CEO Insights Magazine

Financial management is pivotal in upholding an organization's fiscal stability and well-being. Yet, financial leadership transcends mere management; it actively shapes and propels the organization toward attaining its enduring financial and strategic goals. Prometric is a prominent provider of testing and evaluation solutions, facilitating more than 25 million exam hours annually and catering to a vast clientele of over seven million candidates yearly. Toshiaki 'Toshi' Aoyama, the Chief Financial Officer of Prometric, is a highly experienced industry professional who consistently contributes to the organization's daily operations and overall success. During a personal interview with us, Toshi revealed intriguing details about his life and professional trajectory.

Can you share details about your distinguished professional journey and what drives your motivation today?

Though right now I am working in finance, I hold a major in liberal arts, from the University of Tokyo. During, my student days I was always keen on athletics and a member of the top-tier Varsity Rowing Club. After my studies, I was placed in NTT Data which was not anticipated. I was appointed as a junior system engineer, which was very unrelated to my background. Being in the company for 10 years, I was later selected for NTT Data's corporate-sponsored MBA program and attended Northwestern's Kellogg School, where I majored in finance. This is how I was introduced to the world of finance and eventually launched my career in finance. After this, I led the merger and acquisition team at NTT Data which helped me drive inorganic growth through M&A deals. I n 2007, I moved to AT&T Japan as Director of Business Development, focusing on M&A, but the company was ironically acquired during my tenure. I then joined Amazon, which significantly shifted my business approach by emphasizing customer obsession, data-driven decision-making, and working backwards from customer needs. These principles became a core part of my professional foundation. In June 2019, I became the CFO at Prometric, where I apply the lessons learned at Amazon, focusing on customer-centric strategies and data-driven decision-making in my daily work.

Could you describe your leadership approach and the guidelines or methodologies you adhere to as a leader?

I believe there are three pillars to my leadership approach. First, I lead by example, which requires me to be very hands-on. For instance, the initial version of the report I showed you was created by me. If a leader merely instructs others without doing the work themselves, they lose credibility. Leading by example, especially in a data-driven environment like Prometric where such practices were initially lacking, is crucial. I had to demonstrate this by creating reports myself. The second pillar is keeping promises. This isn't just about ethics; it's about being reliable and ensuring that commitments are met without delay or compromise in quality. It's essential for building trust with customers and within the team. Finally, I am highly demanding, but I hold myself to the highest standards. My passion for athletic and martial pursuits, like Kendo and Triathlon, extends beyond competition with others; it's an internal battle against my mental weaknesses.

What are the new financial strategies/ advancements the organization is working on? What is the financial roadmap that you have planned for Prometric?

Prometric is currently owned by private equity, and Prometric Japan is a foreign subsidiary headquartered in Maryland, United States. Cost control is very strict, making even hiring backfill challenging. If there is attrition, headquarters often closes that position rather than refilling it. For instance, a year ago, we had 95 full-time employees at Prometric Japan, but now we have 10 fewer. When we request to open a backfill position, headquarters typically denies it. I don't want to address this issue through excessive overtime and hard work. We need to solve it without sacrificing our work-life balance, which includes family time, extracurricular activities, and hobbies. My goal is to scale our operations, achieving more with less.

This is simple to say but challenging to execute. I'm working with internal stakeholders to redefine and streamline processes, reduce touchpoints, and automate tasks using robotic process automation (RPA) and business intelligence (BI) approaches. For example, instead of creating extensive reports in Excel, we can automatically populate data from a data warehouse and generate reports on an IoT platform. Another approach I'm considering is leveraging AI for automation. I often ask, if our revenue doubles, can we d ouble o ur w orkforce? T he a nswer i s n o. We m ay raise headcount by 20-30 percent, not doubling it, requiring improved processes to manage the workload increase. This will significantly affect our bottom line, as scalability, to me, is primarily a financial concern.

Could you offer some advice for aspiring leaders in this field?

From my experience, which aligns closely with what I learned at Amazon, my advice for young, ambitious finance leaders is to thoroughly understand your business and your customers. Otherwise, you risk becoming just a number cruncher. Every business number has a story behind it. For example, at Amazon, I held three positions, but the one that left the strongest impression was my role as the first local finance leader for Amazon Prime Video in Japan, just after its launch in 2015. There, I learned a lot about customer behaviour—who watches what type of content, at what times of day, and in which segments. This provided me with valuable insights and even an opportunity to learn about digital marketing. In short, no matter how proficient you are in financial theory and Excel, you won't be effective if you don't understand the business. Good finance professionals become great by knowing the business inside and out. Supporting this view, many business leaders were once finance leaders themselves.

Toshiaki Aoyama, CFO, Prometric

Toshiaki ‘Toshi’ Aoyama, a hands-on finance professional, has garnered experience in launching new businesses and developing roles at renowned companies in the United States and Japan, including Amazon, AT&T, and NTT Data.