🎧 Listen to the full FEI Podcast episode: https://feipodcast.fireside.fm/180
This special podcast series features speakers from Financial Executives International’s upcoming ICONS: Leaders in Finance event on March 25, 2026, at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, where financial leaders gather to share insights on leadership, innovation, and the future of finance.
Finance Leadership in an Era of Constant Change
Reinseth, who has spent more than two decades at 3M, describes today’s finance environment as a “hyperspeed” landscape. With operations spanning more than 70 countries, finance leaders must manage evolving regulatory environments, digital transformation initiatives, and rapidly shifting market conditions.
For Reinseth and her team, the key to staying ahead is a simple but powerful philosophy:
Reduce complexity. Standardize processes. Simplify wherever possible.
“Speed without clarity is chaos,” Reinseth explains, emphasizing that financial leaders must streamline processes and leverage technology to keep pace with the business while maintaining control and compliance.
The Finance Organization’s Strategic Role
Reinseth believes finance teams are uniquely positioned to connect the dots across the enterprise. From tax and treasury to procurement, supply chain, and operations, finance leaders often have the broadest visibility into how decisions affect the business.
But that visibility only creates value if finance leaders actively engage with the organization.
A large portion of Reinseth’s time is spent building alignment across departments—something she sees as critical to avoiding surprises downstream and ensuring finance is involved early in strategic decisions.
Her advice to financial leaders: earn your seat upstream.
Building strong relationships and asking better questions can help finance professionals move beyond reporting results to shaping strategy.
“Be Fast, Be Accurate, and Be Gone”
In an environment where innovation and speed are essential, finance teams must also rethink how they operate internally.
Reinseth emphasizes the importance of removing non-value-added activities and automating routine work so finance teams can focus on strategic insights rather than manual processes.
Her mantra for finance operations:
“Be fast, be accurate, and be gone.”
In other words, deliver reliable financial information quickly so the business can move forward.
Preparing Finance for AI and Digital Transformation
Like many global organizations, 3M is exploring how AI and digital technologies can transform finance operations.
While the potential is significant, Reinseth takes a pragmatic approach. Rather than adopting new technology for its own sake, she focuses on areas where automation and analytics can reduce manual processes, improve financial narratives, and help leaders make faster, better decisions.
For many organizations, that means first modernizing legacy systems and improving how financial data flows across the enterprise.
Advice for Emerging Financial Leaders
For professionals aspiring to senior finance roles, Reinseth stresses that technical expertise alone isn’t enough.
Successful financial leaders combine financial fundamentals with cross-functional knowledge, relationship building, and the willingness to step outside traditional finance roles.
Her advice:
“Don’t underestimate the voice you have in finance,” she says.
This episode is part of FEI’s special ICONS podcast series featuring leaders from the ICONS: Leaders in Finance event. Join us on March 25, 2026, at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel to hear directly from distinguished financial leaders shaping the future of finance.
Learn more about the upcoming ICONS: Leaders in Finance event here:
https://www.financialexecutives.org/icons2026
🎧 Listen to the full FEI Podcast episode: https://feipodcast.fireside.fm/180