CFO Bookshelf

Glenn Hopper is the author of Deep Finance: Corporate Finance for the Information Age. 

Glenn is a likable expert who helps the rest of us better understand artificial intelligence, data science, and ERP solutions.  As a hands-on, self-taught digital expert, his writing is still easy to understand.

In this conversation, some of the big ideas we cover are the differences between machine and deep learning, practical applications of data science in smaller businesses, and comparing comprehensive ERP solutions with best-of-breed tools that are stacked together.

For too many years than I can count, I've been listening to the audio version of How to Become a CEO by Jeffrey Fox annually. The book is a simple, to-the-point book discussion that applies to any position, even an officer in the military.

In this conversation, we hear about admitting fault, damaging emails, mastering one big new thing every year, the power and impact of handwritten notes, and a few classic books.

Professor Jim Shein of the Kellogg School of Management is one of my favorite turnaround experts, and he's the author of my favorite book in this space, Reversing the Slide.

Some of the big ideas we address are how to get started in this field of work, the role of strategy in turnarounds, the 13-week cash flow forecast, and a handful of case studies.

We also learn who is best suited for this type of work, CEOs or CFOs.

Financial writers have been telling CFOs that they need to become storytellers in their businesses. How?

John Pollack is a former presidential speechwriter and he's an expert in analogies. He's delivered a popular TEDx presentation on the topic and this book Shortcut takes a deep dive into the anatomy of this powerful tool to sell our ideas.

In this interview, we hear examples of good analogies, how they shape the legal system, and how baseball impacted a California law leading to unintended consequences.

Accordingly, John's message becomes a solid bridge for financial leaders becoming better storytellers.

I'm going to make the bold statement that Roger Martin is this era's Peter Drucker as a prolific business writer.

Roger has co-authored my favorite book on strategy, Playing to Win which is simple, concise, pragmatic, and has plenty of sticky concepts.

Roger's newest book is A New Way to Think. If you like Adam Grant, Dan Pink, the Heath brothers, or Matthew May, this book belongs in your book queue, the topic in this conversation.

Finding, obtaining, and developing leadership talent is not easy, and there is plenty of data to support making decisions too fast or waiting too long in getting the right team in place.

Ram Charan is known for books like Execution, Boards That Deliver, and What the CEO Wants You to Know. He's also the co-author of Talent: The Market Cap Multiplier. 

In this conversation, we talk about the talent bank, the one-to-one conversations, cutting bait fast, and two of his favorite books. 

Ben Lamorte is making his third appearance on CFO Bookshelf. He certifies OKRs coaches on his platform, OKRs.com. His newest book is The OKRs Field Book.

In this conversation, we address outcomes vs outputs, setting meaningful objectives through a five-step process, and OKRs vs KPIs.

If you ask ten successful CEOs what they do, you'll probably hear many answers--all good, but vastly different from executive to executive.

A dream team of McKinsey partners decided to research the very question based on 200 in-depth interviews and surveys with successful CEOs.

Their findings are found in the new book, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest. 

In this conversation, we hear from one of the co-authors, Carolyn Dewar as she talks about s-curves, the kitchen cabinet, defining roles vs. the right people, the 40-30-20-10 Brad Smith rule, and much more. 

If you've been searching for the PayPal version of Brad Stone's, The Everything Store, then you can start with Jimmy Soni's new book, The Founders.

In this fast-paced interview with the author, we learn many smaller stories behind the bigger ones of PayPal's big obstacles it faced before its IPO:

• the lack of innovation at the big banks
• Reid Hoffman's role in what PayPal is today
• The combination of X.com and Confinity
• Peter Thiel, the reluctant CEO and the Elon Musk Palace Coupe
• Security - from innocence to frustration to superiority
• The love-hate relationship between PayPal and eBay

Finally, we hit the bookends hard--the three-hour conversation with Elon Musk and the moving and inspiring epilogue.

As we observe the DNA behind some of our favorite CEOs, patterns will start to surface. Some are natural at scaling companies to new levels. And then there are stories like those of Phil Knight, Jeff Bezos, Reid Hoffman, and Sara Blakely who started with a kernel of an idea and went on to launch brands that are household names.

Bob Jordan is the co-author of Right Leader, Right Time, a book that reveals a framework listing four natural instincts of impactful leaders - Fixers, Artists, Builders, and Strategists.

In this episode, we unpack the FABS framework and how to make the most of it.