Building a strong team is a top priority for Citi alum Hugo Doetsch as he takes the top financial seat at audit software provider AuditBoard, he told CFO Dive.

One of the lessons learned from his past CFO roles — including his most recent stint as CFO for healthcare software provider Symplr — is “you have to build the team that you want, that gives you leverage,” Doetsch said in an interview. “I think, when I was a first time CFO, the biggest mistake that I probably made is I tried to do it all.”

“I tried to put the weight of the world on my shoulders, when, in all reality, what I should have done is say I need additional investment,” he said. “I need an additional headcount to help in this area.”

Continuous learning

Los Angeles-based AuditBoard, an AI-powered internal audit and connected risk platform, announced Doetsch’s appointment in a Tuesday press release, coming as the business targets increased growth.

At the top of Doetsch’s to-do list is getting up to speed on the business’ product portfolio, he said, as well as familiarizing himself with the top leaders at key functions of the company and understanding where they spend money. Before making any strategic moves, “I've got to learn, I've got to ingest, I've got to take it all in and become an expert in everybody's function, not just my own,” Doetsch, who describes himself as a “continuous learner,” said of his approach.

“Day one, I like to understand. I'll just call it the process,” Doetsch said. “Whether it's, what's the close process? What's the budgeting process, what's the board reporting cadence? What are the reporting packages like?”

Prior to joining AuditBoard, Doetsch served as CFO for enterprise health software company symplr, according to his LinkedIn profile. His past experience includes serving as CFO for cloud-based content management provider NetDocuments, where he helped foster its 2021 sale to Warburg Pincus, as well as an SVP of finance at Ping Identity and numerous top roles at Citi — including global head of services, investment banking.

When it comes to the finance function, Doetsch’s goal is to understand “how to become more of a strategic thought partner to the business so that we can make better decisions and deliver more value across the across the organization,” he said.

In looking to identify those key value adders, “a lot of it is going deep with the team, understanding how the team is organized…where we have, great players versus, hey, we have a new role that we need to open because we don't have this competency within the team,” he said.

Strategy first

Doetsch’s appointment is the latest in a line of executive leadership shifts made by the audit software provider last year, beginning in July when the company appointed Paycor alum Rahul Villar Jr. as its CEO. Since Villar took the top executive seat, AuditBoard has appointed fellow Paycor veteran Paaras Parker as its chief human resources officer, and ADP alum Jim Sperduto as its chief growth officer, according to company press releases.

One of the benefits of joining a newly constructed leadership team such as AuditBoard’s is that “nobody steps in with preconceived notions,” Doetsch said. “We're all we're hungry. We all have the same purpose. We all have the same mission.”

Part of that mission is continuing the company’s growth: Auditboard recently announced it surpassed $300 million annual recurring revenue, and the business also has a “great international expansion opportunity” ahead of itself, Doetsch said.  

To successfully execute on those growth opportunities, as a CFO it’s also important to keep in mind that “everything has a financial lens,” he said. “It's got to deliver value, whether it's, higher bookings or higher retention, or we're delivering better products to our customers. But it also has to have a financial impact.”

The role of the finance chief has evolved over the past few years, coming to straddle both finance and operations, with companies more frequently looking to their finance leaders to drive strategy. What makes an exceptional strategic CFO is the ability to partner with other key business leaders to execute on those goals, Doetsch said.

Take sales and marketing, for example: finance chiefs need to look at and answer questions about whether those functions have the right compensation structure, if they are incentivizing teams the right way, and how they could potentially get more efficient as the company looks to scale, he said.

“It's some of those questions that obviously have a financial lens, but you're almost going deep into each of the functions and saying, ‘Hey, where are the marginal gains?’” he said. “How can we get better? How can we deliver more value, either to shareholders or to customers?”