BROADCASTS.com

Like many of her CFO peers, Karen Walker had an early career that was guided by abundant opportunities surrounding finance-driven decision-making within organizations.

It was a path that often led Walker to engage more closely with sales and operations, as was the case at CNET Networks, where she tells us that she recognized the limitations of embracing a strictly \u201crules-based\u201d approach in finance.

It was at CNET that she embraced a more transformative perspective\u2014prioritizing the customer\u2019s objectives and challenges. This shift in thinking, emphasizing a customer mind-set, would continue as she advanced in her career.

At PagerDuty, the philosophy became instrumental in addressing the company\u2019s rapid growth challenges. Now, as CFO at Sysdig, Walker tell us that it\u2019s this commitment to understanding customer needs that guides the company\u2019s approach to cloud security. Her journey reflects a progressive integration of customer-centricity into financial leadership, showcasing its adaptability and efficacy in diverse business environments.

Says Walker: \u201cI think that one of the things that I have really learned over the years\u2014and espouse as a philosophy\u2014is that every employee\u2014which includes, of course, finance\u2014should really have a customer mind-set and really put the customer at the center of every decision that is made.\u201d