463: Determining Your Course of Action | Jennifer Ceran, CFO, SmartSheet

A regular on Treasury and Risk Management Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in Finance” list, Smartsheet CFO Jennifer Ceran joined the company, a SaaS platform for managing collaborative work and automating work processes, in 2016 with impressive Silicon Valley bona fides. She’s served as CFO and in senior finance executive roles at Quotient Technology (formerly Coupons.com), Box, Ebay/PayPal and Cisco. Ceran’s current mission is to help lead Smartsheet’s long-term strategy, and she’s thrilled by Smartsheet’s market opportunity. “It’s in the multiple billions of dollars,” she enthuses. “We have a real chance of extending our leadership position, so we’re going after [a goal of] $1 billion in revenue within four to six years.” Ceran is equally enthusiastic about sharing career guidance with future finance leaders. She identifies two crucial propellants to the CFO seat: 1) Amassing as much corporate finance knowledge as possible in all of the realm’s key functional areas; and 2) Understanding the value – and exceedingly positive impact on company performance – that a healthy and candid CFO-CEO relationship engenders. “It’s really important that you and the CEO have mutual respect and alignment,” Ceran adds. “It’s important that you’re in an environment where you feel safe on both sides to discuss the toughest situations at work, debate the issues and then come together on a course of action.”