The Knot’s worldwide CFO says ‘I do’

This is part of our occasional series on CFOs’ few first days at their new job.

What do weddings and CFOs have in common? Spreadsheets, of course.

Michael Pickrum was named the new CFO of wedding platform The Knot Worldwide in January. On his seventh day, he talked with CFO Brew about his approach to walking into a new organization.

The former CFO of Maximum Effort, a digital marketing, film production, and investment company co-founded by Ryan Reynolds, and a 17-year veteran of BET/Viacom, Pickrum said that on his first day of meeting new colleagues in the office, he had all the emotions most people hope to have on their wedding day—“energized, enthusiastic”—and that it “exceeded expectations.”

A CFO, of course, can’t expect a long honeymoon period. Pickrum’s rule for his first days to weeks as a new CFO is “don’t break anything.” He focuses on getting to know the finance and accounting team, his executive peers, and others in the organization “to get a feel for the culture and how things really work and just build that rapport with people.”

“I’m really sensitive to respecting and building upon what we’ve already done,” Pickrum told CFO Brew. He doesn’t want to do anything that could have a “much more, larger negative impact” on the company.

Prep. Before starting at The Knot Worldwide, Pickrum “was basically my own little research analyst,” he said, “to see what information was out there” about the company “and start to review that, synthesize it, and get a POV.”

What he found is what any wedding planner or soon-to-be bride or groom could tell you—weddings are complicated. And a wedding platform is no different. The Knot is a marketplace for all the different vendors and options people need for a wedding—everything from the photographer and wedding planner to the registry and venue. “You could think of all the different vendors as separate lines of business,” Pickrum said.

“I’m comfortable with the different business models, but actually seeing how it all flows together, and seeing how it’s all interdependent, is particularly unique,” he said.

The big day. As with any new high-level executive, fostering trust is a must. Pickrum’s strategy for building trust is to “create an organization that is a strategic asset or strategic capability,” and that means focusing on “operational excellence,” he said.

Finance and accounting offer a “unique vantage point around understanding the business,” Pickrum said. “If you’ve got operational excellence, you’re collaborating the right way, then you can start to bring value add, analysis, and perspective to those business partners.”