with people. And then when you have that connection, it's always, of course, easier to work together. I'm introvert, but then on the other side is once you get to know me, I'm quite, I speak quite a bit and I make jokes and it's a Finnish type of sarcasm, dark sense of humour.

But when you can bring humour in the office, even if it's a stressful situation, when you bring humour into those conversations, then that of course lightens the mood and then we can, rather than talking about the emotions, we can get to the problem and then start resolving the problem.

So I guess it's really on, you will not change your boss. The boss will change you if you don't find the right way of working with them. So it's always finding how that person wants to work with you. And of course, if you're doing your work well, then continue doing those things. And it's also good to arrive to new positions, talk to a team on understanding on ways of working of the team and what's the way that your boss like to say things.

And that helps because then you're not thrown in a situation where you're probably doing something that person possibly wouldn't like, because ahead of time, this is what we used to do beforehand, and this is kind of the feedback we were getting. So that helps on preparing for working with that person.

Fantastic. I love a couple of things you said that I have a very close friend who's Finnish and I was smiling thinking of her as you mentioned that.

But I think drawing on what makes us different or unique and being true to yourself, finding a way to present that to people so they feel they can connect with you, I think is critical when you step into those leadership roles.

And I think that comment that you made around the value of humour cannot be underestimated. I can be quite earnest sometimes and that doesn't take people with you and it doesn't help with resolving conflict.

I think being able to use humour in those moments when maybe there's a disagreement in a team, maybe there's a roadblock that we're all facing, I think that really helps to bond people together and to find a way out of things in a bit more of a light-hearted way than being black and white and adversarial at times when there might be difficulties. So I think that's an excellent point around relationship management.

But you also made me reflect on how much of being a strong leader is around psychology and understanding people's motivators as well and understanding ourselves, like how we're perceived, where we're coming from.

Yeah, I mean, you mentioned there's a study that we did. I mean, Nestlé wide, it was quite common to do a kind of study on what are your strengths. I mean, we talk about a lot of the things that we need to improve on because you get your performance evaluations. It's these are the things you need to improve.

But then we kind of looked at what are your strengths or what are my strengths. And then if you look at your strengths and what are kind of the dark side of those strengths on what can other people who might not share the same strength that you have find frustrating. It was really eye opening.

One of the things just to mention, I had adaptability and one of the high things, but then people who might not share that strength with me, I mean, some might find that frustrating that I might change so quickly my priority. So it's understanding on how my strength might be perceived as coins of improvement for others.

Absolutely. And I think particularly when we look at lots of businesses are undergoing transformation right now, right? And like you, I also, I'm very excited by new things and by innovating. And so sometimes you can articulate that in a very excited way. And if other people are feeling nervous about change, that might actually end up alienating them more. So you're you can be too positive around change sometimes with people. You need to take them with you, make sure that they feel they can express any anxiety. So I think that's a good example of what you're describing there.

But once you're aware of your own motivators and how they can be perceived, I think you can become quite an unstoppable force because you're able to adapt yourself in how you present your tendencies. Would you agree?

Definitely, also when you understand what are the motivators for others and how do you need to work around what are your strengths versus what are the strengths of others? And then you know where they're coming from. I think there was a comparison saying you wouldn't ask Michael Phelps to start running every day because he needs to get very good at running. You would ask him to keep swimming because he's very good at swimming.

So if you can get very good at those, what are those strengths, then yeah, as you said, you get, you get to a point where you're unstoppable.

Yes, amazing. On that point of change, I think, as you mentioned, this term of adaptability, and I will also say resilience, that is that's the one I hear all the time. But there is a lot of change. There's a lot of change happening in all of our organisations. There's a lot of change happening in what our staff might need from us. There's also a lot of change in our roles ourselves. I think there's a lot of talk about how much the role of the CFO has changed.

And I would perhaps come at this as an outsider who's never been a CFO and say that there obviously are some things that are evolving, but the core principles remain true, regardless of technological advancements and so on.

What do you think about this topic of change in the role of CFO?

Yeah, I think the role, as you said, it keeps evolving. And then the bases are the same. I mean, of course, financial reporting, when you talk about cash flow, balance sheet, tax reporting as well as your financial statements don't change. But yeah, this AI has now come to, I was meeting with other CFOs in Mexico, and we talked a lot about AI and how's that going to change the role and how's that going to change the way we're doing things.

And I think somebody asked whether AI will eliminate our jobs. I don't think that's true. And I think the answer was, AI will not take your job, but then somebody who knows how to use AI will if you don't learn.

So I think constant learning on where we're going with digitisation, with artificial intelligence, how does that make us more efficient? Then on the other side, I think we're going back to talking a lot about balance. So how do we make sure that our people don't work too much.

I mean, making sure that we have the right balance on work as well as free time and on disconnecting from work. So that has come to a lot in the conversations as well on how do we lead ourselves? How do I stay resilient in terms of managing stress, in terms of managing my time?

So how do I find that balance and how do I make sure that I also transmit to my team that that's the balance we need to find and making sure that we don't burn out while working? And mental health, at least in Finland, has been a big topic, especially when you talk about teenagers. So it also comes back to workplace on how do we take care of our people? Diversity. So we talk a lot more about diversity, which is good, of course. I mean, I'm a big, big advocator for gender equality.

So I think that's something we still need to continue working on. There's still not a sufficient examples of very successful women. So I think this is something we still need to keep working on. Of course, diversity in terms of ethnicity, cultural background as well is super important. Yeah, I think that's it.

And of course, the part of CFO not really being just, I want to say just a finance person, but really a copilot to CEO on terms of understanding the strategy, in terms of understanding on where are we going to lead the company. We've been talking about this for quite some time, but I think you see that kind of that change also happening in a lot of companies.

I mean, CFO really being the second on board, and when the CEO's out, the CFO can really be the one who's contacted and then lead the company. Being really the right hand to the CEO.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. And there are, I've been looking back through kind of recent history, say from the 80s till now, and looking at these kind of pivotal moments for companies when the CFO-CEO relationship was particularly dynamic and the two became greater than their individual parts applied together.

You know, I'm thinking of like Stacey Cartwright's reign at Burberry. There was a moment there where I feel that relationship really powered a company's growth in an amazing direction. And so I've become very fascinated with what makes that dynamic particularly powerful. And two quite different personalities often coming together to respect and to complement one another. But you also make some very interesting points there.

I think there were, maybe about a decade ago, there was sort of a general push towards a certain approach to work-life balance, towards a certain approach to how we led, towards a certain approach to DEI. And what I'm noticing now is that there's a lot of like more splintering. We see organisations behaving in very different ways.

And so I think what's important right now is to be true to your own vision and to your own organisation's vision. I mean, just as I have companies, supporting people working from home, doubling down on DEI efforts and really pioneering sustainability. You have other companies retrenching on that.

So I think this is a moment for business leaders to stay true to what works for them. And like DEI for us is a core pillar of everything that I do and that we do. But it's interesting to me how a lot of the verbiage and a lot of the words that are being used are sort of shifting and so on. But we will remain true to our principles and not blow in the wind, if you like. And I think I see a lot of other organisations doing likewise.

Yeah, diversity still is a big thing. And yeah, might be, it might change from organisation to another. But I still, we talked at the beginning, especially in Mexico and the CFO group. Women still find it hard in certain organisations to get ahead. And we still expect women sometimes to act in a certain way. So there's still a way to go on really accepting that diversity of women.

Because when we get women to certain positions, we still kind of expect them to, in certain situations, to have that masculine traits of behaviour. There's still a way to go on really getting to that diversity. And especially in Latin America, where we see we're still kind of behind on really getting to that gender equality.

So I think it's also in the organisation, but I do feel that at least in some countries, it's still something we really need to work on.

Yes, absolutely. And you mentioned earlier on, you've got a unique cultural background to the work that you're doing. It's really a unique setup. And I'd love to hear a little bit about that. So tell me about your journey, because as you mentioned there, you're Finnish.

You're based in Switzerland and you're looking after LATAM, but you've had a global experience and you've had cross-cultural experiences. So tell me a little bit about that journey.

Yeah, my family is really Finnish. I mean, I lived 25 first years of my life in Finland. And I was studying, I was studying business and I was really, my major is in economics and I was planning to do a PhD. But then this wonderful opportunity with Nestlé in internal audit came around. I had done an exchange in Mexico, so I spoke some Spanish. I was not really fluent, but I could understand and communicate in Spanish.

And I ended up doing a lot of internal audits in Latin America, including Brazil, although I don't speak Portuguese, but I somehow got by in factories in really in the middle of nowhere in Brazil, which of course was an excellent opportunity. And I learned so much during that time. Then after that, I started, I got an offer to work in Colombia.

So I worked three years in Colombia as a head of Internal Audit for Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, the Caribbean and Central America.

And then I started as a CFO in Panama, or Country Controller in Panama. I ended up living seven years in Panama. I then did, I was a co-pilot for the Maggi and the Muller brand in Central America for Nestle. And then I moved as a regional finance director for the share category based out of Mexico. So I did almost three years in Mexico as well.

So I did a total of 13 years in Latin America and now we're back to Europe and we've been in Switzerland for about a year or so. And I'm still responsible for Latin America. And my daughter is Panamanian, so I think that also counts. So I say that we have a Finnish-Latino family now.

Amazing. And what skills do you think that that's brought for you on a personal level?

Because I think those kind of experiences, we often don't realise at the time, I mean, I'm imagining your first role, you mentioned you stayed for the first 25 years, so you're in your mid to late 20s, moving across the world and working in other languages. I think this teaches us something very important about how to communicate across difference, how to be adaptable and versatile yourself, because when we stay working in a monoculture, we can lean on kind of shared backgrounds and shared experiences and you don't have any of that and you still need to form bonds and form cohesion. So do you think that that's been something that has been a key part of your career success following on from then?

Yeah, I mean, I must say thank you to this huge organisation as well. And there's a lot of international people at Nestlé. There's also, I mean, kind of people here are used to working with different cultures. So that's already an easy environment to come in the sense of you're very much invited to be part of part of the culture, independent of where you're generally from.

But as you said, I mean, sometimes I feel like there's a group of French people, Swiss people, Brazilians, Argentinians, and then they kind of connect with each other.

And I found that sometimes it's like, oh, I don't have my Finnish community. But then that has kind of forced me to go, okay, I'm going to find my Venezuelan, my Colombian, Guatemalan community. So yeah, you get more adaptable and you realise, I mean, I was speaking to somebody the other day, he's like, how did you do all that?

And I said, I didn't think about at the time, you just went ahead and each country has been very different. So you kind of need to find on what are the good things about each country. I think I'm naturally optimistic. So I want to look at the positive sides of life. So what I would say is I learned a lot on saying, okay, what are the good things about being in Mexico?

What are the good things about being in Panama? What are the good things about being in Colombia? When you go to Colombia, the people are super friendly. They want to invite you. I mean, I arrived to Colombia and I was invited to party the first day and the person also almost came to pick me up.

When you go to Panama is some of my best friends are from Panama, really made like really strong connections. And then you have the beach by beach very close. It's always sunny, it's always warm. It gets very sweaty. But then on the other side, you have palm trees everywhere. Mexico, the food is so good. People are really nice.

So I guess, yeah, as you said, the adaptability on finding yourself in a very different culture and how do you connect with that culture and what are the things you can learn And now coming back to Europe is, when I say hello to people, I don't do it in a very European way, I suppose. I go and hug and I go and pat them back. So what are the good things you can take from those cultures and bring it every day?

Yeah, and I'm just laughing because I remember when, my first stint abroad was in Paris, and obviously you're very affectionate there as well. And then I remember when I first moved to Tokyo, and that's really not the way to greet people. I just remember people sort of backing away from me when I was trying to go in for a hug in meetings and so on.

So yeah, but you have, you learn, don't you? Learn as you go.

And I think it makes you take yourself a bit less seriously as well, because everybody that's lived in other parts of the world has these moments where you make a huge error and you learn how to resolve it.

But one of the things I'm interested in that I hadn't thought about before is how this moving abroad makes you focus quite early on the value of community because you can't take it for granted. And I think one of the things that TT Group’s become over time is a real community hub. And like that's what we lean into. That's what people turn to us for. So how important has community been for you? Because you mentioned there, you know, I didn't have that ability to just connect with other Finnish contemporary. So you had to lean into finding your community in Ecuador and wherever you were.

So tell me a little bit about how that and how that's been important for you over your career.

Definitely. And I guess, as you said, the community changes. I mean, I guess when I write to Colombia, it's really much community inside the organisation, I would say in Panama as well. Like the people I'm so inclined that were from those countries are people I used to work with.

And then possibly going to Mexico, there was people outside of the organisation from that CFO group, from my gym. And then once you find that community, and now coming to Switzerland, there's this Colombian person who kind of helps me out with everything, and it was great to connect with her.

And then knowing that you have that security net in the sense of, I mean, it's been usually me, my boyfriend, and my daughter, and then sometimes you feel that you're very alone, but then you start connecting with people and you know whatever happens, there's somebody there for you who can help you and somebody you can talk to about what happened today.

Of course, I'm really much in contact with my family, but it's good to have somebody around and say, do you want to come by and have a coffee?

And I just really need to talk to somebody.

Yeah. And I think those communities are so helpful as you go up your career. Like, I mean, I think I ask for advice. As our conversation began with me asking for advice and help, which it normally does.

But I think that's how your community comes into power for you. And then you do the same for other people. But I don't think anyone can forge a successful career alone at all. I don't believe that's possible. That's my biggest regret early on in my career is trying to do everything on my own and being afraid to ask for help.

If we go on that train of career progressions and how we might sort of plan for that or seize opportunities that they come.

Tell me a little bit about your own career path and whether there are tools and lessons derived from that you could share with our community.

I think, as you said, I mean, finding those people that you feel connected to within the organisation who can help you with your career. They can be mentors, they can give you advice, but they can be also somebody higher up in the organisation. It's always good to have somebody rooting for you in the room when they talk about your career.

Yeah.

Whereas as you said, being connected to people is very important. Planning your career, I think the most, I mean, whenever I planned my career, I kind of decided I'm going to stay in Switzerland and then a great opportunity in Colombia came by and I decided to go to Colombia. I think it's, I've planned my career, but then I would say plan your career, but then again, be ready for kind of good opportunities, different ones if they come by.

Also, I mean, I think it's more important to say what I definitely don't want to do. So I've been very clear on this is something where I wouldn't go, this is something I wouldn't do. And then everything else is kind of, this is what I would want to do. But then again, if there is some opportunities that I haven't considered, I'm open to discuss those. And then with that, some great opportunities that I would have not even thought about myself or didn't realise that opportunity exists that have come by.

So yeah, so I think it would go into have a plan, but be ready to change it if something good comes up.

I think there's some amazing piece of advice there. And I also think, having a plan is great, but I see a lot of people who are very conscientious and very focused on their careers, also not being afraid when that plan doesn't work out in a negative way as well, because I think we're all facing a lot more volatility than ever before.

And like that ability to pivot and to pick yourself back up again, I think is also critical. So as you say, have a plan, strategize for yourself, but then not being frightened if a new opportunity arises or if something doesn't pan out quite the way we'd hoped.

Final question from me. What advice would you give to anyone who's listening, who's aspiring to become a future CFO?

Yeah, I guess everyone's story is different. So I mean, don't be afraid if you feel kind of you're doing, I did a lot of several lateral movements in my career. And then kind of that jump might come at some point in time. And there's the things you need to learn. So it's not going to be always an upward career. You're going to have lateral movements. And take those opportunities on what can I learn from here?

What is this going to build on or where we're only going to reach in five years, two years, whatever the plan is. So don't be afraid of those. International, go international if you can. I've loved going international, learning about other cultures, especially if you work in a big organisation or you want to work in a big organisation. That's a big benefit. Languages in this world I think you need to know at least one other language.

Of course, if you speak English and native language, then that's a big help as a starting point. You need to know English if you want to work in a big organisation. Spanish helps, Chinese, Russian. I mean, I think it's always good if you can also amend your capabilities with the additional languages. I want to learn French and I want to learn Portuguese. I'm still struggling with those two. At some point in time, I will get into learning those two languages.

So yeah, don't be afraid of those opportunities when they come by. And yeah, stay connected to the people. And yeah, if you can master the skill of simplifying numbers into an understandable story, then that's, you're very much ahead on in getting in such a CFO role.

And don't be afraid of having different experiences. You might go into supply and then come back to finance, and you learn also a lot of different things in different departments. And I think I was listening to one of the podcasts and I think somebody said you need to change companies. I mean, in my opinion, I mean, I've been 17 years with the same company. If it's a big organisation, I would say I'll change it a little bit. I mean, you can change companies. I mean, that gives you, of course, a boost in career. But then again, in a big, very big organisation, look for different opportunities, look for different positions where you can learn different skills, and then that would prepare you for a bigger step and going ahead.

Yeah, and I think you're correct there, because I think there's not one-size-fits-all. And I guess as long as you're learning and evolving and being able to move into different strategic roles that bring something different to you. I mean, we know many amazing financial leaders.

I mean, particularly I'm thinking of your own organisation and then also Microsoft, where there is certainly enough breadth within one organisation to evolve over the course of a career. So perhaps that's dependent on your organisation for sure.

Yeah, for sure. And then, and it's you can go a different country, which is then already a kind of different organisation already. It's also gives you that kind of variability on in terms of working with different cultures and different ways of working.

Absolutely. Well, Terhi, it's been such a pleasure. I think you have such a unique story and a great sort of zest for growth and for personal learning.

Thank you ever so much for being part of Ask A CFO.

Thank you, Sophie. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's been super interesting.

And I've been listening to the podcast. And it's been really good to hear and gives you a perspective on some career paths and how do people think. And I find that so interesting on differences on how people think and look at the world.

So thank you for the opportunity. It's been very enriching and also talking to you. I mean, getting to know you and getting to know a little bit about your organisation.

Thank you so much, Sophie.

A very big thank you again to Terhi for taking the time to share her experiences and insights with me.

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