The CFO Corner · 2023-02-27 · 13 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
54 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
HTOO Hospitality's CFO Manish Gupta reflects on fifteen years of finance transformation, from managing 150 Excel files in manual budgeting processes to implementing ERP systems and automation platforms that deliver forecasts and budget analysis in a single click. His operation managing 15 hotels in Myanmar has reduced per-hotel finance teams from 40 to 3 people while improving accuracy and decision speed. Gupta addresses the critical tension between automation benefits and data quality - highlighting the 'garbage in, garbage out' problem where legacy behaviors like lazy data entry undermine system integrity - and argues that AI-powered error detection should become standard in ERP software. He contends that future finance leaders must master business partnering, cultural change management, and strategic analysis rather than accounting mechanics, as junior data-collection roles disappear. His perspective matters for CFOs evaluating automation investments, hiring strategies, and organizational transformation, particularly those managing multi-unit operations or legacy Excel environments.
HTOO Hospitality moved from managing 150 Excel files to platforms that deliver budget and forecast analysis in one click by implementing ERP systems and automation tools, though success requires addressing data quality issues from legacy habits and ensuring team training on new systems.
Data garbage-in-garbage-out errors are the primary risk, as users cut corners (avoiding multiple system clicks) and maintain old habits of entering data into wrong columns, even with properly defined ERP structures; modern solutions need AI-powered validation to catch errors before processing.
Finance professionals should focus on soft skills including business partnering, change leadership, problem-solving creativity, and data analysis intuition - capabilities that AI cannot yet replicate - rather than technical accounting mechanics, which automation now handles.
Junior data collection, invoice processing, and entry-level accounting positions are most at risk; roles requiring business insight, decision-making, and relationship management across departments remain secure as AI cannot yet understand business context and trends.
Manish implemented Power BI but had to shut it down due to skills gaps in his team, highlighting that transformation happens faster than training capacity - CFOs should prioritize workforce development and hiring for growth mindset to bridge the skills gap.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode covers a legitimate arc - from Excel-based budgeting to automation benefits - but relies heavily on predictable talking points (automation frees CFOs to think strategically, data quality matters, soft skills will become critical). The guest offers a few concrete operational details (managing 15 hotels in Myanmar, reducing staff from 40 to 3 per hotel, managing 150 Excel files seven years ago), but most claims are restatements of conventional wisdom. The observation about Power BI being shut down due to lack in-house expertise is somewhat fresher, but the episode doesn't dig deep enough into surprising findings or non-obvious patterns.
I used to work with 40 people in one hotel. Now I manage the hotel with three. So you can imagine how much of automation has helped us
We have just implemented Power BI but because we don't have anybody to manage the power BI in our team, we have to shut it off
The core thesis - automation enables CFOs to shift from data collection to strategic partnering - is widely repeated in finance podcasts and thought leadership. The guest reiterates standard points about AI/ML improving software error detection, robots eliminating junior roles, and soft skills becoming differentiators. There is minimal contrarian thinking or first-principles pushback. The brief mention of avoiding over-automation ("too much automation may not be a good idea for every organization") hints at nuance but is underdeveloped and vague.
the CFO's role will be much more on business partnering, doing the strategy, maintaining the relationship with the other departments
too much automation may not be a good idea for every organization
Manish Gupta is a practicing CFO with 15+ years of hotel finance experience and real operational scale (15 properties, multi-year ERP implementation, direct P&L responsibility). He has moved beyond junior roles and is credible. However, he is not a household name, has no published research, and his experience is geographically narrow (Myanmar-based hospitality only). He is a solid mid-level practitioner, not a marquee operator or recognized thought leader in finance transformation.
I'm working in this company for last five years as a CFO with recent two years as an acting CEO as well
we have 15 hotels in Myanmar where I'm taking in charge of all the hotels, their finance, accountings
The episode provides a few hard numbers and specific examples: 150 Excel files managed, reduction from 40 staff to 3 per hotel, 15-hotel operation, a friend's company using Xero for invoice automation, Power BI implementation and shutdown. However, most claims lack supporting metrics - no data on time savings, cost reduction, error rates before/after automation, or financial impact. The Xero example is secondhand and vague. Many forward-looking claims (AI will detect errors, soft skills will matter) are assertions without evidence or timeline.
I was managing about 150 Excel files
I used to work with 40 people in one hotel. Now I manage the hotel with three
The host, Nick Ezzo, asks some reasonable follow-up questions (e.g., "how concerned are you about errors lurking in your financial data?" and the magic wand question), demonstrating mild intellectual engagement. However, the host rarely pushes back on vague claims, does not challenge assertions about AI's future capabilities, and allows several non-answers to pass (e.g., Manish's discussion of syncing is garbled but not clarified). The conversation is collaborative and friendly but lacks the sharp, probing follow-ups that would surface deeper insights or contradictions.
Well, I'll play devil's advocate for a minute. So if the collection of the data is being done automatically and humans are being taken out of the loop, how concerned are you about errors lurking in your financial data?
if you had a magic wand, Manish, and you could wave that magic wand and solve one problem, whether it's hiring or data or systems, what would you wave that magic wand
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Manish Gupta is a highly experienced hotel manager with over 15 years in the industry. He is a strong leader known for making tough decisions while considering human emotions and fairness. He has successfully navigated hotels through challenging times by managing cash flow, implementing innovative sales and marketing strategies, and maintaining customer satisfaction and employee morale. Manish has expertise in implementing systems such as ERP, management reporting, and financial planning and analysis. He is dedicated to learning and development, innovation, and creating business growth opportunities through partnerships. He is also an advocate of lean management. Manish has seen a significant change in the role of a CFO in the past 5-10 years. With the advent of automation tools such as SAP and ERP, the finance role has shifted from collecting and verifying data to using and analyzing the data presented by these systems. He mentions that earlier the budgeting process was done in Excel, which was a nightmare to manage and required a large team, but now it is done through platforms that automate the entire process, reducing the need for manpower.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
- > Welcome to the CFO Corner. I'm your host, Nick Ezzo. In the CFO Corner, we sit down with CFOs - > and corporate finance professionals to hear about the innovative approaches and technology they use - > to scale and grow their organizations. With me today is Manish Gupta, Chief Financial Officer - > at HTOO Hospitality.
Manish has more than 15 years of experience in hotel management, risk assessment, - > business planning and strategies, marketing and customer experience. He has successfully - > steered hotels through difficult times by taking charge of cash management, using unconventional - > sales and marketing techniques and maintaining customer experience and employee morale with - > limited resources. Manish is passionate about learning and development, thinking in innovative - > and non-traditional ways and creating business growth opportunities through win-win partnerships.
- > Welcome Manish. Thank you. Thank you, Nick. So first, can you tell me a little bit about - > your current role at 2Hospitality?
Yeah, so I'm working in this company for last five years - > as a CFO with recent two years as an acting CEO as well. - > To take care of the business as a whole. So we have 15 hotels in Myanmar where I'm taking - > in charge of all the hotels, their finance, accountings. - > We have a very large team and that's pretty much my job to help the hotels with the cash management - > and the finance processes.
- > So, being a CFO for more than 15 years and being the CFO at two hospitality - > for the last five plus years, in your opinion, how has the role - the CFO's - > role - changed in the last five or 10 years. - > I think I have seen a changing signal in the last five years for sure, where I started working as a financial controller in Shangri-La, where I was working before this current company, where the finance role was mostly on collecting the data, verifying the data and presenting in the financial systems.
- > Then there are the tools and the SAP and the ERP came, - > and then we don't have to collect the data anymore, right? - > We just have to, and they are able to present the data in a way that we can use it. - > So I have seen changes in the automation where I remember when we used to prepare the budgets in Excel. - > So seven years back, we had an entire budgeting process in Excel.
- > I was managing about 150 Excel files. - > And then after, and I have to learn the Excel, the formulas, consolidation and everything else. - > And it was a nightmare to manage because you mess when one formula and the entire budget is off, right? - > So now in a recent period, we are seeing a lot of platforms who automate these things.
- > You just give them the past data and you get your budget, forecast and trends analysis in right in a click. - > So the automation is changing and I used to work with 40 people in one hotel. - > Now I manage the hotel with three. - > So you can imagine how much of automation has helped us not only to control the manpower, - > but also make our life easier.
Now we don't have to spend time on collecting the data. - > We spend that time in analyzing it and making decisions based on that data. - > Well, that's what people want to do in their roles. They don't want to do routine mundane things - > like cutting and pasting and searching for data throughout the organization, - > they wanna be able to analyze and present their findings and help guide and steer the business - > as a business partner, right?
That's right. - > And we used to, I mean, because as a finance professional, we are always learning what's happening in the market, right? - > And we used to train our juniors and say, hey, learn the new skills, learn the presentation, - > learn the analyzing of the data, don't stick to collection of the data. - > Otherwise your job will be over.
And that happened in our finance, in hotels. - > We normally used to have two to three people for doing the income audit job - > where their job was just only to collect the data from one software, put it into Excel - > or another analytical software. And then interfaces came, so strength removed. - > Then the automated audit software came, then the strength further removed.
- > Now one person can manage the entire process just a matter of click you don't have to wait for it anymore. - > So given that, where do you see the role of the CFO and even the Finance Department, Accounting Department in general, where do you see that heading in the next five years? - > I think the next two, three years or five years, the CFO's role will be much more on business partnering, doing the strategy, maintaining the relationship with the other departments and also within the finance, leading the change.
- > Because a lot of data transformation is happening, the business transformation is happening, - > the things are getting too automated. - > So CFOs have to be very careful and analytical in analyzing the automation needs, - > because too much automation may not be a good idea for every organization. - > They have to manage the culture within the organization because when you do automation, - > a lot of processes which used to go before are not relevant anymore, right? - > So you have to do a change management, you have to do the expectations management.
- > So more office soft skills, I would say leading the change - > is going to be the need of our in the coming years. - > Well, I'll play devil's advocate for a minute. So if the collection of the data - > is being done automatically and humans are being taken out of the loop, - > how concerned are you about errors lurking in your financial data? - > Errors, yeah, I mean, that's why the errors can happen.
There's a very famous saying garbage - > in garbage out, right? So if your data is not correct, and that we are seeing it already. - > I managed the implementation of ERP in our hotel chains five years ago. And before that, - > we were mostly using Excel.
And even though we implemented the ERP, we are still not able - > to use the reports and the reason being is because the old habits of putting the data - > in wrong columns. Even though we have defined the structure properly, there are input errors. - > Sometimes people are just lazy. They don't want to do a lot of clicks because Excel is - > easy, you know, you just put one time and it's no problem.
But in ERP is in software, - > you have to sell, you have to select this, select that and then it takes time. So you - > you take a shortcut, data is mess. - > So I think the errors are definitely there. - > So I guess now the need of our is probably the softwares are going to be a bit more smarter, - > to identify those errors in the data and prevent it, - > or maybe alert the users to correct it before it processes.
- > But that I don't have seen that happening in the ERPs yet, But I think it should come with the AI getting more popular - > and machine learning is getting more popular. I think that will come soon in the softwares. - > So given the fact that you've done a lot of transformation, you implemented your ERP systems, - > you've got a lot of automation in place, your team's more efficient, it sounds like you've got a lot - > of things figured out, a lot of things solved, but I'm sure there's at least one thing that you, - > wish you could solve.
It's like if you had a magic wand, Manish, and you could wave that magic wand - > and solve one problem, whether it's hiring or data or systems, what would you wave that magic wand - > and what wish would you make? I think I would make that magic one to train my peoples on using the - > systems because still we are doing the transformation is happening so fast that peoples are not able to. - > Cope up with the skills gap. There is a lot of skill gap nowadays especially dealing with the - > handling with the data.
We have been using Power BI, we have just implemented Power BI but because - > we don't have anybody to manage the power BI in our team, we have to shut it off. Unfortunately, - > we don't use it anymore. We are using standard reports. But the thing is, we are not able to use - > because their skills are not available.
So I think if I have a magic wand, I would train all the - > people to be able to cope up with the change faster and faster. So when you're looking to hire - > people and build out your teams, you know, to take care of all these hotels, what are the qualities - > that you're looking for, whether it's a junior person, just fresh out of accounting school, - > or a senior person, what are you looking for when you're hiring people? - > Apart from the basic accounting degree, I think that that's a must for being an accountant job.
- > I mean, it's not a mandatory thing anymore, because the software has to take care of all - > the accounting needs and balancing out. So we don't need basically accountant anymore. - > We need eye for details, because you still need some people's some manual intervention in in processing of the bills in checking out the things, - > and adaptable to change because the things are getting changed so fast. If the mindset is a fixed mindset is not a growth mindset, then it's very hard for - > them to learn new things.
- > Yeah, so we look at the skills and ability to learn, basically. - > That's good. I think having somebody who's creative and adaptable, I mean, you don't - > want necessarily creativity in accounting, but you want creativity in problem solving. - > That's right.
So I'll ask the obvious question then, given your use of technology and automation, will - > robots take away accounting jobs. - > I think the robots may not take all of the accounting jobs, but they may take the day to - > day mundane jobs, which they are already taking. Like, I mean, at the moment, we are not using it. - > Scanning of the invoices and getting into the system automatically.
We don't use it at the - > moment, because we don't require that much of automation. But yes, this is happening already. - > I see I am managing a we are helping one of my friend company. - > He's using zero and all the accountant all the we just send the invoice by email.
- > The zero understand it. They categorize it correctly. You just have to confirm right. - > So I think the which this this process used to take at least two people one to collect the invoice and then somebody to enter it, - > and then somebody would approve it.
- > Now it doesn't take anybody just approve it. - > So, and that can be done by the owner himself or by the by the finance manager sitting down - > somewhere as a managerial role itself. - > So it will take out the junior roles, definitely the data collection, the invoice collection, - > the processors, it will take out all of them. - > But it may also create new jobs, right?
The robots will create new jobs as well. - > Apart from the programmers, I think because the robots are still not intelligent enough, - > to understand the trends, the possibility of the usefulness. - > Of these expense to the business, they're still not that smart. - > So people who have those intuition and skills will not be able to replace by AI.
- > But if you are just doing only a data recording and not able to make any insights out of it, - > then yes, you are replaceable 100%. - > Well, cool. That's almost all the time we have. Before we go, are there any thoughts you'd like to leave with our audience?
- > You know, anything you'd like to share before we sign off. - > I think the I just would like to suggest the audience that be ready for change. - > Something really, really interesting is coming up with the open AI concepts. - > The things are going to change.
We are living in a very interesting time. - > So you don't have to learn AI because there's an open AI you can type and then get the coding out of that itself. - > But I think focus on the soft skills, which AI may not be learning in the future, - > but you still have another 10 to 15 years to go before the AI will learn how to sync. - > In accounting, you don't need to sync, but you need to have an intuition able to make the decision - > and lead the change.
So the soft skills are really, really important for finance professionals in - > the current times. Well, thanks so much for spending the time with us, Manish. I've learned - > so much today as I always do on these interviews. On behalf of the Auditoria team and the CFO - > corner team, I'd like to thank you for joining us today and enjoy the rest of your day.
Thanks so Thank you so much. - > Thank you, Nick. Thank you very much for joining.
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