The CFO Show

Today's CFOs must excel at both driving organizational productivity while ensuring operational efficiency.

Brian Krause is CFO at Community First Solutions, and has over 20 years of experience building and leading financial teams, a VP of Finance, Controller, and three-time CFO. Brian joins host Melissa Howatson to delve into the distinction between productivity and efficiency, exploring how CFOs can strike the perfect balance between to drive optimal results.

Learn how to maximize productivity on your finance team without sacrificing efficiency, and vice versa.

Discussed In This Episode:

• Distinguishing productivity from efficiency, and the critical importance of ensuring all team members grasp this fundamental difference
• The potential pitfalls of emphasizing either productivity or efficiency
• How to leverage technology and streamline processes to build lean, agile finance teams
• Actionable insights to help CFOs become ultra-efficient leaders in today's dynamic business environment
• Strategies for finance leaders to cultivate an organizational culture that prioritizes both productivity and efficiency

The ability to transform raw complex financial data into a compelling narrative has become a critical skill. Mastering the art of finance data storytelling enables finance professionals to distill complex information into strategic insights, driving pivotal boardroom decisions and shaping business strategy.

Akash Kapoor is the CFO at ColdBlock Technologies and has been advising finance leaders on operations and strategy for the last 25 years. Host Melissa Howatson welcomes Akash to explore the transformative power of financial storytelling. Together, they delve into how mastering this critical skill can revolutionize organizational decision-making and propel finance professionals to new heights in their careers. As new technologies give us access to swaths of data, it’s more important than ever to have a finance department that can interpret data and turn numbers into clear business narratives. 

Learn how financial professionals can break down data silos and guide strategic decisions through compelling, data-driven narratives.

Discussed in This Episode:

• Discover techniques to transform complex financial data into engaging stories that inform and inspire action.
• The importance of tailoring presentations to various stakeholders, including C-suites, employees, and investors, depending on their financial acumen and objectives.
• Learn how to leverage storytelling techniques, narrative structures, and data visualization tools to bring your financial data to life and make your insights impossible to ignore.
• Understand why emerging technologies are elevating the role of finance professionals within organizations.

In today's customer-centric business landscape, a leadership team that truly understands its customers is crucial. Everyone on the C-Suite should be learning from one another, and challenging one another to be more customer-focused.

April Oman, the Chief Customer Officer at Resilinc, brings a unique perspective to the leadership team. While her primary role is championing customer success, she's gained invaluable insights about her customers from unexpected sources—including the company's CFO. April is an accomplished customer success executive with 20 years of experience. She is known for driving results and revenue and transforming organizations to be customer-centric in a wide variety of industries and company sizes

In this installment of our "Better Business Partnering" series, April joins host Melissa Howatson to explore the powerful synergy between Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Customer Officers (CCOs). They delve into April's collaborative experiences with CFOs, examining how this partnership drives innovation across the organization, improves operational efficiency through cross-functional teamwork, and fosters sustainable growth.

Discover how breaking down silos between finance and customer success can lead to transformative outcomes and customer satisfaction.


Discussed In This Episode:

• Strategies to nurture a strong partnership between the finance and customer teams
• How to align financial strategies with customer-centric initiatives
• The number one trait April values in a CFO, and how a CFO can help a CCO be more effective
• The value a CCO offers to CFOs and the broader C-suite
• Points of friction between CFOs and CCOs, and how to overcome them

Agile isn't just a buzzword—it's the key to unlocking your finance team's full potential in a changing market.

While annual budgeting and planning can be daunting, adopting Agile methodologies can transform this process into a dynamic, collaborative effort that propels your business forward, replacing rigid forecasts with flexible, data-driven strategies that adapt to market shifts in real-time.

Dominic DiBernardo is a Partner at Citrin Cooperman, where he helps middle-market businesses optimize their finance and business operations. In this episode, Dominic shares how to incorporate agile strategies into a finance team’s annual budgeting and planning cycle. These methodologies, he argues, will make finance teams more efficient and collaborative, so that they can withstand changes in market conditions and foster growth. 

Discover how finance leaders are revolutionizing their teams by cultivating nimble cultures and leveraging agile methodologies to enhance precision in strategic planning and dynamic budgeting processes.


Discussed in This Episode:

• Practical tips for finance leaders who are looking to pivot more quickly in response to emerging trends, shifting market conditions and changing business needs
• How to leverage real-time data, cultivate a budget-conscious culture emphasizing accountability and shared objectives, along with adopting budgeting practices that adeptly adjust to market shifts
• How finance leaders can foster an agile culture, as well as a collaborative and negotiation-focused approach to agile planning and budgeting
• The importance of having the right technology in place to accommodate change and speed up processes, as well as the role AI will play in advancing FP&A

The Office of Finance is on the cusp of a transformative evolution, driven primarily by advancements in AI.

While finance professionals often find themselves bogged down with manual tasks, leaving little room for strategic thinking and data analysis, AI provides critical data and time efficiencies enabling the Office of Finance to focus on business strategy.

Rishi Grover, Co-Founder and Chief Solutions Architect at Vena Solutions, has spent most of his career helping companies re-engineer and optimize their financial processes. In this episode, Rishi talks to host Melissa Howatson about how financial leaders can implement AI to reduce repetitive, manual work across their teams and increase focus on strategy. 

Learn how CFOs and finance leaders can take a pragmatic approach to AI adoption to improve finance functions, transform decision-making, and drive operational efficiency within their organizations.


Discussed In This Episode:

• AI’s potential to streamline and automate time-consuming processes, provide data-driven insights and handle complex tasks
• Tips for Incorporating AI into the Finance Function
• How to address security concerns, find internal champions, and securely leverage AI technology
• Advanced use cases of generative AI and the broader implications of this technology for the Office of Finance
• How to measure the ROI of AI adoption in finance operations

Continuous learning is not just a nice thing to have; it’s a critical necessity in Finance. As regulations, finance tools, and technologies evolve, finance professionals must stay up to date to move at the pace of business. 

Bryan Lapidus helps financial professionals match that change. Bryan is Director of the FP&A Practice at the Association for Financial Professionals, where he leverages his 20 years of experience in finance, risk, and operations to create and lead educational programs for AFP members.

In this episode, Bryan talks to host Melissa Howatson about the many ways finance professionals can engage in ongoing learning on the job, and through outside programs and networking opportunities.

Learn how CFOs and finance leaders can instill a culture of continuous learning, and how finance professionals can embrace a growth mindset to advance in their careers.

Discussed In This Episode:

• Strategies for financial leaders to promote a growth mindset and continuous learning
• The effectiveness of micro-learning and its application at critical moments
• Analyzing the return on investment (ROI) of continuous education and strategies to counteract the inclination to cut educational expenses
• The benefits of cross-functional learning in all stages of a finance professional’s career
• Indicators that finance professionals should consider when selecting an employer that supports continuous learning

Finance teams that want to be more data-driven need both technology that can consolidate mountains of data, and skilled professionals who can interpret what it all means.
Thomas Ho serves as the Vice President at ProLytics Consulting Group, guiding clients through the digital transformation in finance. In a discussion with Melissa Howatson,

Thomas discusses how data gathering methods are revolutionizing finance roles, necessitating new skills that finance professionals need to master to keep pace with rapid change.

Learn what hard skills are essential to the modern Office of Finance and how finance leaders can upskill their teams to improve the accuracy and efficiency of financial forecasting and modeling.

Discussed In This Episode:

• The transformative impact of technology on the Finance Department and the evolving requirements of finance occupations
• The critical importance of data literacy, data visualization, and data analytics for modern finance professionals
• The importance of learning SQL and other programming languages to perform needed data analysis and financial modeling
• How micro-learning and cross-team training can allow finance professionals to acquire new skills on the job and level up in their roles
• The tools and tech stack finance teams need to support data collection and data interpretation

AI is poised to revolutionize the way we work. Businesses across the globe are investing resources into the development needed to make AI an everyday reality. Leading the charge, Microsoft is pioneering the incorporation of AI into business and daily workflows.

In this episode, host Melissa Howatson sits down with Ahmed Adel, the Director of Data, Apps & AI Cloud Solution Architecture at Microsoft to discuss Microsoft’s continuous investments in AI, along with the implications these innovations could have for finance professionals and the potential impact of AI on the future of work.

Learn how Microsoft sees the ultimate future state of business operations for finance teams and beyond.

Discussed in This Episode:

• Microsoft's ongoing investments in AI, the evolving interaction between people and technology, and the potential impact of AI on the future of work
• How AI will elevate finance leadership by freeing up time for more strategic work, and improving the speed and accuracy of financial reporting
• How Microsoft prioritizes investments and works with partners to ensure that their innovations have the greatest impact
• Why organizations should be careful to implement AI in the right places, and how they can prepare their workforces for changes that AI will inevitably bring
• How Microsoft ensures its AI products are used ethically and responsibly

New technologies are changing finance roles, freeing up time for more analysis, strategy, and storytelling. As these roles evolve, so too do the soft skills financial professionals need to do their jobs well. 

Meg Bear is a Controller at Turner Enterprises, and has more than 20 years of experience leading finance teams and redesigning business processes. In this episode, Meg talks to host Melissa Howatson about how CFOs and finance leaders can adapt their leadership styles and hiring standards to better fit the modern FP&A team. 

Learn how finance leaders should prioritize soft skills as they build the future office of finance.

Discussed In This Episode:

• Cultivating a work setting where empowerment and meaningful tasks are the foundation
• Strategies for ensuring your team feels valued as you implement new systems and processes
• Exploring the reasons behind the formation of siloes and how finance leaders can work to dismantle them for improved interdepartmental collaboration and integrated business strategy.
• The significance of possessing essential soft skills and maintaining transparency throughout the hiring process
• How leaders can be a talent magnet, building and retaining teams that work well together

Employee burnout is on the rise, fueled by shrinking budgets and mounting pressure for employees to achieve more with less. But how can CFOs and finance leaders gauge the breaking point for their teams?

Ruchi Kasliwal has been building and guiding finance and accounting teams for over 15 years. With a deep passion for optimizing human and system resources, Ruchi joins Melissa to share vital strategies to protect their employees from burnout. By proactively identifying signs of burnout and offering effective support, leaders can prevent the loss of valuable team members. And by acknowledging the stressors inherent in finance roles, leaders can proactively implement strategies to protect teams from burnout while ensuring their well-being and productivity. Join us as we discover the key techniques for tackling high-pressure finance environments and empowering teams to thrive.

Discussed In This Episode:

• Understanding good stress vs. bad stress
• Implementing a buddy system to improve team communication around workload
• Burnout warning signs that can help finance leaders identify when employees are struggling with prioritization or too much work
• Planning for time off so that employees can truly unplug and unwind when they’re out of the office
• Working with your team to prioritize the most important tasks and automate tedious or unnecessary tasks