The CFO's Influence in Financial Storytelling

Irrespective of the numbers, financial storytelling and strategic communication play a massive role in influencing market perceptions. Hamza Fodderwala, Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, joins CJ to discuss the critical role of CFOs in shaping and communicating a company's financial story. Hamza explains the role of storytelling in driving stocks, the significance of aligning company narratives with prevailing market themes, the metrics that software investor analysts do and don’t want to see, the delicate balance of transparency in financial disclosures, and the art and science of giving good guidance. Hear how to balance long-term thinking with short-term market pressures and whether you should focus on managing expectations or results.

If you're looking for an ERP, head to NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.

—

SPONSORS:

NetSuite provides financial software for all your business needs. More than 40,000 companies have already upgraded to NetSuite, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform, head to NetSuite https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.

Planful is a financial performance management platform designed to streamline financial tasks for businesses. It helps with budgeting, closing the books, and financial reporting, all on a cloud-based platform. By improving the efficiency and accuracy of these processes, Planful allows businesses to make better financial decisions. Find out more at www.planful.com/metrics.

Subscript is a modern billing and revenue recognition platform designed for SaaS finance teams that need flexibility and accuracy. From automated invoicing and dunning to compliant, transparent revenue recognition and real-time analytics, Subscript eliminates manual work, reduces errors, and gives you a single source of truth for all your financial data. Book a free demo at subscript.com.

Rippling Spend is a spend management solution that handles your entire company’s spending in one unified system. It enables you to bring your corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, and more into one place to achieve real-time visibility and uniquely granular control with automated policy controls across every type of spend. Get a demo to see how much time your org would save at rippling.com/metrics.

Vanta's trust management platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation. Over 9000 businesses use it to automate compliance needs across over 35 frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Centralize security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk. For a limited time, get $1,000 off Vanta at vanta.com/metrics.

Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.

—

LINKS:

Hamza Fodderwala on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamza-fodderwala-66997526/

Morgan Stanley:

https://www.morganstanley.com/

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

http://mostlymetrics.com

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:03) Sponsor – NetSuite | Planful | Subscript

(05:54) Sell-Side” Versus “Buy-Side”

(07:34) Some of the Companies Hamza Covers

(08:23) The Role of Storytelling in Driving Stocks

(12:29) How CrowdStrike Turned Its Investor Narrative Around

(16:09) Sponsor – Rippling Spend | Vanta | Tropic

(20:11) What Sets Good CFOs Apart When It Comes to Storytelling

(23:57) The Metrics That Software Investor Analysts Want To See

(25:10) Does a CFO Need To Understand the Underlying Technology

(26:14) How Often a Company Can or Should Shift Its Narrative

(28:14) How To Retire a Metric Gracefully

(33:29) The Art and Science Behind Giving Good Guidance

(37:29) Metrics That Can Be Retired

(39:25) Separating Business Fluctuations From the Broader Economy

(42:57) Long-Term Thinking Versus Market Pressures

(46:33) Managing Expectations Versus Managing Results

(47:52) An Example of Where the Market Misread a Company’s Results

(50:01) Hamza’s Most Memorable Earnings Call

(51:52) Investor Days: Net Positive or Neutral

(54:00) The Buzzword Hamza Would Ban From Earning Calls