Hypertherm’s Rob Masson on navigating crisis with teamwork

02/26/21 • 34 min

Rob Masson is the CFO at Hypertherm, a 50-year-old company that is a leader in industrial cutting systems. He’s also a former Naval aviator who learned critical leadership skills firsthand. Rob joined us on the Modern CFO Podcast to share his unique perspective on management and the ways in which empowered, confident employees helped Hypertherm weather the COVID-19 crisis.

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Connect with Rob on LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

Weathering COVID-19

The pandemic took an early toll on Hypertherm, but the company stayed true to its employee-centric values.

“We suffered, you know, over a 30% loss in sales almost overnight in April, and that caused a whole chain of events...We're an employee-owned company. We all share in the success of the company. And so we're all committed to each other. We have a no-layoff philosophy. So a lot of the normal things you do in public company settings and others, we don't do. And we have a very strong passion for that. So we will cut costs. We're very aggressive with that. But in terms of commitment to people, we don't do that. We come together as a team and solve the problem.”

Overcoming obstacles as a team

Teamwork enabled Hypertherm to bounce back from COVID-19 amid global challenges.

“It was quite a dramatic response from us internally to reset for the new norm. And then there were a lot of things on the capital structure side that we thought about with the treasury group and working with our banks, just to make sure we were secure from a cash flow and keeping that going...we serve some essential end markets. So we worked very diligently to keep our supply chain open, to make sure we had raw materials, stock, etc., since we source from all over the world. So it was really a team effort.”

Crisis builds new muscles

Once you go through a crisis situation, you are better equipped to face the future.

“This year, actually, we really surprised the organization because our business came back quite strong and we really stepped forward and shared a lot of that profit back with our associates...When you go through crisis, you live through it, you gain new muscles. So I feel very confident. Hopefully we never have to face it again as a company, but we're now prepared more than we were prior. And I think we'd do even better the next time, just because of the response and teamwork of the company.”

Navel experience in action

Rob’s Naval background played a critical role in his ability to keep cool under pressure.

“There's just a different experience you get as a Naval aviator than you get in other walks of life, and that's trained into you to compartmentalize and solve the problem. ‘There's no end until it's over’ kind of thing. And excellence is that way too. You demand a lot of yourself. And anytime I flew, we briefed as a team. We flew in the mission then we came back and we assessed what we did and how we could get better the next time...so it was a very critical look and that was all part of teamwork as well. And then the last thing is tenacity, which is what I started with. When you're in a crisis situation, you're not done until you've tried everything. And you don't let yourself think of anything but solving the problem and keeping with it. And I think that's the type of unique training I had as a Naval aviator that helps me in all sorts of situations.”

The value of parallel expertise
While traditional jobs require a one-track mindset, the Navy instilled in Rob the ability to adapt to new situations.

“The Navy does that to you. They put you in and just when you're comfortable and you succeeded somewhere, they throw you in a totally different leadership situation and you learn to lead in situations where you're not the expert. Some cases you're the expert, some cases you're not the expert...I think that gives me a little bit different perspective. The normal business career is get out of college, get started as an individual contributor, prove yourself through your technical skill, and then start getting advanced into leadership situations. And I think with the Navy, it's a professional training organization and it's much more about parallel technical expertise.”

Structural versus Operational CFOs

Rob sees himself as a leader first, and an operating CFO second.

“I was an economics major in college. So the art and the science of economics always appealed to me. And I think it's more of that side of operational finance, and what does finance tell you about the operations of the business. So I'm much more of an operating CFO if you will. And those are really, if you look at CFOs, you either h...

Visit Hypertherm
Connect with Rob on LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

Weathering COVID-19

The pandemic took an early toll on Hypertherm, but the company stayed true to its employee-centric values.

Overcoming obstacles as a team

Teamwork enabled Hypertherm to bounce back from COVID-19 amid global challenges.

Crisis builds new muscles

Once you go through a crisis situation, you are better equipped to face the future.

Navel experience in action

Rob’s Naval background played a critical role in his ability to keep cool under pressure.

The value of parallel expertise
While traditional jobs require a one-track mindset, the Navy instilled in Rob the ability to adapt to new situations.

Structural versus Operational CFOs

Rob sees himself as a leader first, and an operating CFO second.

Previous Episode

Welcome to the Modern CFO Podcast

Hello and welcome to the Modern CFO podcast. I'm your host Andrew Seski. Join me as I go behind the scenes with top CFO's to share the stories of how this pivotal role is changing in today's business climate. The full show notes and every new episode can be found at nthround.com/podcast.

Next Episode

Kevin Appleby on the challenges facing new CFOs

Kevin Appleby helps run GrowCFO, a community and development resource for finance professionals. A PwC alum-turned instructor, Kevin realized that what CFOs really needed was a support system. He joined me on The Modern CFO podcast to talk about the challenges facing CFOs today, the importance of seeking out mentors, and how to embrace imposter syndrome by conducting thoughtful self-assessment.

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Key Takeaways

Kevin’s journey: from CPA to the classroom

Kevin’s experience runs the gamut from CPA work to the chemical industry to working as a consultant for PwC. Ultimately he ended up in the classroom. When COVID hit, GrowCFO was the perfect segue.

“I became a management consultant and ended up working for PwC, mainly doing finance transformation projects, my client would typically be the finance director, the VP finance, or the CFO and often working with his team trying to find information for the project. And I found over time there are lots of stuff that I knew the answer to, but the client's own finance team didn't. I ended up spending time in the classroom teaching a lot of that stuff.”

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Creating a dedicated CFO network

Almost every industry has numerous networking and educational resources. Kevin saw that the CFO world was an exception.

“There's nothing really out there for CFOs, senior finance people to communicate with each other and to help each other solve problems. There's plenty of space here to go to the big advisory firms, but nothing really here to allow CFOs to cooperate with each other and share learning.”

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Helping CFOs break through the glass ceiling

A major challenge young CFOs face is breaking into the C-suite. GrowCFO helps prepare aspiring CFOs to succeed in the application process and beyond.

“What we found was there's a big glass ceiling. It's very difficult to break through into the C-suite...95% of the roles out there are looking for experienced CFOs, right? How do you ever get through that? So we put together the Future CFO program. We've got it accredited for 40 hours of CPD, continuing professional development, and it takes you on a nine module or a nine-step journey between being a very good, very accomplished head finance professional through to landing your first CFO job, how to move into that job. And it finishes with creating the plan for your first hundred days in your new CFO role.”

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CFOs are asked to do it all

New CFOs are often in for a rude shock. The breadth and amount of work expected can be staggering.

“Why does GrowCFO exist? One of the things that we're very definitely seeing Andrew is that the kind of breadth of skills that a CFO needs to have these days is huge. And there's no way that any one person can be expected to be rounded at absolutely everything. I think communication is one of those interesting ones that you've got a guy who's used to being in the back office, used to be behind his favorite Excel spreadsheet, he's used to running the finance team, become CFO. Suddenly, he's going to talk to customers, to suppliers, to investors, to shareholders, countless other stakeholders. He's gotta be the right hand man to the CEO. Now suddenly he's got a whole new world to play in.”

Promoting inclusion and diversity

Strong CFOs are often tactful and inclusive. Today, that means doing a quick check of your assumptions before communicating.

“The equity house looks for people like themselves. You as the CFO you're constantly thinking of communicating to yourself...one of my regular weekly tasks in GrowCFO is to write the weekly newsletter. Normally I write it. So the last few weeks I've written on a Sunday evening with a schedule set to go at about eight 30, Monday morning. And I do find myself looking back on this and suddenly realizing, Oh, Kevin, you've written this for another male CFO. Go back, take out all the references to he or him or whatever, and realize that probably 40-45% of the people that are reading this newsletter are female.”

Learn to specialize & delegate

Since you can’t possibly do it all, what’s the answer? Kevin says the solution is to learn when to dig in - and when to pull back.

“You can be weak in something. And part of it is recognizing you're weak and maybe getting somebody else to help you rather than learn the skills yourself...The CFO cannot be good at everything. But if you've got a...