Forterro is a London-based software company with around 11,000 SME manufacturing customers across Europe. Paul Smolinski, Chief Financial Officer of Forterro, tells us more about the company and how he is a people person who likes to be open with his staff and hopefully empower them.
Describe your current job role:
Forterro is a software company, with a London HQ, with around 11,000 SME manufacturing customers across Europe. We employ 1,600 people. I joined in 2021 to help transform the business. As CFO, I manage our corporate finance function, banking and private equity investor relations, financial discipline and governance. More strategically, I’m a business partner to the CEO, Dean Forbes, the management team and our investors. I have significant input into strategic planning and delivery and how we grow the business. I’ve been closely involved in our move from one-off licence sales to a recurring revenue Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. That’s proving a success and right now, we’re growing rapidly, faster than the market.
What would you describe as your most memorable achievement?
At Forterro, that would certainly be my role in the company being acquired in March 2022 by Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm. It bought us from Battery Ventures in a deal valuing Forterro at €1 billion and making us one of very few privately owned ‘tech unicorns’ in the UK! It was an enormous amount of work over four months. We created a strategic five-year plan to quadruple our value and made Forterro ready to work with Partners Group. We constructed the mechanics by which on-going metrics, KPIs and other information could be presented. There was a great deal of due diligence work too.
What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position?
I’m a real people person. Throughout my career, I’ve built highly motivated teams who have robust personalities and really want to be at the front of the business. My management style is very open, very empowering for my staff. I have an incredibly strong finance team here at Forterro; people who are really interested in the company and helping drive its success. Also, I believe the CFO can have an important positive influence on corporate culture. At Forterro we’re transparent and very open with employees about successes and challenges. We’re good at communicating why we’re doing things, we’re clear on company goals and what each of us needs to do to achieve them. We reward people on those metrics.
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry?
In Forterro’s space of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, it’s the move from on-premises solutions to cloud that’s now a major thrust. Manufacturing has lagged behind other industries in this move. Certainly, at Forterro, we’re very much right there having invested heavily in research and development and in customer communication. Also, mergers and acquisitions feature frequently in the software industry, and at Forterro, in keeping with our plan, we’re looking to acquire more ERP software firms from across Europe.
If you could go back and change one career decision, what would it be?
I have very few regrets, having certainly chosen a profession and an industry that excites me. Back in the 90s though, as Finance Director with Compaq in Houston, Texas, I was offered a move to Munich as Financial Controller, Europe. I took it. But looking back, I do wonder if I might instead have found an exciting role, wealth and stardom in Silicon Valley!
What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain a C-level position in your industry?
Grow yourself in major blue-chips. Undertake different roles. Learn best-practice. Develop your communication and people skills. Then consider moving into smaller, dynamic and exciting firms where your expertise will add huge value. Choose an industry that interests you and find a business that thrills you. Only then can you be passionate and a truly successful CFO.
What behaviour or personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why?
Getting on well with people and building trust; with the finance teams I’ve led, the business management teams, boardroom executives and investors I’ve worked with. In my experience, being able to build positive relationships with people, understand them, their needs and ways of thinking is essential for any CXO. But I’ve seen it lacking in some CFOs. Here at Forterro, we’re a great team. We support one-another, we work hard together, we succeed together, we celebrate together.
What’s your go-to productivity trick?
It might sound corny, but I’m a great one for to-do and priorities lists. I write them almost every morning, for example on my way to work on the train. Beyond that, I do need to make a lot of decisions every day. I need to be clear, decisive and assertive. Over the years I’ve learnt how to make good judgements quickly. I’ve learnt to define what sorts of information I’ll need and how to get it swiftly. I’m not one to procrastinate.
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months?
Firstly, we used to have just Battery Ventures as our PE investor. A big change for Forterro and for me as its CFO has been welcoming Partners Group, a much bigger investor alongside Battery (which recently re-invested). Partners Group rightly expects closer involvement with the business and also has a keen eye on governance.
Secondly, we’ve had a much greater focus in 2022 on making the strategic initiatives happen that we set out in our five-year plan – we’re laser focused. We need to keep an eye on the global economy and current geo-political situation of course, but right now we still have aggressive growth plans, including via mergers and acquisitions, keeping us on track to deliver!