Ep 12: Finance Business Partner as Navigator with Nick Mitrakis, SVP & Corporate Controller at WSP USA

What are the most critical skills for Finance Business Partners that support very large and visible civil engineering projects?   Nick Mitrakis, SVP & Corporate Controller at WSP USA, shares the cornerstones of good project management and how Finance Business Partners need to step up in a world where our function is increasingly at the intersection of everything.  Join us!

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Matt

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Thank you so much for having me. Nick Matrakas, Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller at WSP USA. Welcome, Nick.

SPEAKER_01: 0:38

Thanks for having me, Matt.

SPEAKER_00: 0:40

Pleasure's mine. I'm so glad that you could join us today. Please tell us about your business, Nick, and how you came to the role that you have today.

SPEAKER_01: 0:48

Sure. So WSP USA is a region of WSP Global. We're a professional services firm in civil engineering. It's a listed company in Toronto, and we design things. We're not a construction company. We design things like the LaGuardia Airport redesign is ours, California high-speed rail we're working on. And our headquarters is in New York City, at One Pen Plaza. We have 150-plus offices around the country, 10,000 employees, and about$3 billion in revenue. And I came to the role here through a recruiter friend who was a friend of mine and also the friend of the CFO who hired me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:31

Very nice. So networking led you to this opportunity.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35

Absolutely. I strongly believe that all the roles, the higher you get, the more dependent they are on networking.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

Very cool. So one of the reasons I was interested in having you be on our podcast is you guys deal with large and very visible projects. What are the fundamentals of really large project management from your perspective that drive value creation?

SPEAKER_01: 2:01

Sure. I mean, we are a project business and everything is a project and you need to have good project managers. You have to attract and retain the best that we have in the field and that there are in the field because not all projects are alike. Different clients are, you know, certain clients prefer things to go a certain way. Certain projects like a bridge building project requires somebody who knows exactly how the different phases of a bridge project go. And so putting somebody on a bridge project when they first only worked on some other smaller project, it may not be a good fit. So we develop PMs in-house. Besides hiring people from the outside, we always train them. We have mentor programs in place. And we have very good documentation, guidelines, a project handbook. So those are tools that are important to do good project management. And we can draw on a global knowledge of experts that we have in the various specialties. And, you know, good project management starts from the beginning. So when you decide what you're going to bid on and what you're not going to bid on, you have to be sure that you can actually do the job on time and on budget. And if you can't or it's too much of a risk, you shouldn't do it. So there should be project reviews. at multiple levels. If you decide to go for it, you have to put together a quality bid, think it through in detail from bottoms up, have a thorough project plan, consider the client's needs and be cost competitive without sacrificing schedule and cutting corners, which you're going to pay for later on. You have to pick the best qualified engineers for that particular project and other staff to work on it and the best project manager for the project. And if you win, you have to have a project plan that's solid and agree with the client, have regular project reviews internally and with the client to check on progress and what's happening and how to address any risks that are happening over time, in time and real time, and then mitigate those risks and put action plans in place to have corrective actions. And it's very important to have open and regular communications with the client to avoid avoid misunderstandings and issues. I'm a big believer in what gets measured gets done. So I think that for very large projects, the earned value management method can have a huge impact on the success of a project. You measure the project schedule and the cost efficiency through the schedule performance index and the cost performance index. And if any of those start going the wrong way, you take corrective action. So that's in a nutshell, if you will, how you would address large projects.

SPEAKER_00: 5:01

Okay. And that's nice because that links it to your value creation. If you control it up front, you have the right people, right assumptions and processes to capture risk deviations, et cetera, and a plan to tackle those things, then I can see that direct line to value creation. Okay. Very, very cool. How should finance business partners approach these large projects when they're counseling their business partners internally?

SPEAKER_01: 5:30

I think finance business partners from a project level to a division level to a regional level to a global level, I mean, you know, the CFO to the global CFO and to the PM to the finance business partner are absolutely critical. They need to be tight at the hip, totally in sync. I always say that the project manager is the captain of the ship and the finance business partner is the navigator. So the navigator checks all the metrics, calculates the route, and then tells the captain if they're heading in the right direction or not. Or if we're going to have to adjust course because we're going to hit an iceberg if we don't. So the captain has to tell us, here's where we're going and make sure we hadn't, you know, to go due east, for example. And then the navigator has to make sure they read all the instruments and all the navigational tools that they have, which for us is the KPIs and the metrics to make sure that we actually get there on time. and don't get lost. And finance can really add incredible value if used correctly. I think over time, at least where I've worked, there was always an appreciation for what finance does. Others, maybe less so, but it has to be a collaboration between the PM and the finance business partner. Finance really is involved every step of the way. It's not just doing the accounting and crunching the numbers. if you will, but it's really a sounding board, at least it should be a sounding board, a relationship with the PM where you really help each other out and bounce things off of each other. Finance also helps minimize out-of-scope work through good contract management and also communicate with their client counterpart to ensure that there is no issue or confusion when it comes to billing and then collecting the cash Finance also keeps a risk register and documents all the risks, quantifies them, and then works for the project manager and the organization to mitigate those risks. Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00: 7:44

Oh, sorry. So on risks, because with particularly with large projects, and you mentioned LaGuardia and High Speed Rail in California, not asking for specifics, WSP's business there, but with really large projects, how how do you gauge and manage those risks? And it seems like you'd have to, you really have to try to foresee as many of those as possible, just because these are such visible projects and large projects. How is risk management done in your world?

SPEAKER_01: 8:17

So there are multiple risk registers that happen at multiple levels. And then depending on the magnitude of the risk and the severity of the issue, it gets bubbled up in the organization. Ultimately, it to the board, but to the regional management, the CEO and the CFO, where you review these risks along with legal on a regular basis. And then you look at what action plans are being put in place. And sometimes it requires communication and resolution at the highest level with a client. It's not just enough for the PM to talk with their counterpart. It has to be resolved on a higher level. And we've done a pretty good job with that. Big projects with many stakeholders, and you can't just have one list. It's multiple, multiple lists for multiple sub-projects that then get rolled up into a big risk management matrix.

SPEAKER_00: 9:20

That's super fascinating. I could see that being a key success factor in a business like yours. Switching gears a little bit, so you were recently New York City Chapter President of Financial Executives International, something I know about as well. What were some of the key concerns on the minds of finance executives that you interacted with in that role?

SPEAKER_01: 9:42

Yeah, so I've been an FEI member since 2002, first in Dallas and then in New York. And it was an honor for me to be elected president in 2018. And it was a fun and interesting two years, but also lots of work because it's pro bono and it has to be done in between trying to get your day job done, but it was very satisfying and fulfilling as well. As far as key concerns on the minds of the finance execs, so one of them was staying on top of all the changes that are happening. I mean, every year, as you know, we hear about in quotes the changing role of the CFO and it's always changing. I think that our roles are the most dynamic, most changing roles in a company that in company management. I

SPEAKER_00: 10:33

love it. I love it. Tell me more.

SPEAKER_01: 10:36

Of course, we reported the CEO ultimately, but the CFO, I mean, every new thing that happens, you know, cybersecurity or the outsourcing, the shared service at the time and then business process outsourcing, IT reporting to the CFO, HR reporting to the CFO, contract management, all these new initiatives New initiatives, new departments that get created always get pushed under the CFO, and the CFO then has to become more strategic. Before it was only numbers-oriented, then it was more analysis and forward-looking. Now it's very strategic. It's very, take all the data that we have and make sense of the data. And I thought at the time, isn't that IT's job? But IT can't really see the picture that we in finance see, which is comprehensive through the numbers for what's going on in the organization. Our role really has become absolutely critical. It always was critical, but now even more so. And so it's on the minds of our members. And at the time when I was the president, I'm still a member. But we try to address these demands that the finance execs face by putting on programs where we can discuss those in an environment where they're comfortable discussing these and collaborate with each other. And it's easy to come by to get advice. grammars we address weren't only technical, finance, and accounting topics, which are boring to most people, but it was also things such as robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, intelligence, cybersecurity. Even though those report to the CIO, the CIO often reports to the CFO. So it's the CFO's responsibility in the end. But then we also covered soft topics like how to navigate office politics, emotional intelligence. So all these things that we tried to put on programs for topics that are of interest to the finance execs and things that they're facing on a daily basis, including myself. And then, of course, COVID-19 happened and made things even more challenging for everyone.

SPEAKER_00: 12:44

Yeah, yeah, that's for sure. What a way to end your role as chapter president. So you kind of touched on some of this, but any other thoughts on where the role is headed long term? And more importantly, what should finance business partners be doing now to prepare for that future?

SPEAKER_01: 13:05

Yeah. So I mentioned earlier that finance is, I think, at the intersection of everything that goes on in an organization. And we're involved in almost everything that goes on, because in the end, it all comes down to numbers, right? But ultimately, at the end of the day, the organization has to show a profit and collect all the cash for all the work that we did. If we're just being busy, if in the end, we can make a profit and collect the cash for all the work we've done, what was it all for? So it's really important, therefore, for a finance person to, because we often get put into this box where they say, oh, you're an accountant, you're a finance person, you're sort of shy, and you crunch numbers, you're antisocial, and we're not. Of course, every organization, every person is different, but personally, I don't shy away from getting involved in the areas. I try to add value where I can. People should really try and break out of their silo of finance in their own department and really try and add value to the various departments. Trust me, they will appreciate it. Be aware of the trends that are out there and stay on top of them. Introduce some of those into your organization. I mean, if you hear about things that are going on, your colleagues are doing in other organizations, chances are it's going to make your company more competitive And it makes you look good in turn as well. But articles talk about artificial intelligence is going to take away the finance jobs, but that's not going to happen overnight. AI can't magically do your job. So AI and tech is not your enemy. We should embrace it like any other technology, and we should try and make it work for ourselves by working faster and more efficient and make our organization more competitive. It's also important not to rest on your laurels. You always have to deliver. It's what have you done for me lately kind of mentality that everybody has. Sitting there and saying, oh, I did such a great job last month, but now you have to constantly deliver and you have to deliver. You have to continuously learn, stay on top of new regulations and new rules, which is the boring part of the finance group, but it's important and keep educating yourself. You can never know enough. And finally, Last piece of advice is with all that's going on, us working from home now, the barrier between work and leisure really has blurred. And so it's important for us to be able to take time for ourselves to relax before we burn out.

SPEAKER_00: 15:50

Wow. Yeah, that's wonderful advice. Spot on from my perspective. And many of the things you said, we've heard from guests on this program and probably from my mouth as well. So thank you so much. Thank you so much. Great insights today, Nick. And I appreciate your time, sir.

SPEAKER_01: 16:10

Thank you, Matt. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00: 16:13

Yeah. And thank you to our subscribers for listening to this episode of Upside Downside. We'll see you next time.

UNKNOWN: 16:21

Thank you.