CFO Bookshelf

While this is CFO Bookshelf where we generally interview book authors, there's no way I want to read a book on ERP planning and implementations.I believe this is a better topic addresses through doing and listening to the sage advice of others. One such person is Ed Kless who is an expert in software implementations. He's also the co-host of my favorite podcast, The Soul of Enterprise. You can also hear him several times a week hosting the Sage Thought Leader Podcast.In this show, we'll hear Ed talk about what happens before, during, and after ERP implementations.

As a financial leader, I enjoy any conversation with a CEO, especially one that's co-founded a business generating more than $100 million annually.Jeff Morrill is the co-founder with his brother of Planet Subaru based in Boston. His new book is Profit Wise, and we hit on many of the big ideas in that insightul read.

Some of my favorite words in the CFO lexicon are momentum, acceleration, velocity, drive, and even thrust.Coincidentally, Mike Berland is the author of Maximum Momentum - How to Get It, How to Keep It. And it's those very words we focused on during our conversation.Mike is the founder of Decode_M, a research and analytics firm that decodes data into momentum for clients.In this episode, we talked about how businesses gain momentum, and how it can jumpstart our strategic initiatives.

If you liked The Big Short by Michael Lewis where we learn about the financial meltdown of 2007-08, then you will probably like the stories behind the financial revolution that took place during the 10 years that followed. | Daniel Simon has weaved more than 150 interviews with technologists that he calls misfits  | or financial hackers - the men and women who shaped Fintech after the global financial crisis.Daniel's book is entitled The Money Hackers. He writes about the personal stories behind electronic payments, debit cards, peer-to-peer lending cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and much more. 

The legendary CEO, Hunter Harrison, was making an impact with his tools and philosophies while turning around Canadian National Railway. But he still needed help with a serious problem. The organization's culture was still a problem.Judy Johnson was part of the consulting team who helped with CN's cultural turnaround. She and her co-authors of SwitchPoints talked about their journey and the tools and frameworks they applied during that project.SwitchPoints is by far the best book I've ever read on reviving the culture in any organization. The tools described in the book are practical and impactful.In this interview, Judy will talk about DCOM, the ABC framework on behaviors and consequences, 15 percenters, and much more.

Adam Mead's new book, The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway was 5 years in the making and started out as a 5,000-page manuscript that was finally shaved to just under a thousand pages.Instead of this being a book about Warren Buffett, it's a complete history of every purchase made by Berkshire Hathaway since the beginning.

One of the best accounting books I've ever read about Lean from a CFO's perspective is Real Numbers by Jean Cunningham, one of the authors of that book.But the audience for that book is CEOs, operating managers, and anyone working on the plant floor. The book is also relevant for health care and other service industry professionals.Real Numbers was written a decade ago, but listening to Jean who is so kind and generous reminds us that the lean message is still relevant, impactful, and real.

Stacey Barr is the author of Practical Performance Measurement and Prove It!She is also the creator of the best performance measurement framework I've ever reviewed, and it's applicable to businesses and non-profits of all sizes. The thinking person's framework is called PuMP(R).In our interview with Stacey, we address why so many organizations fail at implementing performance measurements bringing sustainable change and improvement to the organization. We talk about tools, methodology, and the social side of measurement. 

Daniele Martins is the Head of Global FP&A at ThoughtWorks in Brazil.In this show, we talked about technology, processes, and people. We drilled into spreadsheets, budgeting, forecasting, and the 65% which makes for a great FP&A ideal team player.

Did you realize the first book written on OKRs was Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke? She's our guest along with Ben Lamorte who joins us for his second appearance on the show. We talk about when and when to never use OKRs.