Star Plus Women Series: Shuang Li, VP and Director of Finance

In closing our celebration of International Women’s history month, this article highlights our VP and Director of Finance, Shuang Li. She has been a devoted counterpart from our very first days as a company.

Shuang has experience in the field of accounting and finance management for multinational companies like Siemens and Coty. Her main role is to buildup accounting system, oversee accounting operation, monitor month end closing process, and ensure the accuracy of financial statements; from finance stand point, Shuang provides management with various financial and non-financial analyses to support strategic leaders in making better business decisions. She has also worked closely with different business teams to compose budget and update forecast, developed and monitored key performance indicators, ensured that financial targets were achieved while reducing the financial risks. Her track record in developing and implementing financial management systems has improved financial operational productivity via IT automation and process optimization.
We asked Shuang to share her expertise on financial management.

Q: What are the most important aspects to consider from the financial point of view when building up a new business?
A: Establishing strong financial infrastructure is critical when starting a new business. A company needs establish an accounting infrastructure that will allow you to know what’s really happening in your business, support your company operation and help define your financial strategy as you grow. The key to set up this system is to firstly set up an accounting system that is in compliance with accounting standards. This system should include the right accounting method, chart of accounts and three main financial statements. The second step is to ensure a reliable accounting operational process in place which requires the right people with right roles, the appropriate software to comply with internal control. The last step is to build up financial management processes. This should include composing budget, setting up targets, developing and monitoring KPIs and ensure the preset financial targets to be achieved. In order to set up this financial management process, finance people need work closely with across functional teams to understand business operational process, objectives and challenges, and then, to figure out how to provide financial solutions to make business run better.

Q: As the business grows, how does financial management change and what are the factors that have to be considered in different stages of a company’s development?
A: Accounting, budgeting and financial analysis consist of main basic functions throughout all stages in business development. During the startup phase, a company needs build an accounting system to track financial transactions, create financial statements and statuary reports which are in the compliance with accounting standards, legal and tax regulations. A company also needs implement budgeting and financial analysis processes to support and monitor business performance.
When a company enters into the growth stage, it faces a new level of a few financial challenges. At this stage, a company should seek operational investment from both internal and external sources. Financial analysis is required to support the need of this additional investment to provide insights for business expansion. According to an article from Harvard research, the companies who can fully deeply analyze the data and apply these insights into operation can improve 5%-6% productivity over competitors. It’s important for a company applying financial management to each stage in the business life cycle.

Q: Your professional experience includes work for service, retail distribution and consumer goods companies. Which financial considerations are the same and which are different depending on the type of industry?
A: No matter which industry you work in, it’s important to have a strong foundation framework in compliance with the basic principles of accounting. The effective financial management system is equally important to support business across all industries, cash flow management is essential to ensure the smooth business operation.
For service-based industries, such as consulting firms, they normally charge customers based on hourly rate. Therefore, accountants need spend more time on collecting working hours and defining price based on different level of consultants. This will affect the accounting process. For retail distribution and consumer goods companies, accountants must spend more time on managing inventory than some industries do. They also need spend more time on promotion and channel analysis to support business operational strategies than other industries do.
 

Q: What are the financial management aspects that have a direct impact on operational and sales performance? What is the strategic value of good financial management?
A: The KPIs metric is an important financial management approach to impact on operational and sales performance. It evaluates the success of operational and sales performance by analyzing the deviation between the actual and targets of these performance measurements and implementing necessary actions to ensure business operation achieve its targets.
The value of good financial management is to support business growth at different stages by providing valuable financial analysis and solutions, such as scenarios analysis of business development cases and price strategies of different products and services.

Q: What are areas that many companies often overlook in terms of financial management?
A: In order to do a good financial management job, it’s important for finance people to become important business partners. To become business partners, finance people need understand business operational process and targets, be more analytical and be more strategic. They need focus on business and figure out how to support business to implement the strategy to “get stuff done”, not just be the numbers people.
One of the best practices of financial management is to set up effective KPIs system to support business achieving its targets. This KPI system includes setting up targets, analyzing variance and implementing measures to achieve its goals. Another best practice is to improve efficiency and accuracy of reports by automating service billing and generating performance management reports.

Q: How do you imagine financial management in 2050 will be different from today?
A: As the global technology has evolved over the years, artificial intelligence has begun affecting our life in many aspects. AI technologies like machine learning and deep learning help accounting and finance professionals to perform repetitive tasks more efficiently. Process automation and actual process of robotics in the field of financial management have become more and more popular among large transactional accounting volume in big enterprises. Accountants will play a major role in interpreting and analyzing data captured by AI technology. In the future, accountants will have more time to focus on analysis and to support business strategy with the aids from AI.

Q: What advice would you give to retailers to help better manage cash flow issues during periods of economic turbulence?
A: Financial management is very important to manage cash flow during periods of economic turbulence. Managers must make financial projections of cash flows in advance, so that they can have some ideas on how much capital will be needed to fund business operation under challenging economic situation. Planning and budgeting for these financial needs are crucial. Essential parts of financial management are finding the proper source of funds at the lowest cost and making sure the leverage of debt is not too high to be managed.