Getting FP&A teams to harness their data to reach their goals is the holy grail. Nathan Bell, Managing Partner, VAi Consulting, is among the most in-demand experts. Bell has unique experience– having started in computer science, before leading finance teams at Native American Bank, Digital Media Trends and Gartner– where he advised hundreds of FP&A teams facing chaotic data situations). In this masterclass, he shares a practical framework looking at the expectations, fear and hype surrounding data, analytics and AI for FP&A teams.
In this episode:
- From a computer degree to leading finance teams
- How Nathan discovered the power of telling stories as Chief Credit Officer at Native American Bank
- Overcoming the challenge of presenting to non- financially literate CEOs
- The challenge when finance is “last in line”
- When companies don’t have good data and what FP&A teams can do
- “Federated data governance” and avoiding turf battles
- why setting up self-service data as CFO came back to bite me
- Using a “metrics cascade” clarifying data and metrics
- Critical thinking as the new superpower for finance teams in the AI age
- Key to setting up pilot AI programs
- Dinner time when your wife is also a CFO
Key quotes: Remember PPDAC. Problem Plan, Data, Conclusion.
Your Plan, what Data you need to capture against that plan, analysis, and Conclusion.
“If you can master that in that order, I think from a skillset, you’re, you’re ready” – Nathan Bell.
Critical Thinking as the new Superpower for FP&A
“Critical thinking is gonna be more powerful than ever. I don’t think there’ll ever be a situation where we’re going to let AI make the decision without going through a human to look at the data. We need to ask what do we do? What’s the action? What’s the decision?”
Connect with Nathan Bell on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-bell-1038662/
https://vai-consulting.com/
