CFO Bookshelf

As much as I enjoy reading the Goldratt books and his theory of constraints (TOC), I never considered his early book, The Race, a solid and readable primer on throughput for financial minds.

Several books have been published on throughput accounting since The Race was released in the early 1990s. In 2019, three TOC experts finished what I believe is now the best work on throughput accounting that even CEOs should read. The title is Throughput Economics.

In this conversation, we address simple definitions such as throughput, operating expense, and investment. We learn why efficiency measurements can lead to disastrous results and why this book is not just for manufacturers.

Notable links:

• Eli Schragenheim blog (one of the co-authors)
• Goldratt Bharat
• The Vanguard Method
• Kelvyn Youngman

If you have read any books on pricing, the title that stands above the rest is Hermann Simon's Confessions of The Pricing Man.

However, suppose you are looking for a book that includes nearly every pricing tactic ever used in business. In that case, I'd start with Handbook on the Psychology of Pricing by Dr. Markus Husemann-Kopetzky. The subtitle is 100+ effects on persuasion and influence every entrepreneur, marketer and pricing manager needs to know.

While this book is for the hardcore marketer and CMO, I recommend it to CEOs and CFOs too as pricing is a vital discipline that's lacking in many small businesses.

A few of the topics we cover include:

• Flat Rate Bias
• Scarcity
• Reciprocity
• $0.79 or $ 0.93
• Dropping Commas
• The Problem with Discounting High-Quality Products

One of my favorite books in the value investing niche is 100 Baggers by Chris Mayer, a title that is also worth reading for CEOs, CFOs, and all other business managers.

During this conversation, Chris explains how small acorn businesses become large and strong oak trees. Other topics we hit include:

• the coffee can portfolio
• the reluctant seller
• owner-operators
• John Kelly's formula
• SQGLP - a power framework for finding 100 Baggers

You can learn and read more about Chris Mayer on his blog.

When I finished Nick Gray's The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, I immediately thought that this was the perfect follow-up book to start applying all of the teachings of Dale Carnegie in his classic, How to Win Friends and Influence Others.

Beyond Nick's practical advice in teaching readers how to host a party for friends and casual acquaintances, one of my favorite insights is the power of loose connections. Nick provides the perfect device on how to make the most of those loose connections that can be fun and meaningful for years to come.

In this conversation, Nick explains the purpose of a cocktail party, who to invite, what to serve, how to implement icebreakers, and what to do after a party.

Important Links:

• How to Introduce Two People via Email: Sample Scripts
• 9 Career Day Speech and Presentation Ideas
• Party Times: Start, End, & Best Times
• Icebreaker Name Tags: Examples and How to Do It RIGHT
• How to Host an Event: Parties & Networking
• Where to Throw a Party? Ideas and Venues for 2023
• Icebreaker Activities for Your Next Event
• Nick Gray's Personal Website
• Friendship Recession Website
• 7 Small Trade Show Booth Ideas for 2023

As a child growing up in rural Missouri who listened to countless baseball games on the radio of my favorite baseball team, I heard the names Budweiser and Busch repeatedly over the course of many years.

Because of the rise in popularity of TV shows like Riches, Succession, and Yellowstone, I was curious about the Busch family--the Kennedys of St. Louis. What became of that dynasty? How did it get started? How did it grow in fame and fortune? What caused its downfall?

To find the answers to those questions, I read Bill Knoedelseder's book Bitter Brew - The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's King of Beers.

In this conversation, we learn how the Busch family survived prohibition and why they were able to succeed in the years to come. But we also learn the reasons for the demise of the family-owned business and why they sold out to a larger brewer.

Confessions of a Pricing Man is easily the best book ever written on this topic.

The author is Hermann Simon, the Chairman of Simon-Kucher. He's also one of this generation's most prolific business thinkers, whose writing parallels Peter Drucker's.

In this conversation, our topic is Hermann's 2021 book, True Profit. Topics include profit maximization, the reason why pricing as a profit lever trumps volume increases or cost reductions, and the differences between profit and free cash flow.

I predict that Number Go Up will be considered the most fascinating and entertaining book in narrative non-fiction for 2023.

Our guest is Zeke Faux, an investigative reporter. Several years ago, he was asked to check out Tether and the money supporting that cryptocurrency. Zeke had no idea that story would take him across the globe, logging many air miles along the way.

If you are challenged or intimidated by the vocabulary surrounding cryptocurrencies, we attack about ten terms to lay the groundwork for the stories Zeke tells us later in the interview.

Dan Murray is the author of Tableau Your Data, and he recently published a blog series called The BI Cantos. The 21-post series is about how to successfully deploy a business intelligence system.

Dan is the Director of Strategic Innovations at Interworks, where he has spoken across the country with audiences, including many in the Fortune 500.

What exactly is business intelligence? What are the best tools to use? How do we separate fact from fiction in these implementations? And what is the best way to find a consultant?

Dan answers these questions and more as this episode is geared toward those embarking on a new BI journey.

The BI Cantos Blog Series - LINK

Joel Salatin is more than a gifted farm entrepreneur in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Joel is the author of twelve books and speaks around the globe on not just farming but simultaneously protecting and replenishing the land.

The book we focused on was Folks, This Ain't Normal, which includes plenty of satire and humor. Our topics included open-book farming, the difference between buying natural vs. processed food, and several fascinating concepts revolving around money.

If you want to learn more about Joel after listening to the interview, I'd start with this site as a launching pad: TheLunaticFarmer.com.

You can read the full show notes on this episode on our website.

One of my favorite 25 business books is The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig.

During this conversation, Phil explains the halo effect, along with several other delusions business leaders are bombarded with daily from the press, business authors, and consulting gurus.

Other highlights include:

• remedies for overcoming the halo effect heuristic
• research flaws in Good to Great
• backward causalities
• business culture and financial performance
• "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
• greed and hubris
• Phil's favorite business books