Jul 18, 2022
Thank you to Marco Plattner, Group CFO at Cerdia in Basel, Switzerland, for joining us on the EMEA Recruitment podcast.
“You need to have the right teams around you – without that, it’s not possible.”
Marco moved to Basel five years ago, but actually changed roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Cerdia has a small headquarters in Switzerland, he realised that he needed to communicate more consciously when working remotely. Ensuring informal conversation between colleagues still took place was also essential.
Marco found himself changing roles during the pandemic as a result of remaining open to new opportunities. Interviewing remotely, he feels it takes longer to see whether there’s a match between the candidate and the company.
Although he’s now a CFO, Marco has always put 100% into his work to come up with new ideas and solve problems, regardless of his position. He has always worked on complex change management projects; his ability to navigate through ambiguity is something he attributes to his successes.
Marco first met Paul Toms, our Founder, shortly before the birth of his second child. He was also going through a major transformation project at work, studying for an MBA and had recently relocated. He debriefs with himself every week and tries to have a longer-term plan in place to allow him to focus, although he appreciates that we need to remain flexible for times when plans change.
Marco highlights his wife, teams at work and fellow students on his MBA course for providing the necessary support. It’s the reason that he spends so long talking to candidates during the recruitment process; Marco is always looking for the right cultural fit, as well as diversity in the team.
In fact, Marco is always looking for ways to decrease the time spent on data-gathering in Finance, to free up more time for discussing and implementing solutions. He believes we need to put more resources in place to change the current imbalance.
Marco offers key advice for those considering a career in Finance – it’s not the typical answer!
If you’re looking for a particular part of the episode, you can use the timestamps below:
01:18: Back to the office in
Basel
02:44: Communicating more consciously during
COVID
05:04: Taking positives from the
pandemic
06:15: Changing jobs during
COVID
08:35: Becoming a CFO
10:28: How Marco has ensured
success
15:25: The importance of focus in project
management
18:45: Having the right people around
you
22:34: Finding a cultural fit with
candidates
25:32: How BI & data can change the imbalance
in Finance
29:26: How Marco got into
Finance
32:37: Advice for aspiring Finance
professionals
34:33: What’s next for Marco
25:58: The last thing that made Marco
smile
37:38: How to reach out to
Marco
If you’d like to connect with Marco, find him on LinkedIn.
The EMEA Recruitment podcast is brought to you in partnership with Operation Smile. We’re hoping to create 100 new smiles through this partnership – if you can support this cause, please visit our website: https://www.emearecruitment.com/operation-smile
This episode is hosted by Paul Toms and Rose Jinks.
If you’d like to find out more about our professional services recruitment, information can be found on our website: https://www.emearecruitment.com/
You can also follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/emea-recruitment-limited/
Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultoms/
Or follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/paul_toms
If you have any feedback on the EMEA Recruitment podcast, please get in touch with Rose: rose.jinks@emearecruitment.com
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