Rouven Bergmann, the financial manager of Dassault Systèmes since January 2022. Software Company, Dassault Systemes is also active in the CAC 40 index of French blue stocks. It is a unit from the Dassault collection, which has possessions in the field of aviation, high technology, digital and communications.
Global financing: Since I joined Dasault systems, what is the most challenging period, and why?
Roven Bergman: The long and short -term management balance is always the biggest struggle for the financial manager. You should create the ability to invest in the long term, but you also have to manage a quarter of performance to a quarter. Certainly, the year 2024 was difficult, due to fluctuation in the market. There was a lot of geopolitical instability in the world and in Europe. Think of returning to European elections and uncertainty in France. This was really the opposite wind in terms of decision -making.
Decision timing has become less predictable to our customers. It is not that they decide against us or to compete – this is not the case. We win the market share of the competition. But managing the transactions and deals course has already become difficult to predict.
To give you an example, we signed a strategic agreement with Volkswagen in December last year; The first discussion started two years ago.
GF: What is the impact of the new tariff policy in the United States?
Bergman: It is clear that 2025, with the position in which the American administration began with definitions, creates a lot of uncertainty for our customers. Now they need to invest and adapt to the new world. I am not worried about our future, but certainly, there may be short -term fluctuations and noise.
GF: There is a kind of academic debate on how to change the role of the financial manager: to become more ally, commercial partner for the CEO and less accountant. What do you think?
Bergman: I was in this role for 10 years in different companies. For me, I don’t think it has changed. I think there are three types of financial managers. There is more accountant, which comes from the audit function, which I think revolves around compliance and implementation of standards but has less interaction in work. Then there is the financial manager who comes from an investment bank, more than capital and markets and communicating investors. Then there is the operational financial manager, who is deeply related to the company’s value. I think you need today to find the correct mixture of the three.
GF: What do you suggest to a young person and want to become the financial manager of companies?
Bergman: Earn as much experience as possible with a company, inside and outside the financing. The role of the financial manager is much more than financing. You have to understand the funding function, but you also understand how to do business.
For example, when I was already at a very large level in a software company, I left financing and worked as a manager to develop products. It was a role of operational planning and financial planning. I had to find the appropriate Resourceallography mix, and to keep what exists, while editing adequate capacity to develop new products.
At the same time, we all know that there are restrictions on resources. You cannot use the largest possible number of people, so you really have to find productivity, transfer people around it, and create this flexibility in your workforce. The company that did so was one of the largest software companies in the world. There were 20,000 engineers in software development. Therefore, I really learned the operational part of the company, and now I can combine it with funding.
