It's not all about the numbers!

Another training course. Another PowerPoint. Another day you'll never get back?

We've all been there. A full day of corporate training, a few interesting slides, maybe a free lunch... and by Monday, you've forgotten almost everything.

So what's the point?

In this episode of So What..., Chris Argent, Mike Rose and Joel question whether traditional corporate training is still fit for purpose.

From expensive leadership workshops and generic courses to the rise of AI-powered learning, the trio debate why so much training fails to stick and what actually makes learning valuable.

Is it the content? The delivery? Or the opportunity to put what you've learnt into practice?

Because there's a big difference between attending a course and actually developing a capability.

And if nothing changes afterwards, what exactly did we pay for?

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What if being yourself was the biggest risk you took in the boardroom?

For CFO Rachel Shorter, it took 20 years into her career to feel comfortable wearing her natural braids in the boardroom.

In this episode of It's Not All About the Numbers, Rachel Shorter joins Chris Argent and Mike Rose to challenge what professionalism really looks like, why diversity doesn't always mean inclusion and why success shouldn't come at the expense of your wellbeing.

Rachel also shares the story behind the Antilles Network, a wellness community creating safe spaces for Black women, and explores what genuine allyship looks like in practice.

Because getting a seat at the table is one thing.

Feeling like you can be yourself when you get there? That's another.

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We're told great leaders should be authentic, vulnerable and transparent.

But how transparent is too transparent?

In this episode of So What...?, Chris Argent, Mike Rose and Joel Johansen explore whether more openness really does create better leaders, stronger teams and greater trust.

From bosses admitting they don't have all the answers to competitors sharing information and governments opening up their data, the conversation explores what happens when we stop guarding information quite so closely.

But there has to be a line... right?

Because transparency doesn't mean sharing everything with everyone.

So where do you draw the boundary between healthy openness and plain old oversharing?

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What does it actually take to get a business ready to sell?

In this episode of It's Not All About the Numbers, Chris Argent and Mike Rose are joined by award-winning finance leader Tony Morreale to unpack the reality behind PetLab Co's journey towards a majority sale.

And spoiler: it wasn't all champagne and signing papers.

Tony talks due diligence, late nights, working on Christmas Eve and the years of preparation required before the business even went to market.

But this is also a conversation about people. From scaling businesses with limited cash to nurturing junior talent into future CFOs, Tony explains why growing a business means growing the people inside it too.

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What happens when the Wi-Fi disappears?

No Teams. No cloud. No maps. No card payments. And, most importantly for Joel, potentially no Duolingo streak.

In this episode of So What...?, Chris Argent, Mike Rose and Joel Johansen explore just how dependent we've become on permanent connectivity and whether the infrastructure underneath our increasingly digital lives is actually keeping up.

From patchy UK mobile coverage and businesses unable to take payments to internet blackouts and the expectation that we're always reachable, the team ask whether connectivity has quietly become critical infrastructure.

And if it has, should leaders also be asking a different question?

Could your people still function without it?

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In this episode of It's Not All About the Numbers, Chris Argent and Mike Rose are joined by Michael Mills, Global Director of Finance and Shared Services at Aramex, to talk ambition, adaptability and what it takes to keep growing as a leader.

From his Top Gun-inspired RAF ambitions to leaving JLR for a new industry, culture and life in the Middle East, Michael shares why he deliberately puts himself in uncomfortable situations, how feedback changed his leadership style, and why celebrating the wins can be just as important as chasing the next 1%.

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AI can write the email. Analyse the documents. Brainstorm the strategy.

But would you actually put it in charge?

In this episode of So What...?, Chris, Mike and Joel take on the rise of the bot boss and ask what happens when AI stops being something we talk to and starts becoming something we delegate to.

From agentic AI going spectacularly off-piste to the danger of leaders blindly accepting convincing AI-generated answers, the team debate how far they're willing to hand over control.

Is keeping a human in the loop enough? Or does AI become significantly less useful the moment we put it on a tight leash?

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What separates a manager from a leader?

In this episode of It's Not All About the Numbers, Chris Argent and Mike Rose are joined by Dr Veronika von Heise-Rotenburg, CFO and Managing Director at Everphone, to explore why leadership is a skill that must be learned, not simply inherited through promotion.

The conversation covers everything from mentoring and developing future leaders to the evolution of the CFO role, the impact of AI on finance and why tomorrow's finance leaders will spend less time administering the business and more time enabling it.

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Everyone seems to have a podcast these days.

But why?

In this episode of So What...?, Chris Argent, Mike Rose and Joel Johansen turn the microphones on themselves to explore why podcasting has exploded, what keeps them coming back after almost 150 episodes, and whether the world really needs another show.

The conversation goes beyond content creation, exploring trust, learning, community and why podcasts have become the modern equivalent of pub conversations. They also debate whether we've reached peak podcast, or whether the best conversations are still to come.

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From sorting mail and changing light bulbs to becoming Global CFO of Interbrand, Ben Castle's career definitely didn't follow the traditional finance playbook.

In this episode of It's Not All About the Numbers, Chris Argent and Mike Rose talk to Ben about curiosity, continuous learning and why some of the best finance careers aren't planned at all.

They explore how the finance function is changing, why Ben hired a data analyst with no finance background into his team, the skills tomorrow's finance leaders will need, and why empathy might be one of the most underrated qualities in a CFO.

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