Elmer B. Sarmiento is the Vice President for Finance Operations at eClerx, a global digital company where he leads the finance and accounting outsourcing space. He is also a lecturer at the John Gokongwei School of Management of the Ateneo de Manila University.
With a career spanning government service, corporate finance, and large-scale outsourcing operations, Elmer brings a wealth of experience to the table. In this conversation, he discusses the evolving role of the CFO, the critical need for finance leaders to become storytellers, and his vision for a future where technology empowers higher-value work.
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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Why focusing on commercial growth and untapped revenue should be the first step, rather than the common mistake of reactive cost-cutting.
- The evolution of the finance professional from a traditional accountant to a strategic analyst and storyteller, capable of translating data into predictive insights.
- How technology and AI are creating leaner finance teams by automating repetitive work, shifting the focus from transactional tasks to high-value strategic analysis.
Could you please take us through your career journey?
My journey wasn’t intentional; it was the result of many gradual decisions that culminated in my current role. I started my career in government service after passing the CPA board exam a long time ago, back in October 2000. Eventually, I moved to the private sector, serving as a controller for a trading company that imported vehicles.
Around 2008, I moved into the shared services and outsourcing space. My first major stint was leading finance process transitions for Latin America and West & Central Asia, moving those jobs to Manila. This was my shift from traditional corporate finance to operational finance. I also had roles with Xerox and Shell, and later became the CFO of BPI Outsource, one of the largest domestically-grown BPOI companies in the Philippines.
During the pandemic, I moved to my current role at eClerx. Today, I manage about 550 accountants serving the US market, from publicly listed companies to small mom-and-pop businesses. We just closed a deal that could potentially double my organisation to about a thousand people by the end of this year. You can’t really plan a path like this long-term; you just have to take the steps and make the decisions you believe will eventually pay off.
The financial landscape is constantly evolving. What are some of the most significant challenges you’re currently facing?
The challenges have several dimensions. There are the traditional finance roles of managing costs and ensuring compliance. However, compliance itself is evolving. It’s no longer just about financial reporting standards; it now includes sustainability, governance, and corporate ethics.
Beyond the bare minimum, the role of an effective finance leader has shifted to that of a strategic advisor. It’s not enough to just throw numbers at people. You have to start conversations and tell the story behind the data: What drove these numbers? What did we miss? What market factors can we take advantage of?
Another area that is both a challenge and an opportunity is automation and AI. Automation can provide information much faster, which is the essence of finance. The challenge is bringing the workforce along and designing an AI platform that is intuitive and responsive. Many companies have found that AI projects can be oversold; you still need people on the ground to drive innovation. The key is to marry the three elements: people, process, and technology. By using technology to handle repetitive work, you can allow your people to focus on higher-value tasks.
In your extensive experience, what is the biggest financial mistake you see companies make?
It’s often driven by over-aggressiveness in the wrong area. The biggest mistake is when leaders—from the CEO down—make cutting costs their first option to hit a target. They try to find corners to cut, and since people are often the biggest cost driver, this can lead to layoffs.
That should be the last option. The first option should always be to ask: “What are the commercial opportunities we are not yet tapping?” You should talk to your chief revenue and operating officers to understand your clients and your market better. Are there avenues for more consumption or services we haven’t offered yet? The mindset should be focused on commercial growth, not just cost savings. I find it’s a cultural tendency, especially in our country, to save a peso rather than take a calculated risk to expand the revenue pipeline. By continuously streamlining business processes, embedding automations where its feasible, savings can be earned without necessarily laying off people. The caveat here is that investing on tech is not a silver bullet that will erase out problems. Everything goes back to a clean process, right people for the right role and practical solutions or tech.
How do you see the finance sector evolving over the next three to five years?
What I’m seeing with my clients, mostly CFOs in the US, is an aggressive push to eliminate highly repetitive tasks. It’s hard to hire accountants in the US who just want to do basic bookkeeping. The goal for the next five years is to use technology to develop accountants into true financial analysts.
There’s a difference. An accountant ensures compliant financial reports. An analyst can draw a picture from those reports, identifying potential weaknesses like liquidity issues, too much leverage, or non-productive assets. They provide predictive insights, telling the company not just what happened, but what could happen.
To get there, companies are making massive investments in automation now. For example, we’ve been automating accounts payable processes so people don’t have to do manual three-way matching. We’re going to see much leaner finance organisations, but they will be more deeply involved in the business overall.
From a technological standpoint, what trends will have the biggest impact on financial strategy?
AI is still the overall theme, but finance leaders need to be careful. We’ve seen companies get burned by overselling AI’s capabilities. It’s about having the proper due diligence. You can’t just buy into wholesale automation products without having your finance people vet the algorithms. If you’re automating balance sheet reconciliations, for example, someone needs to audit that algorithm regularly until it’s perfected.
People want to cut a hundred employees and just use technology. That can happen over time, but not immediately. The real investment should be in getting things done correctly first and then making a gradual move. AI is powerful, but it’s also very risky without proper human oversight.
The regulatory landscape is in constant flux. How is the environment changing and how are finance leaders navigating it?
Globally, we’ve seen significant changes since the Enron scandal, with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and more rigorous disclosure requirements from bodies like the AICPA covering governance and sustainability reporting. In the Philippines, we are often playing catch-up.
I think we will see boards become more conscious about disclosures and proper committee structures. A key challenge here is shifting family-owned corporations to become more professionalised. This means creating proper governance committees, not just family member committees, and moving away from structures where the Chairman is also the CEO. How can the chairman police the CEO if he’s the same person?
It requires a change in mindset and bringing new blood into the boardroom. I’ve noticed many boards are dominated by older generations. Getting younger leaders at the helm would help push the maturity level of our corporate governance practices.
In your opinion, what is the most critical skill that finance leaders should have today?
It’s the ability to create a narrative. This is the one criticism I have of many hardcore accountants. They provide the financial reports, but when asked the “so what?” question, they struggle to articulate the story. If you cannot be an advisor to your stakeholders, your influence is limited.
You have to remember that many business owners and board members don’t have the background to understand detailed reports. You have to handhold them. You can see that a particular investment isn’t yielding the forecast rate of return, but they might not. You have to be able to tell them that story. As you go up the food chain, you’ll be dealing with C-suites, boards, and regulatory bodies. If you lack communication skills and the ability to create a compelling narrative, you won’t be taken seriously.
What is one question all finance leaders should ask themselves today?
First, “What do I really want?” You have to decide what persona you want to be. There’s the Controller type, who is highly focused on compliance and cost savings. Then there is the Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) type, who is more commercially involved. The modern CFO track is an evolution from a Controller to an FP&A-minded leader—the chief storyteller who has the ear of the board.
The second question, after deciding on your path, is, “What do I need in order to be successful?” Finance people tend to scrimp on their own needs and make do with what they have. But you need to champion for yourself and your team. If you need more investment to support your division, you must be able to articulate that. No one else will do it for you.
How do you approach mentoring and developing the next generation of finance leaders?
It ties back to the last point: finding out what they actually want. I ask my team members where they see themselves in three to five years, and I revisit that question at every appraisal. The first five years of an analyst’s career are a phase of discovery.
If I see someone has hit a ceiling in one area, I’ll ask if they would consider expanding to another. Today’s most effective finance leaders have a generalist mindset. You can’t become a CFO with only controllership experience. You need a much wider exposure.
I test potential leaders by giving them new challenges, like leading an ERP implementation project. Some people thrive on these challenges, and some don’t, and that’s fine. But as long as someone is willing to take the chance, I will continue to push them until they reach their full potential.
For someone attending an event like this for the very first time, what advice would you give them?
Keep an open mind. You will probably hear about topics that are alien to what you’re doing right now, but they could be of interest or help in the future. As a young professional, you need to be a sponge—absorb information rapidly and massively.
If you’re perfectly comfortable in your current role, it means you’ve hit your ceiling and need to learn something new. So, keep an open mind, ask questions, and satisfy your curiosity. Network with fellow attendees and speakers. A lot of opportunities, including mentorship, can be triggered at these events.
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