The CFO Corner – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Adeel Mushtaq is a dynamic professional specializing in investment management and treasury, boasting extensive experience in finance, operations, and business transformation.

GUEST BIO
Ryan Belcher is the Founder and CEO of Spendwise, a business spend management software company with over 500 customers managing billions of dollars in spending through its system. He has a consulting practice that specializes in providing executive financial services to businesses. Previously, Ryan was the Corporate Controller at FoxHollow Technologies Inc, a publicly traded medical device company, and worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an accounting and management consulting firm, in the assurance and business advisory practice.

EPISODE SUMMARY
Ryan Belcher, the CEO of Spendwise, highlights the importance of embracing change and technological advancements in the field of corporate finance. He emphasizes how technology has transformed the CFO's role in recent years, with a focus on understanding and implementing technological solutions to drive growth. 

Ryan notes that cloud-based solutions have leveled the playing field for small and medium-sized businesses, allowing them to compete more effectively with larger organizations. 

He believes that while AI and automation may take away some accounting jobs, the strategic and judgment aspects of the finance and accounting roles will still require human input. 

Kenny Jen is a member of Pilot's CFO Services, where he advises startups at various stages on finance, fundraising, and strategy. 

Before joining Pilot, Kenny managed product development, supply chain, and strategic finance for a consumer goods startup in Los Angeles. Before that, he was an investment associate at a venture capital fund. 

Kenny has consulted companies in a wide range of industries, including health and wellness, SaaS, CPG, marketplaces, and retail.

In this episode, Kenny speaks about the role of finance and the CFO. He believes the role has changed over the last 5 to 10 years from data collection and accuracy to systems building and interpretation of that data. 

He sees the role of finance and operations coming together, with CFOs and finance teams becoming a part of the strategic element and working closely with operations. Kenny mentions that the most exciting innovation in accounting and finance is around automation and streamlining manual processes. He highlights the challenge of balancing execution and data collection with the processing time and brain power to interpret that information. 

You can learn a lot from someone who spends a good deal of time with CFOs and Controllers.

Lindy Antonelli, Partner, Armanino LLP, highlights the rise of the Controller as one of the key trends of the last few years.

Lindy gives her perspective on how technology can improve finance and accounting at all companies, not just the largest firms.

She also provides perspective on how COVID-19 has altered the landscape of corporate finance forever.

In 2002, the Sarbanes–Oxley Act dramatically reshaped the accounting landscape forever. What happened in the last two decades to continue that evolution?

Robert Goldenberg, CFO of 6sense, helps make sense of today’s modern finance and accounting departments’ critical trends.

Rob enlightens us about the challenges—and the opportunities—of running a distributed F&A function during a pandemic.

He also gives some great advice about corporate finance’s exciting new phase of innovation and how it benefits accounting people just starting their careers.

According to Ray Langhaim, CFO of NICE inContact:

Ray has some sage advice for up-and-coming Finance professionals as well. Learn to use data to tell a better story. Embrace tools like AI and machine learning to gain a competitive advantage. Help the leadership team understand and move the levers of growth.

(He also makes an on-point pop culture reference to actor/rapper/film producer Will Smith.)

Janelle helps us understand technology's role in the lives of finance and accounting teams. She also describes what the CEO and board expect from the CFO and how data and insights make the finance team an integral part of a company’s growth.

As part of the new generation of finance leaders, Janelle Gorman is responsible for financial reporting and analysis, compliance, and financial operations to support and drive York IE and their portfolio companies’ growth.

Welcome to the very first episode of the CFO Corner.

The podcast is hosted by Nick Ezzo, the VP of Marketing at Auditoria.ai. 

So what can you expect to hear when you listen to each episode?

For our first season we’ll be releasing some classic episodes from our CFO Corner show. You’ll hear from CFOs primarily about finance automation and AI. This season will be released for 16 episodes.

In our second season, we’ll be switching up our style to a primarily conversation-based podcast.

We’ll bring on CFOs and corporate finance professionals to hear about the innovative approaches and technology they have used to scale and grow their organizations. Episodes will typically be around 10-15 minutes. We’ll cover topics such as automation, new technology and disruptive trends in finance, how to reduce errors in data, how to improve forecasting, and more. 

CFOs and corporate finance executives will share the challenges they’re facing with mundane repetitive tasks and give their takes on what they’d like to see in the corporate finance function that can help achieve a stress-free working life. 

This is the podcast for you if you’re ready to learn about the innovative approaches that are out there to quit copy-pasting PDFs and finally free yourself to analyze data and guide the business.

If you have any ideas for possible episode topics that we should cover on the show, or you know someone that would be a perfect guest, make sure to connect with us via email at cfocorner@auditoria.ai. The more input we get from listeners, the better this podcast is going to be.

Thank you so much for listening to the CFO Corner. Make sure to subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. Until next time!

GUEST BIO
Jeremy Foster is Chief Financial Officer at Austin-based Talroo.com, the data-driven job and hiring event advertising platform that helps businesses reach the candidates they need to build their essential workforce. He has more than 15 years of experience as a senior executive, primarily in the technology and banking arenas. He’s been CFO or COO for 3 Inc. 5000 companies, two of which have made the Inc. 500, and all three have been recognized by the Austin Business Journal as among “Austin’s Best Places to Work.” At Kasasa, he guided strategy for a $25B bank product portfolio, managed an analytics team responsible for product performance and financial reporting for 800 banks and credit unions, and led the development of an enterprise-grade business intelligence platform. Jeremy holds an MA in Communication and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, where he was an inaugural Meyer Fellow.

EPISODE SUMMARY
 In this episode, Talroo CFO Jeremy Foster discusses the evolving role of CFOs and their focus on identifying and resolving bottlenecks to enable business growth. He explores the impact of technology on finance and accounting, as well as the significance of empathy in certain job roles that AI may not replicate. 

He also addresses the U.S. capital market situation, its effect on fundraising, and strategies for businesses to choose safer banks. 

Jeremy highlights the benefits of moving to a cloud-based system and the impact of AI and automation on certain job roles. Finally, he mentions the importance of empathy in certain jobs, which AI may not be able to replicate. 

GUEST BIO
Sam Gupta is a leading ERP thought leader with almost 20 years of experience in digital transformation, focusing on financial systems and ERP. As the #1 thought leader in the ERP category on Thinkers 360, Sam has contributed to large transformation projects for Fortune 500 companies and now works with SMEs as a Principal Consultant at ElevatIQ. He regularly shares his insights at industry events, blogs, publications, and hosts the WBSRocks podcast, where he chats with top influencers and executives about digital transformation and business growth.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Sam points out that the biggest obstacle to adopting new technology is often resistance to change and a lack of understanding of what it takes for successful implementation. He stresses the importance of investing in groundwork like data modeling and process improvement to truly leverage technologies like AI. If the foundation is strong, technology can work wonders for a company.

He also notes that people sometimes hold on to information as a form of job security. While technology might automate some accounting tasks, the role of accountants will shift towards more troubleshooting skills. Sam believes humans won't be entirely replaced by machines, and advises companies to focus on the prep work needed for technology adoption, including training, implementation, and change management, in order to see real business results.