From M&A to FP&A: Keith Kim, Planful’s VP of Finance, on the Being Planful Podcast

Keith Kim, our VP of Finance at Planful, recently joined me on the Being Planful podcast. Keith has an interesting career, starting in investment banking and eventually moving into FP&A. Along the way he’s worked at some of the biggest names in technology and has been deeply involved in mergers and acquisitions.

In this episode, Keith and I discuss the differences between corporate development and FP&A, and the lessons learned transitioning from a highly variable, sometimes chaotic experience in M&A to the more structured, cyclical world of finance. We also get Keith’s thoughts on what FP&A should prepare for in 2021 and how his role at Planful involves influencing the direction of our Continuous Planning software and solutions.

Here are a few highlights of this episode.

A hybrid of finance and corporate development

Keith began his career working on M&A deals from the investment banking side, playing a transactional role with just a glimpse of the entire deal. He quickly moved to the inside, working with a highly acquisitive company. That gave him the opportunity to see the entire lifecycle of a transaction, from due diligence through integration, putting him in partnership with product and engineering teams to provide financial insights as they evaluated potential targets. It also brought his finance and M&A skills together in a way that proved invaluable.

“You’re participating in the due diligence, but also seeing what the impact could be to the business as you’re exploring these really exciting technologies and companies,” said Keith. “The roles just go hand in hand. It’s really striking how I had been able to leverage both of those skill sets in one role.”

With finance being, at least traditionally, cyclical and predictable, Keith brought out-of-the-box thinking to the role. And with M&A being wildly variable, that experience also helped prepare him for managing the unpredictable side of finance.

Enterprise attitude for midsize action

Working on multi-billion dollar deals across huge companies taught Keith valuable lessons on mobilizing cross-functional resources and working within well-defined processes. But as he transitioned to run finance at Planful, Keith enjoyed the luxury of rolling up his sleeves and getting things done without layers of bureaucracy.

“When you’re smaller, you just take things on,” said Keith. “You just need consensus from maybe one or two other people, and you make things happen. That speed and agility is what makes a smaller company nimble and agile, with quick decision making. But for companies that have bigger aspirations, it behooves them to put efficient processes in place so that as they grow, they’re not laying down debt they’ll have to pay for later.”

That debt avoidance includes controls, collaboration, and automation capabilities that empower finance to do more without adding layers of unnecessary process or headcount.

Constantly improving FP&A’s product

Keith mentioned reporting specifically as the key product Finance delivers to the business. He likened delivering good financial insights to having a strong product-market fit. FP&A teams need to think like product marketers and deliver reports, insights, and dashboards to each audience with the right data, in the right format, and at the right frequency.

“Just anticipating changes and bringing insights to your business partners is something FP&A should always revisit and refine,” Keith explained. “Because what you reported last year may not be relevant this year. So sometimes you just have to think outside of the box a little bit, understand the pulse of the business, and change the product: your reporting packages.”

Being ready for continued uncertainty

Keith went deeper on FP&A deliverables, noting that it’s not reports but insights that the business truly needs. And that need changes regularly because the business does too. The past year showed us all the velocity at which change can happen. Some businesses rebounded in weeks while others are still working to regain ground. The insights they needed then versus now are drastically different.

Coming full circle, Keith talked about his dual role as VP of Finance at Planful and close collaborator with the product development team. His professional experience helps Planful customers build agility, collaboration, and accuracy into their financial processes. In 2021, much of that need also revolves around flexibility so the business can deal with continued uncertainty.

“It just goes to show how adaptable we’ve become,” said Keith. “But within these new confines, how can FP&A be more efficient and effective? It’s really exciting to see all the new features we have on the roadmap to solve the pain points finance teams have today.”

Subscribe to Being Planful

To hear more about Keith’s M&A experience and how he’s applying it to Continuous Planning at Planful, listen to episode eight of Being Planful.

This podcast series explores the benefits of adopting a Planful mindset by inviting FP&A peers, analysts, industry experts, and more to share their experiences and insights. Subscribe on your podcast platform of choice: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify. Search for “Planful” wherever you listen and subscribe so you don’t miss new episodes. If you have comments, questions, or think you’d make a great guest, reach out at beingplanful@planful.com.