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Contact Michael Teape: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teapetraining/Teape Training International (TTI): https://www.teapetraininginternational.comGet my FREE eGuide 7 Best Facilitation Tips to Ensure Engagement & Learning to ensure your Online Training Success -> https://tti-signup.ck.page/eguideFull Episode Transcript:Adam: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In. I'm Adam Larson. Today, we welcome back Michael Teape to the podcast. Michael is a well known management coach and co-founder of Teape Training International. And he is here today to discuss how businesses can maximize their human capital, as we begin year three of COVID 19 era, and the Great Resignation continues. If you are a leader, trying to get your team back to business as usual, you do not wanna miss this insightful conversation. So let's get started.   Adam: (00:38) Michael, we really appreciate you coming on our podcast today. It's a pleasure to speak with you again, to have you come back to count me in.   Michael: (00:45) Thank you. It's great to be here, Adam. Thanks for having me back.   Adam: (00:48) Definitely. So let's just jump right into our topic today. So in your work with clients across businesses, how are people doing with the crisis as what we are heading into, what, the third year of it?   Michael: (01:00) Yeah. Can you believe it three years? No, that's just, yeah. Crazy. Well, it, every year it's changed. Right? Cause you can imagine that and as your listeners reflect back, they're gonna think, well, yeah, there was absolutely in the beginning, we didn't know what we didn't know. We were washing our vegetables, you know, we weren't going to the store and now we're way beyond that. We're managing that with seen threat come into our work. People have got COVID people have not gone to the hospital. Some have, unfortunately, so you've experienced it over two years. And as we come into the third, it's kind of normalized. It's baked in, it's like you get used to your environment. So, you know, most people are like, well, this is a reality, Adam, if I'm honest, that's what they're saying.   Michael: (01:50) And they're, going back to doing well, you know, may as well do the training. And from my point of view, you know, as a learning development specialist, face to face stuff was canceled the first year. And now in the third year, it is back on again, you know, they wanna do face to face. Haven't done it in a while. I'm not so sure that the employees want to do face to face. Cause they've got used to the virtual environment and they've worked out that actually it can work. It does work. We've been able to talk over, you know, over a virtual, just as much in fact, better than face to face, because face to face, most people wearing a mask, depending on which state you go to, depending on their level of infection. Yeah. So, you know, that's where we are right now.   Michael: (02:44) Also what I'm seeing Adam is people are moving jobs, you know, you've heard of the Great Resignation. So that's the other thing is really picking up speed now in the third year. The thing with that is that people are seeing opportunity. There is opportunity. So they're realizing that, well, I can work from home so therefore I can work pretty much from anywhere. Right? Yeah. So it doesn't, they're not as limited as they were before. So that's how people, I feel people are expanding their horizons on the work they can do and getting so much more comfortable with doing at home. So we've entered this era of flexibility. Unfortunately, last thing I'll say. And if, and those of you listeners who are leading others, I would say, this is that they're not being flexible. All right. So leaders have got to continue to be flexible.   Michael: (03:41) Even with the picture, the move back to the office. We want all of you back in the office, right? We want you all to come back and, you know what, we're losing some of that flexibility we've had for the last two years in this third year. And I feel that if leaders learn to continue the flexibility, they can continue to take advantage of a more flexible workforce and make them want to stay, want to work if you put in what I call, yeah. Of fake rules, unnecessary rules. Unnecessary. And I'll give you an example. There's a company that I know that remain nameless. They're like, right! We're all coming back to work. They've all been hundred percent remote, fairly small company. And right. We want all back at work, but we want you in Monday, Thursday and Friday, you can, you know, we'll be virtual Tuesday and Wednesday.   Michael: (04:38) You're getting these unnecessary rules and you must have your meetings. We want them face to face. So you need to have your meetings on the Monday, Thursday or the Friday. So you can imagine employees are like, hang on a minute. What if I wanna have a meeting on Tuesday, it creates all these unnecessary rules and decisions to be made when wouldn't, it have been easier just to say to the each team work out what days you wanna come in the office. We want to build up to a hundred percent back, but you know, happy to do 60, 40, whatever works as long as we're serving the client internally and externally, you know, I leave it up to your best judgment to make sure the work continues. Great, right? And then they can work on it. What works best for them? I'm seeing this over and over again. So how are people doing the crisis? I think they're doing quite well. They they're normalized it. They're getting on with it. They're looking for opportunities, other jobs. What we've gotta is being overly formal with how leaders bring their people back and teams back. We need to stay flexible.   Adam: (05:46) Yeah. So I can't imagine staying flexible would allow you to keep your workforce better because if you become more rigid, it says, well, if you're gonna be rigid, then I can just move on. Are there other tips that we can offer? Like for, you know, if you're thinking, okay, I lead a team, how can I adapt my team so that I can continue like being flexible, but what are other things that I can do to help keep my team together, but still be productive?   Michael: (06:13) The productivity is a funny thing. Yeah. So that's the first thing I'm gonna talk about here. Is it relax? Have they been productive for the last two years? Look at that. Has the performance been where you wanted it? If it is, you don't have a productivity problem. Yeah. If it isn't, then let's get into more communication with the team about your expectations. So focus. I think leading through this time now back to where people feel that COVID, isn't a day to day occurrence, or there's not another wave or they don't know tons of people that have it, getting people back, they really need to focus on what they want to achieve. And the way you do that with teams is you communicate with them. You ask them how it's going. You set expectations of what you're looking for.   Michael: (07:05) And then you coach them. You're really, really good at communication on, well, how are you prioritizing? How can I help you prioritize what you need to be doing in this time? What are some of the roadblocks getting in your way is for that leader to switch from, "I've told you my expectations" into a coaching style an...

Connect with Bharat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bharat-kanodia-asa/ Tedx - https://youtu.be/zicGCnM8HagYouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/whatsitworthBlog - https://www.inc.com/author/Bharat-KanodiaFull Episode Transcript:Adam: (00:06) Welcome to Count Me In I'm Adam Larson. And today we're exploring the art and science of business valuations with Bharat Kanodia, the founder and chief appraiser at Vatra and Silicone Valley. Bharat has valued over 2000 businesses and unique assets, including Uber, Airbnb, and the Golden Gate Bridge. In our conversation today, he shares his insights on how company founders can seek to maximize their valuations and the key questions to ask venture capitalists before taking their money. It was so exciting to get an insider look at this process that drives so many of the innovations and companies in our lives. So let's get started Bharat. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. We really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with us. And today we're going to be talking about valuations and venture capital and all that. So, just to start off, why, do valuations matter to a startup when you're just getting started?  Bharat: (01:10) Adam, thank you so much for having me. Startups never have a profit and they're lucky if they have a product or customers yet they need to attract investors, employees, and customers. So how do they do that? They do that by using a pie in the sky currency called valuations. And so company raised so and so money at this and this valuations, that's a pie in the sky. That's just, you know, way for them to attract people. That's their marketing almost nowadays.  Adam: (01:50) So is that actually accurate? Like how, how many times is that valuation actually accurate when you actually find out what the profit of the company over a certain period of time?  Bharat: (02:00) Well, accuracy used to be absolute back in the day, but now accuracy is measured in shades of gray, if you will. So yeah, I mean, you know, somebody cut a check for that valuation. So who am I to say that number is not accurate? It is accurate, but I would say it is inflated. and the reason it is inflated is because say, if somebody paid, raised $5 million and the evaluation is a hundred million, they paid only a $5 million for a fraction of the company. So they extrapolating that 5 million to a hundred million. Now, if somebody were to buy the entire company, would they pay a hundred million dollars? Probably not. It's kind of like difference between wholesale and retail. If I buy one cup, it's $5. If I buy 50 cups, it might be a dollar a cup.  Adam: (02:57) That makes sense. So that would be why a lot of valuations that you see, especially like when you hear about 'em on in the news, that would make sense why they're so high. So many times  Bharat: (03:07) They are high all the time, bebecause plus they also wanna show their employees that, Hey, look, last year, our valuation was 10 million and now it's a hundred million. So we've grown 10 X  Adam: (03:19) .  Bharat: (03:19) So you ought to be working harder and doing good things, you know? So this has become their marketing. You know, you never hear in the media that this company was at 10 million last year, and this year they're at 8 million. When was the last time you heard those news? No, never because they don't get traction. They're not sexy. Yeah. They don't get attention. So you only hear all these news and these headlines about these inflated valuations, because it feeds into the whole venture capital ecosystem.  Adam: (03:53) So I'm a venture capitalist, you know, what should I be looking at before I start investing in a startup that I see, oh, look, this has gotten, you know, this valuation, what else should I be looking at? Besides the valuation.  Bharat: (04:06) You should be looking at what they're going to do with that money. What have they done with that money? Have they grown that company that much? Or, just simply ask, Hey, why did you receive a, 5 million raise at a hundred million valuation? Explain it to me. Why? You know the question why, you'd be surprised is the most important question that people need to ask the how and the who and the, what, you know, you get lost. The why is the real question? And let people answer that question to you. You know, sometimes they'll explain it to you and sometimes they'll just say, Hey, somebody cut me a check for 5 million at a hundred million valuation. I am not going to say no.  Adam: (04:49) Hmm. I mean, not many people would, right?  Bharat: (04:52) Well, sometimes maybe you should, because at each inflection point they will expect you to double the valuation. So the next time you go out and raise capital and you're not able to raise capital at 200 million valuation, you're a loser. So whatever valuation you get this time, make sure you're able to raise, at least double that valuation next time.  Adam: (05:17) So how do you do that?  Bharat: (05:20) The biggest way to do that is to make sure your product is getting traction is growth in the product. They don't venture capitalists don't care about profitability or revenue. Anything like that. What they're really caring about is is your product or whatever you are putting out there as a product or a service is that gaining traction. And one of the metrics to measure how it's gaining traction is revenue. It's one of the metrics it's not the only metric the other metric could be. I don't know, traffic or users or what have you, but you have to just make sure whatever product or whatever you're putting out there is gaining traction. And it's doubling in size every year. If it's not doubling in size every year, you got a problem.  Adam: (06:03) All right. So, you know, your venture capital, your venture capitalist has said, okay, we're going to start. We're going to looking into your start. Investing in this startup. Are there multiple valuations that can happen to see? Hey, like this is where we're at at different times. Is that something that is commonly done?  Bharat: (06:20) Yeah. Most definitely. For example, this Stein, right? You're looking at the back end of this Stein. I'm looking at the front, right? I've got the logo here in the front. Somebody's looking from this side. Somebody's looking from top. Everybody sees a different perspective of the same time, but it is the same Stein. So everybody, you know, depending on the tax person or the accountant or the insurance or the investor or the employee, everybody has a different perspective off the valuation of the same company and they're not wrong. It's their perception. It's their perspective. but it's the same company. So if the company sold raise capital for, you know, raised $5 million at a hundred million valuation, that is one perspective. That is not the only perspective. That is a perspective. There could be another valuation of say 50 million or 20 million or zero. You know, somebody might say the company is worthless. Who's to say they're all incorrect. I would say they all are correct. Depending on the perspective they have.  Adam: (07:36) Do you have any examples of, of, of a time you've seen that happen?  Bharat: (07:42) Not one or two, I mean, many, many examples. I mean, every company that's out there right no...

Today’s guest is Casey Woo, CFO of Landing, former Head of Strategic Finance at WeWork, and the co-founder of Operators Guild, a knowledge-sharing community for CFOs and other business “operators.”   Casey and Adam analyze the multi-dimensional role CFO’s play as business partners focused on driving operations, innovation, and growth.Connect with Casey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseywoo/Full Episode Transcript:Adam: (00:05) Welcome back to the Count Me In podcast. I'm your host. Adam Larson in today's guest is really interesting. Casey. Woo. Casey's been a strategic financial leader in Silicon valley for the past two decades, investing in an operating high growth tech and tech enabled companies. He is the CFO of landing, the former head of strategic finance at WeWork and the co-founder of operators Guild, a knowledge sharing community for CFOs and other business operators. And that's just what he is been up to lately today. Casey and I put the microscope on the CFO and how the role has evolved from being the sheriff of cost and budgets to now being a company-wide business partner, focused squarely on the most important metric of all growth. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Casey, thanks so much for joining us today on the Count Me In podcast. we're going to jump right into some, questions we're gonna be focusing in on the CFO. And so to start off, what are some common misconceptions or what is the hook's historical perspective on the role of the CFO?  Casey: (01:12) Yeah, I think I'm probably not going to be novel here in my answer. There is a pretty classic stereotype of a CFO, to borrow a phrase from a friend, you know, there's CFO. No is basically one of them is Dr. No, the, you know, DBER, you know, the nickel and dimer, the no personality, the, yeah, the one that says no to everything in terms of costs and other words like the budget, right? The people think of, you know, my travel and expense reimbursements like that. That's when you get to real stereotypes of just don't you do my team reports, you know? And so, of course at the corporate level, you know, CFOs are, I don't know, misconception, hopefully this is a good conception, but they're the honest broker, right? They're the one who engages with the board as the air quote, pseudo check on leadership, et cetera.  Casey: (02:15) So there's not some misconceptions, some that's true. Absolutely. You have that. A lot of it now is not true. Yes. We manage budgets and money and have that purview. But I think there's also, what's now called CFO grow rather than CFO know. And I do think there's a healthy way to manage in a very responsible way money, but also, and I think the word is invest, right? So they call it strategic CFO. Money is meant to be invested, I guess, saved as well. Right? So when you're, especially in high growth, VPs are not giving you money to sit on it. It's put it to good use and the word is good. Use, not reckless use. and of course you're going to balance a lot of things. So one is just a strategic minded investor mentality of where you want to allocate resources is I think more what's happening. and it's not just about nickel and diamond. there's also, you know, more personalities CFOs than people think it's very, cross-functional. Some are extroverts, most are not, but they can be a very friendly person who empowers ends a business partner rather than a police force.  Adam: (03:34) So when we look at the space of a CFO as an operator, you talked a little bit to me about your operator's Guild. What personal experience do you have and what have you gained in this level of expertise?  Casey: (03:45) Yeah, so, I mean, for those who don't know, the operator's Guild has been going on for eight years. It started as a eight, nine person friend group of operators that we support one another. Now it's about 600. I say this because there's a lot of conversations, there's a lot of learnings. So I'm only going to scratch the surface. A, few things. One, all of businesses, all of startup is, is a bunch of people who decide to get together at eight in the morning to build something, to sell for more than hopefully it costs that's all the businesses or a startup. Let's call it a startup call, whatever you want to call it, just, and notice it's humans, you take away the humans, computer's not going to do anything themselves. And that's number one is business is a game. So when things are crazy or stressful, it's like, no, one's dying here.  Casey: (04:39) This is not real life and death. It's serious. Don't get me wrong. We are very competitive, but there's a lot of natural dysfunction when you toss in money, growth expectations and people, dysfunction is just basic. So that's kind of a learning. and, also work with good people. It just goes back to the business is just a bunch of people. It's not worth it. You can make your money elsewhere. If it's not with good people who respect you, who you respect them, shared values. It's actually very similar to a marriage it's just not intimate, right? But it's the same thing. Shared values. You go on dates that are called interviews. You get divorces, you know, it's because when things are not matching up, another one is don't let stereotypes or misconceptions tell you how you should act in your role, play your strengths, establish yourself as if you're gonna be a strategic CFO, be one that said, maybe you have a, stronger person who compliments you on the expense side.  Casey: (05:42) Who's, much more, you know, doctor knows so to speak, right? That're all really, or, vice versa. You're someone that's extremely conscious. You know, you need to marry that with someone that's a little bit more strategically minded and growth minded. Just,, that's just an example, but, play to your strengths, be who you are and hiring is super important. Probably the key to everything, all things in start are just problems. All we're doing is problem solving every day. If you can put together the right team tools, resources, you can solve any problems. So those are kind of learnings.  Adam: (06:19) Okay. No, that's great. I think that's really nice. and just thinking about the CFO, you talked, when we, my first question, you talked a lot about the misconceptions you knew. I think you laid that out very nicely with the Dr. No, and the Gilbert examples and stuff. but a lot of people tend to under underestimate what the CFO sees because because of this, these misconceptions that can be there. And if the CFO hasn't established himself as like a business partner, it can be very difficult to get a seat at the table. Can you talk a little bit about what the responsibility the CFO has to kind of get there so that they're not underestimated?  Casey: (06:54) I think the first one is before you get married, you should establish that. I would question a company where CFOs not at the table, not, not because of CFOs, you know, all that. It's just because it's, too important of a function just like CRO or CTO. So that's just point number one, if you're fighting to get there. So something's already a little off and you need a question, how they value and what they expect from the function. If you're in the unfortunate seat of, you're not, don't have a seat at the table. I think it's a very clear, I believe in explicit conversation and communication. It's like, Hey, Mr. And Mrs. CEO, this is a function that's critical to the business. I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about the function and for the sake of the business and our stakeholders, it's important that I'm in the room or whoever's leading a function. Would you agree or disagree if they disagree? I would seriously consider finding a place where you can make ...

Contact Tamara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/innovationtamaraghandourWhat is your innovation type: https://www.gotolaunchstreet.com/innovation-training-programs/whats-your-innovation-type/Full Episode Transcript:Adam: (00:05)Welcome to the Count Me In podcast. I'm your host, Adam Larson. And my guest today is Tamara Ghandour, a leader in the field of human-centric innovation and its pivotal role in helping individuals and businesses create breakthrough outcomes. Tomorrow is the president of launch street, the founder of everyday innovator's tribe, the host of her own podcast and the author of the book. Innovation is everybody's business. She is also the creator of the innovation quotient edge, a powerful tool for determining your unique innovation style. This was a really insightful conversation with great tips for unleashing your innovation potential. So here without further ado is my talk with Tamara Ghandour. So Tamara, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I'm really excited to have you on, and as we talk about innovation today, I wanted to kind of focus in a little bit. so you talk about how innovation is, how you win against the winds of change. So maybe we can start off by talking a little bit more about that.Tamara: (01:08)Yeah, Adam, I think first of all, thank you for having me. I think that's a great place to start because it sets the stage for why innovation is so important and how we can leverage it in ourselves to add value and to contribute and to carbon niche out for ourselves. So here's the thing and I I'm sure we can do a whole podcast on everything that's going on, but let me just kind of sum up the winds of change for us. And the reality of the world that we're in. So, you know, we've got COVID which accelerated everything. So we'll just leave that as the blanket statement, but on top of that, right, we've got AI and technology taking over a lot of the base jobs. A lot of the functions that we have been known to do as humans in our roles, things that we're used to doing, but AI and technology can now do a lot of that.Tamara: (01:50)So we've got that happening. We've got web 3.0 in the metaverse coming and kind of how that's going to change everything. I just heard about a project where healthcare going on to the metaverse like, it's incredible, what's happening over there. And then on top of that, right, you've got decentralized finance, you've got the great resignation of where is everybody and why can't I find people to hire or keep people, right? You've got that going on as a wind of change. And then we've got a lot of uncertainty with global politics and just the state of the world. So I say all that, and it sounds like a lot of doom and gloom, but let me focus in on where I think actually it adds to a lot of, opportunity, you know, when times are stable, it breeds efficiency, but it also breeds complacency when times are unstable.Tamara: (02:35)Like we're in now, it breeds resilience. We've seen a lot of that from all of us in the past couple of years, but also innovation, a chance to change and to innovate. And you know, the thing about being an innovator that I think is so important right now is when you look at all of that, particularly AI and technology, that's doing the baseline of our job. What that actually means. If you look at it in the right way, is that we have the opportunity to do something that is uniquely human, which is that creative problem solving that empathy, that innovation, that strategic thinking. So we actually have the ability right now, more so than ever with everything going on to actually bring those insights, to bring that innovative mind to the table and be that strategic voice that our clients, our leaders, our teams, our customers, that they all need right now. So the uncertainties crazy on one hand yet on the other hand, the winds of change is what allow us to innovate and shift and change and do things in a way that's, that's different and unique to us.Adam: (03:37)Hmm. So, you know, you have this concept that you talk about a, bit as about an everyday innovator. So we're talking about innovation with the winds of change. What is that everyday innovator style. And why does it matter when we're trying to have these, when we're trying to sail the winds of change, if you will, Tamara: (03:54)I like the way you said that I'm going to sail the winds. That's a great way to say that. So every day, and being an everyday innovator is so important, but let me kind of back up as to why oftentimes with innovation, we buy into these myths and I see this all the time. I've been in business for 25 years now. And you know, we think it's Suzie down the hall with a purple streak or the Elon Musk and the Steve jobs and the JK Rowling's and maybe the Oprahs of the world, right? Like they're bestowed with something that we don't have, or we think it's for certain times, like the 3:00 PM brainstorm with the SCED markers and the blank eel pads, right. But every other time, just keep your head down and do your job. Or we think that it is, for certain departments, right?Tamara: (04:34)Marketing R and D or certain industries, technologies Silicon valley. But that actually is a sliver of what it means to be an innovator. And what I really come to see in my years of experience is that the best innovation comes from the places where you least expect, right? The everyday innovators who are out there rolling up their sleeves, doing their jobs, the best innovation is small. It's big, but it is inside all of us. And, you know, I used to believe that a little bit of those myths too, but we did a lot of research. We dug into the neuroscience and to change principles. And what we actually found out in our research is that we all have the ability to innovate. So we all have the structures in it, right? Neuroscience shows that it's a whole brain experience that MRIs light up when people create a problem, solve strategic thinking, you know, think differently.Tamara: (05:21)and our brains are flexible. We can actually get stronger. It's called neuroplasticity, but the way that all comes together and why it's so important is that Adam is you and me in the roles that we do when we bring innovation to the table and what we have right in front of us, we can get incredible impact. We can create those breakthrough outcomes. So, you know, innovation being siloed, just sabotages it for all of us. When we, as everyday innovators, when we understand that about ourselves, when we unleash that about ourselves, that's where we start to see the value and the difference. And we see it in individuals, leaders, and in teams and how they perform as well. It's why we built the assessment to tell people how they innovate, because we wanted people to say, oh, this is how I innovate. Cause I don't know about you, Adam, but I got pretty tired of hearing people go, you need to innovate.Tamara: (06:08)And I was like, how? And then I would try to do it the way you did it, but it didn't work for me because you do it in a way that's different than the way I do it. So understanding your everyday innovator style allows you to tap into what's actually already inside of you. All we're asking you to do is amplify what you're already incredible out. Maybe you're not using it. Maybe you've been trained out of it, but you know what? It's a lot easier for me to tomorrow to innovate in the way I innovate then Adam, to try to do you and vice versa. So that's why it's important.Adam: (06:38)That makes sense. Now you've said, you've said that anybody can be an innovator and a lot of times you'll get a book by like a Josh Linkner and yo...

Connect with Kristen: http://bit.ly/ARDigesthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kristendonnellyphd/Full Episode Transcript:Neha: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Neha Lagoo Ratnakar, and we are now starting episode 181 of our series. Today's guest is Dr. Kristen Donnelly. Kristen is a celebrated TEDx speaker and founder, and one of The Good Doctors of Abbey Research. Join Kristen and my co-host Adam, as they talk about her work as an empathy educator and how companies and leaders can become more inclusive. So keep listening as a handover with the mic to Adam.  Adam: (00:47) So Kristen, as we get started, I think it would be best for us to define some terms that our listeners may think they understand, but you know, they really may not. Things like diversity, oppression, equality, equity, tolerance, and privilege. These are all terms that we hear in the media a lot. And I think people, they think they understand what they mean, but maybe you can help us by level setting.  Kristen: (01:08) I would love to break that down. So in order to do that though, allow me to kind of set the stage a little bit if you wouldn't mind. Of course. So one of the first things to understand is that the world is set up for some people to be the default definition of human and all around the world, infrastructure, laws, education systems, inventions are all unless, you know, otherwise determined, honestly set up with the default idea that humans will be male. They'll be probably middle to upper middle class. They'll be fully able bodied. Most likely they're gonna be white. They're gonna be cisgendered. Which means that their gender identity matches the sex their body was born with. They're going to be heterosexual and their life goals are going to include things like a mortgage and a partnership and children. Generally, that's the default.  Kristen: (02:10) So when we make working hour laws, we assume that it's a man with a partner at home. When we make cell phones, the only hands that Apple ever tests cell phones on are male hands. When we talk about, you know, what we should pay people. When we talk about how quickly you can pay back your student loans. When we talk about lots of things, whether we realize it or not, we are assuming that the people we are talking about is that category I just defined. So anyway, in which you line up with any of those categories, if you're a male, if you're white, if you're able bodied, if you're middle to upper middle class, if your BMI is socially acceptable, if you're cisgendered, if you're heterosexual, generally, what that means is that you have privilege. Privilege means the system is designed to work for you because you were what they had in mind.  Kristen: (03:07) When they designed the system, there is no shame or judgment or moral imperative that comes with that. There is just, the system is designed to work for you. If you're thinking the, and you're like, that's not true, cuz blah, blah, blah. It's probably cuz you've never seen the system because the system is designed to work for you. So then where oppression comes in is any way in which you don't line up with those systems, the degrees of oppression and privilege vary from category to culture and everything else. The other important piece to understand in this conversation is the phrase, "intersectionality". Intersectionality is a term coined by Dr. Kimberly Crenshaw back in the 1980s, she's a legal scholar. And now she's known often for being one of the four thinkers in critical race theory, which is not what we are teaching children in school.  Kristen: (03:59) I will just simply say that here. It's I have a PhD in sociology and I didn't learn critical race theory. So I promise that fifth graders are learning something a little bit different, but Kimberly Crenshaw came up with intersectionality to acknowledge the fact that while all women are oppressed on some level black women experience oppression at a more significant level than white women do. And essentially what it has come to real mean as social scientists is that we are all a lot of things at once. I am not just a woman. You are not just a whatever you are. I am not just white. I am not just middle class. I'm not just educated. I am all of these things and they come together in very specific ways. It's kind of like the back of a cross stitch. We're all kind of, we're all just a lot of things to make up who we are in the front of the cross stitch.  Kristen: (04:49) Every society has different priorities in terms of which of those threads are privileged and not. I say all the time, like, you know, we, we can add in othering and normal as well for the phrases of privileged and oppressed. If you're normal in your society, you are privileged. If you are othered, you are oppressed in some way, but again, your mileage may vary. Degrees vary here. I have oppression as a woman, for sure. I don't have the same level of oppression in the United States as I would have in Saudi Arabia. But that doesn't mean that I don't have oppression in the US. So the, so there's that. So there's privilege there's intersection, there's othering, there's oppression. All of that. What I like to say is that meaning that everybody is all those things all at once. Actually means that we're all diverse creatures as it is.  Kristen: (05:45) So none of us are one thing which means that you can't create diversity within your organization or your family or your social circle because everyone is already diverse. What you need to do instead is create inclusivity. And inclusivity is the decision to let everybody show up on their own terms and not determine the shorthand for who they are. And we get that shorthand through using tolerance and tolerance is simply saying you are alive because I cannot kill you. That's it. Tolerance is drilling everybody down to the easiest, common denominator that we can see when we look at them and putting them in categories that are easy for us to interact with it denies people, their personhood and their complications. It allows us to say, well, I can't ever know that person, cuz they voted for someone different than me. I can't ever know that person because they're gay. I can't ever know that person because they're evil. And instead if we eliminate tolerance, which is one of my life missions and we understand that everybody's already a diverse person in front of you, you're diverse, I'm diverse. We're all diverse heyo. What we're actually trying is create inclusivity. Then we can have the hard conversations about how to do that. But let's eliminate the myth that tolerance gets us anywhere.  Adam: (07:12) Wow. So you've covered a lot of things and I wanted to kind of circle back to where you started, where you were talking about the ideal human, right? Mm-hmm, so if you don't meet that criteria, you become an other.  Kristen: (07:24) In some way.  Adam: (07:25) In some way, right? So a lot of times when we get separated and we try to find others who have been othered, who are othered like us and we come together because we wanna feel comfortable with somebody who's been othered as well.  Kristen: (07:37) Absolutely.  Adam: (07:38) But is that so bad that we do that?  Kristen: (07:41) No, if that's, if it's the end goal and you stay in that group, maybe.  Adam: (07:46) Okay.  Kristen: (07:46) Or if you all pretend that the only thing you are is that thing you got othered for. Then I think it gets limiting. That is a weird ...

Contact Jim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimrafferty1/Full Episode Transcript:Neha: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Neha Lagoo Ratnakar bringing you episode 180 of our series. In today's episode, our guest is Jim Rafferty. Jim is a marketing and communications consultant and the author of Leader by Accident. My cohost Mitch Roshong, and Jim Rafferty talk about how cultivating a gratitude mindset helps transform leaders and organizations in extraordinary ways. To hear more let's head over to the conversation now.  Mitch: (00:50) So Jim, in your opinion, what are the most common characteristics of, or needed attributes for effective leadership in today's business environment?  Jim: (01:00) You know, I think the first word that would jump to mind would be empathy and that's always a quality we've needed in leaders to be sure. I think we need it more than ever before here over these last couple of years as we've all really had to adapt on the fly to a lot of changing circumstances. And all of a sudden your concern as a business leader is, you know, not only what your employee, your team member is doing in the office, but now whether they're also trying to, you know, homeschool their kids and take care of the dogs or an aging parent or whatever, as they're trying to work from home and get stuff done. And I think that's called for an enormous amount of flexibility and empathy on the part of leaders in the business environment.  Mitch: (01:43) And now oftentimes leaders are looked to for direction, right? They are providing others with information that they will ultimately need to adapt to, but this flexibility and adaptability, agility really is starting to shift into the role of the leader. So, again, in your words, how, or why do leaders need to be even more adaptable today?  Jim: (02:10) I think the, the sort of 10,000 foot view of leadership and, you know, this predates the pandemic, but maybe the pandemic sort of accelerated it is, you know, however many years ago we wanna look, the leader was the boss and he, or she told you what to, and you did it. And if you didn't, then there were consequences. And I think, you know, in a lot of cases, hopefully it's become more of a two-way thing. So, you know, the leader is not only talking, but listening and, you know, involving and engaging the team members and getting that feedback that ultimately is gonna make it a better place. And it's become less of a, my way. I hope it's become less of a, my way or the highway sort of situation because, you know, the saying that's the same, you know, then or now I think is, you know, people join companies and they quit bosses and they will quit bosses.  Jim: (03:02) We've seen this in the great resignation here, you know, dating back to, I guess, you know, November we're really the biggest numbers, but, you know, when they feel like they're not being listened to when they feel like they're not being engaged and, you know, in this whole remote work setting, that's become even a bigger challenge because we, we lose is that face to face thing, we lose the nonverbals that we would get if somebody's sitting across a desk from us and it just, it takes a little extra work and to reach a little deeper into the empathy bucket, so to speak if you're a leader.  Mitch: (03:33) And, you know, once a leader adapts, right. And, you said it, empathy is something that has always been important, but it's more of that adapting and their style, their behaviors, everything you just mentioned. I think one of the most important traits that we discussed previously that I would really like to hear your perspective on a little bit deeper is the idea of gratitude. So from the leader's perspective, again, it's more often, I believe historically, it's the employees that are grateful and express gratitude for the opportunities that are given to them. But from the leader's perspective, what does gratitude really look like?  Jim: (04:15) Yeah, my book, Leader by Accident, I would say has three main themes. And one is about, you know, challenging yourself and getting out of your comfort zone. Two is about the, the language that we use as leaders and, you know, the impact that that can have on organizational culture. And three is this sense of gratitude that you bring up. And that was a recurring theme in the messages I gave to the young men of our boy scout troop in my five years as a scout master, because, you know, it's hard and we tend as a society to default to the other way, right? If you scroll through your social media feed or you look at anything political, right, it's this relentless stream of negativity that just seems to keep getting worse and worse and worse. So I think, you know, even setting leadership aside just as human beings is so important because it just, it just changes the way we go through our days and it takes a little work.  Mitch: (05:07) And now, you know, it's a, it's a quality that I think is most valuable when, you know, you mentioned everybody kind of buys into it, right? So in, in terms of gratitude, how do you get people to stop with that negativity, take the step back. How do you cascade this thought process or this feeling, this emotion down throughout the entire organization? So it's much more of a positive culture and workplace for everybody.  Jim: (05:38) I think being a leader in that sense is a lot like being a parent in that we can, and we do say things and teach lessons and tell people things and hope that the, you know, it will sink in and all but much more than that. They're going to observe what we do and how we comport ourselves and the way that we respond to things. And so if we want to display a sense of gratitude, you know, if we want our employees to display a sense of gratitude, we have to start by doing that ourselves. And a lot of that I think comes in the sense in the way that we respond to things. I mean, how do we respond when things go wrong? Are we the unflappable leader, or do we fly into immediately, you know, end of the world panic mode. And, you know, obviously the former is the preferred choice. If you're leading a team.  Mitch: (06:25) And now I, I kind of, you know, flip flopped some of the conversation that we were gonna have here. But now that we understand how things kind of get across the organization, we have that buy-in once there is this positive culture and ideally the leader is setting the tone. What are the benefits of a workplace that embraces gratitude? What are, what, what does that look like from a team perspective?  Jim: (06:52) I think that if we're cultivating a positive environment and gratitude certainly is a big part of that, you know, and sort of what we've already talked about a little bit in terms of, you know, we've adapted as leaders and we are engaging our team members and we're being positive, and they know that a ton of bricks isn't gonna come down on their head with every little mistake they made. In other words, that they are trusted, right. Then what happens typically is they start to do the things we say we want our employees to do, right. They start to think outside the box and they start to, you know, quote unquote, act like owners of the company and think about the bigger picture beyond their own little checklist of things they do. And they stop running to you, the manager or the leader to cross every T and dot every I, because you know, what they're doing is covering their own behind. ...

Contact Sammy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammycourtright/Full Episode Transcript:Neha: (00:05) Welcome back for episode 179 of our podcast series. This is your host Neha Lagoo Ratnakar, and you're once again listening to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Today, you're going to hear from Sammy Courtwright, the co-founder of Ten Spot. Ten Spot is a workforce engagement platform helping companies enhance their work from home capabilities. Sammy joins us to talk about how technology has impacted today's work environment, what it means for our work life balance and what the future of the workforce looks like based on current trends. Keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.   Mitch: (00:56) So right before we started recording here, we were talking a little bit about how things have changed over the last couple years, and to kick off our conversation. I'd like to first ask how has technology impacted work being done at work?   Sammy: (01:10) Yeah, Mitch, I mean, what a change we were faced two years ago, right? Where suddenly we were thrown into remote or distributed work and technology, thank goodness was able to make that transition moderately seamless. Right? Of course there was always that idea of having to figure out which technology we're going to use. Does it work? Does everyone know how to use it? Is it effective? Now we have to buy more licenses, but it's definitely made this working from home or hybrid work significantly more streamlined collaborative, but it's also made it really constant, right? I feel like you're always on, which is a good thing and a bad thing for some people. I think at the beginning of the pandemic, when things were a little bit slower Netflix and all of those other subscription services, weren't pumping out the content as quickly. You might just check another email.   Sammy: (02:03) You might respond or start working on a project. And while that was great, I think now we've realized that we went too far, perhaps in one direction of always being on. And I think now people are being a little bit more clear or understanding of creating better boundaries with technology. So when am I on, how do I set myself up for success? Am I balancing that a little bit more? So technology definitely impacted the work that we're able to do from anywhere, not necessarily from your home. But it comes with some pros and cons.   Mitch: (02:38) Absolutely. And I think anybody listening can relate. So, you know, you mentioned balance here and I want to get into that work life balance because it is so easy to work remotely and through the different tablets and laptops and phones and everything, that's at our fingertips. So what are some of the things that people can do to really just shut off both, you know, work and technology so that we can really, you know, make strides towards this work life balance?   Sammy: (03:06) Sure. So I have found that I'm paying far more attention to my screen time. At least Apple has this function. I'm uncertain about other models, where it tells you how much time you're spending on your screen. Similarly, apps like Google have taken a further kind of dive into the calendar settings and has allowed you to take a look at your calendar and understand when there is focus time when there is shutoff time, when there is even on my phone, I've set up sleep time where it knows that I'm gonna be winding down to go to sleep at a certain hour. So it starts going into, to kind of shut off mode. I don't really access social media at that time, or it lets me know that, Hey, you're in sleep mode. You might not wanna be checking, you know, Instagram right before you go to bed.   Sammy: (03:49) It makes you a lot more aware. I don't think that I even really had that visibility or was aware of how much time I was spending either on my computer tablet or phone, but now that Apple, at least, and many other applications are really starting to focus on how much time you are spending using technology. I think it's helped me create a better boundary of switching off or not always being on. I really think awareness is kind of the key to this. So for people that are asking that like Hey I'm uncertain, you know, what to do to get started. I always recommend take a look at your calendar, take a look at your habits and your day, and just start jotting down things that you're doing. How much time are you spending on that specific project? How much time are you spending in front of the computer?   Sammy: (04:33) Are you getting up to get that glass of water or do you wait until, you know, that specific task is done before you reward yourself with getting up and, you know, getting that glass of water, those things make a really big difference. And they even say those 10 to 15 seconds, 30 seconds breaks that you can take to, you know, get up and go refresh your water or whatever it might be. Grab a cup of coffee, really recharges your brain and allows you to be more creative. So I think for those that are looking, you know, to maybe just get started and want to shut off or create more boundaries, start documenting what you're doing and how you're using technology and start creating a little bit more limits. What do you wanna do with that time instead? Is it, you wanna read a book? You wanna meditate more, you wanna go for a walk, you want to spend more time with your kids. You wanna play with your dog. I think for those moments, and you can even put them into your calendar, block out those moments have been really effective and helps people at least shut off, from both work and technology to kind of maintain that healthier work life balance.   Mitch: (05:37) You know, I use focus time throughout the week, you know, on my calendar and other thing, turning off the phone and sleep mode, all that stuff. The whoop band that I have tells me when to go to bed. So I know all right, it's time to shut everything else down, leave it alone. So there is, there are so many options available to us. Really you just have to seek them out and take advantage of 'em. I think, because it's so helpful, at least in my personal experiences, you know, but that's on the personal side of things. And obviously everybody has gotten relatively accustomed to a different kind of work life balance. And as they adjust to everything you are mentioning, you know, they are seeking new things I think from work, right. And we're seeing a lot happening in the workforce today. So my next question for you is kind of taking it back to business a little bit, if you will. And from the employer's perspective, with the idea of work life balance in mind, how should these employers, how should these businesses really work to keep employees engaged and retain them? You know, like I said, with everything else going on today.   Sammy: (06:45) Yeah. I always think the first step is to acknowledge it. I think employers are now realizing that employees are not just employees anymore, that they're people with lives outside of work. And in reality, I know that this has always been the case, but anyone who has been on a zoom call in the last like 18 months now, we all know a lot more about their dogs, their cats, their kids, their partners, their parents. We know so much more about our colleagues and coworkers lives. I really think this blurred line of work and life encouraged employees to expect their companies to consider and acknowledge their whole selves and all of these roles that we play outside of work, whether that's parentho...

Contact Will: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williampeng/ Full Episode Transcript:Neha: (00:05) Welcome back for another episode of Count Me In. I'm your host Neha Lagoo Ratnakar. And this is IMA's podcast talking about all things that affect the accounting and finance world. Our featured guest for today is the CEO and co-founder at Northstar, Will Peng. Will co-founded Northstar, a financial wellness and benefits platform because of his inspiration by the positive change FinTech can have on people's lives. He set out to solve the inequality of our financial guidance and shares his insights with us as he discusses the inclusive and equitable support employees can receive from FinTech related apps and products. To hear more about how FinTech can improve financial stability, keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.   Mitch: (01:02) So Will, I know your history, right? That kind of led you into this FinTech space and a lot of what you do is about financial guidance. So what I would like to first start off our conversation with is asking you how will emerging FinTech really help solve some of these financial problems that a lot of individuals are facing today?   Will: (01:23) Yeah, this, this is a really interesting question because of my background. I started my career as a product designer. So thinking about the ways that behavioral psychology influences or limits people from making change with their finances, but also my time as a venture capitalist, investing in startups, a lot of FinTech startups seeing the new technology that enables us to solve a lot of these classic problems I've been around for, for a long time. And first and foremost, I think what's most exciting that technology can actually influence personal finances is the idea of financial accessibility. So who has access to financial advisors, financial best practices and for the longest time, financial advice has been mostly limited to people who already have money, people who are wealthy already. And if you look at this from first principles, the underlying reason is that the ways in which we deliver financial advice, and this is pretty broad definition, right?   Will: (02:29) Financial advice can be financial planning. It can be tax advice. It could be investment advice. The ways that we have delivered this advice have primarily been a hundred percent human driven. And when advice is human driven, you're limited kind of by the number of hours in the day, you can do the math pretty simply you have maybe a 40 hour work week. And if you're a financial planner, you have 60 to 90 minute sessions, and pretty quickly you realize that you need to charge a certain floor for your hourly rate. If you're a fee only financial advisor, and then you also see new business models around non fee only advisors who take commissions who referral fees and asset management fees. And that's a set for topic that we can talk about.   Will: (03:24) But I'm generally a proponent of fee only models because it most closely aligns the advisor with the client. But so, so if you think about financial accessibility from that perspective it's really exciting to think about the ways that technology can more scalably deliver advice both in the creation of the plans, as well as the delivery of the plans. And once you do that, you actually lower the floor of what you need to charge in order to stay in business. And so you kind of see this in, for example, the robo advisor world low cost index funds have been around for a while. But the emergence of robo advisors has been a really interesting development because now anybody can connect, get access to low cost index funds with a great user experience and, and invest with, with low minimums and this all came about because of technology. And so that market is relatively mature now I dunno if you saw recently that UBS acquired wealth front so really interesting thing about not only that specific vertical, but across all different verticals, what are the ways in which technology is making personal finances more accessible?   Mitch: (04:43) Yeah, it's really interesting because, you know, as we talk about making things more accessible and, you know, you mentioned a lot of the opportunities presented by technology for private finance and, you know, obviously many of our listeners, more the corporate finance, but still technology enabling a little bit more foresight and, and, you know, more data available, another theme in line with technology and kind of the profession. And also what you're doing here is making some of these resources essentially more inclusive and equitable, right? So you talked a little bit about kind of lowering that floor, but far as employees, you know, specifically in the workforce, how is this you know, equitable and inclusive relate to technology?   Will: (05:31) Yeah. So well, this is I'm glad you asked this question because this is a big part of what we do here at NorthStar. And we have this saying that financial wellness starts at work, and it's this fundamental idea that especially in the US, so much of our not only financial lives, but also our whole lives center around work. And what I mean by that is that work is the primary source of wealth creation for the majority of people. You get your salary, your retirement accounts, but you also get your health insurance plans through work. This whole idea of employer sponsored plans and a whole set of perks. If you work at a tech company, for example, you get equity compensation, and that's oftentimes really difficult to understand. So there's an education gap not only for equity, but just for personal finances in general.   Will: (06:18) And if you look at it from a macro perspective, we've really shifted away from defined benefit pension plans where my father still has a pension plan and so hopefully he can retire soon and he'll get a kind of predefined payout, but we you've moved into a world of defined contribution plans like 401k plans and HSAs and FSAs and the variety of things that you'd get from your employer have increased. Whereas your total compensation package was relatively simple in the past. Now it's really complicated. And our education system around finances and the support systems through to help people make the best decisions, best financial decisions have not caught up. And it's an unreasonable expectation that employees individuals know how to choose the right retirement plan or figure out how much you should put into your retirement plan each month, or how to use an HSA or how what's the best health insurance plan for me.   Will: (07:27) I think the what's been really interesting to see the rhetoric around policy has been around the idea of choice where if you remember from the healthcare reform debates there is this idea of choice and it's true that the HSAs are incredibly powerful. They have what's called triple tax savings that most people don't know about. But it requires back to the point I made earlier about behavioral psychology, because it is so complex. Most people don't utilize them. And so even though it's a powerful option, most people don't use it, which means that the choice is a double-edged sword. So you need to, you need to pair choice with education and advice on how to best utilize these new tools. So I think there's a really interesting responsibility that employers have today to not only give people the tools, but also the advice to make those best decisions for themselves.   Mitch: (08:34) And let's, you know, continue on this topic and the conversation...

Connect with Dr. Lewis Full Transcript:Mitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In. IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Mitch Roshong, and you are listening to episode number 177 of our series. Today's conversation features Dr. Anton Lewis, an associate professor of accounting at Valparaiso University, whose research investigates the experience of black accountants in the profession and promotes equitable racial representation. In his conversation with my co-host Adam, Dr. Lewis talks about DE&I in accounting, common flaws relating to diversity equity and inclusion in the workplace, as well as what can be done and what he is already doing to advance and improve equitable representation across the industry. Keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.   Adam: (00:59) So Anton, historically conversation about race and the workplace, particularly within accounting simply have not happened. Now, there have been great achievements in DE&I, but there's still much room for improvement in our industry. Why do you think that is?   Anton: (01:16) Adam, If I had to really give you an answer to that, I actually think it is because we in society and in particular US society have a great deal of problems talking about the subject of race and racial representation. It's almost a taboo subject in many ways. So the problem is we know we have poor representation currently. We know we've historically had poor representation, but nobody really wants to talk about why that is because race and racism are sticky, unpleasant subjects to talk about. And part of what seems to be my life's cause now is a core trying to provoke a conversation around this area, which is not polarizing, which is almost impossible to do by definition. But to my mind, if we can't have a conversation about race, racism, why we have poor black representation in our accounting profession and have had historically, and, you know, if we can't have this conversation and it be at two polar opposite ends to this, but yet still respect each other, each one another's views, we will not actually significantly change the situation. We will not deal with this problem effectively. And to my mind, that has kind of been the status quo for quite some time.   Adam: (02:58) Yeah, that makes sense. I think I've seen that as well, but as we specifically like focus in on accounting, as you kind of did there at the end, you are often the only person of color in a predominantly white workplace day in and day out, you know, how have you handled that and what have you done to advance the way that is perceived or how you feel about it?   Anton: (03:18) It's tricky, isn't it? There are those critical theorists, critical race theorists among others who talk about this environmental microaggression that occurs being the only black person in an accounting organization or any other organization that when you step foot in the building of which you work and you are one of the three people out of 500 that work there without anybody saying anything without anybody saying you don't belong, you feel it in the very walls of the institution you're in, and it can be a quite effective way of pushing those of difference out of the doors in terms of how one deals with that. It's difficult. the entire reason why I look at the area of race and racism and where I'm originally from, from Britain as you may hear in my accent when I was a jobing accountant, so to speak, that would happen to me all the time.   Anton: (04:25) And it's the reason that I began to look at this subject topic, cause I always wanted to know, well, why am I the only one there? And as I was experiencing this, I really wanted to have other people of color, other black people, other black professionals, ironically, to talk about this, to say, I'm not going mad. Am I, are you having this feeling as well? And the truth of the matter if they just weren't there and it becomes a circular problem, right? What am I doing to try to change this? Because I'm an accounting professor. One of the things I try to do is encourage now I'm here in the United States, as many African Americans as many black accountants as I can into profession with more numbers, it kind of gets rid of that feeling of being alone. But unfortunately it's still a very difficult process.   Anton: (05:17) Another thing that I've tried to do is write more publicly in things like the CPA journal. I've tried to increase my social media presence. I've tried to reach out with my own podcast, Counting Black and White Beans as an idea to be able to be used as a resource to allow those black accountants who feel isolated, who are feeling a little bit lost, let them know that this is not unusual, that this is actually quite common, whether it's in the United Kingdom or the United States, and for them to have a feeling of kinship, of a kindred kind of effect for one of a better word kind of saying you're in, we're in this together. And so I'm afraid to say, Adam, if you're looking for an absolute definite answer as to how does one deal with the isolation often of being one of the few black people within an accounting environment, I can't give you any firm answers to that. I suspect it's as difficult to deal with today. As I found it decades ago,   Adam: (06:27) I'd imagine it is, it's not easy being underrepresented in any profession. But for the black accountant, there has to be various stereotypes that are there tales. Can you explain how or why these stereotypes exist and what impact that misinformation has?   Anton: (06:42) Yeah. And again, these stereotypes exist in our profession and other professions as well. Because we, in my opinion, and many others live in a racialized environment, you know, we, our racialized views of those who are different from ourselves, don't stop at the doors of the organizations that we work in. Some of the traditional stereotypes that black accountants often have to deal with that I've found in my research and many other's is one would be of being angry. If you are a black male accountant, and I should be clear here, there are different stereotypes often for black women accountants and black male accountants. So for black male accountants, anger is often an issue. So, you know, if one is out on an audit and you find something has come up and you're in the middle of a meeting with your team to try to address this issue and tempers become a little bit frayed.   Anton: (07:54) If you are the black accountant, you understand clearly that you cannot be passionate like your white colleagues, because that is seen as being angry and unprofessional and unbecoming, that latitude is not afforded to you. And of course it makes it difficult in terms of impression management. Once we come around and look at performance evaluations and it may come up that you are unprofessional, angry, you scare inverted clients. On the polar opposite, perhaps would be the experience that many black women professionals have of being seen as the Sapphire, this steely hard unemotional unempathetic professional that is cold sometimes also can be angry in that negative way. But the idea here is that she is not a team player. She is overbearing she's quintessentially, anti feminine or unfeminine, if you like in this setting and be it with just these two examples of stereotypes that you mentioned that are often prevalent to the black accounting or black professional experience, whether it's being too angry, if you are a black male accountant or being positioned as Sapphire as a black woman accountant, both positionalities for wont of bette...

Contact Paul Ruppert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulruppertintl/ Full Transcript:Adam: (00:05) Hey everyone. Thank you for coming back to listen to another episode of Count Me In, I am your host Adam Larson, and this is episode 176 of our series. As we hold conversations about various topics impacting the accounting and finance world, one of the underlying themes across most is strategy. In this episode, you'll hear from Paul Ruppert, an ambidextrous executive with deep experience in startups, as well as global fortune 100 enterprises who shares as knowledge and expertise on strategic partnerships. Keep listening to hear more about how the finance team can best support large strategic initiatives for the organization.  Mitch: (00:50) So as we get through today's conversation, we're gonna look at some concepts around strategy, strategic partnerships, but I think it's first important to kick off what are some of the biggest considerations or are challenges that many are facing in today's business landscape?  Paul: (01:06) I think, you know, many people get into business thinking that there's some linearity from a plus B plus C equals D equation, but in reality, it's all about adaptability and change. And change is not only the change that you experience when you start facing various types of problems and challenges and friction points, but also your ability to manifest change, create that change and live through that change. I've been involved in businesses on a global basis and how I approach the business in the US was very different than I was approaching the business when I was in Hong Kong or in Europe. And that adaptability, that agility as it's often described, you know, in technology is really the the watch word more than anything else, in my view. You know, there's, as I mentioned earlier, earlier before our call, I don't believe in a silver bullet solution.  Mitch: (02:13) And as we talk about adaptability, agility, you know, the bottom line is we are looking to advance the business, right, advance the function and adapt to modern advancements. And I think you just kind of mentioned briefly technology here, but without having a crystal ball and being able to see into the future perfectly, what does the future of business really look like? And, you know, as we continue to adapt and be agile, what are we really preparing for? What is the future of the business landscape look like?  Paul: (02:45) Well, you know, that's a big, big question in the context of where is everything going. If you just look at our immediate past in past history, you know, three years ago, I'm involved in the text messaging business and it's been around, it's how, you know, enterprises communicate and connect with end consumers. And we live through it on a day to day basis. When you get tested for what's called a one time password, you know, you just proving that you are who you are. And the business let's say three plus years ago was moving steadily along. And let's say let's call grocery store rates, meaning about three to 5% growth rate. This is a fairly established industry. You know, it's roughly about $200 billion of business globally. It's quite large, but people don't really experience on a day to day basis relative to cost and effect if you will, but they still utilize it.  Paul: (03:47) And since the pandemic, because of the dynamics of how we behave as human beings and being working from home environments and the fact that we are now utilizing zoom and video, et cetera, the reality is that the messaging business has grown to about 30% CAGR for the next three years is what the expectation is. And I am of the belief that once human beings experience something much more convenient for them, they usually don't turn backwards and want to do something less convenient. Okay. So in all of that context, that's kind of the dynamics of where we are going, what it looks like and the over the horizon perspective, the crystal ball, as you characterized it is that your expectations often may be unexpected. Things may not go as you think they are going. And there's lots of converging factors, you know, digitalization prior to COVID, the growth of it, the speed of it, the means in which many business were able to quickly and with great agility pivot to new types of initiatives, you know, I can talk about call centers that were stripped down from being on premise in the course of four to five days and redistributed to the the call center rep's homes, because everybody shifted, you know, we couldn't be in large groups any longer, it was just too unsafe.  Mitch: (05:22) Now a lot of our listeners are in, you know, the business of opportunity recognition. And I know it's very difficult and maybe unexpected as some of these you know, evolutions arise. You know, we first spoke, I know you mentioned something along the lines of you know, the business landscape reaching 6G. So with some of this uncertainty but so much opportunity, what can our listeners really take away you know, from the idea or what should they be doing really to maybe open their eyes a little bit and see what this opportunity means for their individual businesses,  Paul: (06:03) Right. Yeah. You know, we all watch well, many of us watch professional football, the NFL on weekends, and, you know, the number of mobile phone companies like principally T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon all talking about 5G. And then if you were to turn to your spouse or friend that you're watching the game with and ask the question, so why is 5G better than 4G outside of the reach? You know the reality there is that what we're doing right now is probably gonna be the, one of the big manifestations of 5G value, which is video and speed and processing. And so as we then move to 6G, then it becomes much more engaged on such things as what's called sentiment and intent. So you might be reaching out to, you know, let's say your mobile phone provider, because you've got an issue with your iPhone or something along those lines and that inbound call or inbound message or whatever it might be that platform that you're utilizing to connect with your provider, they already have a sense of what your intent is.  Paul: (07:17) Why are you calling, you know, and that's, you know, consumer data products and platforms that are looking at combining your personal behavior, as well as the fact that you might have an iPhone eight. And, you know, the lifespan of that iPhone eight is probably five years past it's optimal performance. And so soon as they start talking to you, whether or human being, or not, whether it's a chatbot that may come into the dialogue as to, would you like to upgrade your phone? We see that it's six, seven years old, something along those lines, that's the kind of stuff that'll be playing out, which is a little spooky.  Mitch: (07:59) It is, it definitely is, but everybody's looking for the answers as fast as possible. Right. So if that means getting them to the solution sooner, I think we're just going to adapt and take that luxury eventually. So with that in mind, you know, I think, like I said, going back to opportunity recognition, this is an opportunity for individuals to really expand their horizon, right. And it's an opportunity to possibly, you know, take their business or their function and look to build some strategic partnerships with others who are able to bring those opportunities to us. So when it comes to strategic partnerships, what are some of the things that individuals should really pursue or make sure that they have you know, for both sides, I suppose to make sure that this endeavor is worthwhile, you know, with technology, there i...