Count Me In®

Today we go inside the financial transformation process at Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) with CFO John Greene. John joins Adam Larson to discuss how Discover’s focus on innovation and corporate culture has empowered the finance team to be better business partners to the entire organization.Connect with John: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-greene-/Full Episode Transcript:Adam: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, the podcast that looks at business issues and trends from the management accountant's perspective. Today, we are speaking with John Greene, the CFO of Discover Financial Services, the company behind the Discover credit card and the television ads with the catchy tagline, "We Treat You Like You'd Treat You". I'm sure you've heard the term financial transformation before, which is basically the process of bringing digital tools and technology to the finance team inside organizations. Today, we are gonna look at how that process actually works at Discover and why it's critical to strike the right balance between driving innovation and making sure team members feel empowered along the way. Let's get started.   Adam: (00:51) So, John, I just really want to thank you for coming on the podcast today. It's, really a pleasure to have you on and today our focus is gonna be around finance and innovation and how those two connect together. And so as we start off, I just want to ask what are your guiding principles when it comes to finance and innovation and how they connect.  John: (01:08) Great. Adam, great to be here. So, you know, my guiding principles are first, we want to make sure we have the right people and the right sort of jobs. So by that, I mean, people with the right skillset, the right values, high level of integrity that are working towards a common mission, which would be to going to benefit our customers and the organization and the financial outcomes that we're seeking. So that's really, really important. And being able to connect the organization mission to individual objective's really, really important, both from an innovation standpoint, as well as from a team building standpoint. And then the second guiding principle would be to ensure we have the right organization design and the right structure to make people successful. So that includes having the right level of technology, the right commission, the right focus on innovation in order to have people feel like they're empowered to be able to make the changes that we're seeking to drive within the organization.  Adam: (02:19) But then when you look at innovation from an organizational perspective, is there like a definition of what counts as innovation? And then what does that look like for each employee?  John: (02:29) Yeah, so for me, innovation is a really, really broad concept. It can be as simple as changing the way we do do something on a day to day basis, which would be innovative, or it can be leveraging technology in entirely different way or leveraging new technology to drive innovation. So, you know, a couple examples of kind of changing the way we've done things here at Discover, without the benefit of technology would be, you know, our journal entry process. So we were doing almost two, 2000 journal entries a month. Every time we closed the books and through some process redesign some change of policies, as well as taking a different look at how we focused on certain accounts, we reduced the number of journal entries we did on a monthly basis by about 40%.  John: (03:33) So, think about it. That is, that is 400 entries that, you know, someone doesn't have to kind of put together, get the backup file, and then review. So, you know, without technology, a high degree of innovation there in terms of process redesign, we did the same. We did the same sort of thing with our FPNA, processes. So think budgeting and forecasting. We, took a look at what was important for the organization, how timely we needed updates on, where the company was going financially. And we eliminated, one third of the forecast we were doing. So what went down from six to four, what it did is it freed up capacity to spend time on analytics. Now, there are two examples that involved process redesign, not necessarily technology.  Adam: (04:34) Now we've deployed RPA, so we call them bots here in Discover and, you know, that has also enabled us to further reduce journal entries. It has also taken manual work out of a number of different areas within the finance organization. So, that that's been a win. And on top of it, we switched out from an old McCormick and Dodge, general ledger system, and just implemented, Oracle cloud, here. We put it in about, a year and a half. It went in, frankly, in a really, really smooth way on time under budget, but what that's enabled us to do is take out nearly half the cost centers we have here. So, the combination of kind of process redesign and leveraging technology and new technology we've really changed the way we work. And we freed up significant amount of time to analyze the business rather than tell the business or report on what has happened in the business.  Adam: (05:46) So as you've freed up that time to analyze, have you seen, have you already been seeing the benefits from even team morale being able to change their job description of, Hey, I'm going to stop these 400 extra journal entries to analyzing something else, has that improved even just employees as they get to do new things?  John: (06:09) Yes. Actually, so, you know, change can be, you know, harder on some people than others. And so what, what we've tried to do here is focus on a culture of, of creating positive change that will improve analytics and efficiency without the risk of job loss. So in the situation we're in right now, we have a level of normalized turnover, just like every organization does. And we've been able to absorb that turnover redesign, you know, people's kind of responsibilities or organizations without impacting kind of employment in a negative way by that. I mean, you know, we haven't had wholesale layoffs or reductions. What we've done is enrich people's jobs by taking out what I'll say is more transactional or non-value work. And, you know, that's translated into some positive results on our engagement surveys. And I feel like it's really been beneficial in terms of motivating some folks as we've been able to expand job responsibilities.  Adam: (07:23) That's amazing to hear that that's the initiative you've taken. I know that I'm sure the employees appreciate it, but it's also an innovative way of, looking at the human capital and investing in them as opposed to just slashing them and saying, well, we need to get rid of them.  John: (07:39) Yeah. And you know, lot of credit for that is to the organization, in the entirety. So Discover spent, you know, decades trying to create the right balance of financial performance and culture. And, you know, the folks that come here, I think have enjoyed that aspect of the culture in terms of trying to create an atmosphere that, you know, operates with as little bias as possible, that values innovation, that if values change, but also respects kind of human capital and tries to create the best experience for our teams.  Adam: (08:22) So you've been talking about the great improvements and innovations that have happened through technology and other ways that, you know, have helped the journal ledgers and using RPAs and bots. But what changes have you noticed in your responsibilities, and expectations, especially during these last two years with COVID?  John: (08:41) Yeah, so great question. So, you...

Connect with Braden: https://www.linkedin.com/in/braden-cadenelli-a0737b108/ Full Episode Transcript:Adam (00:05):I'm Adam Larson and welcome to Count Me In, the podcast that explores the world of business from the management accountants perspective. Coming up, I speak with Braden Cadenelli about the realities of implementing sustainability practices in the food industry.Adam (00:20):Braden is a professional baker in pastry chef who runs six state-of-the-art test kitchens for Puratos, a company which makes ingredients and products for bakers patissies, and chocolatiers around the world. This podcast helped me understand how sustainability practices must be baked into the financial planning and budgeting process at companies in order to drive long term value. And Braden is finding that management accountants are excited to work with him on his sustainability issues, especially when he brings the treats. Let's listen in now. Braden, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. We really appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise with us. And as we jump in to get started we know that many businesses are dealing with the reality that adopting sustainable business practices is really what's needed to be successful in the future and also is what's needed for our planet. Can you share a bit about your story, about how you came to see that this is a need and how you started the process with your company?Braden (01:20):Of course, Adam, thank you so much having me on today. I really appreciate it. And I'm excited to get to share and talk about a subject that I'm very passionate about, and that is sustainability and specifically sustainability within the food industry. There's really for our specific company where I work. We're Puratos, we're a bakery ingredient company. There's really two specific factors that have led us to our sustainability initiatives. The first one is that we are a family-owned company and the second generation of those families is starting to move into leadership roles within the company. And sustainability is a very important topic to younger people. Not to say it wasn't on the radar of the generations before not to say it wasn't important. It's even more important to the leaders who are coming up now, not only through our company, but in other companies as well.Braden (02:18):The second is consumer demand. We work in the food industry. There's a large demand over the past 10 to 15 years to clean up food. And a lot of people say they want to have food labels where they can pronounce everything on that label. If you're going to put that focus on cleaning up your food label and caring so much about the food you are creating as a food manufacturer, you have to care about how you're creating it. You have to care about every step of the system that gets you to that final finished product. And what that means is nowadays you have to have a sustainable system if for no other reason so that you can continue to be a successful business in the marketplace.Adam (03:11):I can see how that would be super important, especially if you're listening to your customers. Has it been difficult to start that path as especially with, you know, you're listening to your customers, but you also have to worry about your bottom line. So there's so many different things that you have to weigh. What has that process been like? Especially, you know, obviously this is a podcast for accountants, you know, what's this been look like as you're looking at your bottom line, working with your finance team, trying to see what is the best way to do this?Braden (03:40):Well specifically in my role. So to fill the listeners in a little bit, I manage a network of test kitchens within the United States and we have six test kitchens. That means I also have a little bit of a reach into some of our other practical physical facilities. When I work directly with our finance team in this aspect, it's all about long term planning. It is all about targeting the solutions that are going to work for our kitchens, and then making sure that we have the financial capital to be able to implement those solutions. So it's really, I have monthly meetings with the finance team, making sure that I am telling them what it is that I'm going to be looking into purchasing why I need to make these purchases and building out a proper budget. A lot of my job around sustainability is actually around budgeting and making sure that I'm doing the research and I'm talking to the right industry people and finding the right solutions and then finding ways to plan for them.Adam (04:43):That's great. So you have a really good relationship with your finance team then, because obviously if you didn't, you wouldn't be able to work on this project at all.Braden (04:51):Exactly. No, I'm very lucky. I mean, sometimes I have to bribe them with a cake or a cookie or a brownie if I really, you know, annoy them, if I forget to submit a report on time or if I forget to put a project through in power steering the right way. Generally speaking though. Yeah. We have a great relationship. It's really, for me, very interesting to get, to see that side of the business and get to play a role in planning out these long term projects and what the finances for those mean.Adam (05:22):So as you've become a partner with that team, are there other teams that you've had to kind of become a bridge with to kind of make this project a success?Braden (05:32):Yes. That's a great question because you cannot accomplish anything in any kind of business. It doesn't matter food industry or not. You cannot accomplish anything without learning how to partner with and work with other departments and other people. I heard a great saying once, and it was said to catch people's attention and it was all business is personal. And a lot of people, especially if you grew up watching eighties movies, you go, well, what about all those movies where they just said, oh, it's nothing personal. It's just business.Braden (06:01):All business though is personal because you're conducting business with other people. So what I've had to do is I've had to, A.) Get buy in from my own department, because when we're talking about sustainability, we're talking about changing people's daily activities because we are changing or removing resources that they are used to having. So I need to find solutions that they'll buy into. And so that they see the long term vision of this. I then have to sell the finance team on why we need to budget for this. For example, let's say we need to remove one use disposable item, but we need the CapEx to purchase a reusable item in its place, reusable that involves a capital expenditure, right. Something that I'm gonna use once and throw away. That's more OPEX. I control. I'm lucky I control OPEX for my department. I only have a small say in CapEx, right?Braden (06:59):The other people that I really have to have buy in from is our engineering team. They're the ones who are out there helping me, scour the industry and look for solutions. And then helping me implement the solutions. Because if we're talking again from a financial perspective, it's not only the solution. If I'm replacing, let's say a piece of technology, let's say a piece of bakery equipment that is very heavy in a certain type of utility usage. I need the tradespeople to take out the old machine. They need to install the new machine. There's an entire part of that process that isn't necessarily seen by everybody, but I need to worry about it and...

Connect with Sergio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lutav/Full Episode Transcript:Neha (00:05):Welcome to Count Me In. I'm Neha Lagoo Ratnakar. And today I'm speaking with Sérgio Tavares about design thinking and why it's crucial for leaders and management accountants to understand the basics of design thinking in a digital-first business world. Sérgio is a design leader at Frog where he researches humans, culture and society to create digital solutions that better meet consumer needs. This is a very interesting conversation as we discuss how management accountants can help shape the metrics and what data designers should be focusing on to alleviate pressure points and deliver better digital solutions. So let's get started with Sérgio.Neha (00:53):Welcome Sérgio. It's such a pleasure to have you on the show. Now let's start with the basics for people who might be new to design thinking. Can you give us a simple definition of design thinking?Sérgio (01:05):Hi, Neha. Thanks for having me on the show. I think design thinking is a term that came about already in the sixties and it talks a lot about what is the customer need, the end customer need? I think we came from an era of advertising and marketing that we're more trying to persuade the people to want certain things, to consume certain products and design thinking, subverted that by looking into what they really need the things they know they need, but also the things that they don't know yet that they need and supplying these needs.Neha (01:45):Wow. Okay. I love that. And I'm totally going to steal that in my next conversation.Sérgio (01:49):Great.Neha (01:51):All right. So I like how design thinking it keeps customers in the center and what are the challenges that companies these days are facing when it comes to this customer centricity?Sérgio (02:04):Yes, that's, that's an excellent point. I think many companies are finding a lot of challenge to compete with the startup scene. I think the startup scene is going through a change now. We're a little bit past the move fast break things time. So we are seeing the downfall of the first unicorns we had. We crash Zuckerberg had so many problems with democracy and then the whole thing with the fake news. And there's, there's all the ups and downs with Elon Musk going to Twitter. So there's a lot that is telling us that this first wave or this wave was over and companies are now need to compete in a different way with startups. I think that the challenge that companies are facing is also that startups, they have very well understood that they need to look into the customer needs.Sérgio (03:07):And it's very simple for them to do that. They just get out of the building as the jargon says and run interviews fast prototypes and then create their product or improve their product. And then when you come to AB corporation, this is very difficult because there's so much procurement hierarchy and it becomes very difficult to just move very fast. So when it comes to customer centricity, I think that is where startups have an advantage and companies have problem because they need to output the results. They need to push harder, their marketing efforts, their existing efforts, and rethinking their products around the customer is something quite demanding.Neha (03:53):Right. Wow. That, that was very insightful. And when you talk about being customer centric, how does that translate to being customer centric within the organization? For example, how does your work at Frog apply this customer centricity internally?Sérgio (04:10):Yes. I think the first thing that we come as a Frog consultant, for example, we come to a customer is like, tell me where the research room is. And that usually means that there is no room. And so that means that we need to structure that. So we need to ask first let's run a round of questions, a survey out there to your target customers or to a specific segment you want to work with. And that means also that this research that you order it'll fall into an empty drawer. So you need to create the drawer. You need to create a structure that will catalog and categorize research and put it into use in product development or marketing or on the operations. So I think that's the first thing.Neha (05:05):So building the airplane as you fly it.Sérgio (05:10):Yes, yes, exactly. That just gives us a bit of speed and it's easier to show that we are getting insights about the customers. We're getting ideas on how to make our product more desirable, viable, usable for customers. And that's usually a good way to start because in corporations, you need to start convincing like the whole hierarchy. So it starts to connect with the KPIs and it starts to need to connect to the financial numbers.Neha (05:43):Right.Sérgio (05:44):So it's not very easy to sell, like, okay, in 10 years this idea will pay off, but you can start by saying, let's discover what we can do to change things right now, and how a better experience, for example, of a digital service will mean less time that people take to let's say, use our product. And that means faster onboarding, and that means more revenue, right? So when you start to create this connection, that's when design thinking connects with financial departments management consultants and so forth. These connections are quite new designers. They were often seen as the creative side, and they are usually with high fly ideas. That won't be very sustainable. But when we start to work with business consultants that that's started to change.Neha (06:42):And you're right, the perspective on design is changing everywhere. I've also heard people talk about customer journey maps and our listeners who are many of them are from accounting and finance world, would like to understand how that helps clients with the accounting, most importantly, but also their KPIs, OKRs, metrics and operations, the hard facts of a business.Sérgio (07:09):Yes. So the customer journey is basically a map of all the interactions that the end customer goes through when interacting with your product or service. So that may seem very far fetched from accountants, but I would think it's not, for example, in a model that I have developed with the client during this year we have throughout the journey, all the pain points and highlights through the experience. So let's think of a, let's say a bank or an insurance company or any service, really. So you have a person that is first deciding if they're going to buy it, then they let's say in case of an insurance, then you have the time that a person's gonna make a decision. If they're gonna get a more premium account. And then they have another part of their journey where they're actually making a claim.Sérgio (08:05):So all these the customer goes through all these, what happens often is that the designers or the people taking care of the product are looking a lot on the customer pains. And they are telling for example, the company customers need to be able to claim very fast for where they have some, a broken, broken device at home. So we need to make this very easy. And then on the other side, you have the accountants, for example, that are saying, look if we make this just immediate, we're gonna have more fraud. So I developed this model where we add to the customer journey, the pressure points that are internal to the company, pressuring the solution stores customers. And then we can have a real...

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...