BROADCASTS.com

Members of Siemens USA\u2019s finance team would probably not be surprised to learn that when their CFO, Marsha Smith, is asked to reveal the experiences that prepared her for a finance leadership role, the ones that she relates most often originate from being part of a team.

Such was the case in 2004, when she had been assigned to a Siemens joint venture as a commercial project manager.

\u201cI\u2019ll never forget: It was my first week on the job, and the project manager came up to me and said, \u2018Hey, Marsha, we need to ask for a change order on this one, so write a letter to the customer,\u2019\u201d comments Smith, who recalls thinking at the time: \u201cI know how to use spreadsheets, I perform calculations\u2014but I don\u2019t know how to word this letter.\u201d\xa0\xa0

Later, Smith says, she reached out for guidance from the technical team, followed by the legal team, before sitting down and writing a letter to the customer. Very often, the customer relationship would involve multiple partners and payment schemes, she explains.

\u201cThis was the beginning of my external-facing experience,\u201d comments Smith, who at different times during her career has found herself seated at conference tables flanked by dozens of customer executives and their attorneys.

Says Smith: \u201cI\u2019ll never forget when at a certain meeting I asked a question and one of the managers asked: \u2018And who are you?\u2019\u201d\xa0 \xa0

From her early customer-facing experiences on forward, Smith\u2019s business mind-set has become largely influenced by teams.\xa0 \xa0

\u201cEverybody has to work together because everybody has a piece of the puzzle and we must make sure that we\u2019re collectively doing the right thing for the customer,\u201d says Smith, who believes that teams can also help to bring clarity to each individual\u2019s contribution. \u201cYou see who goes the extra mile,\u201d she says. \u2013Jack Sweeney

SUBSCRIBE