Editor’s note: Hardships are given for a reason. We are given as much as we can handle, says Pulat Yunusmetov, CFA, CTP, director at Zanders.
In this feature of our A Day in the Life series, Yunusmetov shares with FutureCFO audiences the importance of positive thinking, his love for charity events, and his advice to aspiring finance professionals today.
FutureCFO: What does a typical day look like for you?
Pulat Yunusmetov (PY): The day for me always starts with discipline, usually with at least 10km run around Bedor Reservoir or on the treadmill.
On average I make it a rule to run 300km in a single month. Sports are the way I spend time in order to set myself for the day. I really enjoy my morning runs with my partner and make it not just about running but also about tradition.
I make it also a rule to send the kids to school as they always like it when we wake them up and send them off to the school bus. So there are no excuses to waking up early morning (usually around 5:30am) and spending some time and attention to the kids.
Another important tradition for me is to spend time with my partner in the morning to speak about the plans for the day and speak about how much we care for each other. We also visualise our expectations for the day.
At the end of the day, we also spend time to speak about achievements or important moment of the day. We discuss about things that could have been done better and provide moral support to each other by speaking to each other.
Spending time with family and loved ones is made into tradition for me and I will at least spend an hour with the kids in the evenings which makes me forget any difficult moments that might have happened during the day as they will provide unconditional love and makes me smile.
FutureCFO: What excites you the most when you work with CFOs and finance functions?
PY: Due to the fact that I have had more than a decade of a corporate experience in treasury and finance functions, and went through numerous transformation projects which I understand might be painful at times especially from operational struggles and trying to solve inefficiencies, currently being in a consulting world and speaking to the finance leaders and CFOs, I am glad that I can understand and acknowledge their difficulties and work with their expectations.
I am feeling grateful that I have the expertise and experience that I gained throughout the years and it can bring the value add and I am able to support my clients during their professional transformation.
FutureCFO: Can you share an experience which was key to your professional growth?
PY: There are few things that helped me in my professional growth and life in general.
First and foremost is to have the positive thinking.
Whatever it takes and whatever failures I went through and disbeliefs from others, I always had positive mind as well as always had hope and believe that miracles happen to us and each person gets whatever they deserve in their life.
Pulat Yunusmetov, director, Zanders
Another thing is that I always put it into my nature to give more than I take, or do more than it is expected from me.
In each of my roles I would go that extra mile and always think of my actions from the perspective of the company or team so each action of mine shall be beneficial for the society I am working in.
Last but not the least, I would always continue learning, and again as mentioned above I would share my knowledge. It always motivated me to share and let others grow and inspire them to move forward in their career.
FutureCFO: Can you briefly describe your career journey and one or two highlights along that journey?
PY: As mentioned earlier in this article I always believe in miracles.
I got my first role as a Regional Treasurer in a web established company after my graduation which was key to my growth.
I did spend almost five years in the role and learned a lot from it. After (that), I took on a global role in a small FinTech company, but realised after a short while that I had the desire to make something more impactful. Hence I joined a multinational company from a fortune 500 companies, and was a key member in the Regional Treasury team.
While just starting my role, I did have support from my executives, which I am very grateful for and they believed in me. That is how my desire and inspiration for transformation started.
I was leading several transformation projects related to digitisation, standardisation, as well as centralisation of the operations. We saw the ROI from the Treasury Transformation projects already kicking in from the first 12 months coming mainly from costs savings as well as additional income due to operational and liquidity efficiencies.
I spent almost six years in the role and within those years our Treasury team won numerous awards from well established treasury magazines and platforms. Our team was recognised as the best Treasury team from three main treasury magazines within the same year.
However for me personally, being recognised as Rising Star was my personal achievement.
While being busy with the transformation projects, I was also pushing myself to learn more and reaching personal achievements, I always wanted to improve myself gain more knowledge.
I gained certifications such as Certified Treasury Professional awarded by AFP as well as Certified Financial Analyst from CFA institute. Now being in a consulting world, I am grateful that I can help with the transformations for more companies.
FutureCFO: Is there anything outside work—such as a travel experience, a book, participation in a sport event or any volunteering experience—that serves as an important inspiration to your work or life? Can you tell us more about it?
PY: It is clear that there are few values in my life which makes me move forward and inspire.
First of all, I like helping and caring for people. I currently help people to find hope and motivate them to start a new life. In some cases these are people fighting addictions; while in other cases, these are people that were broken down or were left alone.
I sponsor shelters as well as their daily livings and motivate them to do sports and make discipline into their lives.
I also sponsor and support running community which I first joined some time back.
The community unites people from different professions, religions, backgrounds but since sport unites them to share positive energy.
Another thing I constantly do is to organize and sponsor charity events for people who wants and needs mental help in order to kick start their personal transformation and wants to become a better version of themselves.
FutureCFO: What do you want to do in the future? Is there anything else you would like to try—such as running your own business or switching to another field/role?
PY: Professionally, I would like to help even bigger community with their transformations, whether it is corporate or in any other aspects.
Also, I would like to be able to share the knowledge with the young and inspired community members who are starting their finance careers. I dreamed of being able to teach in the well-established universities and give a different perspective to finance rather just thinking of it as a support function to the companies.
Personally, I would like to increase and scale the charitable events and activities which will help even more people to go through personal transformations and become a better and brighter persons who can create positive value to this world.
FutureCFO: What’s your advice to aspiring finance professionals of today?
PY: Few important advices I would like to share from my personal experiences:
- Personal state of mind impacts our career and hence it is important to balance your life with work and to find the meaning to what we are doing. Not everything comes to the financial aspects of life or designations. Human relationships are important same as beliefs. Finding peace within yourselves, caring and sharing love with others.
- Loyalty and trust into your team members who are around and supports us. Whether these are family members or team members, or company that is providing great opportunities.
- Question status quo, whether it is professional or personal. There is always room to grow and make ourselves better as well as the world around us.
- Be compassionate whether to colleagues or people around you
- Hardships are given for a reason. We are given as much as we can handle. Hence always believe that you can get through the hard times as long as you have belief and make steps towards better life.
- Continue to improve yourselves and giving more that taking.
- Financials are not the single most important thing in life. It is about creating value whether professionally or personally. We have to think of how valuable we can be to a company or to people surrounding us.
- Trust and delegate to the right team members. You are not alone and it is important to ask for help, it does not show your weakness but rather strength.
