LFCE Faculty Profile: Tony Poidomani
Business Executive Makes Financial Decision-Making Accessible to All
Ever wonder whose job it is to make financial decisions at your company? Tony Poidomani, longtime LFCE and MBA faculty member, replies, “It’s everyone’s job!”
For more than twelve years, Poidomani has focused on helping LFGSM MBA students and LFCE participants take a proactive approach on how their decisions contribute to the financial health of their organizations. “Whether an engineer, marketer, or product developer, comprehensive financial literacy is essential to maximizing one’s impact,” he declares.
Poidomani, a CPA with an MBA from Loyola University Chicago, comes to the classroom with more than twenty years’ experience attacking tough business questions. He currently is Director of Global Order to Cash at the Hospira Corporation, a global hospital products manufacturer recently spun off from Abbott.
In his role, Poidomani helps lead the development and improvement
of people, processes, and technology to horizontally integrate an organization that had traditionally approached these activities in a functional fashion. With 13,000 employees and hundreds of global products to account for, Poidomani makes operational, management, financial, and strategic decisions that have far-reaching implications.
Before joining Hospira, Poidomani had been in controller roles with True Value Hardware and NetUnlimited Corporation, served as V.P. – Client Services at Carolina Services, and held financial leadership positions at Quaker Oats, McMaster Carr Supply Company, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Having spent years leading and managing change within organizations, it’s no wonder Poidomani gets results helping LFCE participants and MBA students change the mindset that commonly surrounds financial decision-making. Poidomani has led LFCE workshops for companies such as Smurfit Stone, CCC Information Services, WMS Gaming, and Simonton Windows.
“Teaching for LFCE allows me to help leadership teams approach business decisions at a new level of financial literacy,” he notes. “My goal,” he clarifies, “is to take the intimidation out of finance.”
Poidomani points out three aspects of the teaching approach he and LFCE take that enable non-finance functional experts to gain financial literacy:
• Personalizing workshops: Each LFCE program is customized to the client company’s culture, sensitivities, and priorities. “To shape the training sessions for WMS Gaming, I toured their plants and spoke to their CIO, CFO, and other key executives,” Poidomani explains. “If discussions over financial questions are directly relevant to the organization, and can be put within the context of each participant’s day-to-day job, then digesting the information becomes much easier.”
• Developing a modeled behavior approach: Decision making is less daunting when corporate leadership groups have a model, or framework, for thinking through financial questions. “People think and learn in threes,” suggests Poidomani. “At the most basic level, when individuals see how their work is tied to increasing revenues, reducing costs, or increasing cash flow, they gain a whole new mindset for financial decision making. If engineers view their work as revenue-generating, for example, they can become evangelists for increasing the speed of new product development. This approach has a long-lasting shelf life.”
• Finding a common denominator: When participants have differing levels of financial knowledge, it’s essential to present concepts within a universally applicable context. “When I draw parallels between corporate financial decisions and decisions we all make at home, light bulbs go on. Paying a mortgage, saving for a renovation project, or moving to a better school district are all analogous to what goes on in the strategic planning and budgeting process,” says Poidomani. “Some who never turn off their financial brain at home do so at work. I try and change this.”
As a senior executive, committed husband, father of three, and active member of the community, it’s a wonder Poidomani has time to teach. “I love it,” he admits. “I face significant business decisions every day, as do participants in my LFCE courses. When I’m working with them, I feel 100 percent a part of their world. There’s no us and them,” he reflects.
It must be the combination of Poidomani’s robust business experience with his love of teaching that makes him so effective in instilling a financial mindset in all those who cross his path.
