A smarter management approach to business transformation

Twenty years ago, an accounting graduate had little say in the direction of their career or in the place they worked, says Cariessa Leow CPA, head of finance transformation at L’Oréal in Malaysia.

“That was when I started my career,” Kuala Lumpur-based Leow says. “It was very conventional. We had to start in an audit and assurance role, and we were thankful to be offered a job.”

But today, graduates can “evaluate the company”, she says. “Not only is the employer choosing them, but they are choosing their employer.”

The graduate experience at major fast-moving consumer goods multinationals today, including L’Oréal, looks almost unrecognisable compared to what Leow encountered at the start of her career.

Structured management trainee programs now deliberately expose young talent to multiple functions and markets, equipping them with the cross-functional fluency that modern business demands.

This immersive grounding means that when graduates are ready to take their next step, they do so with genuine insight into the business and into themselves and where they can add the most value, she says.

It is precisely this kind of intentional talent development, Leow says, that forward-thinking organisations are investing in as a long-term strategy — not just to build capability, but to continue to attract exceptional people.

Leading transformation

Leow is spearheading the transformation of large-scale enterprise resource planning (ERP) and digital transformations at L’Oréal. She views technology not as the end goal, but as an enabler of organisational capability.

“The reality is that ERP systems are not one-size-fits-all,” she says. “Organisations make choices based on their scale, their priorities and their resources, whether that means starting with a single module or building out a fully integrated suite.”

The true measure of a successful enterprise system, Leow says, is not just modernized software, but how effectively the business extracts and operationalises the resulting data to make faster, sharper decisions. That shift brings entirely new organizational capabilities, but only when the business is smart about how it uses the data produced by the system.

“For any transformation to succeed, the journey starts by mapping the process from end-to-end, ensuring clean data is captured and establishing clear ownership,” she says. “From there, we can strengthen stakeholder engagement by transforming raw data into intuitive, interactive visual analytics that make insights more accessible across the business.”

The most complex part of such transformation, for those leading the effort at least, is the human challenge.

“Because we are human, we tend to prefer staying in our comfort zone, resisting change,” Leow says. “That is natural.”

To drive transformation, she creates awareness around the purpose and benefits of the change program, letting professionals know why change is important and what is going to improve as a result. In short, explaining “what is in it for them”.

“To do this, it has to blend into normal conversation,” Leow says. “That way, people understand what the changes are, why we are changing, what the group is hoping to achieve and where are we heading.”

The language used in conversations about change is important. It should not be confrontational, Leow says. “For example, we usually present financial data in Excel.

Above that, various pieces of ERP software are used,” she says. “If we are implementing change, we explain that it is not about eliminating traditional tools like Excel entirely, but about elevating our teams’ time to focus on high-value analysis rather than manual consolidation.”

Such a shift away from Excel could be concerning for some, but when explained in the right terms, Leow says, it does not need to be alarming. She sees a part of her role as helping people to move from emotional reactivity to responding positively when given a clear understanding of the facts.

“This brings people from a place of resistance to a place where they can acknowledge the situation,” she says. “It is important because along the way, team members realise that their concerns have been heard. They then engage, connect and feel a sense of purpose.”

Leow says that during a change program, success often depends on understanding the people who are being asked to change, instead of simply implementing technology and telling employees to use it. “The conversation needs to accommodate your audience,” she says.

Becoming future-ready

Throughout her career, Leow has championed the evolution of the finance function from a historical scorekeeper to a proactive, strategic coach. In this modern paradigm, the finance leader acts as a copilot to the business, translating complex data structures into commercial strategies that drive sustainable growth. 

Once the right technology is in place and teams are genuinely engaged, tools such as integrated dashboards, visual analytics platforms and forward-looking data models combine to change the quality of decisions across the business, she says.

“To a certain extent, the data will go above and beyond simple reporting. It can highlight where performance is not meeting expectations and prompt teams to ask sharper questions about where and how they are investing.”

Forward-thinking global businesses anticipate that data-driven decision-making will be the defining factor in future success, Leow says.

“Are we ready for that level of rapid change?” she asks. “As finance leaders, our job is to build that organisational resilience. I am confident that when you align robust technology with an empowered team, any enterprise can become future-ready.”

Auditing sustainability

When sustainability is a big part of the future success plan, environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting must be auditable, Leow says. But what forms the frameworks in which ESG reporting can be audited? 

“From a modern finance perspective, sustainability and financial performance are deeply interconnected,” Leow says.

“ESG metrics must be approached with the exact same rigour, auditability and governance as financial data.

“By using predictive data models, finance can optimise demand planning and supply chain efficiency, which drives down working capital and reduces environmental waste.”

She says companies can and should constantly evaluate, measure and report on their other impacts on society, including how many jobs the organisation provides to the community and how they help prepare the younger generation to be future-ready. This all must be quantifiable, measurable and trackable for it to be properly reported and auditable.

“When these become official KPIs that are included in the target setting, they have to be tracked in actuals and incorporated as part of periodical reporting,” Leow says. This means they are no longer just costs or numbers on a report — they are real KPIs.

Learning to lead

Leow does not claim to be a natural leader, nor has she had unusually high levels of formal leadership training. Instead, she has deliberately developed these skills through experimentation, observation and curiosity. She has changed her approach as she has learned, often from her own mistakes.

One of the most powerful insights Leow has gathered during her leadership journey is that implementing change is not just about technology or KPIs. It requires influence.

“As a leader, you must practise adaptive communication,” she explains. “If a strategic message does not resonate with a business partner, you need to pivot and alter the delivery, then bridge the gap between financial technicalities and human motivations.

“Effective influence requires active empathy and continuous learning,” she says.

To build her leadership skills, Leow has purposefully taken cues from inspiring leaders she has collaborated with throughout her career.

“I have always observed how they present themselves in different settings,” she says. “Sometimes, it can be about how they carry themselves or the energy they bring into a meeting. Perhaps the first thing they do when they step into the office is to greet everyone and say, ‘Good morning. Hello. How are you?’.”

Those little observations helped shape the type of leader Leow has become, proving that effective leaders are not necessarily born with certain skills or traits. Instead, everything professionals need to know can be observed, learned and fine-tuned through trial and error.

Outside of her finance work, Leow is also a Pilates instructor. In her classes, she subtly puts her leadership lessons into practice.

Leow begins with feedback such as “‘Good, ladies. Keep going!’ Then I often follow up with, ‘Here is what we are doing next. I want you to be in control of this movement’,” she says. “We create positive energy, then we empower. We tell people what to do, but only after we have made them feel good about what they are doing.

“That is an especially essential element of leadership.”

One piece of advice

“Always be curious. What are the possibilities? Keep going. Keep learning. Do not limit yourself to what you know. The world is so big and there is so much you do not know, so be curious.”

 

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Photography: Vignes Balasingham}