Coworking with Almera Mahmood

Coworking is a weekly segment where we talk to CFOs and others in the finance space about their experiences, their companies, and the larger economy. Let us know if you are—or you know—a CFO we should interview.

Almera Mahmood is the CFO of Prolific, a holding company based in Indianapolis. She’s held a variety of finance and accounting positions in her career and she’s been with Prolific since 2019.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How is your career different from what you expected when you started off?

I always thought of the CFO role as a hybrid finance and accounting role. And it still is. However, when I was entering the finance world out of college, I thought it was going to be heavier accounting. As I have grown in my field, I have actually seen that the accounting function—in terms of the review, the audit, the tax—are often deferred and outsourced to a Big Four [firm]. What's really, truly needed is the financial expertise, the advisory capability in house, and then, to take the organization forward. It really is a strategic CFO role.

What do you see as your most important skill set for the next five to 15 years as we move into a digitally transformed world?

I would say, while building skills in Excel, getting comfortable with dashboards, getting comfortable with getting away from paper, and getting comfortable with apps, and being able to read charts and graphs and making sense of data that way. That is where things are headed. People want to take a look at one page and gather all their data and infographics. I see annual reports transitioning into infographics from binders of information. There's so much that's happening today. And it's going to look so different in 10–15 years. That's where the future is headed; we've got to be able to translate and communicate more and more, with less and less.

Who do you spend the most time with outside of finance within your company?

I try really hard to spend an equal amount of time with all the cross-functional leaders in the organization. It’s so important that I am connecting with anyone who has a P&L responsibility. If we are not aligned, then things are going to go off the tracks. But if we are aligned, then that’s where the collection of information is going to make sense and it’s going to be accurate. But if we’re not aligned, the information I’m trying to consolidate and then share back is not going to be accurate. It’s so important that I’m building relationships and credibility with all the P&L owners in the company,as well as the CEO—it’s really important that he is kept informed.

What’s something people wouldn’t know about you by looking at your LinkedIn profile?

Our CEO [Brad Benbow] believes in professional growth for all of us. A couple years back, he tasked me with a project to close a deal and to manage that relationship for the duration of the contract. I had to close the deal. I had to figure out how to do that from scratch, no coaching, no guidance, other than what I’ve seen and observed.

That was such a smart project for the CEO to give to the CFO, because how many CFOs are managing client relationships or understanding what’s happening on the front end? Most CFOs, if they’re having a discussion with the client, it’s about a receivable that needs to be collected, and that’s about it. We’re not typically at the proposals or the pitches, right? So it was such a cool opportunity to do sales and account management. It actually opened up my eyes to a lot of what happens in that world.—DA