Planning Aces – Details, episodes & analysis

In the latest Planning Aces episode, hosts Jack Sweeney and Brett Knowles discuss how finance leaders are elevating FP&A as strategic partners within organizations. Featuring insights from CFOs Regi Vengalil, Matt Steinfort, and Isabelle Winkles, the episode highlights themes like the importance of reliable data, setting constraints to enhance strategic planning, leveraging AI in finance, real-time collaboration, and educating business units. The CFOs emphasize Finance's role in guiding better decision-making and aligning organizational goals.

In this episode of Planning Episodes hosted by Jack Sweeney and Brett Knowles, three CFOs—Don McGuire of ADP, Scott Blackley of Oscar Health, and Patrick Fleury of TeraWulf—share their insights on financial planning and analysis (FP&A), with a focus on navigating complex business environments. Through their stories, listeners will gain a deeper understanding of how these finance leaders simplify intricate financial models, communicate effectively with stakeholders, and align strategic decisions with business growth. The episode explores how each CFO approaches financial clarity amidst volatility, balancing short-term challenges and long-term opportunities, offering actionable insights for managing complexity in today’s fast-evolving markets.

Planning Aces Hosts Brett Knowles and Jack Sweeney discuss how AI's integration into FP&A is still in early stages, with many teams 'dabbling' in AI rather than regularly employing it. However, its use has been significant, inspiring creativity and improving team performance.

This episode's conversation emphasizes how FP&A is not just about financial numbers but involves drawing in non-FP&A players into the process. This approach fosters a more comprehensive and collaborative financial planning culture within organizations. They underscored that every member of an organization should consider themselves a 'capital allocator', responsible for contributing to the company's financial health.

This episode of Planning Aces Brett and Jack discuss FP&A’s role when it comes to breaking down silos within departments, and how A.I. is quickly emerging as FP&A’s ultimate silo busting partner. Their discussion highlights the importance of connecting business performance metrics with financial outcomes and the role of AI will play in complex analysis.

• • CFO Lauren StClair talks about leveraging AI for faster analysis, transparency in reporting, and the challenge of maintaining clean, adaptable data.
  • CFO Doug Lindroth emphasizes the shift from closed data structures to open-book management, enabling deeper discussions on profitability and investments.
  • CFO Charly Kevers underscores AI's impact on manual tasks, reshaping organizational charts to prioritize higher-level thinking.

• AI's Role in FP&A and Security Concerns:

  • Discussion on AI's learning mechanisms, potential security risks, and the importance of Microsoft's approach with co-pilot in maintaining security.
  • Insights on how AI-driven tools adapt and evolve based on user interactions, driving advancements in decision-making processes.

This episode features insights and commentary from three finance leaders: CFO Michael Linford of Affirm, CFO Ana Chadwick of Pitney Bowse, and CFO Jason Leet of Zylo.

Imagine if these three finance leaders were to meet and have a discussion about their past roles. Each of them has a unique story to tell. Michael Linford, for example, was previously part of HP's M&A integration group and later became the first CFO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise after the split-off. Anna Chadwick played a key role in GE Capital's divestiture chapter, overseeing more than 50 divestitures globally. Jason Leet, on the other hand, has extensive experience in M&A, having been involved in over 40 different acquisitions during his time at Salesforce and Exact Target.

Brett and Jack draw parallels between the challenges faced by our three featured Planning Aces as they seek to optimize the talent resources and processes in their different organizations.

The pressure to align strategy and execution is increasing, and all three CFOs share their responses to these external pressures. Brett also touches on the adoption of AI in finance. With AI, the depth of analysis and speed of feedback are significantly enhanced, leading to faster decision-making and more innovative ideas as revealed by CFO Steven Cirulis of Potbelly

The episode features planning insights and commentary from Tony Boor, CFO of Blackbaud, Michelle, Hook, CFO, Portillo’s and Steven Cirulis, CFO Potbelly.

OUR COHO

This episode our cohost Brett Knowles suggests that every professional within an organization should have their own “golden KR” or key result that they are held accountable for. As he explains, this would create alignment and clarity throughout the organization.

The Rule of 40 and Gross Margin: TreviPay CFO Joel Campbell discusses two intriguing metrics – the rule of 40 and gross margin. The rule of 40, a blend of top-line revenue growth and EBITDA margin, is a key indicator of a company’s balance between growth and profitability. Gross margin, on the other hand, measures the efficiency and productivity of a business. Joel’s insights into these metrics and their importance in tracking business performance alone make the episode worthy listening for FP&A pros.

In addition the episode features planning insights and commentary from Matt Gustke, CFO of WooCommerce and Rob Goldenberg, CFO of 6sense (see below).

This episode of Planning Aces features the FP&A insights and commentary of  CFO Dev Ahuja of Novelis, CFO Alex Triplett of Appfire and CFO Rick Rosenthal of Clara Analytics.

One of the key topics co host Brett Knowles drills down on is the difference between complicated and complex problems. Brett uses the examples of manufacturing a car, which is complicated, and raising a child, which is complex. The distinction is crucial in understanding how to approach problem-solving in an organization.

While complicated problems can be solved with the right formulas or spreadsheets, complex problems require more. They demand strong interpersonal relationships and effective communication. It’s not just about having the right tools or processes, but also about having the right people who can use these tools effectively.

Planging Ace CFO Dev Ahuja brings some perspective on the role of people in finance transformation. CFO Ahuja shared insights into the structure of his finance organization at Novelis. Despite being well-established, the organization needed a renewed focus on the role of finance in driving decisions and adding value.

Dev emphasized the importance of finance being a thought partner and actively shaping strategy. He also highlighted the need for a strong talent pipeline and succession planning. This ensures the organization has the necessary depth of talent to drive its vision forward.

This episode our cohosts Brett Knowles and Jack Sweeney explore the insights and commentary from three finance leaders: CFO Michael Bannon of Typeform, CFO Chuck Fisher of Turo, and CFO Jeff Noto of Zayo. The episode discusses the importance of identifying unique and key metrics for businesses, moving beyond common knowledge. Meanwhile, the cohosts discuss some of the fast moving developments when it comes A.I technologies and the planning process.

• Planning Ace Michael Bannon emphasized the need for sharing information across the organization, ensuring alignment and effective decision-making.
• Planning Ace Chuck Fisher highlighted the metrics related to profitability, cohort performance, and customer retention in the peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace, Turo.
• Planning Ace Jeff Noto details his focus on finding actionable metrics that drive efficiency and better decision-making, as well as prioritizing profitable growth and identifying valuable data for operational improvement.

Are you tired of sitting through unproductive monthly meetings that turn into show-and-tell sessions? Do you want to shift your focus to key metrics that matter and move away from storytelling to a more data-driven approach?

In this episode of the Planning Aces podcast, Cohosts Jack Sweeney and Brett Knowles feature the commentary and insights of three finance leaders who don’t mind displacing the status quo as they seek to optimize their business metrics and drive performance.

Episode #23 kicks off with the hosts featuring recent commentary from Dayton Kellenberger, CFO of Vendavo, who shares his experience with implementing a metrics-based approach to monthly business unit reviews. He explains that they shifted their focus to key metrics that matter and moved away from storytelling to a more data-driven approach. Dayton also discusses the importance of optimizing SAS gross margins, which is a cross-functional effort that involves finance, sales, cloud ops teams, and customer success teams.

Later in the episode, Celeste Ackert and Jason Quinn share their insights on creating cross-functional dashboards and raising the profile of metrics within an organization. Brett emphasizes the importance of using planning tools to build cross-functional dashboards, as it allows for better integration between the planning and operational cycles. He also highlights the significance of customer contribution analysis in optimizing resources and identifying areas of sub-optimization.

Jason Quinn also discusses the importance of cultural norms in achieving desired outcomes. He emphasizes the need for fairness, transparency, kindness as a service, pursuit of truth, and trust through transparency. Brett summarizes Quinn’s points into three categories of measures for FP&A professionals: the overall scoreboard, success potential (leading indicators), and experiences.

Overall, the episode aims to highlight the takeaways and provoke listeners to think about other ways of monitoring how their businesses are performing.

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