Episode 1: What it takes to become a CFO? | w/ Mukul Mehta

Yes, happy to. I work for a company called Novartis Pharmaceuticals, which is a global MNC in the field of pharmaceuticals. I'm the CFO for the international business, which is about 60% of the overall business. I originally hail from India. I did my bachelor's in India in Engineering at Punjab Engineering College. Later on, having worked in India for a couple of years, I ended up at INSEAD, which is an MBA school in France. And for the last 21 years, I've been working in...

Yes, very much. I'm happy to do it. I think when I was in high school and thinking of what I would do longer term in my life, the choices were... what interested me most from a subject perspective was physics and mathematics, and I thought the best way forward would be to pursue studies in line with those subjects. That's why I went for engineering. But after engineering and working as an engineer, I realized that to go further, the financial industry would make sense. So I jumped into banking, worked for a couple of banks in India, and then to take that experience multinational, I went for an MBA school. And from there, I ended up joining Novartis, holding many roles in the company: small country roles, bigger country roles, regional roles, and now a global role in the company.

I think absolutely you should. The earlier you make a choice in life, the farther you'll go. If you and your friends are thinking of a career in finance, making that choice earlier in your career will help from a longer-term perspective. Now, was it attractive 20 years ago? Absolutely yes. Is it going to be attractive going forward? I think absolutely yes. There are some basics you need from an education and experience perspective, but more than anything, it's the aspiration for the future and what you want to do with that education. No matter where you go in a financial career, understanding the business is absolutely important. You cannot be a finance professional only looking at financial things; you have to understand the underlying business. In my case, it's pharmaceuticals. You have to understand the business as much as the people working in it, and then you can be an excellent finance person.

Yeah, so as you grow in your career, the content becomes less important. How you lead teams, how you act as a leader, how you think of the business becomes more important. When I started in the financial industry, what I did day-to-day was important. As I grew, connecting financial concepts with the business became more important. As you grow further, how you act as a leader, making the most of resources and people, becomes critical. It's less about what you do versus what your teams do. That's where I am today with 3,000 people across the world. Leadership takes a different turn. Your question was how all the education helped me. Engineering gave me an analytical, structured way of thinking. Finance education gave me the concepts: corporate finance, accounting, derivatives. My MBA gave me international business, organizational behavior, leadership. All three are important: structured thinking, finance fundamentals, and being an impactful leader. If you take my story, you have to find ways to be a successful financial leader with the right analytical mindset, finance fundamentals, and effective leadership.

Yes, absolutely. I completely understand the confusion. I had the same confusion 20-25 years ago. If you look at it in a narrow lens, you think finance jobs are only in the financial industry or consulting, but it's far from that. I started in finance in the financial industry, working for banks in India. Then I did my MBA at INSEAD. There are three types of recruiters on campus: consulting, investment banking, and industry. I chose to join industry. The program I joined at Novartis is called the Finance Development Program, which basically says that if you have an interest in finance and have done electives in finance, you come into the company, do a couple of rotations, and if successful, you become a CFO in a small market, then midsize, then larger. Now, 21 years later, I'm the CFO of the largest part of the commercial organization. If I had gone the consulting route, I might still be in consulting, but most likely I would have ended up in industry because 80% of consultants eventually join industry or start businesses. So a finance career goes beyond investment banking or consulting.

Yeah, so I think you are in the nascent stage in your career journey. The first thing is to have a longer-term view of what you want to do with your life. Talk to as many people as you can, like myself, your parents, and then decide what would make you happy 20 years from now. It could be entrepreneurship, leading a global organization, or something else. Define that long-term ambition, and then your shorter-term actions become easier. The last thing is to take risks. Not skydiving, but taking risks in the changing world. AI will play a fundamental part in any industry. Get involved in something around AI or technology, either as part of your studies or outside. Go for it.

Yeah, so I think what will change is that everything repetitive in nature will go off the table. The financial industry works best because it connects people with money to invest and people who need money. With AI, the interfaces between these two ends will become more lucid, with less manual intervention. People and organizations who understand and use AI differently will be the winners. In the pharmaceutical industry, we create wealth by discovering new medicine, taking it to the world, and using resources efficiently. AI will play a role in drug discovery, stakeholder interaction, and capital allocation. How will jobs evolve? Every job, including financial analyst or data analyst, will be more dependent on technology. Data science is becoming one of the most valued fields in major universities. If you can combine data science with something else, like marketing or engineering, you give yourself differentiation.