The Success Nuggets

The Success Nuggets #52 - Dame Julia Xian From Finance to Impact

• David Abel • Season 3 • Episode 11

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What does it take to transform a traditional financial role into a catalyst for business innovation? Julia Chin, CFO of Health in Tech, has mastered this evolution through a career spanning manufacturing giants, global banking, and now healthcare technology disruption.

Our conversation reveals how Julia's diverse background at Whirlpool, Johnson & Johnson, and Citigroup prepared her to identify sectors ripe for technological revolution. Banking lagged manufacturing by decades in adoption, but insurance represented an even greater opportunity—a $4.5 trillion healthcare market with $2 trillion in insurance premiums, characterized by complex processes and minimal innovation. Health in Tech's platform has transformed the small business insurance experience, reducing underwriting from two weeks to just minutes while serving what Julia calls "the backbone of the economy."

Beyond the numbers, Julia redefines what makes a successful CFO. She breaks down the role into four critical functions: basic accounting, regulatory reporting, capital markets management, and strategic business analysis. But her most surprising insight? The paramount importance of empathy in financial leadership. "It's not about the no," she explains, "it's about what we can do." This solution-oriented mindset transforms finance from a perceived obstacle into a strategic partner.

Julia's approach to data presentations resonates with anyone who's spent days preparing spreadsheets only to have everything distilled to three key points before a meeting. Her advice: "What are the top three messages you want to deliver? What does the data tell us about direction?" This focus on simplicity and meaning over exhaustive detail characterizes her leadership style.

Looking for your own golden nugget of success? Julia leaves us with powerful wisdom: "I'm the one in the driver's seat." This philosophy of personal agency has guided her journey from humble beginnings to global financial leadership. Ready to take control of your professional path? Subscribe now and join our community of forward-thinking leaders driving positive change in their organizations.

Speaker 1:

Thank you about the patterns that drive progress. Get ready to dive into a world of insights and inspiration. This is the Success Nuggets podcast, with the founder of the Digital Lightbulb and your host, david Abel.

Speaker 2:

On today's episode of the Success Nuggets, I'm joined by someone who proves that finance isn't just spreadsheets and forecasts it's about people, purpose and perspective. Julia Chin is the CFO of Health in Tech, a company shaking up the healthcare industry with bold ideas and heart-led innovation. In this conversation, we explore how empathy drives high-performing teams, while simplicity often arrives at the last minute and our first jobs yes, even fast foods are shaping future CFOs and, of course, Julia shares her golden nugget of success. Let's start the show. Hello, Julia.

Speaker 3:

Hey, hello, David. Thank you for having me, and you know it's my privilege to be here.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Julia. Health in tech is a force for good. How did you first come across health in tech and what made you make the leap to join?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's great questions. You know, my background is very diverse and when I graduated and I worked for Whirlpool Johnson Johnson General Motors. These are the large manufactured companies that provide different solutions to the consumer base. And then the big part is technology makes change. At the time we have ERP, sat systems that make things faster, simpler and reduce the cost and make the company more profitable. So from that I was hired by Citigroup and looking at how Citi can improve consumer experience product through the technology. So I joined Singapore.

Speaker 3:

I did a bunch of different business in the city, whether it's mortgage, secure lending, the consumer bank, commercial bank, credit cards, loan to business. Then eventually I was relocated to city US and joined the global consumer bank. That was a $40 billion business. Look at the US distribution as well, look at what the customer will do. And in 2016, I was handpicked to join City Fintech where eventually I look at it and I'm like wow, banking is about 20 years behind the manufacturing in terms of tech knowledge. And we started to joke about it.

Speaker 3:

You know, in 2016, 80% of the transaction humanly going branch doing that can be done online or via phone. 10 years ago nobody would believe you can take just a picture to deposit a check. People think that the money is going to be missed and somewhere there's a problem. But we look at how technology helps them. We said you don't need to go to brunch If you want to know your balance, just make a phone call and here you go, you can take a picture and deposit a check. So technology drastically changed human behavior and also improved cities' profitability.

Speaker 3:

Then we look at, after the study, what is next? Sectors where it's almost near no innovation, very complex and a lot of people do that day-to-day. That's insurance. So insurance, that is a very complex product. Today a lot of us still probably get insurance from the broker. If you have a company, you know you get the loan insurance, home insurance, you still talk to some agency. It's very hard. You know you won't go online. You want to purchase insurance product. All you get is hundreds phone calls. It still come by the broker.

Speaker 3:

So the reason for me to join the housing tech and this is awesome platform and put everything anything you need for the small business insurance product is on that platform and also the company. The platform is underwriter for insurance company where, through the third-party AI and the internal machine learning algorithm, we can reduce the underwriting process from 12, 14 days to about just two minutes. Bundle everything together. Provide a very affordable, fast sales cycle. The solution for the small business. So this is really to me is a huge market for us to disrupt and to help small business. Small business today is about 99.9% of the entire US employees. That is small business company 99.9%, 45% of GDP. You know they are small other company they are large company, but most are the. I think the backbone of the economy for the United States is small business and it's a 4.5 trillion healthcare market with 2 trillion insurance with little innovation. So that is the reason drive to figure out what we can help the small business and disrupt the insurance market. That make me move from FinTech into the InsurTech business.

Speaker 2:

There's some big numbers there. The spreadsheets must be terrifying if somebody accidentally puts the wrong number in. Are you adopting AI now into your forecasting and modeling?

Speaker 3:

Honestly no. So we use AI in other contexts, For instance, some of the research, some of concept market research, and we use AI. But the forecast modeling is very dynamic and most of the data we already simplified from the system and so we still need the business input judgment. Ai today has not involved in the way, can just replace the forecast and modeling so simple. Hopefully one day AI will be able to produce that better result and we can use that.

Speaker 2:

Amen to that. I think there's a lot of marketing and finance people who would love most of that forecasted out for them. But the thing that gets me sometimes in the corporation is you can spend days on spreadsheets and powerpoints for the big meeting and then suddenly right before the meeting it all gets distilled into something really simple and I don't know why it often happens your whole team have plugged everything and then someone can just look at the pack and say that's the small story. Have you got any funny moments where your whole pack have plugged everything and then someone can just look at the pack and say that's the small story. Have you got any funny moments where your whole pack was maybe derailed but actually there was a better outcome?

Speaker 3:

Yes, I think often people are easily lost in the data and exhaust spreadsheet, in the presentation tags and pages, and I always say what is the takeaway when you walk into the meeting, what is the top three message you want to deliver? Right, you have to synergize the data to look at what the story for conversation, for discussion, because the idea of having a presentation and looking at data is for people to discuss about. What does the data tell us? What direction do we want to go? So the perfect example is our CEO and our executive teams. We often end up looking at the data and start to have one way or the other different discussion. But very importantly is what is the two or three topic you wanted to put on the table to say, hey, because of these are the data telling us that's are the top three things we want to discuss. And then, what is solution? It very easy People say that's a problem.

Speaker 3:

So I always come and say this is a problem. Do we have a solution? Do we have a game plan? Do we have one game plan, two game plan? Do we have a backup plan? What is the worst case? So, on this worst case, do we have a solution for the worst case. If we don't, that's a problem, right? So it's really interesting to see how we can use the data and make that as trigger for a discussion. Eventually, we create a solution.

Speaker 2:

In a past life the CFO which is still for me a relatively newish title, he used to be called the finance director. The chief finance officer used to be just the best accountant, like many people. It was the best in their discipline. They came the top. But in today's world the CFO has to be far more strategic, far more looking for deals and getting involved how you yeah, I can bring down the CFO in four functions.

Speaker 3:

You know.

Speaker 3:

One is basic accounting function. It's involved of just books and records. Those are the functions is, historically, look back what happened? And these functions mainly a lot of time replaced by the process, by the software and the less human involvement in last few decades, the evolution, the change and the process with the erp or oracle and able to do that. So that is part. The other is reporting. Once you have books and records, you have to make a report For us in the health syntax we are treating the NASDAQ as a public listing company. So you have to file various different reports, quarterly and annually and go through audit and gap accounting. All these things and this reporting, part of component. And now that's just just to me, it's just a basic foundation.

Speaker 3:

The other few, two big functions. Important One is capital markets, investor relations. So the capital markets is really looking at how the company treats what is the market, looking at the trajectory of the future and it's along with company development and the strategy. Do we need more capital? So what is capital allocation? So you know for the manufacturer whether you want to open additional plant somewhere. You know what is the cost, what is the market? All these things and this is a big function of the capital market in mass relations. The other is, you know, the strategic business analysis. The planning part is based on analyzing the landscape and the business. And how will you plan for the next step? Will you add in the different business on the ecosystem to do acquisition, you know? Or we think organic growth is right? Do we have the budget for everybody to keep everybody on track? All these things is a part of successful CFO's function. So not just writing the number, making the records.

Speaker 2:

If I've got a CFO that everybody calls CF no, I am just the financial steward how do we get them on the front line to become cf grog?

Speaker 3:

it has to be on the two part. One is no, the other is growth. That's the balance and for me I am the partner of the business it's not not about the no, it's what we can do, right. So why, you know, when we say no, you know I don't like to say no, I want to have a solution. So if somebody come to me have a problem and they have asked, then I will come with a solution and give people alternative way, because often, whether it's the discipline of the budget or the reason people say no is, you know, every budget comes from the business. We look at what is the bottom line and top line growth. We have to balance this out. If somebody is sitting, obviously it's no. In order for you to spend more, you need, you know, you need adding on top of that more. So it's really dynamically. See what is objective. We want to meet as collective, as organization. They come with a plan, not just simply yes or no I almost got triggered there for the noise I've had from.

Speaker 2:

How could I have done it better? Do you have people like me that are constantly just going more? I need this, I need more, I need more, and the number of no's is becoming a disappointment for them that's great if you want more.

Speaker 3:

And I would say how you measure what you want. Are you generating revenue on what investment you want to put and do you have a KPI to measure that Right? So we have our company, we have a lot of idea and, as we can start a project, we're funding them. We want to measure it. We're able to pivot and I always say you know, we, through the measure, we have to move. We cannot just go down one road and then we can do a pivot quickly. If things does not work and not work according to our measurement, we have to change it, tweak it. It's a partnership value. It is not just a yes or no. I think, if you think about us sometimes finance CFO almost like a referee right, you have to. People are playing in the referee and want to say, hey, this is how the rules played, that's how you can be winner, Otherwise you know you don't need the referee. So the player cannot be the referee at the same time. So you need the referee there and to be partner.

Speaker 2:

The referees have thick skin though.

Speaker 3:

Well, sometimes you have to. You know how to manage the uncomfortable discussion right. So you know there is the egos that there is and people has feel there a lot of things uncomfortable. But I always take a approach like what do we want to solve? What is our common opportunity right? So if we point to the other, we can recognize or we can help the business to achieve common objective and that's a win-win situation.

Speaker 2:

I like that. When I sell business objectives, they always come to me with a number. We want to go from 5 million to 15 million, always, that's the objective. So I say, okay, what's the strategy, what are the tactics? But again, a hundred percent of the times, just before we start the strategy, I say what's broken? And so much is always broken. How do you balance out that what's broken within the business before the teams get the excitement of beginning the tactics?

Speaker 3:

I was saying, there's always top five to top 10 stuff. There's a company we need to fix in the prioritization and 20, 80% will always applies. You know, 80% of the big issues and whatever is the growth, the profitability, come from the 20% of issues. So if we identify them and prioritize them and fix that, just like a foundation, you build a car, you have to do maintenance, make sure car can drive, can run, and then you add in other things can run faster. So, very super focused on the top issue, make that fix and everything else will become easier. And that's a part of business, because every business has a challenge and every business has its unique issues. Success is not easy. It's about focus, be efficient and tackle the big challenge first and prioritize them. We all have a limited time and resource. So if we focus and get this done and done well and move one thing at a time, eventually you will see the improvement and the result.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a stepwise progression. Here's a unique stat 25% of US CFOs have worked in fast food restaurants like McDonald's or other chains. Yeah, there's far too many to mention. I started in a car wash, in a local bar, in a local convenience store, doing part-time jobs. You're a very global citizen. You've worked in many countries and many miles apart. What was your first job and is anything that it taught you stuck today?

Speaker 3:

my first job. I worked in the whirlpool and was the cost analyst for global procurement department. I got a job because I was halfway my cpa exam and I'm the one willing to travel, I love to travel. I say, hey, that's the best job, you got to travel right. So, before you know it, one willing to travel, I love to travel I say, hey, that's the best job, you got to travel right. So before you know it, you got to travel to the different countries and different factories and everywhere.

Speaker 3:

You just like to stay one or two days. You stop, write the notes and then learn the business. At the time they also produce the air condition and the washer, the refrigerator. So then you go anywhere. It's actually it's a factory setting and it's somewhere in the very rural area. You get an airport, then you take in the times. There's really no taxi, somebody's going to pick you up, whatever the vehicle gets on. It's a long journey and then you stay one or two days. You jump to the other country, another factory. It's really, really hard. It's harder than what I thought, but again, the time, the experience and the factory floor talk to people understand the production process and understand how the cost accounting is done. That tends to be a pretty awesome experience. It is really the foundation for me to really understand well how each process and the different factors happen.

Speaker 2:

I know in your job you've got to navigate domestic law, international law, developing a brilliant experience. But really having that curiosity to travel, adventure and learn from the ground, that sounds like a recipe for success to me.

Speaker 3:

To be humble and always talk to people to learn. And the more knowledge you have, the more experience, the better decision you will make. And you know you look at the data differently, you understand the business differently and I would just say it's great. It's also experience. It's some of of advice I would give to your audience so they, if they young, they just started and just keep learning that's great.

Speaker 2:

I love the being humble thing. I've always been someone who can connect. Uh, I started work at 17 and so I was able to connect with almost like the tea lady and the md. I've kept you that way. My family engineers working class to the main. What kind of jobs did your family do growing up?

Speaker 3:

If my mom worked in the factory, my father was engineer, able to work around and to see how they hardworking people with just average hardworking family and see, see the work ethic. I think it's important and you know it's just a lot of skills come from where you see the time and effort they put in.

Speaker 2:

Definitely the number one quality in a cfo isn't what most people expect. It's not just numbers, it's empathy, leadership and people and people. That could surprise a lot of folks. What's your take on empathy as a CFO?

Speaker 3:

The empathy is enabled to understand how other people's view and perspective. And empathy is to get a common ground when we have a conflict. And empathy also give people an opportunity to succeed, to change. Everybody are built differently and it's important whether that person individual give the opportunity to make the change for their life and make the change to their life and make the change to contribute to the company. You know, for our company we are more toxic based. We have a KPI for the employees but also based on the skill set we give the different role. If somebody you know is not successful or fit in one particular position, we give them a different position to try.

Speaker 3:

I think the empathy is try to see what fits people best, to give the opportunity, continue to succeed in their career. And empathy is also relating to what they happen be mindful about their family and, very candidly, I do not believe believe work-life have to balance. The work-life is harmony and the work-life is all together. We just have to be also mindful for our, the family of our employees, family of our team. I have team members and they work on their flexible time as long as they get work done. So this particular person she has to block in the morning hour to pick up the kids from the school, but she always works late on the day and gives the flexibility to understand their individual family situation is empty. So I think all these things make us who we are as a cultural company. Also make us not just the business. We have a common purpose.

Speaker 2:

So that's what I see, that julia, it's been wonderful having you in. You're such a great leader. You're so grounded and humble, which I love. Do you have a one golden nugget for life?

Speaker 3:

yeah, yeah, I would say I'm the one in the driver's seat, so you will be the one in the driver's seat for the life, and I wish all your audience will be successful and drive your life forward.

Speaker 2:

Audience. Get in the driver's seat, stop sitting in the back, stop calling shotgun, stay humble, be grounded. For those tough referees out there like Julia and myself, you can help others change. Thank you for coming in again, julia.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for having me. Thank you, join David and his incredible guests next time on the Success Nuggets podcast and to find out more, visit one golden nuggetcom. Thank you for listening.