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Name: David Becker Age: 42 Time with company: 8 years Education: Bachelor's degree in accounting and Master's degree inprofessional accounting from the University of Texas Company headquarters: Addison, Texas Countries of operation: U.S., U.K., employees in Canada andAustralia Number of employees total: 110 Number of employees the CFO oversees: 5 CFO's areas of responsibility: finance, accounting, financialreporting, treasury, IT, maintenance renewals. About the company: Credant Technologies provides enterprise data protection software and services forcontrolling, managing and protecting data on desktops, laptops,smartphones, removable media or in public or private cloudinfrastructures. 1. Where did you start in finance and what experiences led you tothe job you have today? I started my career in 1991 at PriceWaterhouse in Houston. My dadgave me some good advice about cutting my teeth in publicaccounting as the great stepping stone from a career perspective. Ilike public accounting because it gives you the opportunity toanalyze a lot of companies in different industries and it gives youthe opportunity to learn accounting very quickly. After PriceWaterhouse, I moved back to Dallas in 1995 and I joineda small startup company called i2 Technologies. But I ended upjoining a company that grew from 150 employees to over 7,000employees and $1 billion revenue. Unfortunately, due to the tech bust in early 2000, we had to scaleback the company to about 2,000 employees. That experience gave methe opportunity to learn how to grow a business but also how toscale back a business. That's when you are forced to make reallydifficult decisions and tradeoffs. When it's time to cut back andwatch expenses closely, prioritization is really critical. After i2, I took a few months off from that wild journey and thenjoined Credant as their CFO. I decided to go back to working for asmall, private software company. I did that because I like theopportunity to work in all areas of the business and theopportunity to work with the management team on how to grow thebusiness. 2. Who was an influential boss for you and what lessons did theyteach you about management and leadership? There are a lot of people who have had a strong impact on my careerand also on my life. One who stands out is Bill Beecher. He was theCFO of i2 Technologies. He's a lawyer, so he didn't have thetypical finance background or accounting background that a CFO has,so he taught me a lot about the other important aspects of being aCFO that don't specifically revolve around accounting. He taught me a lot about the legal aspect of customerrelationships. He taught me about the importance of working closelywith the CEO and the other senior management of a business, and theimportance of working closely with that team and figuring out waysto study and analyze the performance of the business. One thing he pushed me to do, which I end up recommending to othersin the industry, is don't sit in the office. Get out and join thesales team when they have their sales team meeting. One, you get toknow the people personally. Two, you get to hear firsthand whattheir challenges are and where they are seeing success. It justhelps you to build that relationship and visibility that you won'tget by sitting in your office. With regard to leading and managing a group of people, he taught mea few critical lessons. One, deal with the challenges or issueshead on. Communicate clearly and frequently with your employees.Also, stand up for what you believe in. Doing what is right notonly for your company but also what you believe in personally. Ihave found that there are many times that the moral and ethicalfoundations of the CFO can be challenged and at the end of the day,you've got to do what's right. 3. What are the biggest challenges facing CFOs today? Oh, there are lots of them. The role of the CFO has changed a lotin my view in the last 10 years. You still have the focus aroundfinance and accounting, and expense controls throughout thebusiness. But today I really view the CFO as a strategic consultantto the business. To be a consultant really forces you to look athow the business is doing, how it's under-performing, how it'sdoing well, but, most importantly, where the opportunities lieahead. A lot of my focus is around what are the best ways to grow thebusiness. We've looked at international expansion, building newproducts, buying businesses, raising the necessary capital to fundthose initiatives, and working closely with our investors and boardof directors. And at the same time, doing all that the CFO'sorganization is being asked to do -- but doing more with less. It'svery typical for CFOs to feel that pressure. Technology is also something that I think we as CFOs are having tolook at closely. One part of being asked to do more with less islooking at the technology within our own group to see howtechnology can help us be more efficient, but also looking at thatin the company as a whole. Are there technologies that can beintroduced that help you to more efficiently run the business andto analyze the business? 4. What is a good day at work like for you? For me, it's about teamwork, getting to the end of the day andlooking back to see what the team has been able to accomplish. AsCFOs, we have to be good managers. There are so many differentthings going on with the business at any one point in time. To beable to focus your team, to prioritize your team to make sure thatthey're addressing the top priorities for the business is reallyimportant and so to look back on that and see what the team hasbeen able to accomplish is important. One thing I really like to do is to celebrate success with the teamso I like to do a lot of fun things, whether that's to have a Wiiparty at the end of the day or one of my favorites is to do a wineand cheese tasting, to give people the opportunity to celebrate thesuccess of the team but also to give people the opportunity to getto know each other in a more informal setting. 5. How would you characterize your management style? My motto is do what it takes to get the job done and I expect thatfrom my team as well. I will work as hard or harder than any of theemployees on my team. They can count on me but I need to be able tocount on them as well. I try to communicate clearly and frequently with the team. I alsolove to laugh. So if we're laughing, that's a good thing. There'senough stress and pressure that we have to deal with everyday. Itry to introduce laughter as a way to keep everybody sane andhaving fun. We have extremely low turnover within my group and I think a goodamount of that comes from strong teamwork and an enjoyableenvironment where we know we're going to work hard but we're alsogoing to have some fun at it. 6. What strengths and qualities do you look for in job candidates? Two key qualities: smart and analytical. I am looking for peoplethat can think quickly on their feet. You can't teach somebody tobe smart, so it's not only being book smart, it's what I call beingstreet smart. If you have the hopes of moving up the ranks andbeing successful in your career, you have to be able to jump intoareas that you may not necessary be strong in or have a backgroundin, but using your street smarts to jump in. The analytical side I think really differentiates people. It's onething to study numbers or to understand numbers. It's a whole otherthing to analyze numbers, to look at ways you can look at the samething to provide information to the management team to make betterdecisions. I'm looking for people who are smart, willing to jump in wheneverneeded, wherever needed, and who can use their street smarts andanalytical skills to analyze the business. 7. What are some of your favorite interview questions or techniquesto elicit information to determine whether a candidate will besuccessful at your company? What sort of answers send up red flagsfor you and make you think a job candidate wouldn't be a good fit? I start out by trying to understand what does their standard daylook like and what do they enjoy about their day and what wouldthey most like to change about their day. What I'm trying to figureout is are they comfortable with the standard day or are theycomfortable with new priorities or new projects being introducedinto their day and how do they handle that. What projects have they been successful with and what projects havethey struggled with and how do they prioritize? Are they someonewho just spins and spins or are they able to jump in and get thingsdone? I also want to know about what kind of team projects theyhave worked on. I'm looking for good team players who work wellwith others. And I want to hear some about their key projects and where they'vebeen able to analyze the business. Are they relying just on booksmarts or are they also able to use street smarts? 8. What is it about your current job, at this particular company,that sets it apart from other chief finance positions? Being a CFO of a privately held company for eight years is fairlyunusual. The typical progression is every three years make achange, make a change, make a change. In the software business,there are no inventories. The product isn't something that you canphysically touch, so the success of the software company is drivenby the people who work for the company. The reason I have stayed so long and the reason I enjoy this job somuch is because of the people. That starts at the top, with theethical framework that is put into place and the people who arehired and given the ability to laugh and have some fun. It's verycliche, but our CEO has a philosophy -- getting the people right is90 percent of your success. 9. What do you do to unwind from a hectic day? For me, it is a glass of red wine. I have a wine collection. I'mamazed by the differences in wines. I really enjoy learning aboutdifferent wine-making areas and what makes their wine unique. And also spending time with my family. I have two children and I'mvery active with their lives and activities. The really nice thingabout a private company and a great boss is that you're givenflexibility and encouragement to spend that time. My daughter has apresentation Friday afternoon and I will be there. I have missedvery few school activities in the last eight years. 10. If you weren't doing this job, what would you be doing? My parents gave me a lot of flexibility in college to figure outwhat I wanted to do in my life. I went to school to be a hotelmanager. Then I decided to be a Navy pilot and went into ROTC. ThenI decided to be a photographer and took a bunch of photographyclasses and did everything from studio shoots to fashion shoots tooutdoor shoots. And then I finally found accounting. If I look back at all of those opportunities, at my inspiration, ifI could be anything, I'd be a photographer. I really enjoy, throughutilizing a camera, what you can capture with a picture. You can bein the same setting and take 20 different pictures from differentangles and have those pictures tell you something completelydifferent. If I wasn't doing that to make money, I'd be a winemaker inWashington. They have a very consistent weather pattern to makeamazingly good wine. It's less expense to buy acreage and it's anamazing up-and-coming wine country. 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