CEO Insights Magazine

Financial leaders serve as the backbone of a company, orchestrating fiscal strategies for sustained success. Armed with profound knowledge and foresight, they deftly navigate risks, propelling businesses toward prosperity. Beyond numbers, they shape the financial narrative, fostering resilience and steering companies through dynamic markets with sagacity. In essence, financial leaders are the architects of financial triumph, sculpting a secure future for organizations.

Athor Budiono is one such seasoned finance professional presently serving as the Finance Head at W Osaka City Hotel. With around three decades of experience, he has traversed roles from Cost Controller, Auditor Manager to Director of Finance in diverse hotel chains, ultimately finding his niche at Marriott. Athor's international exposure across Macao China, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan contributes to his versatile skill set. Renowned for his meticulous leadership approach, Athor excels in data analysis, financial strategy, and the relentless pursuit of continuous improvement.

In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights Asia, Athor Budiono sheds light on his professional journey and key attributes that have shaped his success.

Could you give a brief account of your professional journey and what motivates your daily routines?

Commencing my career in 1993 with AT&T, a global telephone company, where I spent two years working in a cost accounting division before transitioning to the hotel industry. For around 3 decades, I've navigated roles from Cost Controller, and Auditor Manager to Director of Finance, and worked with various hotel chains before finding a long-term home at Marriott. The industry's unique flexibility allows me to explore and work internationally. With experiences in Indonesia China, Maldives, Malaysia, Thailand, and now in Japan, each destination added cultural and professional richness to my journey, leading to my current role at W Osaka City Hotel.

As finance leader, responsible for exceeding these short-term and long-term commercial targets. I enjoy sharing expertise, developing people, and lifelong learning. I love my current role, which motivates me to do my daily routine.

As the Finance Head, what are factors you look into to ensure the maintenance of the financial health of W Osaka City Hotel consistently?

As Finance Head, I prioritize a holistic approach to maintaining financial health. Striking a balance between managing daily operation in finance division, timely reporting and analysis, internal control and risk management, funding, fixed costs and controllable spending assessment and providing financial recommendation is fundamental for financial health. Focusing on operational efficiency, productivity, ensuring every expenditure assessed and will contribute to commercial target, either by improving potential revenue or strategically reducing current and or future fixed expense or controllable expenses or improve business process and thus level up productivity. I emphasize maintaining company's assets is important beside main objective of long[1]term profitability. In my view maintaining company assets to sustain competition and maintaining and improving shareholder's value is paramount for long-term success. Ensuring the meticulous upkeep of company assets, efficient business process, high productivity will provide solid base for unique product and excellence service that protect company competitive edge.

Tell us about your leadership approach. What are the guidelines or methodologies you follow as a leader?

As a financial leader, using relevant data and having right tools to manage financial data to able to provide an analysis and insight for decision making process is crucial. I thoroughly analyse the data. I enjoy working with large amounts of relevant data and being able to handle and manage it efficiently, providing insight and improvements. For example, examining historical financial and statistical data, focusing on the specific revenue stream and section, as well as the top expenditures, assessing business processes and activities that highly contributed to total company spending will reveals trends and discrepancies allowing to identify potential improvement. In term of leadership, I prioritize informed decision-making, data-driven methodology involves not just analysing data but translating into agreeable action plans to achieve financial target.

What has been your success mantra in your journey so far?

Success is team result, we create a realistic actionable plan to meet the company's commercial goals (Balance Score Card) and consistent review is a key, i.e. regular monitoring and review of current target achievement, revisiting our existing process and working and do needful changes as required to close the gap to the targets. Focus on process efficiency and productivity, maximizing the function of existing resources and financial systems, motivate and ignite team curiosity and creativity is important and a catalyst for team work and team development to reach their greatest potential. Create a clear and easily implementable action plan, ensuring that all policies, processes, and tasks are in line to achieve commercial and noncommercial goals.

What is the future destination you are headed towards?

I am very happy with current role. Future goal will be a consultant or corporate role.

In light of your strong professional experience, what advice would you give to the upcoming financial leaders in the industry?

My advice to gain in-depth understanding of the business processes, well understanding market, competition, customer expectation in nowadays competitive and dynamic marketplace. Future financial leaders need to have good financial literacy, people skills, communication skills, risk management, and other relevant skills set, includes reasoning and analytical abilities, cash flow management, forecasting, and budgeting, taxation and local ruling requirement, business strategy, internal audit and compliance, project cost benefit analysts, financial modelling skills, and try to staying up-to-date on new financial system and technology. I believe that Investing in the right technology is critical for longterm survival and key for competitive advantage.

Athor Budiono, Finance Head, W Osaka City Hotel

Athor Budiono, Finance Head at W Osaka City Hotel, brings around 3 decades of financial expertise, navigating roles from Cost Controller, Auditor Manager to Director of Finance in diverse hotel chains. Renowned for meticulous leadership, he excels in data analysis and continuous improvement.

Quick Facts:
•Hobbies: Traveling, staying abreast of the latest fintech technology/macroeconomic/ market
•Favorite Cuisine: Indonesian, Japanese, Indian
•Favorite Travel Destination: Bali, KL Malaysia, Macao and Japan