Dion Cohen, CFO of SeaForest, is currently navigating both the unpredictable seas of marine farming and the intricate pathways of financial decision making. With a background in auditing and investment banking, Cohen emphasises the crucial role technology will play in the future of finance, and the importance of understanding both objective and subjective factors when making challenging financial decisions.
In his series of insightful interviews, Lachlan Grant, CEO of Vital Addition, engages with business leaders and CFOs, diving into the financial intricacies steering their enterprises. In this interview, Lachlan talks with Cohen about an industry challenged by the external environment, as well as what’s happening in the business world.
What role do you see technology playing in the future of finance, and how are you preparing your team to embrace these changes?
Embracing technology is a constant pursuit of efficiency. We actively foster a culture within the team that values staying vigilant for emerging technologies, setting aside time for evaluation, and championing their integration into our company’s operations.
Can you walk us through what methods you apply when facing a particularly challenging financial decision? What steps do you take to arrive at your decision? What are the key factors you consider? What lessons have you learnt from these experiences?
Comprehending the financial and economic factors that influence decision-making is relatively straightforward. The real challenge lies in navigating the complexities of subjective considerations such as staff morale, community impact, follow-on effects, stakeholder relationships, and personal well-being. It is in this realm that the majority of our time and effort are invested. Through experience, I’ve come to appreciate that absolute certainty in decision-making is elusive. This underscores the importance of collaborating with individuals who possess strength and a willingness to take calculated risks.
As a leader, what strategies have you implemented or do plan to implement when navigating through a recession? What key strategies have you employed to keep your organisation afloat, and even thrive, during these economic times?
My career has largely been involved in startups, where obviously there’s certain external factors that impact your business. I believe that prudent capital allocation is paramount to enhancing the company’s worth. Irrespective of economic downturns such as recessions, demonstrating consistent value growth opens avenues for securing additional capital to support the execution and realisation of our business strategy
What led you to the role as CFO and what were your career pathways leading you there?
I started my career in auditing, which led me into investment banking. While I enjoyed the opportunity to gain insights into diverse companies and observe the intricate dynamics at play, what frustrated me was the realisation that, as a service provider, I was an external observer rather than a principal or driving force effecting change in the businesses I encountered.
This realisation propelled me towards a desire to work with startup companies.
What do you consider to be the most important qualities for success in your role? How do you cultivate and develop these qualities in yourself and your team?
In this new journey, I’ve come to understand that one of the most pivotal qualities is the ability to accurately interpret data to make well-informed decisions,and this generally comes through experience. So, to instil this in my team, I consistently challenge them to understand the data, and draw conclusions; that means they take ownership of actually buying into the problem, as well as the solution.
What do you look for when you’re building a high performing team?
That’s a good question to ask because I just employed a new team member yesterday. You have to get a sense that they take pride in their work, as well as being a team player. The qualities manifest in the different ways they work. If someone takes pride in their work, they are going to push to get answers, they will work neatly or they are going to meet deadlines.
I know in Australia that many people choose to recruit people based on their industry experience, but I believe that a reasonably intelligent person can be brought up to speed in a new industry. The intrinsic sense of pride and work ethic – it’s something a person’s born with or not.
What are some of the commercial and financial challenges of running an underwater farm and how can you grow that much seaweed to be scalable?
Well that’s the million dollar question. We’re years into the business now, and one of the bigger issues about running a marine farm is that there are external factors that are not in your control, such as water temperature, runoff, storms etc.
We’ve addressed that by developing a land-based cultivation system, as well as other products in development. No one can ever completely eliminate external factors, especially in a business that is in the agricultural sector, but we are doing our best. We are looking into finding the best solutions around those issues.
What do you base your decision making on? Is it a combination of passion and numbers – what you see on the page? Or is it solely based on the numbers?
I wouldn’t put it all down to passion, because that implies emotion, and can lead to mistakes. So a little of that in combination with the financial data basically points you in the right direction. If you actually read the financial information right, it’s usually fairly straightforward what the next step would be, such as if you are losing money you should be cutting costs. But obviously in business, it’s far more intricate and complex than that.
When the impact of making the decisions affects staff, that rolls into the way your customers see you, and the way the public sees you. And there are the external factors, and changes in the industry that are happening as well.
So you need a combination to make sure you don’t go too hard or aggressively make certain decisions. Some decisions, when you are completely sure you can make them more aggressively, there’s still the element of fine tuning and understanding the impact the decisions will have on your business, then balancing it with the uncontrollable factors – such as all the subjective or personal issues.
About Dion Cohen
Cohen, a Chartered Accountant with expertise in Investment Banking and Private Equity, has 15 years of experience in CFO roles. He excels at helping companies grow by raising capital, creating accurate financial models, and delivering professional reports. His specialty is building and managing finance departments to support expansion.
About SeaForest: SeaForest are pioneers in cultivating Tasmania’s Asparagopsis seaweed, harnessing its unique property to combat methane emissions from livestock at a commercial scale.