CFO Bookshelf

Are we to celebrate startups that fail or fail fast? What if you are the founder of one of those startups? How do you deal with that failure? Mark Jacobsen attacks that topic head-on in his book, Eating Glass , an honest manuscript about his inner journey through failure and renewal.

One of my favorite parts of The Education of a Value Investor is when Guy Spier talks about his lunch with Warren Buffett.  Similar to the Buffett lunch, what if I could have a virtual dinner with this incredible and deep-thinking business author and money manager? The end result was a satisfying conversation rich with investing, business, and economic insights.

In the world of value investing, Guy Spier never needs an introduction. I believe his book, The Education of a Value Investor is one of the Top 5 investing books ever written in the past 25 years. While we hit many high points in Guy's book, we do a lightning round of topics where Guy over-delivers with mindful and thorough responses.

Steve Wexler is one of my favorite teachers in the data visualization space because he's easy to understand and doesn't speak over our heads. He's the co-author of The Big Book of Dashboards , and his newest book is The Big Picture . Our topics include preattentive attributes, the love affair with stoplight colors, dead-end dashboards, and important tips when building visualizations...

I've met and talked to many CFOs around the country. We're rational, analytical, and can be direct at times. Some of us these CFOs are rare in that they have great people skills. But I'm not sure that's the case for the majority of financial leaders. Gilbert Eijkelenboom is the author of People Skills for Analytical Thinkers , our guest on this week's episode where we talk...

I was captivated by the website 2x3y.com months before the creative genius of that site released his book, Scale at Speed . The author is Felix Velarde, and his growth accelerator canvas is elegant, pragmatic, and impactful. If you like the writing of Verne Harnish, then you'll enjoy what Felix has to say about scaling at a rapid pace.

CFO Bookshelf welcomed back CFO Dive's, Jane Thier to talk about the biggest headlines in 2021. We also talked about the stories we'll be reading about in the second half. Jane also told us the three CFOs she'd like to interview and the one company she's keeping an eye on.

Guest host Shaefer Schuetz interviews Mark Gandy about the 60 books he's read or listened to during the first half of 2021. Mark shares his favorite five books and provides another half dozen or so books as honorable mentions.

From serving a term as a Missouri Senator to serving a year in prison, Mr. Smith Goes to Prison was one of my favorite books in 2015. After watching College Behind Bars on Netflix this winter, I wanted to get Jeff Smith's input on how to reduce recidivism within the prison system. We also talked about the comparisons of an IVY League MBA with the entrepreneurial activities behind prison walls...

Before taking the position as the IRS Commissioner, a reporter asked Charles Rossotti, "Were you ever in the military, and if you were, did you volunteer for a suicide mission?" Before running the IRS from 1997 to 2002, Rossotti was the co-founder, former chairman, and CEO of American Management Systems, Inc. In this episode, we look at what Charles did to help turn around that beleaguer...

He's been called the grandfather of gamification. He's also the best-selling author of The Game of Work and Scorekeeping for Success . Behind his back, I'm calling Chuck Coonradt the owner, general manager, and MVP head coach of The Game of Work who is a Hall of Famer.

You probably know about the best-selling book entitled American Icon which explains how an outsider turned around an ailing automotive company. But what set Alan Mulally apart from any other CEO? Why didn't he bring his Boeing managers to Ford with him? Is he as humble as we see him in the many interviews he conducts? Bryce Hoffman is the author of American Icon , and we learn more about this...

My favorite book about OKRs is Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke.  Christina recently updated her book with a second edition which is the topic in this episode. We also talk about her dream job at Stanford University, why OKRs are not for every business, why some CEOs go wrong with OKRs, and why having a healthy culture is the starting point for implementing OKRs of any scale.

Geraldine Carter is a consultant to small CPA firms around the country, and her message is niching down and burying the billable hour by implementing value pricing. Geraldine is also the host of the Smart Strategy for CPA's podcast. But her message is not unique for CPA firms - it's universal - all professional services firms can gain meaningful insights from Geraldine's expertise.

While Simon Wardley is the creator of the visual strategy mapping construct called Wardley Mapping, I consider Ben Mosior one of the greatest teachers of this framework. In this show, we discuss how to get started with Wardley Mapping and the mindset to stick with it. 

The host of CFO Bookshelf bumped into Simon Wardley's writing on mapping strategy several years ago, and he couldn't put his content down. In this conversation, we talk about the strategy circle, the OODA loop, the 'why' of purpose, doctrine, and many other key concepts related to Wardley Mapping.

Greg Graves is the former CEO of the employee-owned engineering firm, Burns & McDonnell. In this show, he talks about going 'all in' regarding ESOPs and his book Create Amazing .

Brad Chase was the marketing mastermind behind one of the most successful software launches ever - Windows 95. He replicated this success while serving at Microsoft on several other high-profile projects. Brad is the author of Strategy First: How Businesses Win Big . In this episode, we discuss the big ideas in his book including the E-Strategy and simple formula that's simple, impactful, and...

Jack McCullough is the CFO of all CFOs. He's the founder and President of The CFO Leadership Council with a membership of more than 1,800 financial leaders. Jack is the author of Rock Star CFOs which lists 9 traits of a great CFO, our topic in this fascinating and insightful interview.

Everybody Ought to Be Rich by David Farber is now one of my favorite books in the business history genre. It's the story of one of the greatest number 2 men of the modern business era, John Jakob Raskob - a name that every financial leader should know about.

If I'm going to listen to a data science and analytics expert for nearly an hour, that person better speak a language that I can understand and who is relatable. That person does exist, and his name is Jon Daniels of Bamboo HR. In this episode, he talks about data lakes, data warehousing, ETL, and data governance. He also provides simple strategies to go from no intelligence to business and a...

While this is CFO Bookshelf where we generally interview book authors, there's no way I want to read a book on ERP planning and implementations. I believe this is a better topic addresses through doing and listening to the sage advice of others. One such person is Ed Kless who is an expert in software implementations. He's also the co-host of my favorite podcast, The Soul of Enterprise....

As a financial leader, I enjoy any conversation with a CEO, especially one that's co-founded a business generating more than $100 million annually. Jeff Morrill is the co-founder with his brother of Planet Subaru based in Boston. His new book is Profit Wise, and we hit on many of the big ideas in that insightul read.

Some of my favorite words in the CFO lexicon are momentum, acceleration, velocity, drive, and even thrust. Coincidentally, Mike Berland is the author of Maximum Momentum - How to Get It, How to Keep It . And it's those very words we focused on during our conversation. Mike is the founder of Decode_M, a research and analytics firm that decodes data into momentum for clients. In this episode, w...

If you liked The Big Short by Michael Lewis where we learn about the financial meltdown of 2007-08, then you will probably like the stories behind the financial revolution that took place during the 10 years that followed. | Daniel Simon has weaved more than 150 interviews with technologists that he calls misfits  | or financial hackers - the men and women who shaped Fintech after the global finan...