Wharton@Work: Senior Management

Senior Management

Seeing the Larger Opportunity: A Multidisciplinary View from the C-Suite

Although she is CFO of International Package & Global Forwarding Operations for UPS, Teresa Finley says some of her most important skills and perspectives come from outside finance. "If you think from a different viewpoint, you will see a larger opportunity," she says. "Rotations and skill building in other areas outside of traditional finance and accounting have been significant in my career."

"If you think from a different viewpoint, you will see a larger opportunity."

–Teresa Finley, CFO, International Package & Global Forwarding Operations, UPS

In addition to the diverse perspectives she gained at the Wharton Advanced Management Program (AMP), which she completed in 2006 before her appointment as CFO, Finley also gained many perspectives on the business through career rotations at UPS. A 25-year veteran of the company, she progressed through a series of finance and accounting positions in domestic small package operations as well as corporate finance. She then moved into marketing, overseeing pricing, forecasting, planning, and research. Finally, she served as vice president of investor relations before becoming CFO in August 2007.

"If you get down to it, the basic philosophy of how we develop leaders is career rotation," she says. "It forces you to step outside of your typical role and be exposed to another side of the business."

The Importance of Marketing and Communications

In particular, Finley has found skills in marketing, sales, and communications to be particularly valuable. "Understanding cost-to-serve, for example is not enough when negotiating with customers. A keen understanding of market rates and customer value is often more important when maximizing returns," she says. Communications skills are critical. Finley's previous position in investor relations gave her experience in positioning the company to external audiences. "It not only trains you in being put on the spot and being agile in your responses, but also helps you understand a very important external viewpoint that you might not otherwise gain," she maintains.

At Wharton, Finley appreciated the exposure to marketing, negotiations, and strategy experts. She even learned something from John Percival's session on corporate finance. After a career in finance, "That surprised me," she says.

A Business Perspective

Understanding other disciplines allows leaders to shift from a functional perspective to a business approach, which can lead to more creative strategies for problem solving. "The combination of these areas stretches your strategic thinking ability. It helps to develop more paradoxical thinking, changing the frame of a problem, and seeing wider opportunities."

For example, from a strictly financial point of view, it might make sense to outsource billing or customer service to cut costs. But from a business perspective, a call center or even billing and collections can represent important interfaces with customers. "From a general management perspective, we look at shared services as everything that touches a customer, and we look at it as a customer process rather than an internal functional view. Looking at that process in its total, you have a greater opportunity to improve the efficiencies and cost of processing while delivering better value for customers."

Taking on the World

Finley, who is in charge of finance for UPS's international package and global forwarding business, is working with operations in Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world. Communications and marketing are important and increasingly complex in the competitive global delivery and logistics business. "Marketing has become more significant as we have grown globally, managing our brand presence and positioning ourselves in local markets where brown trucks are not as well known as in the U.S.," she says.

The international diversity of the Wharton AMP classroom, as well as an emphasis on community building, helped further develop these cross-cultural communications skills. "Every experience of a group nature at Wharton was a learning experience for me," she says. "The 'learning community' took on an entirely different meaning because of the international makeup of the class. That sticks with me to this day."

Rapid growth in these markets requires the ability to deal with ambiguity and paradox. "You are moving at a pretty quick pace in many global markets as you are growing without the benefits of standardization and structure," she says.

While technology and global markets are shifting rapidly, some of the core principles of leadership remain unchanged. "I don't think the guiding principles have changed at all," she says. "At UPS, we reference the various teachings and readings of our founder, Jim Casey, from over 100 years ago. When you read what Casey wrote, it is still very much the basics of managing and inspiring people. That hasn't changed. In a lot of ways, we have to reground ourselves in those basics. But there are new external challenges in areas such as governance and compliance. You are challenged as a leader by the external environment, and have to be more externally focused."

One Company, Many Careers

Career rotations also improve retention, as employees don't have to go outside the organization to start a new career. "We have a culture where people do spend their entire careers at UPS. The ability to develop senior executives in that manner and a strong culture of 'promotion from within' are what keep us here. It is always something new; it never gets stale, and you never need to look outside of UPS. I've had multiple careers in the same company over a 25-year span."