CFO Bookshelf

One book critic has asked readers of The Money Trap to imagine Michael Lewis as the President of a multinational investment holding company. Instead, Alok Sama is that person after working for Morgan Stanley for sixteen years.In this sometimes lighthearted but philosophical tome, occasionally sprinkled with dark humor and cleverness, Alok shares his most interesting stories while working next to one of the wealthiest men in the world. It's a story that includes investing insights, a smear campaign, and parent heartbreak.Learn fascinating insights from an investment banker with a strong mathematical and analytical mind who loves writing and reading great literature. This may be the only time you hear Mark Zuckerberg, John Nash, and Julius Ceasar mentioned in the same conversation.

David is a dermatologist whose practice can't seemingly make the money it should be.David meets a great accountant named Graham. Graham is a TOC bottleneck specialist for all types of businesses, not just manufacturing. He speaks and teaches his clients in a way that is easy to understand and can quickly implement the ideas.That's the storyline of Practice Makes Profit by Graham Scott. This book answers four questions: 1) why the money we spend on improvements rarely improves operating cash flow, 2) why business owners get stuck in a holding pattern, 3) how TOC can be used to solve simple problems, and 4) how to apply TOC outside of manufacturing.In this conversation, we address why bottleneck thinking applies to all types of businesses, why budgeting is not a solution for pairing costs, and how to offload work to non-bottlenecks.

When I think of Dave Ramsey, the elimination of debt and whole life insurance policies quickly spring to mind. In addition to his demonization of universal policies, were you aware of his 8-12 rule for retirement?David McKnight joins the show to discuss the 4 percent rule for retirement, annuities, and cash-basis insurance plans based on math, pragmatism, and wisdom.These topics are key themes in David's newest book, The Guru Gap. He has also written other best-selling books, including The Power of Zero, which has sold over 400,000 copies.

What would happen if a business-minded Encylopedia Brown entered the busy line of movie patrons waiting impatiently for soda and popcorn?This perspective guided Clarke Ching in writing his latest book, The Bottleneck Detective. It offers a straightforward and enjoyable reading experience, focusing on identifying bottlenecks and understanding their subsequent effects on bottleneck detection.Mark explores Clarke's FoCCCus framework and whether bottleneck detection is a learned skill or an innate talent.

Are you fan of Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, or Richard Thaler? Have you enjoyed books like Fooled by Randomness, Factfulness, or Thinking in Bets? If so, you may want to read Jaime Lester's new book, Pause to Think, about cognitive biases.Jaime's concise book is engaging, memorable, and accessible. It features over thirty mental and conceptual models. This discussion explores some of these concepts, including fast and slow thinking, sunk costs, satisfaction, and randomness.

Glenn Hopper's newest book is AI Mastery for Finance Professionals, but the content is also for CEOs, board members, and all other organizational leaders. We keep the topics pragmatic, applicable, and example-centric in this conversation. We'll also discover what Glenn means by saying, "AI will not replace people. People who use AI will replace those who don't use AI."

One of the best books I've read on leadership in several years is by a former big-company CEO who is now a professor. Willie Pietersen's third book is Leadership - The Inside Story.In this fast-moving conversation, we hear about how Nelson Mandela learned, unlearned, and relearned the central tenets of philosophy and leadership well before his vision of a unified country could become a reality.We also learn how a diamond is formed and how those three forces apply to leadership. The question that won a war is profound, as is finding out what happens when an elder dies.

When I think of HP, three things quickly emerge in my mind: Deskjet and laser printers, the 12C calculator, and David Packard's The HP Way.The HP Way is one of my top 25 books written by CEOs. In this conversation, we're rolling with a book club format with a special guest who writes book summaries on his blog. Dan Lebrero is a software engineer based in Spain, and he'll help us unpack concepts such as MBO, management by walking around, profit-sharing plans, corporate offsites, growth frameworks, and philosophies on debt management. 

Cat Mulvihill is becoming a rising YouTube star with her video content focused on communication and presentation skills, including technology, Zoom, and personal knowledge management systems.This conversation teaches us what sets the best professionals apart from the rest on their Zoom calls. We gain insights on the best mics, videocams, and other technologies to use. We also wrap up the visit with simple ways to kill our filler words.

If you work for yourself or would like to, have you ever thought about whose shoulders you are standing on, especially if you decide to have no employees?Ben Waterhouse is a professor and faculty director at the University of North Carolina. His research interests include deciphering how self-employment became a key to personal fulfillment, a central topic in his newest book, One Day I'll Work for Myself.In this conversation, we explore some of history's most pivotal stories that led to the plateau of big business starting in the late 1800s and reaching its peak in the 1970s. We learn why the move to self-employment became a potential remedy to professional and personal relevance in Ben's engaging style.