CFO Bookshelf

We learn from Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird , "You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view … until you climb into their skin and walk around in it." Elvis Pressley used to sing, "Before you abuse, criticize and accuse, walk a mile in my shoes." What may seem so apparent to many is not to others. In this conversation, we unpack the...

Jeff Sands is the author of Corporate Turnaround Artistry . Before fixing and mending other companies' broken income statements and balance sheets, he had to fix his own. During this conversation, we also learn about the debt stacks, myths of bankruptcies, the five stages of a turnaround, the three types of turnaround CEOs,  and what Jeff calls the salvation process. 

If you think Netflix was the cause of Blockbuster's failure, you'll change your mind after you hear Alan Payne explain the reasons for this company's demise. Alan was a longtime owner of a chain of successful Blockbuster stores. He was also featured in the Netflix 2020 documentary, The Last Blockbuster . Alan's new book is Built to Fail , and we learn four reasons for Blockbust...

If I could only pick one book for any financial leader to read about company culture, it would be Patty McCord's book, Powerful . In this episode, two CFOs break down the big ideas in Patty's book which include the role of the culture-centric HR professional, making decisions on facts vs. data, annual performance reviews, variable pay, learning every aspect of a business, and teams vs. f...

Have you ever worked with a software vendor who said their solution would save you as much as $1 million annually? Or how about the big data warehousing project where the lead consultant says this project could lead to significantly more revenues? When you accept projects with these types of claims, have you gone back one year later to find out the actual cost savings you thought realized? Our top...

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 l...

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, an...

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...

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 an...

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...

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 ta...

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 th...

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...

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...

Joe Coulombe is one of the most intelligent, creative, and thoughtful CEOs I've read about in the past ten to twenty years. He grew Trader Joe's into one of the most successful and iconic brands in the grocery industry before he sold the business in 1979. Patty Civalleri is the co-author of Becoming Trader Joe and was a dear friend of this gifted entrepreneur. In this episode, we touch o...

Dan Montgomery is the founder of Agile Strategies, a boutique OKRs firm, and the author of Start Less Finish More . Dan states the old strategic planning model of predicting and then controlling needs to give way to sensing and responding, and he calls that agile strategy. In this conversation, he hit on many fascinating concepts: limitations of The Balanced Scorecard executing vs formulating stra...

Good luck on finding a book about phantom stock plans that's simple to understand with practical examples. It does not exist. However, Paolo Pasicolan has created nearly a hundred such plans with the law firm he works for, Miles and Stockbridge. Paulo's explanation of phantom stock plans is clear, concise, and complete.

I've always been intrigued about the roles of business psychologists and certified business coaches and their ability to elevate the performances of the people and businesses they work with. In this show, I visited with Dr. Russell Thackeray, a business psychologist, certified coach, trainer, and renowned speaker. We addressed topics such as resistance, when to hire a business coach, the inte...

I first heard Captain Charlie Plumb's POW story some twenty years ago, and I'm thrilled to share this conversation where we talk about Louis Zamperini, an unlikely parachute dialogue, culture, the leadership of Admiral James Stockdale, and some astounding research regarding PTSD of the men held at the Hanoi Hilton.

If you do an Amazon search on KPIs, the top result will be KPI Checklists by Bernie Smith. Bernie's newest book is entitled Gamed , our topic for this discussion. We'll find out why so many smart and creative people have a hard time agreeing on KPIs, what black hat testing is for incentives, and the KPI framework named ROKET-DS.

One of the rock stars of financial modeling is one of the founders and the Executive Director of the Financial Modeling Institute, Ian Schnoor. In this episode, we talk about the multi-disciplinary requirements of financial modeling, the planning process, component vs systems thinking, and other big ideas around this critical business skill.

My four favorite authors on performance measure with improvement as the primary aim is Don Wheeler, Stacey Barr, Dean Spitzer, and Mark Graban. In this conversation, we find out three of the most important questions surrounding performance improvement the right. Our guest is Mark Graban, and he's the author of Measures of Success, our topic for this episode.

Have you ever worked for a psychopathic CEO? If not, odds are that you will at least once in your career. That's according to the founder and president of the CFO Leadership Council, Jack McCullough. Jack's newest book is, The Psychopathic CEO , and we'll hear more about who they are, how they make their way into a company, and what to do should you work for one.

Every current and past senior executive at Amazon will say their leadership principles are behind every groundbreaking innovation. Every student of business knows about Amazon's obsession with its customers. But that's only one of the leadership principles. In this episode, John Rossman, the author of The Amazon Way delivers some of the big ideas and concepts baked into these inspiring,...