Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast CFO Bookshelf

If you like the topics of organizational performance, personal and professional excellence, and thought-provoking mental models, then Superperformance by George Pesanky is worth reading.

In this conversation, we'll learn about The Golden Hour, Root Cause Success, the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Model, the Prison of Expectations, and the Kano Model.

I am a customer of Bull Market Gifts, and when I spend time on their website, I'm hooked and have a difficult time leaving.

Last year, I purchased some vintage annual reports, and I bought another before I interviewed the co-founder and owner of this niche retailer.

Their product offering also includes old stock certificates and a deep assortment of New York Stock Exchange memorabilia. 

During this conversation with Mike Oaklief, you will hear about Gordon Gekko, Enron's Code of Ethics, and a story about an American Exchange stock certificate that can be yours for more than $3,000.

When I began studying the root causes of business failure early in my career, I believed that faulty cognitive limitations and weaknesses were the primary drivers of poor decisions, ultimately leading to business failure. 

Taras Wayner is the producer and host of a new podcast called A Case Study in Corporate Fear, where he addresses one of the central emotions in the affective mindset: fear.

During this conversation, we learned how fear impacted the decision makers at Yahoo!, Atari, and Jaguar. We also address the areas of red teaming, resulting, and other biases that contribute to the fear-based mindset.

I'm calling Ken Iverson the Alan Mulally of CEOs in the 1980s and 1990s. "Plain Talk" by Ken Iverson is one of my favorite business books, despite its lack of self-congratulation and the absence of so-called transformational management concepts.

Instead, this is a book about how people were treated, the concept of decentralization, bonus structures, and using instincts to make business decisions.

Plain Talk will also undergo a revival period, as the Audible version was released this month. In this conversation, you'll find out why Mark and Bruce rate this a five-star book.

Can you name a work of fiction that centered around a stock picker? Alternatively, can you provide three fictional titles related to personal finance?

If both answers are no, this episode provides a brief synopsis of four works of fiction revolving around personal finance and investing.

One of the titles is new. Three have been written in the past twenty years, and one is a classic you might want on your bookshelf (the numbers do not add up because we've added a bonus title at the end).

Many in the magazine industry will tell you on the mountaintops that print is not dead. Try telling that to the writers who used to produce those beautiful glossy annual reports that are now published in the form of PDF documents.

Robert Roth is making his first-ever appearance on a podcast to discuss how an annual report writer secures gigs, the time commitment required, and other fascinating insights into the behind-the-scenes process of conceptualizing and creating annual reports.

Robert is also the author of The Writer’s Guide to Annual Reports,published in 2009.

Every financial executive should either have the book Valuation or have it on their physical or digital copy in their antilibrary.

CFO Bookshelf is thrilled and honored to have the lead author of all eight editions of this foundational book on valuation, which is used in many financial curricula around the nation on college campuses.

In this conversation, we hit on ROIC, growth, economic profit, long-term thinking, and the best way to read this book.

In CFO Bookshelf's 250th episode, we feature a book that embodies the heart and soul of what this show stands for. The book is Lead by Greatness by our guest, David Lapin.

During this conversation, David addresses eight vital leadership traits, defining a spiritual fingerprint and why it matters, the reason the Siberian prisoner perished and what it means for both leaders and staff, and the reason behind burnout and fatigue.

David also recommends that we read more fiction and novels, sharing some of his favorite authors and titles.

Why has Taylor Swift trademarked her and her cats' names? And how does she protect the approximately three hundred trademarks she owns?

As Kary Oberbrunner tells us, we're just like Taylor in that we're all IP companies. In this engaging conversation about IP, we learn about Instant IPᴵᴾ, the role blockchain plays in IP, the reason good fences make good neighbors, and why you should consider an IP holding company.

The book title we're discussing is Kary's, You Are an IP Company, which was kickstarted by one of the triggering events he addresses in his TEDx presentation. 

We have read many stories about the magical growth of Starbucks. However, did you know that one of its first presidents had a background in furniture sales and did not hold a college degree?

Our guest is the author of It's Not About the Coffee, and Howard Behar saw store units grow from a small handful to more than 15,000 during his two stints as one of its presidents.

In this conversation, we'll learn why Mark's favorite line is, "If you grow people, the people grow the business. That’s it. That’s the number-one priority." Howard discusses the Monday night meetings, dealing with crises, and why he had to stop wearing his feelings on his sleeve.

As my consulting practice started taking off about twenty years ago, I started reading everything I could by Fred Nickols, who blogged regularly for the software vendor, SmartDraw.

Fred's articles were short, to the point, and always included a simple visual framework that was easy to comprehend. I ultimately read every post on that blog.

Fred is a long-time consultant who calls himself a solutions engineer. In this conversation, we talk about his favorite frameworks and the origins of those mental models.

We live in a small business world where the Chief Fractional Officer is becoming indispensable.

Before even considering hiring the Fractional Sales Manager, the Fractional Marketing Officer, or even the Fractional CFO, I'd start one hundred percent of the time with the Fractional Chief People Officer.

Susannah Robinson has worked in big-company HR for more than twenty years. Now, as the head of a fractional people agency called Partnership for Talent, she has written a simple and pragmatic guide on organizational design for small businesses. In this conversation, we discuss her new book, Beyond the Boxes and Lines.

I'm betting that over half the CFO Bookshelf listenership participate in an NCAA tournament basketball pool at the office. Accordingly, I thought I'd share a story from a basketball legend I don't think I've ever heard retold from a leadership expert during a speaking event.

I end this special episode on my three favorite basketball movies. What are yours?

Before I start reading a book on Warren Buffett, and there are many, I want to know if this book has been written before—the ones where the narratives essentially state the same thing about Buffett's investing style.

In the case of Brett Gardner's new book on Buffett, he checks all the boxes of a fascinating investment book. It's informative, inspiring, and even entertaining. More importantly, the book Buffett's Early Investments is not a rehash of Buffett material you've read before.

Instead, Brett takes us on a journey involving several of Buffett's early stock acquisitions, how they shaped and molded his later investment style, and how these deals inspired the Berkshire Hathaway business model as we know it today.

When I first experienced the Cynefin Framework in an HBR article many years ago, I never tried to adapt it to my work until I interviewed Bryce Hoffman, author of American Icon and Red Teaming, a few years ago. 

While Bryce made the Cynefin Framework seem more understandable and accessible, Kevin Eikenberry has gone further to show leaders how to act when surrounded by varying problems they are trying to navigate with this sensemaking framework.

Kevin has written nearly 20 books, and his newest title is Flexible Leadership which includes a better approach to holistic thinking, the Cynefin Framework and the use of flexors.

CFO Bookshelf had never heard of Ivar Kreuger until the former Managing Director of CFO.com suggested we discuss the book, The Match King.

Andy Burt joins Mark Gandy to explain why Ivar Kreuger is a financial mastermind worthy of studying and what led to his downfall.

At one time, Kreuger was worth billions in today's dollars, but his empire, built on a house of debt, could not withstand the Great Depression or a subsequent audit when he tried to raise cash by liquidating a key asset.

A story made for Hollywood reveals what drove Kreuger and why U.S. securities laws were created after his downfall.

I recently came across a book that's been out for over 10 years by an exceptional and tenacious researcher and an engaging writer, Lodewijk Petram. His book, The World's First Stock Exchange, might be the first to explore how early investors first bought and traded shares of the VOC of this next stock exchange.

The founding of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602 marked the beginning of Amsterdam’s rise from a modest market town to a global financial powerhouse. The Company’s introduction of easily transferable shares quickly led to active trading, with investors exchanging them within days. Before long, the public was engaging in complex financial maneuvers—ranging from forwards and futures to options and bear raids. By 1680, the Amsterdam market had developed techniques as advanced as those used in modern finance, topics we explore in this conversation with Lodewijk.

When I think of the CFO's role, a few questions emerge: What will we invest in and reinvest in? How will we finance those investments? What about risk management? And what is the role of corporate governance in these activities?

Not only does Don Chew answer those questions in his new book, but he also gives a name to all of his answers - corporate finance.

In this conversation, Don Chew explains why he wrote The Making of Modern Corporate Finance and how it's different from old-fashioned corporate finance.

Don's book offers insights, inspiration, and even entertainment at times. The book contains only four equations, which can relieve business students intimidated by complex math problems during their university years.

A financial executive no longer loved Mondays until a health scare changed his mindset a few years ago.

Ron Monteiro is a financial expert who coaches other leaders. His book is Love Mondays: A Proven Process to Bring Joy Back into Your Work Week and Life.

Ron teaches us four simple steps to becoming Monday Mavericks. He then outlines seven clever tactical steps for leaders in developing Monday Mavericks. The book ends with a dozen stories about Monday Mavericks.

When John Rossman is not busy delivering keynote addresses to large audiences or consulting with brands we recognize, he still finds time to write.

John is making his third appearance on the show after our conversations about two of his other books: The Amazon Way and Big Bet Leadership.

John's newest project is a 54-page manifesto entitled The Pig, The Lipstick, and The Playbook of Champions. It shows organizations how to escape their self-created world of mediocrity.

One book critic has asked readers of The Money Trap to imagine Michael Lewis as the President of a multinational investment holding company. Instead, Alok Sama is that person after working for Morgan Stanley for sixteen years.

In this sometimes lighthearted but philosophical tome, occasionally sprinkled with dark humor and cleverness, Alok shares his most interesting stories while working next to one of the wealthiest men in the world. It's a story that includes investing insights, a smear campaign, and parent heartbreak.

Learn fascinating insights from an investment banker with a strong mathematical and analytical mind who loves writing and reading great literature. This may be the only time you hear Mark Zuckerberg, John Nash, and Julius Ceasar mentioned in the same conversation.

David is a dermatologist whose practice can't seemingly make the money it should be.

David meets a great accountant named Graham. Graham is a TOC bottleneck specialist for all types of businesses, not just manufacturing. He speaks and teaches his clients in a way that is easy to understand and can quickly implement the ideas.

That's the storyline of Practice Makes Profit by Graham Scott. This book answers four questions: 1) why the money we spend on improvements rarely improves operating cash flow, 2) why business owners get stuck in a holding pattern, 3) how TOC can be used to solve simple problems, and 4) how to apply TOC outside of manufacturing.

In this conversation, we address why bottleneck thinking applies to all types of businesses, why budgeting is not a solution for pairing costs, and how to offload work to non-bottlenecks.

When I think of Dave Ramsey, the elimination of debt and whole life insurance policies quickly spring to mind. In addition to his demonization of universal policies, were you aware of his 8-12 rule for retirement?

David McKnight joins the show to discuss the 4 percent rule for retirement, annuities, and cash-basis insurance plans based on math, pragmatism, and wisdom.

These topics are key themes in David's newest book, The Guru Gap. He has also written other best-selling books, including The Power of Zero, which has sold over 400,000 copies.

What would happen if a business-minded Encylopedia Brown entered the busy line of movie patrons waiting impatiently for soda and popcorn?

This perspective guided Clarke Ching in writing his latest book, The Bottleneck Detective. It offers a straightforward and enjoyable reading experience, focusing on identifying bottlenecks and understanding their subsequent effects on bottleneck detection.

Mark explores Clarke's FoCCCus framework and whether bottleneck detection is a learned skill or an innate talent.

Are you fan of Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, or Richard Thaler? Have you enjoyed books like Fooled by Randomness, Factfulness, or Thinking in Bets? If so, you may want to read Jaime Lester's new book, Pause to Think, about cognitive biases.

Jaime's concise book is engaging, memorable, and accessible. It features over thirty mental and conceptual models. This discussion explores some of these concepts, including fast and slow thinking, sunk costs, satisfaction, and randomness.

Glenn Hopper's newest book is AI Mastery for Finance Professionals, but the content is also for CEOs, board members, and all other organizational leaders. We keep the topics pragmatic, applicable, and example-centric in this conversation. We'll also discover what Glenn means by saying, "AI will not replace people. People who use AI will replace those who don't use AI."

One of the best books I've read on leadership in several years is by a former big-company CEO who is now a professor. Willie Pietersen's third book is Leadership - The Inside Story.

In this fast-moving conversation, we hear about how Nelson Mandela learned, unlearned, and relearned the central tenets of philosophy and leadership well before his vision of a unified country could become a reality.

We also learn how a diamond is formed and how those three forces apply to leadership. The question that won a war is profound, as is finding out what happens when an elder dies.

When I think of HP, three things quickly emerge in my mind: Deskjet and laser printers, the 12C calculator, and David Packard's The HP Way.

The HP Way is one of my top 25 books written by CEOs. In this conversation, we're rolling with a book club format with a special guest who writes book summaries on his blog. Dan Lebrero is a software engineer based in Spain, and he'll help us unpack concepts such as MBO, management by walking around, profit-sharing plans, corporate offsites, growth frameworks, and philosophies on debt management. 

Cat Mulvihill is becoming a rising YouTube star with her video content focused on communication and presentation skills, including technology, Zoom, and personal knowledge management systems.

This conversation teaches us what sets the best professionals apart from the rest on their Zoom calls. We gain insights on the best mics, videocams, and other technologies to use. We also wrap up the visit with simple ways to kill our filler words.

If you work for yourself or would like to, have you ever thought about whose shoulders you are standing on, especially if you decide to have no employees?

Ben Waterhouse is a professor and faculty director at the University of North Carolina. His research interests include deciphering how self-employment became a key to personal fulfillment, a central topic in his newest book, One Day I'll Work for Myself.

In this conversation, we explore some of history's most pivotal stories that led to the plateau of big business starting in the late 1800s and reaching its peak in the 1970s. We learn why the move to self-employment became a potential remedy to professional and personal relevance in Ben's engaging style. 

Have you ever wondered how Amazon, Netflix, and Starbucks started their customer personalization programs? What was the starting point? What were the costs? Who was involved?

The co-authors answer these questions in the very readable Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI.

Mark Abraham and David Edelman explain that personalization is not email or glorified loyalty rewards programs. Instead, this cross-functional activity starts with a few simple questions in their 5 Promises framework, a launching pad for creating a customer personalization journey. 

If you were to ask me about my favorite book on private equity, I would say The Private Equity Playbook by Adam Coffey. The book is easy to read, the math is simple and impactful, and the stories are based on a former CEO who understands the intricacies behind private equity.

Adam has released the second edition of this book, which is about 20 percent longer with new material. This conversation addresses the continued growth of private equity, committed capital, Adam's 70-30 rule, and a funny locksmith story.

As a financial leader, I want to know every aspect of business. While quarterbacking my share of ERP implementations, I had only once heard the term PMO (short for Project Management Office). Accordingly, I wanted to learn more.

After reading Laura Barnard's new book on PMOs, I quickly realized she is probably the global thought leader on this subject.

Laura's new book is The IMPACT Engine: Accelerating Strategy Delivery for PMO and Transformation Leaders. We spend most of our time unpacking her IMPACT Engine System, which has a 100% success rate. In the lightning round, we cover MVPs vs. prototypes, perfectionism, lovers and haters, outcomes vs. outputs, and 30-90s. 

Numerous financial blog articles and LinkedIn posts highlight the benefits of a small business owner hiring a portfolio CFO. However, I do not recall these writers commenting on why financial professionals step away from the W-2 world to serve multiple owners as clients instead of sticking to a steady paycheck.

Sara Daw may be the first author to articulate why CFOs jump into the gig economy through her comprehensive research, which we can read about in Strategy and Leadership as Service. In this conversation, we hit on access vs. ownership, psychological ownership, career future-proofing, and liquid vs. solid consumption.

How did Charles Cowlam resort to a lifelong career in crime during the Gilded Age?

During this fascinating interview, the author of A Wonderful Career Crime accidentally uncovers several fascinating nuggets of U.S. history that would otherwise remain undetected by well-known historians.

Frank Garmon shares his favorite stories of Cowlam's life as a fraudster, bigamist, and swindler. He takes us to the origin of how this micro-history came to be in book form. We also learn how the wisdom of crowds revealed Cowlan's true identity in a world without LinkedIn and Facebook.

Strategic planning and real estate companies are not word pairings we are used to hearing. However, Charlie Hewlett is changing that mindset.

Charlie is the managing director at RCLCO, a company based in the Washington, D.C., metro area. He co-authored Strategy for Real Estate Companies.

Our topics include the definition of a real estate company, a short definition of strategic planning, what strategic planning is not, SWOT, POVs, plan lengths, and who should work on the strategy process.

What do you know about Jay Gould's life, and how does he compare to the other robber barons of his day? More importantly, is his life worth examining?

Mark discusses Gould's upbringing in this book review, which influenced his desire to be rich. Learn about one of the most significant market corners on Wall Street and the man who helped to create America's economic expansion during the internet era of his day.

Mark provides five titles in this special CFO Bookshelf episode that inspire and educate. 

Mark wraps up the show with some financial food for thought - what statement do you present first in a reporting package and why?

What is a Fractional CFO? That term has become a household name for financial experts who help small business owners in various industries.

However, do we have a concise and complete definition for this type of professional services provider?

In this special episode, we break down what the fractional CFO is based on their three unique and primary roles to small business owners. We also give the best definition of a CFO you have probably never heard before.

As I think about our next guest, Jody Grunden, he reminds me of the successful business leader who Mixergy's Andrew Warner should feature. 

Jody co-founded Summit CPA Group in the early 2000s and decided to focus on financial leadership instead of offering the conventional services many small firms provided.

This discussion addresses the accounting shortage, effective accountants, and why accounting professionals have nothing to fear about AI technologies.

When did you start using Excel, and how did you learn it?

Jeff Lenning is the founder of Excel University, and he joins us to discuss the biggest mistakes he sees in Excel workbooks, the differences between formal and informal training, and why both are critical.

We also walked down memory lane, discussing when we started using Excel and some of our favorite functions inside this powerful application.

Finally, we tip our cap to two very famous Excel MVPs and why we do so.

What would you be willing to do to feel alive in your work every day? Jack Craven asks executives from all walks of life this question.

Jack is the author of Aliveness Mindset: Lead and Live with More Passion, Purpose, and Joy. His book includes more than a dozen tools and frameworks for starting the journey of aliveness.

Some topics we hit in this conversation include where aliveness starts, David Robsen's expectation effect, the actual vs. the ideal self, anchoring mindsets, accelerance, and magic words.

I list the top business books I've read over the previous year each January. At the end of 2024, The Venture Mindset by Ilya Strebulaev and Alex Dang will easily be in my top three and possibly my overall favorite.

The Venture Mindset reads fast and reminds me a little of Kahneman, Munger, and books about Buffett.

Some of the big ideas we cover in this episode with both authors include roof shots vs. moonshots, betting on jockeys vs. the horses, winning at the piggy bank game, and what we can learn from student VC partnerships.

This book is not just for those in the VC community. There are many takeaways for those working in and running small businesses.

I had never heard of Edmond Safra until I read Daniel Gross's informative and inspiring biography, A Banker's Journey.

For those who knew him and did business with him, he was everyone's favorite banker. His banks never had to write off loans, and many of his early deals were on a handshake. He never needed a government bailout, nor did he ever head to DC complaining about regulations. 

While his professional and personal story is uplifting, the Shakespearian periods of his life include the American Express saga and how he died.

During this conversation, Dan Gross gives us a dozen compelling reasons to revisit this banker's remarkable life.

Our newest guest may not be a best-selling author on real estate yet, but we're already predicting this former World Cup soccer player will soon be a household name in Dave Ramsey's world in a few years.

Vaughn Bethell is the founder of REI Junkies based in South Carolina, and in this episode, we learn his unique process of providing real estate investors with a different way to reduce stress and frustration in their investments.

One of the best management books ever written is The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker, published in 1966. Managing For Results and The Practice of Management are other favorites of this show.

Randy Wooton joins us to discuss the big ideas in The Effective Executive. He's a three-time CEO and has held senior positions at Microsoft and Salesforce. He is also the host of The SaaS Expert Voices Podcast and serves as Maxio's chief executive.

In this conversation, we address why we study Drucker and his ideas on time management, effective decisions, knowledge workers, and setting priorities.

Consumers and anyone who studies business understand the subscription economy, but what about the usage economy? What is it? How does it differ from the subscription economy? Does it matter?

Adam Howatson is the CEO of LogiSense and the author of The Usage Economy. In this conversation, Adam will give examples of companies that got it right with their usage-based pricing models and those that made serious mistakes, such as Wink.

We'll also learn about telemetry, AI's fit, and the most important information metrics for transitioning into the usage economy.

Have you ever left a movie theater where a film left you speechless and made you feel like you needed to rewatch parts of it to figure out what you were missing?

Jeff Hooke's book, The Myth of Private Equity, left me feeling that way after finishing each chapter of his tell-all book about the exaggerations and overstatements of the private equity marketing machine.

During this conversation, we learned much about the myths of PE funds focused on leveraged buyouts. Some of the big ideas in this conversation include the enormous fees fund managers are collecting, the poor fund performance these funds generate, and the lack of transparency in their reporting to institutional investors.

We'll also learn about one of Warren Buffett's worst investment decisions and his advice on where retail and institutional investors should invest their money. 

My favorite go-to person on all matters, Tableau and Dataviz, is Andy Kriebel.

Andy was the first person to create a YouTube channel on Tableau. His subscriber base has surpassed 61,000, and his 750+ videos have 7.5 million views and counting.

Andy is the co-author with Eva Murray of the book #Makeover Monday, and you can also follow his informative and insightful helpful hints each day on LinkedIn.

In this conversation, we find out why Andy has been publishing online for more than ten years, why asking for a dashboard is rarely the right starting point for Dataviz, and why his five daily habits, which I found to be pure gold.

I have my theories on why W. Edwards Deming is not a household name in 'all' business circles. Many view him as the 'quality' guy who had an impact on Japanese manufacturing after the Second World War.

That view is limiting as Deming's management mindset was complete with four central tenets:

1. Pragmatism
2. The Law of Variation
3. Human psychology
4. Systems Thinking

I used to recommend Mary Walton's book to start learning about Deming. That book gave way to a new title by Edward Martin Baker. After meeting and interviewing Gene Kim a few months ago, I have a favorite book on Deming by John Willis. The title is Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge.

John was one of the earliest cloud evangelists and is considered one of the founders of the DevOps movement. John is the author of 7 IBM Redbooks. He is also the co-author of the “DevOps Handbook” and “Beyond the Phoenix Project,” along with author Gene Kim.

During this conversation, we discuss Deming's influences and how he became such a complete thinker about helping others improve.