CFO Bookshelf

All of us have heard of the cola wars, the tennis shoe wars, and certainly the PC wars. But the tractor wars? Neil Dahlstrom is a historian and archivist for John Deere, and he's the author of Tractor Wars , a historical narrative of the race to be the top manufacturer of power farming at the turn of the twentieth century. Will it be International Harvester, Ford, or the much smaller player,...

Derek Sivers was an accidental business founder. All he wanted to do was put his music online and sell it online before the dotcom bubble when PayPal did not exist yet. During one four-year period, his revenues jumped from $1 to $20 million while his staff count surged from 8 to 85. He eventually sold CD Baby for $22 million in 2008. Derek tells his founder's story in the book, Anything You L...

One of the best books we've read in 2023 is the story of Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley, who started a business of women freelance programmers in a male-dominated world in the 1960s based in London. The bookends of this remarkable story include an escape from the Holocaust from her homeland in Austria to her new adopted country in England, thanks to Kindertransport. While there are...

We learned many linear frameworks in business school to help us solve simple to complex problems. Yet, systems thinking was probably missing from that curriculum. The Fifth Discipline (Senge) and Systems Thinking (Meadows) are typical starting points for learning systems thinking. However, those books are not written from a business person's perspective. Simple Complexity , by Dr. William (Wi...

David Axson is called a CFO whisperer, but I'm also calling him an expert on calling the flaws and weaknesses of some of the biggest name management tools and systems from the past that are still influencing our decision-making today. David is the author of the 2010 book, The Management Mythbuster. In this conversation, we hit on a variety of topics, such as: annual budgeting performance pay...

Behind his back, I call him a Peter Drucker. He's the co-host of one of my favorite podcasts, 2Bobs . He's also the author of six business books. His name is David C. Baker, and I could listen to him all day with his pearls of wisdom on accumulating and sharing expertise with others. David's newest book is Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors . You do not need to be a third-party bus...

Are you curious about the origin story of the CFO Bookshelf podcast? The great people at Oracle NetSuite wanted to know that about a year earlier when they asked that question during one of their webinars. In this recording, the Head of Marketing at Netsuite, Ranga Bodla, asks the host of CFO Bookshelf why he started the show, who his favorite guests and been, and even some conversations that didn...

I enjoy reading books by transparent business founders who are not afraid to let their guard down in the stories they share. Titles quickly coming to mind are Boss Life by Paul Downs, Anything You Want by Derek Sivers, and Wild Company by the founders of Banana Republic. High on my list in this genre is What it Takes by Raegan Moya-Jones, the gritty and successful co-founder of aden + anais . Like...

Do you know what a donor-advised fund (DAF) is? Until this conversation, I knew very little about DAFs. Jake Wood founded Groundswell, whose mission is to democratize and revolutionize philanthropy for everyone. They do that through technology and DAFs. In this conversation, we find out what DAFs are, how to set them up, who can sponsor a DAF, and why they offer tax advantages to donors.

Mad Men's Harry Crane has found that his colleague makes $100 a week more than he does. He believes he deserves a raise, and through some fear and trepidation, he gets an extra $25 more per week from his intimidating boss. But do you think he's happy? How about you? Are you paid fairly? If not, how do you know?  What are your thoughts on minimum wage vs. a living wage? Do you believe in...

CFO Bookshelf does not sit in the seat of judgment, nor does it play the role of pundit in the midst of the 2023 banking crisis we are witnessing. We'll let the regulators and the media handle those duties. Instead, CFO Bookshelf is about old and revolutionary ideas that we can put to work right now in our organizations. As I have been monitoring the news of the Silicon Valley Bank closure an...

I've heard some startup founders say that every graduate should spend a year or two working in government before embarking on their chosen career path. For business students, I believe every new graduate should consider running or managing a restaurant for one to two years because of the people, financial, and entrepreneurial skills needed to keep the store afloat. I'm thrilled to have K...

Author and HBR contributor Peter Cappelli asserts that accounting and financial reporting are wreaking havoc on damaging HR decisions by corporate leaders. In this conversation, Peter reveals that 90% of all company vacancies were filled internally prior to 1980. Today, that number is just over 20%. He adds that there were very few layoffs more than 40 years ago. Today, layoffs make headlines week...

What is the best book on the story of Apple Computer? This week's guest states that Return to the Little Kingdom is the best of all of the Apple books on the history of this iconic growth story dating back to the pre-startup days thru the most successful sales years of the Apple II computer. Our guest is David Kopec, the moderator of the podcast Business Books & Co. David is a history buf...

I'm periodically scouring the podcast universe for other shows focusing on business books. I recently found Business Books & Co. founded by three buddies who went to school together.  Within three weeks, I listened to their first three seasons of episodes. As a fan of the show, I'm thrilled to hear the origin story of this podcast with their moderator David Kopec. In this show, we le...

Jeff Polovick started Canadian-based Driving Force with just $80,000 and just a few years of experience. That modest investment has been parlayed into $400 million in revenues with 675 employees. Jeff's book is Why Can't We , and like many startup stories, there's drama, adversity, success, more adversity, and even an exit. In this conversation, we talk about continuous and lifelong...

He gained the world. He then lost the world and those who were the closest to him. But he never lost his soul while hitting the lowest of lows in a federal penitentiary that once housed John Gotti. Shaun Hayes was once at the top of the banking world in St. Louis until he was in the wrong place at the wrong time during one of the worst recessions ever, which led to approving bank loans that violat...

We recently watched a video by the CEO of the UK-based retail chain, Timpson. We loved the material so much that we found a book by the company's chairman, Sir John Timpson. The title is based on how the business is run, Upside Down Management . According to Business Sale Report , Timpson is now a 2,000-branch-strong business with turnover totaling £300m and profits of up to £20m.  In this co...

Of the nearly two thousand books that the producer of CFO Bookshelf has read, there is one title he has gifted the most to CEOs than any other title. That book is Executive Toughness by Dr. Jason Selk. In this episode, we learn three of Mark's favorite big ideas in Jason's short and fast-based book: 1) product and process goals, 2) written daily debriefs, and 3) relentless solutions focu...

Last year, one of our top episodes was our favorite books of 2021. We're at it again this year with our Top 10 books for 2022. We also share our favorites in fiction along with a handful of honorable mentions.  Rounding out the lists of favorites include unexpected surprises, books we didn't like, books that were worth rereading in 2022, and our heavy favorite for 2023.

The subscription economy is alive and well for products-based businesses and the software industry. But how about professional services firms? Does the subscription model apply to accountants, lawyers, consultants, marketers, and other professionals? Ron Baker founded VeraSage Institute, the leading think tank dedicated to teaching value pricing to professionals worldwide. He's the co-host of...

What can any business or financial leader learn from a twenty-year vet in the fire service? I'm now calling John Cuomo the John Maxwell for firefighters and other public safety officials based on his book, Leadership Refined by Fire . John has always been interested in leadership and lifelong learning, and his book is full of stories, inspiration, and big ideas that can be applied to any play...

As a financial expert, could you estimate the cost savings in the U.S. alone through the country's use of daylight savings time? Benjamin Franklin's estimates in 1784 yielded about $200 million in savings in today's dollars if people lived their days by making the best use of daylight. David Prerau is the leading expert on daylight savings time, and his book, Seize the Daylight , ex...

I love investment books. It's a topic I could talk about for hours if allowed. I also started listening to the podcast Investing by the Books produced by the Nordic investment banker Redeye. The hosts are Eddie Palmgren and Niklas Sävås, and they are great. Both are lifelong learners and they love books on investing. In this show, we're going to talk about the best investment books that...

Gordon was an IT professional who took lifelong learning seriously. He joined a public utility district (PUD) because it stood for collaboration, communication, and support. Those core values at the PUD started deteriorating as a new leader focused on personal gain and power pushed for a new $8 million ERP solution without his most important team members to manage the implementation. Gordon Graham...