GrowCFO Show

Chris Fry has the best CFO job in the world. He's group CFO at SISTER. SISTER is the organisation behind recent TV blockbusters "The Split"; "This Is Going To Hurt"; and "Chernobyl". So why is the CFO of a TV production company the best job in the world? First of all, it's a very demanding position that comes with a lot of responsibility. But if you're up for the challenge, it can be extremely rewarding. You'll have a hand in the creative process and you'll be able to help shape the future of the company. Chris has certainly been up for that challenge. He's an accomplished CFO but he also recognises that there's always something new to learn. Chris was one of the founder members of the CFO Programme within GrowCFO, having previously been involved in something similar during his time working in Australia. He talks about the programme in the podcast and why it has been so useful for him. He tells us why he has found the support from Catherine Clark, the programme leader, and from his fellow CFO participants, invaluable.  Links Find out more about SISTERThe CFO Programme at GrowCFOCFO MentoringChris Fry on LinkedinKevin Appleby on Linkedin Timestamps 00:42 Who is SISTER? 02:18 What exactly is your role as Group CFO of SISTER? 03:22 What are your biggest challenges? 05:50 What was your career path before SISTER? 08:50 How did you get the experience to break through to the CFO level? 10:10 Using your influence 11:12 Why did you join the CFO programme at GrowCFO? 13:39 The role of mentors in the CFO programme 15:22 Why do you want to extend the CFO programme beyond the initial 6 months? 16:41 Where does Chris Fry aspire to be in 10 years' time? 19:07 The importance of enjoying what you do 20:16 Advice to a new CFO coming to grips with the first CFO role 21:34 Would you advise a CFO to have a mentor?

Who is your boss? Do you have more than one boss? Perhaps you are number 2 to the CFO and you report indirectly to other people too. Maybe you are the CFO and you need to be mindful of the needs of both CEO and investors in the business. Getting the relationship right with all those people is important. Finding the right balance between your needs from the relationship and their needs is key. It's no secret that the relationship between you and your bosses, whoever they might be, can be a tricky one. It's often difficult to find the right balance between being respectful and assertive, humble and ambitious, compliant and determined. When you report to more than one person you get the added complication of competing needs and being pulled in several different directions at the same time. In this podcast, Susana Serrano-Davey and Kevin Appleby explore some of the challenges that come with trying to maintain a healthy relationship with your boss. We'll offer some tips on how to handle common situations, as well as how to stay sane while working under someone else's control! Susana breaks the problem down into 4 areas: Mutual responsibilitiesSeparate the job from the personFinding your VoiceProfessional to professional relationships We explore each of these in turn and provide some practical examples to illustrate the key points. Links The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by  Don Miguel Ruizon on Amazon UK and Amazon USAGrowCFO Show episode 74 discussing personality types as birds with Merrick RosenbergGrowCFO for Finance TeamsThe communications module within GrowCFO for Finance TeamsSusana Serrano-Davey on LinkedInKevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 01:04 Everyone has a boss unless you are the CEO 03:18 Building or balancing relationships 04:48 Susana's personal experiences 06:08 Introducing the 4 areas for balancing relationships 06:49 Mutual responsibilities 13:37 Separating the job from the person 15:10 The four agreements book 21:55 DISC and the 4 personality types 25:02 GrowCFO for Finance Teams - communications course 25:42 Finding your voice 30:37 Tackling conflict 35:44 Professional to professional relationships

As a finance leader, you are constantly juggling responsibilities between financial and non-financial analysis. On one hand, you need to make sure the company is meeting its financial goals and obligations. On the other hand, you may be called upon to provide insights into non-financial areas such as operations, marketing, or human resources. This can be a daunting task, but with the right tools and strategies in place, you can successfully balance both worlds. Paul Barnhurst, The FP&A guy specialises in planning and reporting. In this episode of the GrowCFO Show Paul provides Kevin Appleby with a great overview of business planning and analytics; how to integrate financial and non-financial data; and the tools that are available to help you. Links GrowCFO for Finance TeamsPaul Barnhurst on LinkedInKevin Appleby on LinkedInSubscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Timestamps 00:52 Day one of a brand new business 02:10 What exactly is FP&A? 03:26 Which areas will Paul be working in? 04:31 Excel: are spreadsheets the best way of doing things? 05:14 What are the planning tools available? 09:51 Selecting the tool that's right for you 12:59 Should non-financial measurement sit in finance? 15:52 The importance of a single version of the truth 20:16 What does day 100 look like for the FP&A guy? 21:13 What are the biggest things on the horizon for FP&A in general 22:47 The problem of too much data

As a finance leader or CFO, you have a lot of responsibilities on your plate. From ensuring that the company is making money to managing the budget, there are a lot of tasks you must complete on a daily basis. On top of this you will be involved in change projects. Then there is your role as a trusted advisor to the rest of the management team. You need to manage your workload. You need to make sure that the important tasks are given sufficient emphasis while making sure the urgent and routine things don't swallow up your whole agenda. Managing your workload doesn't have to be difficult. With a little bit of planning and organization, you can stay on top of everything. Helene Brichet Herbinet, part of the GrowCFO mentoring team joins Kevin Appleby on this episode of the GrowCFO show. Together they give some great tips for both increasing your personal efficiency and maximising your personal effectiveness. By following these tips, you can make the workload more manageable and get back on track. If you're finding that your workload is unmanageable, it may be time to seek out professional help. There are many CFOs who specialize in helping others manage their workloads effectively. By hiring someone to help manage your workload, you can free up your time to focus on more important tasks. If you're not sure where to start, there are plenty of resources available online. With a little bit of research, you can find the help you need to get your workload under control. Within GrowCFO we have a team of professional mentors ready to help. Premium and corporate members have an entire course on personal effectiveness they can access in the GrowCFO training library. Links Find a GrowCFO mentorGrowCFO for Finance TeamsHelene Brichet Herbinet on LinkedInSubscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Timestamps 00:40 Personal effectiveness or personal efficiency? 01:51 How do you manage your workload? 02:43 Being intentional about how you allocate your time 05:46 Keeping your to do list under control 07:20 Separating work life and personal life 11:59 When other people take over your agenda 14:20 Setting expectations 16:51 Reviewing the quality of your own work 20:27 The art of challenging plans budgets and forecasts 23:53 What should you do yourself and what should you delegate 25:53 Developing your finance team 27:19 The RACI model 30:28 Multitasking 33:29 Social networks and the danger of always being switched on 36:08 Managing deadlines What tips do you have for managing your workload? Why not share the things that work for you in the forum?

It's no secret that communication is hard. We've all been in a situation where we just can't seem to get our point across. And it's even harder when the person on the other end of the conversation has a different personality type than us. When you're trying to communicate with someone who has a different personality type than you, it can be easy to get wrapped up in your own perspective. It's important to remember that everyone experiences the world differently, and what makes sense to you might not make sense to them. You must try to see things from their point of view and adjust your communication accordingly. But adapting your style isn't easy. In this podcast, we take a look at the common problems with communicating with different personality types. DISC is a personality assessment tool that can help you understand yourself and others better, and Merrick Rosenberg, CEO of Take Flight Learning, has adapted the DISC model into 4 birds: eagles, parrots, doves, and owls. The behaviour of each bird is easy to grasp and remember. Merrick has found the majority of finance people are owls. The owl needs to adapt to work with the other three birds. He shares some great strategies that will really help you understand how to do this, so make sure to check this episode out! Links GrowCFO for Finance Teams The communications module within GrowCFO for Finance Teams"What got you here wont get you there" by Marshall Goldsmith on Amazon UK and Amazon USMerrick Rosenberg on LinkedInKevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 00:46 Why use birds instead of the DISC letters? 01:20 The eagle 02:05 The parrot 02:20 The dove 02:35 The owl 02:45 Which style are you? 04:15 Finance are predominantly owls 05:23 Finance working with sales; owls and parrots 06:47 How does an owl get the parrots and eagles to provide the detail that's needed? 08:50 Owls dealing with doves 10:15 The history of DISC 11:25 75% of your organisation has a different style to you, you need to communicate in all 4 styles 13:12 How each style manages change 15:20 Owls need detail so can be perceived as barriers to change until they have the information 15:40 Owls can actually be incredible champions of change 16:50 How do you communicate change? 20:09 Adapting your style as your career progresses 21:17 "What got you here wont get you there" by Marshall Goldsmith 22:43 How easy is it to develop the other 3 styles? 24:15 Bill Gates the owl 26:17 Working with organisations 30:19 Alternatives to DISC 35:31 Relationship building 38:09 What about children? When do the 4 birds start to emerge? 40:23 The danger of imposing your own style on someone else

As the finance lead, you probably present the business profit and loss account at many of the business meetings you attend. You place huge value on the financial results of the business each month or each quarter. But is that correct? Does the P&L account tell you what you need to know? Does it paint an accurate picture of business performance? Sometimes it does, but quite often it doesn't accurately reflect the economics within the business. The P&L account tells you what you spent money on, your cost centre structure likely tells you who spent it, but neither tell you why you spent it. Is an adverse variance really bad? Is a positive variance good? The answer is not always. Unless you know the why, and also understand the economic engine of the business you don't know. You probably grappled with the two fundamental accounting concepts of prudence and accruals when you passed your accountancy exams. Accruals are all about matching costs with revenues, while prudence is about taking account of liabilities as soon as they arise. But we are in strange times where we seem to like capitalising our empty office blocks and hardly used company cars while we write off our investment in digital sales-generating assets as soon as we spend the money. In the podcast, Kevin Appleby and Susana Serrano-Davey discuss these and other issues and conclude you need many more metrics than those in the P&L account and a much deeper understanding of your business through an economic rather than an accounting model. We didn't mention it in the show, but Doug Hicks has written an excellent book about what's wrong with the P&L account and why you need an economic model of the business. It makes excellent further reading on this topic. Links Mentoring at GrowCFO with Susana Serrano-DaveyI May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It: How Accounting Information Undermines Profitability by Doug Hicks on Amazon UK or Amazon USAEvergreen Assets by John Lamerton on Amazon UK or Amazon USA24 assets by Daniel Priestley on Amazon UK or Amazon USAListen to Next 100 Days Podcast with John Lamerton talking about Evergreen AssetsSusana Serrano-Davey on LinkedInKevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamps 00:59 The P&L account is a key tool 01:53 A history lesson; one set of accounts for investors and for the taxman 03:53 Modern systems and the ability to cut the data in different ways 04:28 Accounting standards and the 4 core accounting concepts 06:23 Are your fixed assets really the assets that drive business performance or are they just hidden future costs? 07:40 Evergreen digital assets 10:46 Depreciation 11:38 The pressure to report a better picture in the P&L 15:51 Unrealistic budgets 20:39 No surprises; don't hide the truth 23:30 The P&L account doesn't tell you why you spent the money 26:21 An economic rather than an accounting model of your business 29:41 Assigning costs to activities gives you a better understanding of customer and product costs 31:07 The tendency to over cost the simple and under cost the complex 31:39 An activity-based costing example

Are you ready to be a CFO? To step into your first CFO role. How do you know if you are ready to make the transition to that number one role in finance? That's the question Kevin Appleby posed to Dan Wells on this episode of the GrowCFO Show. Kevin asked Dan if there is any such thing as a CFO readiness indicator or CFO readiness index. Dan doesn't believe there is one single measure of CFO readiness. He goes on to explain the various skills and levels of experience you need to be a successful CFO. These vary according to the type of CFO you want to become and the nature of the organisation you plan to work for. Are you ready to be a CFO? Some questions to ask yourself If you feel you are ready to be a CFO then as a minimum you should be saying yes to the following five questions: Do you have a strategic mind? As a CFO, you will need to think beyond the numbers and see the big picture. You need to be able to develop strategies that will help your company achieve its goals.Are you are a good communicator? As CFO, you will need to communicate with different stakeholders within your company. You need to be able to explain financial concepts in a way that non-financial people can understand.Are you comfortable with change? Change is inevitable in business. As CFO, you need to be comfortable with change and be able to adapt quickly to new situations.Are you a good problem solver? As CFO, you will be faced with many challenges. You need to be able to identify problems and find solutions quickly.You have leadership potential? As CFO, you will need to lead your team and inspire them to achieve great things. You need to be able to motivate and mentor your team members. But feeling ready is just a start. Listen to the show and hear Dan explain the other dimensions of CFO readiness, why one size doesn't fit all, and why there is no easy way to measure CFO readiness or have a CFO readiness index. Links Landing Your First CFO Role: CFO Readiness GuideJoin a taster session for the Future CFO ProgrammeTake the CFO competency framework assessmentFind out more about the GrowCFO mentoring team and how they can support you in your CFO roleDan Wells on LinkedInKevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamp 00:41 How do you know you are ready to be a CFO? 03:06 The skills every CFO needs 04:00 The three types of CFO 04:10 The financier CFO 05:37 The strategist CFO 06:52 The operator CFO 08:02 The GrowCFO competency framework 09:13 Which competencies are most relevant to you as an individual; Module 3 of the Future CFO Programme 11:29 Which type of CFO do you want to be? 13:30 3 Different scenarios for your first CFO role 17:56 The relationship with the CEO, and the cultural fit 19:54 A proper action plan, not a CFO readiness index 22:18 The things we cover in the future CFO programme 25:30 What are your next steps?

Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? Chances are, you don't. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. We devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. So, Do you play to your strengths? Do you even know what your strengths are? Or how to best use them? The good news is that Strengthsfinder 2.0 from Gallup can give you a real insight and help you leverage the talents you have. Jim Brophy has worked as a CFO and is both a mentor and a Strengthsfinder 2.0 (or CliftonStrengths) accredited coach. He joins us on the GrowCFO Show to explain how he uses Strengthsfinder as an integral part of his mentoring. On the podcast Jim tells us about his career as a CFO, how he discovered Strengthsfinder and gives us an overview of what it is and how you can use it to best advantage in your day to day. Links Buy Strengthsfinder 2.0 on Amazon UK or Amazon USAFind out more about mentoring at GrowCFOFind out more about CliftonStrengths at GallupJim Brophy on LinkedInKevin Appleby on LinkedIn Timestamp 00:46 Jim Brophy's career as a CFO 03:49 FD & CFO roles in Asia 05:26 Becoming a portfolio CFO 07:24 Becoming accredited by Gallup 09:31 Mentoring 11:30 The stresses of a new CFO role in a new organisation 15:25 Where does Strengthsfinder fit in? 16:55 Linking values and strengths 20:02 What exactly is Strengthsfinder 22:22 Myers Briggs and DISC 24:47 How do you take the test? 25:49 The 34 talents 28:00 Our top 5 talents 32:24 Your top 10 talents, and the extended assessment 34:27 Developing talents instead of fixing weaknesses 35:31 The "Analytical" talent in more depth 40:59 Matching your talents to the immediate situation 41:30 Talents vs skills and experience 46:11 Maximising talents across teams

When did you last get your whole finance team together in person outside the office for a team event? Probably a long while ago. Your team has been working remotely for extended periods in the last two years. They may have started coming back to the office, but are rarely all together on the same day. Training and team development are some of the things that have suffered. You have struggled to invest the right amount of time and energy into your people's future. 2022 is the year you have to do something about it. How about a special event for your finance team? Maybe now is time for a team away day? But where do you start? What do you cover? What exactly is the purpose? Moreover, how do you make it enjoyable, memorable and get a great outcome? On this week's podcast, Kevin Appleby poses that question to a professional trainer and facilitator, Paul Maltby. Paul is the professional development leader for IBM Global Business Services in Europe and is responsible for running development programmes for many of the most senior people in IBM. He is also branching out with his own independent business that specialises in designing and delivering personal and team development activities. Paul has taken his many years of experience in facilitating events and put them into a book, "The Fearless Facilitator: A proven plan for leading successful meetings, dynamic workshops, and effective training events". He gives you some great advice about what to think about as you plan your finance team event. Paul talks about what to do and what not to do when you want to create a memorable experience. We also talk about handling a number of tricky situations. Links Find out more about GrowCFO finance team developmentEnquire about GrowCFO supporting your next finance team eventFind Paul Maltby on LinkedinKevin Appleby on LinkedinGet the book "The Fearless Facilitator" on amazon in UK and in USA Timestamp 00:39 What does Paul Maltby do? 01:40 The Fearless Facilitator 03:32 The three sections of "The Fearless Facilitator" book 06:54 Facilitating in challenging situations 10:38 The deficit in finance team development 12:04 The importance of purpose 14:36 The "So What?" question 15:50 How do you create energy? 19:50 The answer is always 42 23:15 Forget the PowerPoint slides 24:42 Handling difficult questions 27:27 The finance leader developing facilitation skills 31:01 How much time does it take to plan a great event? 34:38 How GrowCFO and Paul Maltby can help you deliver your next event

Things are changing fast in finance. You are more than likely struggling to keep pace with the latest technology. You might be in a fast growing business and your team is struggling to keep pace. There's pressure to get better management information sooner. These are all challenges for the finance team leader. In GrowCFO, the Future of Finance Functions regular events are designed to help you with all these challenges. Future of Finance Functions is a live Zoom webinar that takes place to discuss all things concerning the modern finance function. These range from systems to processes to people issues. Automation, integration, faster close, and the latest cloud accounting are all subjects we cover. Chris Tredwell is the regular host of the events and he joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO show to tell us what to expect in the 2022 series. Meetings taking place on the second Tuesday of each month and the 10 topics we will cover in 2022 are: Is now the right time to change?  (8/3/2022)Why Strong Foundations are key to your departments' success  (5/4/2022)What is True Cloud Accounting?  (10/5/2022)Ensure you are able to scale alongside your growth ambitions (14/6/2022)Automation in Finance (12/7/2022)The value of Integration (9/8/2022)What should I expect from Reporting (13/9/2022)Improve your Month-end close (11/10/2022)Get it right - Do's and Don'ts / Procurement Checklist (8/11/2022)How to review the software market (13/12/2022) The series of events looking at change management will continue on the last Tuesday of each month. Links You can book a place on these sessions by RSVP at www.growcfo.net/events/Find out more about Chris TredwellFind out more about Kevin Appleby Timestamps 00:56 The reason we started Future of Finance Functions 04:13 The topics we've covered in the last 2 years 09:35 The 10 themes for 2022 12:08 Is it the right time to make the change? 12:30 Cloud accounting 13:00 Scaling the team in line with business growth 14:34 The difference between automation and integration 17:02 Reporting and KPIs 17:42 The do's and dont's: learning from others experience 20:01 Selecting and procuring software 21:35 How to book your place at any of the future of finance functions events 22:00 The change management series of future of finance functions events 26:25 Accessing recordings of past events 28:19 What else does GrowCFO do?