Sometimes taking a position not normally associated with finance pays outsized dividends. Workday CFO Zane Rowe talks career, customers, AI, and finance in a CFO Thought Leader podcast.
Bruno J. Navarro
Senior Editorial Strategist, Finance
Workday
What would possess a CFO to shift gears and take a job in sales?
For Zane Rowe—who at the time held the top finance role at an airline company—getting a chance to learn from some of the technology sector’s brightest minds was irresistible.
The company was Apple, and the opportunity arrived after a conversation with CEO Tim Cook.
“I raised my hand and decided to take on a sales job, which a lot of people thought I was absolutely crazy doing,” Rowe said.
Ultimately, the chance to try something off the beaten path was too attractive to pass up, Rowe said. “I just thought,” he added, “‘Look, this is maybe a little bit crazy but just a great opportunity to flex whatever I can and to learn a new business, a new industry, new people.’”
In a podcast with Jack Sweeney of CFO Thought Leader, Rowe—who is now CFO at Workday—described growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, and being drawn to the idea of traveling around the globe, as well as the engineering aspect of the airline industry. Then there was the business side of it, too.
“What I love about finance, especially in this age and time, is the opportunity for CFOs to be strategic, to think about how we grow companies and what we use—its systems, people, and tools—to drive value for the company,” he said.
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Rowe began his career at Continental Airlines, where he served as executive vice president and CFO, staying on through its merger with United Airlines and the resulting company, United Continental Holdings, before he left to head up sales for North America at Apple.
“It was about change,” Rowe said of his career detour. “What Apple can do for the world … was very compelling. I love being part of an organization that means more than just what it is, and to be with people that clearly have a vision for change and a vision for doing good, and to be a part of that, I thought, was exceptional.”
Rowe said experience at Apple complemented his background in the airline industry, which had included operations and marketing, among other areas.
“What I love about finance, especially in this age and time, is the opportunity for CFOs to be strategic, to think about how we grow companies and what we use—whether it’s systems, people, and tools—to drive value for the company.”Zane Rowe
CFO, Workday
Rowe described airlines as a difficult business. “Even when times are good, it's a challenging business,” he said. Yet early on in his career, Rowe recognized the power of data “in differentiating a good airline from a bad airline.”
As technology played an increasingly important role for finance leaders, Rowe viewed how airlines could take advantage of that opportunity—a common thread that runs through every one of his career chapters through his current role at Workday.
Technology, Rowe said, held the potential to to help CFOs accomplish a variety of goals, such as:
But Rowe isn’t just a proponent of AI—he’s actively involved in shaping its application at Workday, working closely with internal stakeholders to ensure the company’s AI products benefit customers.
“Everyone’s talking about AI now, but ultimately it’s been about data and data sets and thinking about how to grow those,” he said, pivoting to how Workday has helped customers find the value in their own data. “What we’re able to do with our platform—and being cloud-enabled from day one—is leverage that data on all those billions of transactions we have every year and allow our customers to grow in these two really important areas: their people and their financials.”
Rowe recalled his “finance-strategic moment” while in the airline industry. “All these aircraft were running full and yet, we were losing money,” he said. “And we had to come up with some other way of looking at the business and changing something.”
That’s when Rowe’s affinity for understanding data came into play. A product by EMC, where Rowe subsequently served as CFO, had the capabilities to do what he was looking to achieve. “That’s where my affinity for really understanding data started,” he added.
“What we’re able to do with our platform—and being cloud-enabled from day one—is leverage that data on all those billions billions of transactions we have every year and allow our customers to grow in these two really important areas: the people and the financials.”
So, what’s it like to work with Rowe?
“I’m very inquisitive, and that’s just the nature of the business and the nature of the role,” he said, admitting that he’s likely known for asking plenty of questions around a variety of topics, especially: “What are the key drivers to ultimately effect change?”
Naturally, the broader macroeconomic climate also occupies his mind as well as how his organization thinks about its mission. “One thing I’ll say, at Workday we’re so focused on customer satisfaction,” Rowe said. “Ultimately, that’s such a big driver of our success.” He added that it helps to understand what products customers are using, what they’re happy with, and where they’d like to see some changes.
For someone steeped in numbers, Rowe appreciates non-financial information to help understand what will drive future growth.
“It’s about establishing a wide variety of metrics that we can lean in on at any time to better understand some of the trends we otherwise wouldn’t observe just looking at a financial forecast,” Rowe said. “Because ultimately, a financial forecast is just a matter of whatever goes in gets digested and then, ultimately, produces a forecast. But for me, it's some of the engagement around people to really understand what's behind that number, and why did we get that, or why did we change that? And just asking lots of questions to potentially drive a different decision or different behavior and not just assuming the number is the number.”
Sometimes, finance teams can get fixated on what the forecast shows, Rowe said, adding that there’s usually a wealth of other factors at play. “As a management team, how do we bring this all in and really think about what those variables are that we can either affect or otherwise dynamically change our business model around?” he said.
Yet for all his accomplishments, Rowe remains grounded in the idea that working with a top-notch finance team makes all the difference in long-term success.
“It’s a management team that you’re around and the people you work with that can help you with things like this,” he said. “I never think there’s just that one time where an individual comes up with something. It’s really the people you're with.”
Rowe also emphasized understanding the business and talking to a wide variety of stakeholders to understand different perspectives.
“A lot of what has enriched my life in this role are the positions I’ve had that have been outside of finance,” he said. “When I think about a decision we’re making, I think, ‘How is that salesperson going to interpret what we just said? Can we say it in a different way, or can we ask for their input and advice before saying it?’ All of that dynamic—when you’re in any kind of business role, understanding your stakeholder base and your impact on others—is very important.”
Lastly, Rowe shared what he wished he had known earlier in his career. “Who are those people you would ask for advice or help?” he said. “Who are those people that would be around that table for no matter where you are, what chapter you’re on in your life or your career? And I was fortunate early on to just have tremendous people.”
Listen to the entire podcast with Workday CFO Zane Rowe at CFO Thought Leader.
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