10 Questions for Quest Software CFO Scott Davidson

Name: Scott Davidson

Age: 45

Metre with company: Eight years

Education: Bachelor of Science in Finance, Florida Atlantic University; MBA, University of Miami

Company main office: Aliso Viejo, California

Number of countries: 63

Phone number of employees: 3,460

Number the CFO oversees: 300

Each year revenue: about United States$800 million

Around the company: Quest Software develops software system that helps companies manage and reminder applications such as databases, hypervisors and in operation systems.

The following is an edited interview with Davidson.

1. Where did you start in finance and what experiences led you to the job you have nowadays?

I in reality started arsenic a financial psychoanalyst with an investment banking firm. And after I came out of high school I was recruited by the U.S. Treasury. I became a people bank examiner with a focus on on trust and investment banking. I decided that it was great to travel from banking company to bank but I welcome to get on the side of the tabular array where I was making the decisions to have an impact in a particular organization. And so I leftmost Treasury and decided to union a company that was a services-settled society, which nowadays is Interactive Grouping. At the time information technology was a standalone companionship called Precision Reply Corp. I stepped into that function as a manager of revenue, psychoanalysis and pricing. And then I had an opportunity to leave there after about a year and disco biscuit to Citrix Systems. I actually joined in on the finance side of the house and stepped in as the director of finance, treasury and investor dealings. I did that for astir four long time and came to Quest and initially coupled as the treasurer. I had been at Quest for four old age when the CFO left. I jumped at the opportunity because I thought it was a great take chances to move beyond accounting finance in a more of a specialized, narrow field into the broader Chief financial officer role.

2. Who was an important brag for you and what lessons did they teach you about management and leadership?

The gentleman's gentleman at Citrix who hired me, Jim Felcyn, he was the Chief financial officer at Citrix. That was my first true exposure to transaction with life equally a public company Chief financial officer and a software caller that was exit through with hypergrowth. Jim was very good at portion me read how to be an influencer and when and why to influence. The other thing he had was exceptional feel and knowledge for dealing with Wall Street. Atomic number 2 was a very goodish person to learn from and survey in his footsteps and sort of help guide me through and through that because that was all virgin to ME. The other mortal who was potent was Dennis Arsinski. Dennis was the individual who recruited me out of graduate school and my first veridical boss. Dennis was always really good at figuring out what you want to accomplish you said it you want to accomplish it by keeping this in perspective. I learned very much about getting high performance out of very tight-knit groups and teams.

3. What are the biggest challenges facing CFOs now?

The Chief financial officer use has become often Thomas More of a strategical contributor to certain aspects of the organization. Some of the things that a CFO has to be able to do is not just understand the numbers and the analytics can it but to be able to take that data, ramp up information out of IT and help guide decisions. Simultaneously, the CFO job has become more operational in price of interacting with sales organizations or the R&D organizations and building decisions about how you invest to drive growth surgery extract efficiencies. It's kaput from the kinda back-function role to more of a partner driving the business.

4. What is a au revoir at work like for you?

For me a great day at work is to be able to engage with my peers that run sales or that run or s of the in operation roles, or our CEO. A big part of my job is I've got to concentrate on getting with my team and reckoning out the obstacles that are blocking them from doing their job and how I can take away them. Thusly if I can identify those and remove them, that's a really reputable day for me because I make out they're making build, which substance we're all making get along.

5. How would you characterize your management vogue?

My management style ideally is one where I like to set the bar in terms of follow by example. Thus from my perspective I want multitude to scene what I ut as someone who is working hard, WHO's trying to be a driver, an influencer, but doing that by knowing the business. My direction manner is I ascertain self-motivated people who want to bring home the bacon, who are contending, who are technically proficient.

6. What strengths/qualities come you seek in occupation candidates?

The most weighty thing for me is I deprivation to find people who … I use this doctrine of analogy of a Eruca vesicaria sativ. I'd much prefer to find a person that had their own thrust that I meet had to transmitter them in the right region to helper them. You can always vector somebody. It's really hard to undergo thrust out of somebody WHO doesn't have it. I want somebody who has thrust or drive or somebody who feels that they can be an influencer, merely can be an influencer away being a good communicator. Non being an influencer by establishing a ascendence or fear. We take people who are self-motivated, who can take things and run with them, because as many initiatives as we have going on at the one time, I don't have the wherewithal to stand connected top and manage somebody all the time.

7. What are just about of your favourite interview questions or techniques to elicit info to determine whether a candidate will glucinium successful at your company?

I always ask, recount Maine something you've achieved in your current role that somebody else would have not gotten finished. What I'm trying to nettle with that interrogate is to figure out how practically natural drive off and resourcefulness they have and how hard they are willing to push to suffer things done, or in certain cases beryllium inventive to get things finished. The other question is … would you rent yourself and wherefore would you hire yourself. I follow that prepared by saying, if I'm going to be your managing director, tell Pine Tree State what I pauperism to [do] for you to draw you successful. You can determine founded on the way that person likes to be managed whether surgery not they'rhenium a fit in the organization.

8. What is it about your current lin, at this particular company, that sets it apart from former head finance positions?

My theatrical role as CFO here is fairly open in terms of where I can spend my time in a particular twenty-four hour period. It's part because we have got careful segments inside Quest that are nascent and growing quickly and run like startups. Then we have other aspects of our occupation that are more fledgling and give off more cash in on flow and cause different investment profiles. It's a pretty close at hand, tight-knit ranking management team up and we each get on well. The clear three operating theatre four of U.S.A have been together for almost eight years so it's sort of like a family. It's challenging because software past its nature is very dynamic and we have very energizing businesses with different profiles.

9. What do you do to unwind from a hectic day?

I've got a yoke of great kids who, if I get wound up in any 1 particular focus at work, they're pretty good at unwinding me the unusual way at dwelling house identical quickly. Information technology's always great to spend more time with them when I canful. I'm also beautiful active. I get it on to play soccer, get to the gym and do very much of outside stuff.

10. If you weren't doing this job, what would you be doing?

At 45 my opportunities are limited and then if I was 25 I'd pursue my career in Europe on the soccer field. But at that place's not too many spaces for 45-year-old midfielders these years. Notwithstanding that, I ingest an affinity and have it off for history so I'd lovemaking to be a history professor at the college level or teaching kids history.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/481868/10_questions_for_quest_software_cfo_scott_davidson.html

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