He helped to navigate a violent and catastrophic economic crisis in Argentina. He helped shape the playbook for a Dominican Republic bank bailout, which nearly brought the country to its knees, and he was at the helm of this international bank during the financial crisis, which made money during that time period.

Howard Green's book, Gimme A Crisis, is a roadmap for becoming a CEO, understanding the differences between liquidity and capital, learning the essentials of risk management, and the role of people skills at the CEO level.

Howard is making his second appearance on the show, and if you like Railroader, you will not be disappointed with his newest book.

Over the past thirty years, Kevin Boehm has opened forty restaurants, been awarded the highest honor in his profession, and served everyone from Mick Jagger to President Obama. 

Kevin's new book is a memoir entitled The Bottomless Cup. During this conversation, we hear how Kevin endured a chaotic relationship with his surrogate father and what it was like to learn of his biological father when he was a college student. Despite many obstacles and hardships, Kevin was a successful restaurant flipper until he hit a snag in Nashville.

We learn what success looks like in the restaurant industry. More importantly, Kevin shares his insights about success beyond the kitchen.

If you like the topics of organizational performance, personal and professional excellence, and thought-provoking mental models, then Superperformance by George Pesanky is worth reading.

In this conversation, we'll learn about The Golden Hour, Root Cause Success, the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Model, the Prison of Expectations, and the Kano Model.

I am a customer of Bull Market Gifts, and when I spend time on their website, I'm hooked and have a difficult time leaving.

Last year, I purchased some vintage annual reports, and I bought another before I interviewed the co-founder and owner of this niche retailer.

Their product offering also includes old stock certificates and a deep assortment of New York Stock Exchange memorabilia. 

During this conversation with Mike Oaklief, you will hear about Gordon Gekko, Enron's Code of Ethics, and a story about an American Exchange stock certificate that can be yours for more than $3,000.

When I began studying the root causes of business failure early in my career, I believed that faulty cognitive limitations and weaknesses were the primary drivers of poor decisions, ultimately leading to business failure. 

Taras Wayner is the producer and host of a new podcast called A Case Study in Corporate Fear, where he addresses one of the central emotions in the affective mindset: fear.

During this conversation, we learned how fear impacted the decision makers at Yahoo!, Atari, and Jaguar. We also address the areas of red teaming, resulting, and other biases that contribute to the fear-based mindset.

I'm calling Ken Iverson the Alan Mulally of CEOs in the 1980s and 1990s. "Plain Talk" by Ken Iverson is one of my favorite business books, despite its lack of self-congratulation and the absence of so-called transformational management concepts.

Instead, this is a book about how people were treated, the concept of decentralization, bonus structures, and using instincts to make business decisions.

Plain Talk will also undergo a revival period, as the Audible version was released this month. In this conversation, you'll find out why Mark and Bruce rate this a five-star book.

Can you name a work of fiction that centered around a stock picker? Alternatively, can you provide three fictional titles related to personal finance?

If both answers are no, this episode provides a brief synopsis of four works of fiction revolving around personal finance and investing.

One of the titles is new. Three have been written in the past twenty years, and one is a classic you might want on your bookshelf (the numbers do not add up because we've added a bonus title at the end).

Many in the magazine industry will tell you on the mountaintops that print is not dead. Try telling that to the writers who used to produce those beautiful glossy annual reports that are now published in the form of PDF documents.

Robert Roth is making his first-ever appearance on a podcast to discuss how an annual report writer secures gigs, the time commitment required, and other fascinating insights into the behind-the-scenes process of conceptualizing and creating annual reports.

Robert is also the author of The Writer’s Guide to Annual Reports,published in 2009.

Every financial executive should either have the book Valuation or have it on their physical or digital copy in their antilibrary.

CFO Bookshelf is thrilled and honored to have the lead author of all eight editions of this foundational book on valuation, which is used in many financial curricula around the nation on college campuses.

In this conversation, we hit on ROIC, growth, economic profit, long-term thinking, and the best way to read this book.

In CFO Bookshelf's 250th episode, we feature a book that embodies the heart and soul of what this show stands for. The book is Lead by Greatness by our guest, David Lapin.

During this conversation, David addresses eight vital leadership traits, defining a spiritual fingerprint and why it matters, the reason the Siberian prisoner perished and what it means for both leaders and staff, and the reason behind burnout and fatigue.

David also recommends that we read more fiction and novels, sharing some of his favorite authors and titles.