CFO Bookshelf

When I began studying the root causes of business failure early in my career, I believed that faulty cognitive limitations and weaknesses were the primary drivers of poor decisions, ultimately leading to business failure. Taras Wayner is the producer and host of a new podcast called A Case Study in Corporate Fear, where he addresses one of the central emotions in the affective mindset: fear.During this conversation, we learned how fear impacted the decision makers at Yahoo!, Atari, and Jaguar. We also address the areas of red teaming, resulting, and other biases that contribute to the fear-based mindset.

I'm calling Ken Iverson the Alan Mulally of CEOs in the 1980s and 1990s. "Plain Talk" by Ken Iverson is one of my favorite business books, despite its lack of self-congratulation and the absence of so-called transformational management concepts.Instead, this is a book about how people were treated, the concept of decentralization, bonus structures, and using instincts to make business decisions.Plain Talk will also undergo a revival period, as the Audible version was released this month. In this conversation, you'll find out why Mark and Bruce rate this a five-star book.

Can you name a work of fiction that centered around a stock picker? Alternatively, can you provide three fictional titles related to personal finance?If both answers are no, this episode provides a brief synopsis of four works of fiction revolving around personal finance and investing.One of the titles is new. Three have been written in the past twenty years, and one is a classic you might want on your bookshelf (the numbers do not add up because we've added a bonus title at the end).

Many in the magazine industry will tell you on the mountaintops that print is not dead. Try telling that to the writers who used to produce those beautiful glossy annual reports that are now published in the form of PDF documents.Robert Roth is making his first-ever appearance on a podcast to discuss how an annual report writer secures gigs, the time commitment required, and other fascinating insights into the behind-the-scenes process of conceptualizing and creating annual reports.Robert is also the author of The Writer’s Guide to Annual Reports,published in 2009.

Every financial executive should either have the book Valuation or have it on their physical or digital bookshelf in their antilibrary.CFO Bookshelf is thrilled and honored to have the lead author of all eight editions of this foundational book on valuation, which is used in many financial curricula around the nation on college campuses.In this conversation, we hit on ROIC, growth, economic profit, long-term thinking, and the best way to read this book.

In CFO Bookshelf's 250th episode, we feature a book that embodies the heart and soul of what this show stands for. The book is Lead by Greatness by our guest, David Lapin.During this conversation, David addresses eight vital leadership traits, defining a spiritual fingerprint and why it matters, the reason the Siberian prisoner perished and what it means for both leaders and staff, and the reason behind burnout and fatigue.David also recommends that we read more fiction and novels, sharing some of his favorite authors and titles.

Kary Oberbrunner, an entrepreneur, CEO, public speaker, and author of 'You Are an IP Company', discusses the importance of intellectual property in today's world. He draws parallels between individuals and Taylor Swift's trademark strategies. The conversation dives into innovative IP solutions like blockchain and the emotional toll of protecting creative ideas. Kary emphasizes the necessity of education in IP, the value of being first in the marketplace, and how businesses can evolve as essential IP companies in the digital age.

We have read many stories about the magical growth of Starbucks. However, did you know that one of its first presidents had a background in furniture sales and did not hold a college degree?Our guest is the author of It's Not About the Coffee, and Howard Behar saw store units grow from a small handful to more than 15,000 during his two stints as one of its presidents.In this conversation, we'll learn why Mark's favorite line is, "If you grow people, the people grow the business. That’s it. That’s the number-one priority." Howard discusses the Monday night meetings, dealing with crises, and why he had to stop wearing his feelings on his sleeve.

As my consulting practice started taking off about twenty years ago, I started reading everything I could by Fred Nickols, who blogged regularly for the software vendor, SmartDraw.Fred's articles were short, to the point, and always included a simple visual framework that was easy to comprehend. I ultimately read every post on that blog.Fred is a long-time consultant who calls himself a solutions engineer. In this conversation, we talk about his favorite frameworks and the origins of those mental models.

We live in a small business world where the Chief Fractional Officer is becoming indispensable.Before even considering hiring the Fractional Sales Manager, the Fractional Marketing Officer, or even the Fractional CFO, I'd start one hundred percent of the time with the Fractional Chief People Officer.Susannah Robinson has worked in big-company HR for more than twenty years. Now, as the head of a fractional people agency called Partnership for Talent, she has written a simple and pragmatic guide on organizational design for small businesses. In this conversation, we discuss her new book, Beyond the Boxes and Lines.