Interview FAQs
How did you go about scaling the company?
Situation: During my tenure as COO at a fintech organization, I was tasked with scaling the company from a local presence to a global footprint across three continents. The organization, with fewer than 40 employees primarily in engineering, lacked the skills, processes, technology and structured departments like marketing, HR, and sales to achieve their objectives. We had a suite of products ready for market but needed a strategic approach to achieve ambitious growth targets.
​
Task: My primary task was to orchestrate a strategic and structured approach to effectively scale the organization's people, technology, and revenue. This included designing a scalable team structure, implementing operational efficiencies, and preparing the organization for rapid global expansion.
​
Action:
-
Evaluation/Assessment: I thoroughly assessed the company's current operations and market position, identifying key strengths and areas for improvement through discussions with various employees, leadership, SWOT analysis, etc.
-
Strategic Planning: Aligned with the CEO’s vision and formulated a comprehensive strategy covering sales, marketing, HR, operations, and technology. This involved setting clear objectives and milestones for each department to ensure alignment with our growth targets.
-
Design/Optimization: I designed scalable team structures and optimized internal processes, systems, metrics, and communication channels, in conjunction and alignment/buy-in from respective leadership. This included implementing new technologies and automation tools to streamline operations and enhance productivity.
-
Implementation: I spearheaded the execution of the strategic plan, ensuring each department understood their role in achieving our growth objectives. By delegating responsibilities and fostering ownership, we ensured that all departments were prepared to support our growth trajectory. This involved deploying new systems, policies, and initiatives to support our expansion efforts.
-
Enablement: Recognizing the importance of developing our talent pool, I implemented training programs and mentorship initiatives to empower team members across the organization. By nurturing a culture of innovation and accountability, we fostered an environment where individuals could thrive and contribute to our collective success.
Result: As a result of these efforts:
-
We achieved a remarkable 366% growth in sales bookings within the first year.
-
Scaled our teams globally by 400%.
-
Our EBITDA achieved 39.5% (14.5% over plan), demonstrating improved operational efficiency and profitability.
How did you achieve revenue retention of $15M+ and reduced customer churn?
In my role as Head of Operations and Deputy to the Regional Head at Finastra, I was responsible for driving best practices and improve greater efficiency in the sales and post-sales organization, working cross departmentally to resolve our customers issues and ensure revenue retention and recognition. My role was pivotal in orchestrating these efforts, as I leveraged my position to drive collaboration, strategic planning, and focused execution, ultimately safeguarding revenue streams and nurturing long-term customer relationships.
​
To effectively retain revenue, I followed a strategic process, project management and communication skills that included the following key steps:
Strategic Analysis: I worked closely with the sales, engineering, product, services and customer support teams to conduct a thorough analysis of existing and potential churning customer accounts, identifying potential risks and areas of concern that could impact revenue retention.
Engaging with Decision Makers: Met key stakeholders and C-level decision makers (internal/external) to align strategic goals, challenges, and needs within a highly escalated situation and ensured the relevant internal teams with supportive stakeholders are aligned to the objectives.
Tailored Action Plans: For seamless coordination, I developed customized strategies for accounts at risk working closely the sales team and global lines of business aligning regional and global stakeholders, ensuring they were equipped to execute the strategies effectively. All communication were documented in Salesforce.
Risk Management: Led cross-functional teams to mitigate risks, ensuring timely responses to potential issues.
Ongoing Monitoring/Collaboration: Continuous monitoring, reporting and communication was a crucial aspect of the process. I Chaired the Regional Accounts at Risk and Escalation boards, tracking actions and adapting strategies as needed as well as served on the Global At Risk and Escalation Boards with our C- suite ensuring that the necessary actions were being taken in reducing churn.
Open and transparent communication was key. I maintained regular communication with internal stakeholders and clients, ensuring they were informed of our efforts and progress towards resolving their concerns.
​
Describe a challenge you faced in managing internal operations and ensuring client success. How did you address it, and what were the outcomes?
Situation: As a member of the Regional Leadership team, I played a crucial role in managing internal operations and ensuring client success. This included leading high-level client engagements to resolve critical issues that could impact deal closures or payments. A key challenge arose due to our company's merger with another firm, which introduced new personnel and altered internal dynamics. Additionally, the bank had a pre-existing relationship with us and another global partner that came from the merger. I spearheaded efforts to navigate a significant challenge with a Tier 1 Australian bank on a strategic $10 million payments upgrade deal.
​
Task: Mitigating risk within this vital tri-party relationship was crucial. My responsibilities included identifying and resolving potential conflicts with all stakeholders, including our new team members, the existing partner, and the bank. This involved leading the development and overseeing the execution of a plan to ensure alignment with strategic objectives and secure the deal while maintaining the longstanding client relationship.
​
Action: Recognizing the urgency, I traveled to Australia and directly engaged with the client and partner. To foster a collaborative environment, I facilitated close interaction between our sales and professional services teams, the new internal team members, and the existing partner. Through open communication, we identified potential roadblocks and worked together to develop a tri-party engagement plan with clear actions and ownership for everyone involved. This plan included regular meetings (weekly, monthly, quarterly) that I managed and monitored closely to ensure adherence and address any emerging concerns.
​
Result: Through consistent monitoring and proactive plan management, tensions gradually eased, and the team's focus shifted to addressing the fundamental client concern. This collaborative approach led to securing the critical $10 million deal, preserving our relationship with the client, and showcasing our collective ability to navigate complex challenges and deliver results.
How do you keep yourself and others accountable to deliver expected outcomes?
Situation: I led a global taskforce tasked with retaining key clients in the Chinese market. A multifaceted challenge was encountered while leading efforts to retain key clients in the Chinese market. This challenge arose from a critical partner unexpectedly terminating their services and transitioning to a competitor, placing our entire China region at risk of significant loss. The complexity stemmed from the fact that client contracts couldn't simply be transferred, as clients preferred working with familiar local support provided by the partner, whilst we had new deals, services and support criticalities to be managed and secured as part of the project.
Task: My task was to orchestrate a comprehensive plan to mitigate client churn, ensure a smooth and efficient process and retain as much business as possible. The plan involved three distinct phases: renegotiating contracts with numerous banks, transferring the license deals, and transitioning services and customer support either internally or to a newly identified partner. The overarching goal was to achieve a retention rate of 60% within a 12-month period at a minimum.
​
Action: To foster accountability within the taskforce, I implemented several key strategies. First, we established SMART goals - specifically, retaining at least 80% of our existing clients in China. Drawing upon my project management, leadership and client skills, I played a role in drafting a comprehensive plan to address the complex challenges we faced, assigning ownership to team leaders across sales, services, support, and partner management. We then set up regular video conferences with team members across different time zones to track progress and address any challenges and facilitated collaborative efforts across departments. Additionally, I created a system of clear performance metrics, monitoring key indicators like client satisfaction surveys and renewal rates.
Result: By emphasizing accountability through transparent communication, shared goals, and ongoing progress tracking, we successfully retained an impressive 80% of our Chinese clients, exceeding our initial target. We managed to achieve this result 6 months ahead of schedule, demonstrating the effectiveness of our collaborative and accountable approach.
What is the most important and difficult part of managing a budget?
The most important part of budgeting is ensure the budget reflects the strategic objectives and priorities of the organization. The most challenging aspect of budget is cross communication and striking the right balance between forecasting future needs and aligning resources with strategic goals. This involves navigating uncertainties in market conditions, effectively allocating resources across departments and projects, managing stakeholder expectations, ensuring data accuracy, and maintaining flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.
​
In my COO role, I spearheaded efforts to balance growth priorities with limited resources by assigning clear roles, strategically outsourcing tasks, and optimizing resource allocation. Leveraging technology for centralizing data and automating processes, we achieved a 14.5% overachievement on EBIDTA. This success was not without its challenges, as we navigated economic changes and established ourselves in new markets. Being laser-focused was critical, complemented with regular governance in place, metrics tracking, and board meetings. Through my mandate to ensure effective execution, regular communication, and a collaborative approach, we were able to resolve issues quickly and stand together as a team.
​