*At the time of interview, Catherine served as Chief Financial Officer at FIDO Tech.
Catherine Emmett is a finance leader who served as CFO of global water technology innovation company FIDO Tech, a company supercharging the AI Water Revolution.
In an era of tech solutions, Catherine strives to keep sight of the human element and believes in the value of challenging the status quo whilst managing a finance function through growth.
Read on below for Catherine’s take on how she pieces the leadership ‘jigsaw’ together and see who Catherine believes is a company that is ‘doing business right’ in terms of positive brand positioning.
"For me being a CFO is akin to doing a 5,000 piece jigsaw; sometimes you need to be in the detail and sometimes you need to step back and see the bigger picture and how it all connects."
M.INT –How has team management changed in the post-Covid era?
CE –It’s been interesting to see the sudden requirement to switch to a remote first culture and then a gradual shift back to hybrid or fully office based. For me it shows the importance of measuring employees by outputs as I think there are huge advantages for individuals to enabling a hybrid model. This is both personally and in terms of how they manage their workload. It also helps with D&I by allowing more flexible working patterns. The key piece is not losing the culture so I think having team meetings and strategy sessions in person as much as possible helps build and retain those personal connections.
M.INT –What are your favourite brands - who is doing business right in terms of positive positioning?
CE –I’ve always enjoyed the more humorous consumer brands so I think someone like “innocent” has a great social media presence. They push for engagement in a fun way and never take themselves too seriously. They’re also very open when they get something wrong. In the era of tech solutions it’s a nice balance to show the human element of a brand.
M.INT –What are you currently reading/listening to?
CE –I’m a huge fan of the NewsAgents podcast. I don’t have much time to keep on top of what’s happening globally aside from the major headlines and they have a good mix of the well-publicised stories and the lesser covered items. They also have a good mixture of guests so you hear opposing views. It’s got that human feel to it instead of being a formulaic news channel.
M.INT –What would you describe as the most rewarding aspect of your current role?
CE –I work for a rapidly growing company in the water tech space. The intellectual challenge of managing a finance function through growth is immense as there is always so many moving pieces and considerations. Being able to do this when you believe in the product and can see how it can help people worldwide is a real privilege. For me being a CFO is akin to doing a 5,000 piece jigsaw; sometimes you need to be in the detail and sometimes you need to step back and see the bigger picture and how it all connects. Critically don’t lose any pieces along the way.
M.INT –What advice would you give a new colleague/employee on their first day?
CE –The most important thing to me is not being afraid to ask questions. We need to constantly query the status quo and new employees are a great way to do that. They often spot things the rest of us have just taken for granted as the norm. For personal growth, I think it’s important you understand what your direct manager does. Not necessarily every task but taking an interest in the next level and being able to deputise for them is a great way of showing you’re ready to step up when the time is right.
