How to Fix a Broken Spend Culture: The Future of AP Automation - Howard Katzenberg | EP.066
Mar 13, 2024
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Howard Katzenberg, Founder and CEO of Glean AI, shares insights on building financial visibility, empowering employees to make better spending decisions, and understanding unit economics. Topics include marketing to different buyer personas, negotiating with vendors, generative AI, automating accounts payable, benchmarking supplier pricing, onboarding customers, and leveraging AI technology for finance.
Understanding unit economics is crucial for CFOs to make informed decisions and drive business growth.
Improving spend culture involves empowering employees, setting clear expectations, and leveraging AI for cost-saving opportunities.
Deep dives
Understanding the Importance of Unit Economics and Sausage Making Analogy
CFO Howard Katzenberg reflects on his experiences, emphasizing the importance of having a solid understanding of unit economics to improve decision-making. He compares understanding unit economics to knowing how the sausage is made in a factory, stressing the need for CFOs to delve deeper into the operational details of their businesses. By encouraging CFOs to attend cross-functional sessions between product and engineering teams, Katzenberg highlights the value of empathy and gaining a comprehensive understanding of the business's inner workings to enhance decision-making.
Time Horizon Considerations in Project Management and Marketing
The podcast delves into the significance of accurately estimating time horizons for project development and marketing campaigns. Katzenberg emphasizes the common tendency to underestimate the time required for various tasks, such as launching new features or executing marketing initiatives. By extending CFOs' involvement in understanding product development processes and marketing strategies, he advocates for a deeper level of engagement to grasp project complexities, operational constraints, and effective decision-making.
Encouraging Better Spend Culture through Empowerment and Accountability
A key focus of the discussion revolves around enhancing spend culture within organizations by empowering spenders to drive informed decisions and fostering accountability. Katzenberg underscores the need to establish clear spend expectations and contract terms upfront to align spending with approved budgets. Through platforms like Glean AI, organizations can analyze spending patterns in real-time, compare expected versus actual costs, and promote ownership by providing detailed analytics and insights for better decision-making.
Addressing AP Automation Levels and AI Integration for Improved Operations
The episode explores the different levels of AP automation, from manual entry to sophisticated AI-driven analysis and insights. Katzenberg highlights the role of intelligent character recognition (ICR) in streamlining data extraction and analysis. By integrating AI capabilities, such as benchmarking and fraud detection, organizations can enhance vendor negotiations, cost-saving opportunities, and overall financial decision-making. The discussion emphasizes the seamless onboarding process for platforms like Glean AI, enabling swift integration and tangible operational benefits.
What does it mean to have a "good spend culture"? Howard Katzenberg, founder and CEO of Glean AI, breaks it down. We explore building financial visibility, tightening spend control, and empowering employees to make better spending decisions. Howard shares insights from his experience as both a CFO and entrepreneur on understanding unit economics, marketing to different buyer personas, and negotiating win-wins with vendors. He also advocates for finance leaders getting their hands dirty—attending planning meetings, analyzing conversion funnels, and understanding the drivers behind costs. We also explore generative AI, easy onboarding, and why you should see spend forensics as strategic rather than just tactical.
------SHOW NOTES-------
- Connect with Howard on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardkatzenberg/
- Check out Glean AI - https://www.glean.ai/
------CHAPTERS------
(00:00:00) - Introducing Howard from Glean AI
(00:03:37) - Advice to CFOs on understanding business operations
(00:07:00) - Analyzing marketing and sales funnel performance
(00:10:26) - Defining and improving company spend culture
(00:14:23) - Automating accounts payable for better visibility
(00:19:52) - Using AI to benchmark supplier pricing
(00:24:37) - Onboarding customers to Glean's platform
(00:27:48) - Integrating Glean with existing finance systems
(00:31:42) - Competing with Bill.com in AP automation
(00:35:44) - Leveraging AI technology at Glean
For more goodies, head over to www.techforfinance.com
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