FLP, the Finance Leadership Podcast

"Imagine being THAT type of accountant or bookkeeper. How often do you think they would be trying to replace you?...because the relationship is so solid!" GBD68. Director of the Financial Gym, author and speaker Georgette Rowland Osborne, is a former financial sector IT outsourcing contract-manager who specialised in working with leading UK financial institutions. Now author of the book “Firmer Figures, Fess Up or Mess Up”, she reveals how today's finance professionals can develop the skills of 'client-whispering' and digital 'bridge-building' to deepen their relationships with their clients. The result: they become irreplaceable even as everything around them is becoming just another commodity.   GIVE FEEDBACK. How did you discover our podcast, where do you listen, and what would you like to hear more of? Finance pro or not, we'd love to know what you think. Email us here.   TALKING POINTS. * You can't add value and become a better partner to your clients until you understand them and their REAL business situation. * What do you need to know when advising non-digital clients to leave pen and paper behind? (Do they even HAVE a scanner?). * What does this mean in practice? Where does the typical small business start on their journey to the cloud? * The importance and techniques of 'discovery' conversations.   OUR GUEST. Author, speaker and financial independence-advocate Georgette Rowland Osborne entered the cut-throat world of IT and Finance in London when it was not the easiest place for females, let alone one from an ethnic minority. She became manager of a bespoke IT outsourcing company in the City and specialised in dealing with banks. Her clients included the Bank of England, Merrill Lynch, NM Rothschild, NatWest Bank, Ministry of Defence and the Inland Revenue.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.   LINKS * Discover our 3-part "Human Intelligence" Learning Programme * See our CGMA Store for more on this topic. * Visit our guest's website at Financial Gym For Business   MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. The Voices. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News Share: Know someone who'd enjoy this topic? Click on these links to share this episode with colleagues and friends.  Let your network know on LinkedIn here. Send to Twitter here Auto-share on your Facebook page here. Let someone know via email here. ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved. 

"Too many accounting & financial firms think that their solution is what the customer wants. People don't buy what you do, they buy what you do does for THEM!" GBD67. Our guest's work on marketing and growth strategy has been widely published and acted upon by thousands of businesses and agencies, from BlackBerry to Barclays, from Nando's to AirBus. Robert Craven has presented to Google and several other leading global brands, and that's why we sat down with him to explore the "Value-Perception Gap", talk about why clients leave (and what to do about it), and answer the question: "The Reason We Love Our Accountant Is...?" His insights are invaluable to anyone running a service business which relies on close client relationships - and that means accounting and finance professionals.     GIVE FEEDBACK. How did you discover our podcast, where do you listen, and what would you like to hear more of? Finance pro or not, we'd love to know what you think. Email us here.   LINKS WE MENTION * Theodore Levitt's seminal 1961 Harvard Business Review article "Marketing Myopia" * "Grow Your Service Firm" – Robert Craven * "Customer is King" – Robert Craven * See https://robert-craven.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CIK-mini-version.pdf * PWC's Report on the Future of Client Experience   OUR GUEST Founder of the Grow Your Digital Agency initiative, Bath-based Robert Craven is a mentor and consultant who has helped more than 1,000 companies to revolutionise the way they work. Author of several books, including  “Growing Your Service Firm”,  Robert's work on marketing and growth strategy has been widely published and acted upon by thousands of businesses and agencies, from BlackBerry to Barclays, from Nando's to AirBus. Described as the UK's best-known and sought-after keynote speaker on growing digital agencies, Robert talks on customers: finding, delighting and keeping more and better customers and clients. He is not full of theoretical rhetoric; he offers practical solutions - tangible business growth results. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.    MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. The Voices. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.

"One of the things we do is teach people that they need to use what they have, and that is ENOUGH...before you get up to do give a speech or a talk, or deliver a message to someone."  GBD66: Human Intelligence. Jennifer Gardner talks to improv facilitator, speaker and founder of BraveSpace, Kristy West. 1 in 4 people are terrified of speaking in public, sometimes rating it their 2nd biggest fear (next to death). Recognising that improv is about more than just 'stand up' comedy, Kristy's focus is to take improv off the stage and into the corporate environment. They discuss bravery, active listening, going "off script", and the importance of accepting that what you have is enough. Kristy outlines how these skills can help to foster innovation, boost creativity, deepen collaboration, develop new mindsets and embed the critical communication skills needed in today’s always-changing, tech-driven, work climate.    GIVE FEEDBACK. How did you discover our podcast, where do you listen, and what would you like to hear more of? Finance pro or not, we'd love to know what you think. Email us here.   WE DISCUSS: * Glossophobia: what it is and why it matters to 1 in 4 professionals. * How using improv skills can help you get started in your career and get further once it's begun. * How to develop better collaborative and communicative skills through active listening. * How to 'unfreeze' by getting comfortable with the realisation that what one has (i.t.o resources and experience) is already enough.   OUR GUEST. Kristy West is a Speaker, and Founder of BraveSpace, based in Atlanta, USA. She's studied, performed and taught improv for almost two decades and also spent over 15 years in B2B Sales and Corporate Training. Kristy blends her unique experience in improvisational comedy and business to help teams and individuals practice the critical skills needed in today's business world. Connect with her on LinkedIn.   LINKS. * Discover more about Kristy's company BraveSpace. * See the Public Speaking self-study resources on the AICPA store * Get the video "An Actor's Guide to Public Speaking'' by Misty Megia on the CGMA store, also available as part of CGMA Essentials.   MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. The Voices. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.

"We use the podcast to help bring stories of technology to the profession, how people are using them...and what those opportunities look like." GBD65. This special 5-guest "Origins" episode marks our first anniversary as the latest AICPA & CIMA ENGAGE 2019 conference concludes in Las Vegas. Because our podcast launched at the last conference almost exactly a year ago, this is the perfect opportunity for a special episode to mark the first anniversary of our series. So we've done something extra special for the occasion, gathering the biggest number of guests we've ever had on a single show. Not only have they all been hosts in previous episodes, but all of them have also been pivotal in one way or another to the story of the Go Beyond project.   OUR GUESTS. All members of the AICPA & CIMA global team, they are Jennifer Gardner, Zinaida Mahmutefendic, Kyle Hannan, and Mballa Mendouga. Penelope Brown, the originator of the series, hosts the conversation about the story of our podcast.   WE DISCUSS * Where did the idea for the podcast come from? * How did it start? * What are our most popular topics? * Where do people listen from? * What the “Go Beyond Disruption” initiative actually is? * What are the areas we focus on? * What have we discovered about disruption over the last year? * What will we be focusing on in the year ahead and how we’re going to be reflecting it in our podcast? And our subject matter experts make it all possible. Because it's our guests that make our podcasts so useful to our listeners, we'll be including a selection of excerpts from their interviews on the topic of disruption in the profession.   MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.

"Things are being constantly created...so it's very exciting to be not only in the finance area but in the data area." GBD64. Rich Fox is Vice-President of Data Science and Analytics for Apex Parks Group, one of the USA's largest amusement park operators. Kyle Hannan (AICPA & CIMA, London, UK) talks to this 20-year analytics industry veteran and experienced thought leader, discussing how finance professionals can combine data, information, insights, action & results to improve businesses. Rich also shares some inside perspectives on how academia is working to train tomorrow's accountants in these new skills today.   WE DISCUSS:  * What is data analytics? * What does it mean to be “data-driven”?  * When did data analytics become a ‘thing’?  * Get started with the 5 step process: Data. Information. Insights. Action & Results.   * Does data-analysis offer an opportunity to EVERY business, or are there some that have more to gain than others?    * Where should a business begin? What are some practical steps a business-leader can take to turn new insights into effective action?   * How are academic institutions keeping pace with teaching these data-analytics skills to the CPAs and CMAs of tomorrow?   * Richard’s presentation at this August’s “Beta Alpha Sci” conference (the US educational accounting fraternity annual conference).    OUR GUEST   Richard Fox has held several leadership roles in analytics and finance including CFO and six years with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is a frequent speaker at Analytics conferences and Universities, and in 2018, built the Executive Track for the AICPA's new Data Driven Leader program focusing on how analytics is changing the Office of Finance.  He blends an analytical and data-driven strategy with a deep understanding of business and finance to drive business performance in a breadth of industries including e-commerce,  restaurants, hotels, retail, distribution, manufacturing and real estate. Rich also teaches Analytics in a Master’s program at San Diego State University and has a Graduate Certificate in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University. Connect with him on LinkedIn.   LINKS * AICPA & CIMA resources and certificate courses on Data Analytics * Ashok Noah is Vice President, Managing Director Learning, Education & Development, for the AICPA. See a preview list of his CFO -related presentations here.   MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.

"It's important to learn how to say 'no' if you want to thrive...You need to be able to focus on what's essential to YOU and block out all the noise". GBD63 In this Human Intelligence-focused episode, returning guest Regan Walsh shares more insights from her work as an executive and life coach. She talks to Jennifer Gardner (AICPA & CIMA, USA) about the professional benefits of one of the shortest words in the English language. Understanding and using 'no' can sound like putting yourself first but actually ends up helping you, your colleagues, your company and your career.   WE DISCUSS * Why it's so hard to say "no". * How saying "No" impacts one's career. * Communicating it without having to say it. * Different ways of saying it to your boss, your colleagues - and your clients. * Fighting the need to be a 'pleaser'.  * Saying "no" to the idea, not the person. * How to say "yes" to the right things.   OUR GUEST Executive and Life Coach Regan Walsh is a returning guest to this podcast series. Featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes and Fast Company, she helps clients shed the “shoulds” in their lives, eliminating the non-essential to free up time to thrive. Regan previously spent 15 years working in corporate, nonprofit, and creative agencies. Connect with her on LinkedIn here.   LINKS * The AICPA resource page on Work/Life Balance. * CIMA Master Course on Workload Management for Busy Finance Professionals (London, 2018 and 2019) * Read our review of "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" by Greg McKeown in 5 Books All Young CPAs Should Read. * The Life Wheel (as recommended by our guest) * Regan Walsh on Forbes.com and at www.reganwalsh.com     MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.

"First figure out the 'why', not from a organisational perspective but 'why' for a particular business process, and THEN figure out what technology - if any - will be needed to transform and automate that." GBD62.  Waqqas Mahmood leads Advanced Technology & Intelligent Automation at Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP. He tells Kyle Hannan (AICPA & CIMA, UK) about the basic jargon of RPA and AI, why you should understand the tech before you put it all together, and how to identify the goals of the digital transformation. He also outlines his "3 Fs" process for fighting the factors of failure.   TALKING POINTS: RPA and AI: the jargon, the risks and the ‘gotchas’. Don’t chase the bots (the tech). Understand it before you put it all together. From AI and RPA to IA ‘Intelligent Automation’. How does innovation rise above the red tape? How to innovate in a profession that’s often perceived as having a change-averse internal culture? What the jargon means, not just in the correct technical abbreviations but in the potential opportunities for a company. Why there are times you should NOT put the customer first (not when you’re testing). Start with the back-end and get that right before you roll it out to clients. Digital anxiety (personal and team’s) Identifying the goals of the digital transformation (think about the ‘Why? T” rather than just the IT! Understand the 3 Fs so that teams can Fight The “Factors of Failure”   OUR GUEST: Waqqas Mahmood is head of Advanced Technology & Intelligent Automation at Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP (Washington) and was previously their Director of Innovation. Prior to that, he was Manager, Advisory - Digital & Emerging Technologies for EY in New York, a co-founder and Board Member of Cambridge Global Advisory, and even worked as a Senior Manager for Research In Motion, makers of the corporate world's original favourite mobile device The Blackberry. A PEO-qualified Engineer, he has an MBA in General Management from Harvard University, where he was Vice-President of their E-Business Society. Connect with him on LinkedIn, or Twitter as @waqqas_mahmood.   LINKS: Waqqas mentioned BakerTilly's corporate 'Insights' page here. Read about navigating digital transformation on the AICPA blog page. Find out more about the CGMA's analysis of the digital skills gap facing today's finance professionals.    MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.

"It's about that human connection, and HOW they are offering their advice in a way that's relevant, topical and timely to their clients". GBD61. Peter Brill is MD of Netmentor (a content marketing consultancy based in Bristol. He’s also a former Director of NWN Blue Squared, specialist accountants to the music and creative industries. He talks to Kyle Hannan (AICPA & CIMA, London) about using context to power a business' social media content, outlining practical new ways that today’s professionals can raise their own profiles, promote their expertise in new ways, and help boost the visibility of the accounting profession in non-traditional niches. He shares several interesting examples of how accountants and finance professionals can adapt this to drive their own business forward. We also touch on the difficult question of WHO actually does the work (hint: you may not have to look far).   TALKING POINTS: How to attract attention to your accounting business using context as well as content. How to define the ‘story’ of your organisation. Knowing your clients better. When the press is full of bad headlines, how do you turn negatives into positives? Balancing humour and personality with professionalism.   OUR GUEST: Peter Brill is MD of Netmentor and a former non-executive Director of NWN Blue Squared, specialist accountants to the music and creative industries.  A trained journalist, he was a media conference team leader at the 2012 London Olympics, lectured in PR at Cambridge Marketing College, headed the PR teams for RAC Motoring Services , one of the UK’s leading motoring organisations, and was PR Manager for the motorsport division of Toyota here in the UK. He also works closely with several non-profits in the UK and beyond. Peter focuses on helping organisations find new ways to get noticed in a world of shorter attention spans but increasing amounts of digital content. Connect with him on LinkedIn and on Twitter as @Brill_Mentor   LINKS: Digital Mindset pack (free for members).  The power of No!  How to get rid of the good things in life to make room for the great.  The path to creating work-life harmony.  If you're an AICPA Store-user, search for Digital Mindset resources here. And that Rihanna video? Search for 'BBHMM' on your website of choice. Just be warned that the original version contains explicit lyrics though there are 'clean' edits out there too.    MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.

"People are going to look more to accountants from a SOFTWARE point of view, in how they communicate and in how their taxes are managed". GBD60. Kate Watson, CEO of CMLW Consulting, joins us from Northeastern England. She talks to Kymberley McAdam (AICPA & CIMA, London, UK) about tech perspectives on GDPR and wider data privacy, cloud accounting, and the importance of effective communication in an increasingly automated profession. She shares some useful and practical suggestions about how finance and accounting professionals can up-skill themselves as things change.   TALKING POINTS: * how asking questions and doing research helps deliver results for accounting professionals * GDPR and data privacy * cloud accounting * effective communication * technology adoption and strategies * information governance * Making tax digital   OUR GUEST: Kate Watson is CEO of CMLW Consulting, a technology broker and trainer who's been working with clients around the world, assisting them with technology and business for more than 30 years. She helps them make the most of the digital world through best use of technology. Connect with her on Linkedin here. She's also on Twitter using the hashtag #AskMrsWatson.   LINKS: * Using the CGMA Store? Search for these privacy-related learning materials and resources. * If you're an AICPA Store-user, search its list of technology and data privacy resources here.   MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.

"Data Science can help companies optimise how they're carrying out their business... to give the company a much clearer picture of what's valuable and what's problematic". GBD59. Elaine McVey directs the decision science function at TransLoc, a rapidly growing mobility technology company based in the Eastern USA. She tells Jennifer Gardner (AICPA & CIMA, Durham, USA) how business and finance leaders can collaborate with data scientists to tackle real-world business issues. They explore some best practices any large business can adopt when using data science to reveal actionable insights that transform their decision-making.   TALKING POINTS: *  how finance and business leaders can transform their operations by making data and analytics readily available, * the differences - and overlaps - between data science and decision science (human behaviour), * how Elaine's management experience makes her such a powerful advocate for the application of Agile principles to data science work, * about the best practices any large business can adopt when using data science to reveal actionable insights that transform their decision-making, * just what IS Data Science? * as a business leader, do you NEED to understand it before your business can benefit from it? * ways that business and finance leaders can partner with data scientists, * the differences between 'data science' and 'decision science', * what's holding companies back from making full use of their data? * and, how to make effective use of the data resources a business already has.   OUR GUEST: Elaine McVey is Director of Data Science at TransLoc, a fast-growing mobility technology company based in Chapel Hill, USA. She leads the team that creates quantitative tools for mobility decision making. A recurring theme throughout Elaine’s career has been improving the processes by which statistics and data science work is done.  A data scientist and author of several patents, Elaine has improved the lives of thousands by helping create an innovative type of transportation technology that gives citizens more accessibility to public transport. In early 2019 she was selected for a “Women in Business Award” from the Triangle Business Journal, a leading provider of business news for Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Elaine received the “Leader in STEM Award”, honouring women who have improved the lives of others by helping start a business, product or service in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Connect with her at www.linkedin.com/in/eamcvey and on Twitter at @eamcvey   LINKS: * Using the CGMA Store? Explore these data-related learning materials and resources. * If you're an AICPA Store-user, see its list of Data Analytics courses here.   MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST. These conversations with expert guests are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. Hear more. Get our shows every week automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  Skill Up. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. Connect. #GoBeyondDisruption  @AICPANews @CIMA_News ©2019 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserved.