Talent management strategy and CFO development with Anish Batlaw, managing director at General Atlantic

In this podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Tom Cunnigham speaks to Anish Batlaw, managing director at General Atlantic, a global growth equity investor. Batlaw discusses talent management strategy, must-have criteria for CFOs, and the global economic and geopolitical challenges ahead for this role.

Some key questions answered in this podcast include:

• (1:32) Can you start by telling our listeners more about your role at General Atlantic?
• (2:02) Can you tell us a little bit more about GA's approach to developing a talent management strategy in order to accelerate the market cap multiple?
• (3:30) What do you consider to be the pivotal criteria often marked-up as a must-have for a CFO?
• (4:51) We're coming out of the pandemic, but we're now in a stage where there are global economic and geopolitical challenges ahead. How has the CFO role evolved in these circumstances?
• (7:35) What are the leadership traits and behaviors that you most value in a CFO?

Below is a full transcript of the episode, which has been edited for clarity.

Welcome to the Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. Heidrick is the premier global provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. Diversity and inclusion, leading through tumultuous times, and building thriving teams and organizations are among the core issues we talk with leaders about every day, including in our podcasts. Thank you for joining the conversation.

Tom Cunningham: Hello, I'm Tom Cunningham and I lead the UK Financial Officers Practice in London for Heidrick & Struggles. In today's podcast, I'm talking to Anish Batlaw, managing director at General Atlantic. Anish has spent the last 30 years building high-performing management teams at public and private companies. He joined General Atlantic in 2015 to lead their human capital efforts in support of their global portfolio companies. His responsibilities include the development of management teams, boards of directors, and executive compensation. Previously, Anish held roles at PepsiCo, Microsoft, Novartis, and TPG Capital. In 2021, Anish was named one of the outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business, an award given by the Asian American Business Development Center. Anish, welcome, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.

Anish Batlaw: Thank you, Tom. It's always so wonderful to have a conversation with you. Delighted to be here.

Tom Cunningham: So, Anish, can you start by telling our listeners more about your role at General Atlantic? 

Anish Batlaw: My role at GA is fairly simple: I coach and help our CEOs develop their leadership capabilities, and I also help them build a talent strategy and, importantly, support them in developing a talent platform that allows the company to attract the right talent and develop internal people to play even bigger roles and have a more lasting impact on the business.

Tom Cunningham: And I've always been impressed with their approach to developing a talent management strategy. Can you tell us a little bit more about GA's approach to doing that, in order to accelerate the market cap multiple? 

Anish Batlaw: I would say our talent strategy is really grounded on three core elements. The first is helping build and develop a management team that has the ability to create significant value over the long term—being four or five years, six years, or thereabouts. And, second, to create an incentive plan that can effectively align and build alignment within the management team, and also between the management team and the investors. And the third element is to support the creation of a talent platform or drive the talent density deeper into the organization so that the company has the ability to produce more and more leaders who can assume new leadership roles, as the company requires. Particularly with growth companies, that is incredibly important because, as the company scales, the leaders need not only better leadership capabilities but also need to be able to create more leadership capacity. And that means that the company needs more and more leaders to take on bigger and bigger roles.

Tom Cunningham: And when you think about the CFO profile—I think you and I both acknowledged that that will vary across the portfolio—but what do you consider to be the pivotal criteria often marked-up as a must-have for a CFO?

Anish Batlaw: I think of CFOs as enterprise-wide leaders, and there are many CFOs today who are playing that role fabulously well. I see that they've broken away from being the number cruncher or the chief controller and have effectively become the strategic player in the business, a player who is sought out by their colleagues for advice, leaders who are in very close partnership with the CEOs and are respected by the by their boards. These CFOs understand how to create value for the company and, in order to play that role and create value more strategically, they've been able to build strong finance teams who have then taken over the day-to-day management of the function. And that has allowed the CFOs to elevate their game and have an impact at a much higher level.

Tom Cunningham: And, you know, we're coming out of the pandemic, but we're now in a stage where there's global economic and geopolitical challenges ahead. How has the CFO role evolved in these circumstances?

Anish Batlaw: I think it's become even more impactful and even more strategic. It's really a great question, Tom. You know, when I think about the business environment today, no one really knows how long or how severe the decline in demand will be, or how severe the decline in demand will be, segment by segment, market by market. I mean, you hear various numbers being thrown around, but it's almost impossible to predict how's that going to play out. And it's going to be incumbent upon the CFOs to work closely with the CEOs and their management teams to lay out different scenarios for how the business will operate at various levels of distress or recovery of the economy. They will need to understand the assumptions that are being made; they'll need to stress-test the scenario planning. And, in addition, I would say that they will need to have a very strong grasp on cash flow and management of the balance sheet, especially in today's times. They need to not only actively engage in the management of expenses but should be actively looking at opportunities in pricing and management of receivables and payables. They have to stress test the financial viability of the consumers that the company serves, [making sure] the company is tapping into opportunities created by rising interest rates, to invest their cash wisely—they really need to be all over cash management within the companies. And, I would say it's so important for them to help the CEOs and boards, especially in times like today, to create financial flexibility through the right defense strategies. And that’s so important because if they can create financial flexibility, then the company has the ability to act and is ready to play offense when the opportunity arises.

Tom Cunningham: Yes, that's great. I mean, we're certainly seeing that combination of defense-and offense-like capabilities within the CFO role, and it’s something that many of our clients are sort of gravitating toward. Interestingly, you talk about this enterprise-wide leader, which, again, is something that we are seeing more and more of. What are the leadership traits and behaviors that you most value in a CFO?p

Anish Batlaw: I would say there are three behaviors. First, leadership: their ability to set an agenda and influence different stakeholders. They need to tell a story and have an influence and communicate the story with their colleagues first. Certainly, they need to provide financial leadership and I would say enterprise-wide leadership to the broader company. They need to communicate, influence, and align the CEOs and the boards behind the strategy. The second behavior, I would say, is having the ability to think strategically, to help their CEOs build a strategy, help them think about different scenarios and how the company will operate in different scenarios, help the CEOs prioritize their resources effectively. And the third behavior, I would say, is in their ability to build a team—first to build a strong finance team that has the ability to manage all the basics that are required and to ensure that execution takes place. But also CFOs need to work closely with their CHROs and others on the management team to develop an organization that is more productive and more talented than it was yesterday.

Tom Cunningham: And you'll appreciate how active the CFO market has been over the last couple of years. And, as a consequence of that, we have to look much more broadly across ownership structures, industry sectors, and next-generation talent ready to make that move. And part of that is taking those who haven't any private equity experience and want to move into a private equity portfolio company. What advice would you give to a corporate CFO looking to make that move?

Anish Batlaw: When I think about the environment within private equity or companies that are backed by private equity capital, typically, there is a clear investment thesis. When CFOs enter the company and are outsiders to the company, the first thing they need to do is very quickly ramp up on their understanding of the business model, how value gets created, how value will be created both on the revenue and the cost side. They also need to develop relationships with people across different functions, develop relationships with the CEOs and develop relationships with people much deeper in the organization, and get to understand the company that they have joined and understand the culture of the company that they have joined. Beyond that, I would say that, typically, when a CFO joins a company, especially a private equity–backed company and a growth equity–backed company, they'll likely find that the infrastructure is a bit underdeveloped, especially in the context of the ambition of the company. These companies usually seek to create three, four, or five times the value over the next four to five years. In that context, the infrastructure can feel underdeveloped on talent, processes, systems, and data analytics. And so, as the CFOs come in, they need to learn to operate at different levels. They'll need to learn the business model, work closely with the CEOs to have strategic impact on the company at a very high level. But the next moment, they'll probably need to roll up their sleeves and get down to some basic work; they need to get really good at spotting the diamonds in the rough. Growth companies typically do not have the luxury of hiring a person who's been there, and done that for every level in the company. And so the ability to hire for potential, the ability to spot potential or the diamond in the rough, as I put it, and then leverage, coach, and level up the talent is critical. So, you might find yourself building out a process, a critical core process, within the company in controls or in Treasury. You might also find that you're having incredibly strategic conversations with the CEO and the investors. And, at the same time, you've got to move down and coach a high-potential but early-in-career athlete in order to play a bigger role. Capital typically clocks at a pretty fast rate and it's incredibly exciting to see the value that gets created and the disruption that the company is poised to cause in a more traditional space, but it does require the person to flex and be able to operate both strategically and very tactically at a time with a team that needs to be developed.

Tom Cunningham: Anish, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today, I know our listeners will be highly appreciative, as I am. Thank you.

Anish Batlaw: Of course, Tom, happy to be here. Thank you.

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About the interviewer

Tom Cunningham (tcunningham@heidrick.com) is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ London office where he leads the UK Financial Officers Practice; he is also a member of the Corporate Officers Practice.