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Dr. Sean Stein Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-sean-stein-smith-dba-cpa-63307444/President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Releases Report and Recommendations on Stablecoins: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0454Stablecoins Might Be On The Hot Seat, But Are Integral For Crypto Innovation: https://www.forbes.com/sites/seansteinsmith/2021/11/29/stablecoins-might-be-on-the-hot-seat-but-are-integral-for-crypto-innovation/?sh=6628d556674dFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:04) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Adam Larson, and for episode 156, we welcome back Dr. Sean Stein Smith. With the constant evolution and advancements around crypto. Sean joins count me in again to talk about various reports and newsworthy information relating to stablecoins and digital assets. From standards on cryptocurrency to NFTs and decentralized finance. You'll want to keep listening to learn about what it all means and hear some of the potential future implications. Let's head over the conversation now.  Mitch: (00:48) So Sean, you've joined us for a few episodes now and in previous conversations you've discussed blockchain. Lastly, we talked about accounting standards for cryptocurrencies. Now there have been more advancements and additional considerations around crypto assets. I'd first like to get your thoughts on the report and the recommendations on stablecoins from the president's working group on financial markets. I know that came out a few weeks ago now, early November. I was just wondering if you can kind of summarize what was included in that report and why it is so important as an update.  Sean: (01:21) Absolutely Mitch. And I'm always happy to be on here talking with you blockchain, crypto asset updates, because it really is one: a hot topic and two: an area that is increasingly of importance for everybody working in accounting, finance, economic roles, whether in industry management or elsewhere. So, so in terms of sort of the highlights and the core points in the president's working group report there really what I would say is that honestly, on the one hand, I would say that the involved actors, right, be it, the OCC, FDIC, private sector corporations had done a pretty good job at outlining the, the base case and the fundamentals for how a stablecoin operates. Right. But on the other hand, they were, I believe a bit overt or unbalanced in terms of how they analyzed the whole stablecoin ecosystem, right. In terms of the pros and the cons. And especially in terms of the, risks, right, that having a actual stablecoin based payment network actually get, get to that level of being used at a commercial level by either corporations or by whole nation states. But, overall, probably the top two or three points there is that one they've, they've done a good job at researching and trying to pull out sort of who the, big players are out there. And there honestly really only are a handful of them and the, and the bulk of the transactions happening in any stablecoin outlook now are handled by a, by a handful of organizations and the bulk of those, transactions are also happen with coins backed on the one-to-one basis at the US dollar. And then two, sort of they also did a good job, I believe at outlining sort of the pros and cons, obviously more on the cons side, but, but a pretty good job at outlining the pros and cons of having a stablecoin based payment network versus the current Fiat based network. And then three. And, and here's where I think there's the most promise, but also the highest risk. On the one hand, they also outlined and by they, I mean, the members of the working group, outlined really what, what, factors and components any organizations trying to use a stablecoin payment network would have to take into account meaning who the counterparties are, who has the insurance, and then how are these platforms and these connections between these different involved organizations able to be secure. And then ultimately the end result of all of that of that conversation and I believe the actual report was about 28 pages. The end result kind of mirrors the policy paper put out by Coinbase back on October. And, and in both of those white papers, both of which were between 15, and 30 pages long. So they aren't massive documents, but the end goal or the end call to action on both documents, which I find quite interesting is this call for a new crypto specific, regulator that, that, that has powers or is imbued with powers by, by Congress to directly oversee all aspects of the, crypto asset space. So overall probably I would give it like a "B Minus" in terms of the output. Cause on the one hand, the working group did a good job at outline the issues, outlining terminology, characteristics, and traits, and, highlighting some of the core issues out there. But they were, I believe a bit unbalanced in their outlook in terms of the pros and the cons.  Mitch: (05:31) It's so funny, you bring that up because I read through the paper and as we got towards the end, you know, particularly when they summarized everything at the end, there's a statement that they gave, it says while the scope of this report is limited to stablecoins, work on digital assets and other innovations related to cryptographic and distributed ledger technology is ongoing throughout the administration. So it sounds like they are aware that they did not cover everything that they needed to necessarily, or maybe something else is in the works. You know, that's kinda where I was going with my next question. Other innovations in this space, can you take a guess at what they might be referring to?  Sean: (06:11) I mean, man, if I had access to that data, I mean, I'd be on a beach somewhere, which, but probably if I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the top two areas, and obviously there have been quite, public comments out of the SEC and the IRS in terms of their really uptick in compliance efforts, collection efforts, enforcement efforts. So I would say that probably one output or outcome that I am sort of eyeing to happen during 2022 is that there is going to be out of some agency don't know which one yet. I would say probably the SEC there is going to be some sort of, framework or guideline to help companies get a better handle on which type of crypto asset falls into which, financial instrument bucket. And by that, I actually mean if I'm issuing a token or a coin, is that gonna be treated as a, equity, security, commodity or some other form of instrument? So I say on the one hand, that's probably an area, that they are trying to work on and by they, if the White House Congress and the various, oversight agencies, and then two, what I would say is that currently I'm hearing quite a bit of, chatter about NFTs, but I haven't hearing quite a bit about NFTs because even though now the conversation around NFTs is, you know, kind of focused on like the Board Ape NFTs and you know, Beeple in March of this year. And it's more athlete and artist and artwork focused the implications for this new type of crypto asset nonfunctional token, or, NFT are actually quite broad. So I would not be surprised at all if, you know, going forward NFTs are an area that the White House and policy makers and regulators try to really get a handle on, right. Because they because on the one hand, Bitcoin ...

Jennifer Wolfenbarger, CMA, Vice President of Finance at Owens Corning, joins Count Me In to talk about business transformation. Business transformation is a term we often hear in finance and accounting, but there are numerous perspectives on the topic. Jennifer is a success driven, high impact and commercially astute executive that has a history of driving value creation, excelling in dynamic, fast paced and demanding environments and one who has a passion for driving continuous improvement. So, in this episode, she discusses her view on transformation, the finance function's role, various benchmarks to consider, and the value of change management. Download and listen now!Contact Jennifer Wolfenbarger, CMA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-wolfenbarger-cma-5534ab1/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05)Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Mitch Roshong. And today you will be listening to episode 155 of our series. The speaker on today's podcast is Jennifer Wolfenbarger. Jennifer is the vice president of finance at Owens Corning. She is a success driven, high impact and commercially astute executive that has a history of driving value creation, excelling in dynamic, fast paced and demanding environments, and one who has a passion for driving continuous improvement. So it is only appropriate that her focus for today's episode is on business transformation. Specifically, Jennifer addresses the role the finance function plays in enabling transformation and the need for effective change management. Keep listening to hear more as we jump over to the conversation now.Adam: (01:05)So today we're talking about business transformation and it's a term we're hearing a lot in finance and accounting and to get started. I just wanted to take, get your take on why is it so important now, especially?Jennifer: (01:16)Yeah, I think, is a great question and, you know, no matter what industry you operate in and I've, I've had the opportunity to operate in, you know, heavy equipment, building construction products, automotive med tech, and now, and building construction products. And no matter what industry you operate in, it's likely competitive. And the question is how do you differentiate yourself financially from your competitors? And what I've found over the course of my experiences at margin expansion is super, super critical. And business transformation is a key enabler to, to margin expansion, process improvement, like LEAN have been around for decades and typically drive incremental gains, which is important, but transformation is really key to moving the needle on margin expansion significantly to the point where, you know, you're, you're looking at revaluing, potentially the, the value of your company, business transformation is also critical to, you know, to a business culture, to be readily adaptable, to capitalize on opportunities to improve, whether it be through business growth or cost transformation, supply chain, transformation, et cetera, you know, having a culture of business transformation where it's, it's feels as natural as it possibly can is a game changer for a company and really a differentiator.Adam: (02:46)So when we're looking at the finance function specifically, they're going to play a role in completing the, that transformation. So how does the finance function play a role and then what are some of its top enablers?Jennifer: (02:57)Sure, sure. You know, I see the finance function playing a number of key roles and oftentimes may not even feel like they're really finance roles, not only in just completing the transformation, but also really kind of, even before you, you set the set, forward on, on, transformation itself, a key key role. They play finance plays is an identifying opportunities for transformation. And, you know, no matter from my experience, no matter where you are in, in terms of organizational capability and so forth, there are always opportunities. And sometimes prioritizing those opportunities is, is half is, is a battle in and of itself. So that's where finance plays a unique role in identifying and also helping prioritize what are what's going to make, you know, give us the biggest bang for our buck, the biggest return on investment, and be key to really moving the needle from an enterprise perspective. Then once the transformation opportunities identified, finance plays another key role in establishing governments, governance structures around how we measure progress, how we stay on track, how we stay on scope, through our goals, scope creep is, is, is quite common, particularly in transformation initiatives. And so it's important that we stay, that we have guard rails and governance systems to keep us on track. And these structures may not necessarily be financial. Oftentimes they're not financial guardrails, many times they could be operational or timeline-based, what have you, but finance plays a huge role in, in establishing governance structures. These, these structures are really critical in terms of ensuring how, how we hold, the necessary and applicable leaders that are driving the transformation, how we hold them accountable and also highlight early and often where we might need to course correct, which is, which is super important to enabling the success of a transformation. Some of the top enablers for completing transformation. I would say data can't be underscored data often plays a big role in, something that I'll likely talk about as we get into the podcasts a little further, but change management is super important in any transformation. And oftentimes that really what that means is influencing. And, it might mean getting, getting key stakeholders on board, but this is not only what we need to do, but how we need to do it from a transformation perspective. And then I'd say, lastly, enterprise focus is a key enabler. This isn't about hitting an isolated goal. When we're talking about transformation, this is about really shifting the needle on our enterprise performance. And I mentioned change management that is so easily overlooked in, in transformation. And what I've found from my experience, you need to ensure that you properly invest in train change management, because what you're going to find is that no matter how much data you put out there and how convincing it is that we need to take action. And, and this is how we need to take action, not everyone in the business is going to be on board. And that could be day one day, two days, day 30. So it's important that we go through that we take the time to invest in, in change management and ensure that we have everyone that's involved in the transformation marching in the same direction.Adam: (06:47)Of course. So it's like you're steering a massive ship and you gotta make sure everybody's doing all their parts to get where you're going in a sense. Right,Jennifer: (06:56)Exactly. Exactly. I was just going to add to that, you know, I think, you know, choosing the folks, the team members that are part of the transformation are super important. You kind of touched on that a little bit, made me think of that, about this is that diversity in terms of an address diversity in terms of gender ethnicity, it's diversity of thought is super important as we, you know, we think about who we want on, the, the, the stakeholder, the leadership team of the transformation is super important, so that we do challenge one another. And, and where that change management plays a big role, as we all agree that this is the goal that we have in mind and how we get there might vary along the way as we kind of challenge one another. I think that's, that's super important too.Adam...

Contact Michael Burdick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldburdick/Visit Paro: https://paro.io/Blog Posts from Paro:https://paro.io/blog/modern-finance-department-functions-roles-approaches-evolving/https://paro.io/blog/democratization-of-professional-talent-transforming-how-we-work/https://paro.io/blog/save-costs-through-freelance-talent/https://paro.io/blog/expert-success-story-cfo-marine-journey/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Adam Larson, and I'm pleased to introduce Paro's CFO and Chief Strategy Officer, Michael Burdick, Michael founded his company with the goal of reimagining the finance and accounting industry via the freelance economy. In this episode, he talks with Mitch about how the future of finance really comes down to the freedom of choice and the ability to quickly solve problems for the business. Keep listening to learn more about on-demand fractional talent and the future of work,  Mitch: (00:45) The future of work, or more specifically for our listeners, you know, the future of finance. It's talked about a lot when it comes to what the profession needs to know. And I think as we were kind of just discussing it, it's been a popular topic, but obviously much has changed in the last year or so since the future of work really came to light. So I'm curious from your perspective, why is it talked about so much? How do you define the future of finance, the future of work, you know, and what does it really mean to you?  Michael: (01:17) Sure. Well, first off, thanks for having me. And I'm excited to dig in on this question and related topics in terms of the future of work. I think taking a step back, we need to discuss, you know, the, the changes that COVID had on worker preferences and how we all approach work in general. It was COVID was a giant mass social experiment in remote work. We're all forced to do it. And, and being forced to work remotely, all business professionals for the first time realized how mobile they can be. I think that's an important thing to call out here because prior to COVID, pre pandemic, people wanted to express that choice and have that flexibility and work on their own terms, but didn't necessarily have the platform or the burning platform really for that change specifically to occur. And now what we're seeing is a big shift in how worker preferences are popping up and specifically that people want to work remotely. You can't put that genie back in the bottle, business professionals want to work on their own terms. You know, you see all these big public battles going on at, major tech companies, even PWC announcing that, you know, I don't know something like a hundred thousand of their workers will be permanently remote. And the thing is in the future of work, it's all about that choice and flexibility that people want, and aligning that with what company's demands are. So that's a little bit of context and backstory, but I think this is really a major change, a major period of change, specifically as it relates to how financial institutions, accounting firms, enterprises approach work in general. And I think it's, foundational in a few different regards, specifically, allowing people to exercise that choice in an industry that was previously very hesitant to adopt. you know, we're talking about a pretty risk averse industry in general, so pretty hesitant to adopt futuristic approaches and demands that are being forced on finance departments are multifaceted and what's valued is flexibility and agility, which by the way, the future of work does offer. So I don't know, I think this is just a major period for change. You know, what the context being that COVID accelerated a lot of that change.  Mitch: (03:43) Yeah, that's exactly it. And I think we did a lot of research on the future of work, and this is going back, like you said, pre pandemic, and a lot of the ideas were quickly put into place, right? So the idea of future of finance, future of work, it's evolving just as fast as, you know, what we're seeing underneath our feet. So, you know, taking this a step further, where else can this really go in your opinion? You know, the future of work is, is now essentially. So what differentiates the current state of finance from what the new future of finance may look like?  Michael: (04:18) Current state from new future of finance? Well, let's take a step back. I think it's important to define future of work a little bit more and unpack that if it's okay, because that's a, that's a very big, bold statement that can mean multiple different things. Future of work can encompass the technology and tools that are necessary for working remotely. For example, it can also refer specifically to worker automation, right? Machine learning. It can also refer to how people work specifically for Paro and how we're looking at worker preference changes is related to the freelance economy. So I did want to highlight that for us future work and freelance economy, we sort of use those interchangeably because there are additional forces at play here. that dictate what the future of work is going to look like. But specifically for us, we're, we're looking at the freelance economy.  Mitch: (05:18) I appreciate you sharing that context because it does, you know, there are different interpretations, different definitions and, you know, to speak to the freelance economy, as you said, that's actually the first time I've heard something like that. So I think now getting your perspective on, you know, kind of, like I said, what do you anticipate becoming more prevalent in this freelance economy? I would say, freelance was something that was futuristic almost for the accounting profession, not too long ago. And now you're saying it's, it's pretty much, you know, a part of your company. so what do you see becoming more prevalent and, you know, how do you kind of differentiate the current state from your definition of the future of work?  Michael: (06:01) Yeah, so I think there are three key things that are gaining momentum very quickly, specifically as it relates to the future of work and freelance economy. One is on-demand expertise. If you really think about what a firm model or a job or working at a large company entails pretty much requires the worker to morph and change into. It's almost like a fitting around peg into a square hole. The worker has t...

Email:  heatherp@heatherpsolutions.comLinkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherpolivka/Design your hybrid/remote work experience:  https://www.heatherpsolutions.com/Train your new/first-time managers to lead hybrid and remote teams:  https://www.awesomepeopleleaders.com/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In. Here with you again is your host Mitch Roshong and this is episode 153 of IMA's podcast series. In today's conversation. You'll hear about leadership needs that relate to hybrid or remote teams as you listen to my co-host Adam, speak with CEO advisor and speaker Heather Polivka. Heather founded Heather P solutions to work with progressive leaders of small and mid-sized businesses to accelerate revenue growth by creating work environments where people thrive. Keep listening to hear her discuss the evolution of business leadership styles and how to overcome the challenges associated with each.  Adam: (00:50) We're talking about remote work today, and it's been something, a topic that everybody's been talking about, especially with the commencing of COVID-19 and every that, how that shook the modern world as far as the work world and everything else. So we're going to focus really on a remote and hybrid work, as people are coming back to offices. And so let's start with this question. How is remote and or hybrid work benefiting teams or businesses now?  Heather: (01:17) There was a lot of benefits. I obviously, I think people know the benefits from an individual employee perspective in terms of flexibility, maybe saving on that commute. And you give some of the time back to the company and some of the time back to your, your personal life. But that also that, that benefits teams a lot, first of all, teams and business now have a broader access to talent. You're no longer stuck within your particular geography in terms of, you know, who has the skills or the experience that you're looking for. So it allows you to build the team with the skills and capabilities and experience needed to forward your business strategy. The other thing is retention of talent. You know, an employee moves away, goes to school for whatever reason gets married here, relocates, you don't have to actually lose that talent. You can keep them wherever they go. And I think that's particularly when I've worked for employers that really like to employ military veterans and their families. And so that is a whole host of talent that you get to retain even as they, as they move around. And there has been some productivity, at least maintenance and in many cases gains. And I think it's because the number of people are doing what I said at the beginning. I used to do this. Like if my commute time was an hour, I would give a half hour back to me for sleep or working out or whatever, and I'd give a half hour back to the company. and so that has helped with some productivity. And then the last thing I'd highlight is it's broken down some of the barriers between work and life. And I know that, millennials in that have not necessarily had those strict walls between work and their real life, but I know maybe for those of us a little bit older, we kind of had that separation going on. But when you've got kids hopping in the zooms and dogs barking in the background, it makes everyone more human. So while we've had less one-on-one interaction, it's also, I think, broken down some of those barriers that we used to maintain between work and life and a good way.  Adam: (03:27) It's almost like you can still be professional and then have a dog barking in the background and under, and everybody's been there and seen that, and it's no longer this taboo thing, you know, like that businessman who was talking on the phone in the news and his wife came in and the kid came in, his wife came in to just get the kid out and nowadays people are like, oh, there's your child. And they would just keep moving on, you know?  Heather: (03:48) Exactly, exactly. And I think that's, that's, I think that's healthy and that's really good. And I think it's particularly healthy for leaders to kind of shed a bit of that and make themselves a bit more human and vulnerable in the workplace.  Adam: (04:05) Speaking of leaders, how do you think they need to evolve their style to work with remote teams? And then, you know, on the other side of that, what types of leaders should companies be looking for in this type of environment?  Heather: (04:19) Yeah, that is such a great question. I think one that a lot of companies are struggling with, particularly I tend to work with more small and mid-sized businesses. And, but my background obviously is in fortune 100, many times, especially when you're talking executive leaders, regardless of the size of the organization, there is a way that we have all learned how to be successful. I pulled this lever, I do this thing and it creates those results, right? So we're now asking a whole host, a generation really of executive leaders to no longer really use the formula that they know, and that has been successful for them. And guess what, they're human and that scares them very much. And that's led to some of the defaults thinking of, we've got to get everyone back in the office and because that's the way they know how to lead. And so when we asked, like, what do we need from leaders to lead in this environment? You know, one is the old command and control model of leadership doesn't work well in hybrid and virtual work, right? Because even if you're in a hybrid work, you can see how people, when they're in the office are going to be doing more of the kinds of work that it involves interacting with other people. So a leader could walk through an area and just see a bunch of employees sort of sitting and talking in the lounge area, which quote, unquote, doesn't look like work. And yet that's the kind of work they're going to focus in on when they're in the office, because their intense focus, productivity work is the work that they can do at home. So that command and control of if you monitor and you manage employees that doesn't work well in hybrid or virtual work, instead leaders have to shift to managing the outcomes and the objectives and supporting people in whatever they need, whether it's what resources do you need, or what roadblocks do I need to break down? You know, what is it I can do as a leader to support you, to deliver on that outcome? And that's very, very different than managing people.  Adam: (06:34) For sure. So what are some of the challenges that come up when you're, when you're, when you, so let's say you've gotten that style, you're getting that style down. What are some of the challenges that you are going to start facing as you work with remote and hybrid teams?  Heather: (06:46) Yeah, there's, there's four buckets that I see most of the challenges come into and it has to do with communication, performance management, relationships and project or task management. Those are the four buckets and some...

Contact Nishant Nair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninair/Forbes Technology Council: https://profiles.forbes.com/members/tech/profile/Nishant-Nair-CEO-RecVue-Inc/329296c5-b50e-4cfc-a7dd-c6813580978dFintech Times article: https://thefintechtimes.com/recvue-dont-let-outdated-systems-become-your-legacy/Global FinTech Series interview: https://www.recvue.com/blog/qa-with-recvues-ceo/?utm_content=172261129&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-6640106FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host, Adam Larson, and you're now listening to episode 152 of our series. The guest speaker for this series is Nishant Nair, CEO and founder of RecVue, a modern order lifecycle management solutions provider. In this episode, Nishant speaks with Mitch about the value of new financial systems over traditional legacy systems and the importance of streamlining your corporate structure to enable further innovation. Nishant believes businesses are walking when they should be running through today's business landscape of adaptable digital technology. So keep listening to hear more of what he has to say as we head to the conversation now.  Mitch: (00:54) Why is it important now more than ever for companies to implement new financial systems within their businesses?  Nishant: (01:01) Oh, that's a great question. Which, a simple way to explain this would be with an example that we are all too familiar with. Now, we don't go and get our movies from Blockbuster anymore. We have Netflix, we have Amazon, we have Hulu. Essentially we are in a digital economy and companies are changing the way they do business. They're not selling products anymore. They're converting the product into a service and selling services. So if you look at the financial and audit systems that were essentially designed for the Blockbuster world just does not meet the needs of the Netflix business model. I mean, they're just not designed for it. And it requires a completely new technology architecture and thought process.  Mitch: (01:53) Now with this new technology, these new thought processes, obviously there are a lot of opportunities. So for those businesses who are working on traditional legacy systems, what are some of the main issues that they are really coming across today?  Nishant: (02:11) Sure, sure. So the main, the main challenge, right, that we see with a traditional legacy system, it's its inflexibility, inability to scale and the need for an army of IT resources and business analysts to maintain it. Now compare that to modern cloud-based server-less platforms that lets companies be agile, right? Modern platforms built on cloud technologies make businesses nimbler and more flexible to meet the customer's need. I mean, if you look at, you know, these modern cloud platforms take away the whole operational aspects of running and managing huge software applications so that companies can now solely focus on growing the business, introducing new revenue models and making the customer successful, and then modern systems don't require an army of people to maintain it as well. So a lot of things that a, you know, a lot of challenges that we see with traditional legacy systems that, that, that we don't, or that can be avoided by transforming or with modern technology.  Mitch: (03:31) Now you've mentioned some of the challenges that businesses are facing. And again, the opportunities, the more streamlined new approaches that are available for listeners in business who are interested in taking action, right? What are some of the key actions? these business leaders can take within their organizations to accomplish a more streamlined, you know, simplified corporate structure, where the army is not needed, as you just said.  Nishant: (04:01) So it all starts with aligning your finance, your it, and revenue operations team towards a singular goal of transforming the organization and, setting the course to innovate and win in what we call a digital economy, right? And, that requires, fostering a culture that is receptive to change. That's going to be very important, right? To streamline operations. And even for these digital transformation projects to be successful, finally, it's the, it's the people that's going to make or break any transformation, like this.  Mitch: (04:48) And now you provided a great analogy, right? Going from say, Blockbuster to Amazon and the trends that are happening all across business. In general. I'm curious if you have recognized and seen other trends, you know, are there other things happening and obviously, particularly in finance financial services, what are some of the trends that are really exciting you and things that our listeners should be aware of? Maybe a little bit more interested in.  Nishant: (05:19) Yeah. From a, I mean, that is a lot of innovation. I mean, a lot of innovation that is currently happening in the financial services industry it's happening across, but specifically in the financial services industry, there is a lot of innovation that's happening that I'm really excited about. Right? I mean, if you look at, you know, if you, if you go back 10, 15, 20 years gone are the days when you had one or two large financial systems doing a mediocre job of all the different business processes. Now what I'm seeing is companies coming up using these modern cloud technologies and focusing on one particular business process and excelling it and being the best at it, right? I mean, if you look at, Cooper is a good example for procure to pay. And if you look at RecVue, which is for order to cash are prime examples of cloud technology being used to essentially improve or optimize a particular business process. And another area that I see is with cloud technology and API based architecture, it actually allows different systems to seamlessly talk to each other, and that's driving a lot of adoption as well. I mean, people, especially the next generation users are no longer compromising on any business process. They want a system that is the best for that particular business process. And today with the cloud technology and all the different integration platforms that are available, it is possible, right. And they want the best solution for each and every business process. And that is resulting in a lot of innovation in the financial services industry. It's a very exciting times with both, you know, technology and the business knowledge pretty much aligning with each other.  Mitch: (07:25) And what happens if businesses essentially don't take your advice, right? Everything we're talking about here, if a business chooses to continue using its legacy, the antiquated processes and systems, if they haven't gone digital, what are the risks? You know, what would you predict will happen to these businesses?  Nishant: (07:46) The world is changing. The world is changing. We all recognize that. I know the common example is obviously Blockbuster to Netflix, but what I see is that same change happening in each and every industry t...

Contact Hema Vyas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemavyas/Hema's Website: https://www.hemavyas.com (Book a complimentary 20-minute Discovery call!)FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host, Mitch Roshong and today I'm happy to introduce our guest speaker for episode 151, Hema Vyas. Hema is a renowned speaker on heart wisdom, human consciousness, spirituality, health, and energy. She works with individuals, corporates, startups, and diverse global audiences to provide needle turning solutions for problems of all kinds. In this episode, Hema speaks with Adam about the significance of heart, passion and emotion. When it comes to leadership and building high performance teams. Keep listening as we head over to their conversation now.  Adam: (00:52) Our initial discussions or, conversations back and forth. I was seeing you have this term omnipreneur, and I, you know, for many years there's been a celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit and business. And I was looking in like the definition of entrepreneur is a person who organizers or operates a business or businesses taking a greater risk than normal or financial risks. Cause they're usually going out there and starting their own business. So I'd like to take a step. So where is it? Where does Omnipreneurs fit into all that? And how does someone to get from an entrepreneur to an omnipreneur?  Hema: (01:26) I think an omnipreneur is what the world needs now. So, you know, we have lots of businesses. We have lots of entrepreneurs now, more than ever. We've got so many startups and people wanting to run their own business and run with their own ideas and taking the risk. As you said, you know, an entrepreneur who's willing to take risk and, and put the money behind themselves. And for me omnipreneurship is really about the next level where you align those sort of business skills. You align the financial and entrepreneurial skills together with health, wealth and meaning. So it's not just about, you know, in terms of running a successful business, it's about how we look after ourselves, how we look after other people, not just the people we employ, but also the people around us, the people, you know, when we're putting out products, how we're taking into consideration, you know, what's going to be for the benefit of the whole and also the planet. So for me, it's really a holistic approach to business, a holistic approach to life. And I believe that each of us should be omnipreneurs in our own way, where we are not only taking care of our own financial success, whether it's in a corporation or whether it's in as an entrepreneur doing, not running our own business, but also taking care of all aspects of our lives, making sure that we have time for relationships, family, making sure we have time to take care of ourselves and those around us and doing it in a way that is sustainable to the planet and the world that we live in.  Adam: (03:11) So it's taking all of the things that an entrepreneur would do, but adding in a holistic approach, it makes me think of terms like sustainability and those things are becoming more and more prevalent in business and being able to connect all those things in a holistic manner, which is not the easiest thing to do, especially when the bottom line is most important thing in any business, right? Because you have to make money to stay in business.  Hema: (03:39) Absolutely so, you know, one of the things that we teach is really how to be a tucked down business, where, you know, the people at the top are taking care of more than just the bottom line. They are taking care of people, making sure that they're fulfilling the sense of purpose that they have a sense of meaning. And they are also contributing to a sustainable business as well as a sustainable growth of business because you know, a lot of startups sort of growing exponentially and then don't have the means to take care of the people. Other dues. There's a huge turnover of staff because they're burning out and, and, and that's not healthy for anybody. It's not healthy for the people. It's not healthy for relationships, but it's also not healthy for business every few years. If they have to keep training new people or get new people involved in the vision and the goals you want people to grow in a healthy way. So really teaching the leaders how to lead in a way that takes care of, the people in such a way that the bottom line gets fed or can make do.  Adam: (04:49) That makes sense. I was reading that you say that you have to put your heart into it. So what's the role of like heart in leadership and in life, I guess, because we're trying to talk about the holistic approach.  Hema: (04:59) Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of the qualities that we teach I would say are qualities of the heart. So, you know, we have the cerebral intelligence, we have cognition, we have intellectual ability. We also have the gut intelligence, which is a body's intelligence, which is our instincts, you know, and that feeling, that knowingness that we get, which is more from an instinct place, that there's an instinct about something. And then there's heart intelligence, which I would say is more of a wisdom. And it's, you know, really tapping into that sense of wisdom that allows us to have that holistic approach. It is being able to come from our heart space to lead from our heart space, to make sure that we are being really heart-centered so that we have all the qualities, you know, that are heart centered sort of leader would have in order to be able to take care of the people in order to take of themselves. So heart has everything to do with business as far as I'm concerned, because that is where we get balanced. If we're not in balance, then whatever we're doing is not going to have the desired effect. So that's what causes extremism. And when we're too focused on one thing and not enough on another, eventually the way the universe works, that it creates his own balance. And that's what burnout is, is it, if you're not giving enough time to people to really, really take care of themselves and what's going to happen is they're going to burn out. So what you think is good, pushing people, for example, ultimately ends up not being good when we're centered in our hearts. We know what that balance is because each individual is different. So there's no sort of set of rules that says, well, you know, you have to stop people working at five. Some people might thrive working late into the evening. They might want to come in later in the day. You know, there's that flexibility that comes from not being so structured, not being, so process-oriented not being so cerebral, not being seen to lecture and not going well, this is what works, and this is how we have to do it. But actually looking at the people that you're working with, who you're working for, who's working for you and how to get the best out of that situation so that there is genuine expansion of the heart, which means that there's a, a sense of flow. And there's a sense of balance, which is really where real happiness lies, but also where prosperity lies. And if we want to be successful in business, I think we have to be successful and happy and heart centers qualities are those qualities that help us to really relate in that.  Adam: (07:48) Yeah. It's not something that you talk about often you don't, you don't pick up the Harvard business review and see, you know, things of the heart. but what you're saying ...

Contact Mfon Akpan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfon-akpan-5702325/The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Virtual Reality: https://www.biographbook.com/bookstore/hitchhikers-guide-to-virtual-reality/TED Talk - "Incorporating virtual reality in the classroom": https://www.ted.com/talks/mfon_akpan_incorporating_virtual_reality_in_the_classroomFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:00) We're so happy you decided to come back and listen to Count Me In's 150th episode. Welcome to today's conversation. I am your host, Adam Larson, and the speaker for this milestone episode is Mfon Akpan, assistant professor of accounting at Methodist University. Mfon has a passion for emerging technologies and as an expert in virtual reality technology. He researches new technologies and educational methods to offer students occurrent effective and relative teaching experience and his conversation with my co-host Mitch, Mfon talks about the value of social media and its accounting implications for accountants and finance professionals. Stay tuned now and thanks again for listening to another episode of our series.  Mitch: (00:51) Social media is not something that many, you know, accounting and finance people probably keep top of mind, but following, you know, initial conversation here, there are a lot of dots to connect between social media and accounting. So to kick off our conversation, can you please explain why is it important for our accounting and finance listeners to really understand the value of social media?  Mfon: (01:15) Well, I would say that, well, first of all, that's a great question, Mitchell, and I would say in one word data and another word funnels. So when we look at the outage of Facebook and Instagram, that just happened, there was a huge disruption in both of those areas, one data, so information, two funnels. So you have many businesses that use social media to drive traffic, not only to their websites, but also to their physical locations. And this was completely disrupted. So, so many of those, those individuals may say, well, my business doesn't rely on, social media is not that important. What, when it was gone, many, many business owners felt the impact of that. And I think it's important as accountants for us to understand number one, to advise clients on their situation, but also the environment as a whole. And we need to also understand where the environment is going. So, one thing, and we talked about this a bit before the interview was I found out that Facebook was down because I started getting text messages from, from companies and place idea of business with that said, "Hey, come to our website, Facebook is down, this is a chance for you to check out certain things". That's how I found out because I was getting text messages from it. So, you know, understanding how this can impact the flow of business, I think is very important. And I think the outage of Facebook for many business owners was a wake up call on its importance and also the importance of having some type of backup plan, which translates to a strategy on what to do if it's not working. And or if that platform that you are on for some reason is not as popular or as not as, effective.  Mitch: (03:32) Yeah, those are great points. And, you know, we, we talk about data, obviously, data technology, evolution across accounting and finance and, you know, social media, it kind of lives on all of that. So, you know, you don't, like I said, it may not be top of mind, but through our conversation and considering everything that happened with Facebook and Instagram and, you know, we're talking events of the start of October, but, you know, I think there are, are a lot of other points to connect with our listeners. And, you know, we also heavily rely on metrics right in different benchmarks and other data points specifically. So as far as that goes, what kind of social media metrics, really affect the accounting and finance team as these, you know, events trickle down?  Mfon: (04:18) Well, I think it goes back to, as far as social media, understanding that. So from a, I guess, putting at a very simple level, understanding the dashboards on the social media platforms that you're using, that's very important from the side of the accountant, because if you're going to advise your client, you need to have some type of understanding of it, what data is there and what may be relevant to your client. Your client needs to understand it cause needs to understand who's engaging with their content. And when we think about social media, it can be broken down into three areas. So you've got owned, you got paid and earned. And when you think about your, your own accounts, so what you're posting, if it's a Instagram, if it's a Facebook or if it's a Tik Tok understanding, okay, what I post who's looking at it, who's looking at it. What are their demographics? You know, are they moving? And you can also look to, to determine where the traffic is going. Are they coming into the store? If it's a physical location, are they going to the website? If they do go to the website, are they buying same thing. If they go into the physical location, they call that conversions. So understanding that, and really that, that movement of getting people from that social media to your website and location, that's, that's a funnel, what they call a funnel. So understanding that I think is important on both sides. So from the accountant side to the, to the, business owner side, the other thing is that what I tell people is, you know, many people are, are, overwhelmed. They said, well, this is a lot of stuff to learn. And I say, you know, you don't have to become an expert at it, but you should be knowledgeable, particularly if you're, if you're using it for your business, you're posting it. You may be missing out on opportunities by understanding that information. And particularly you need to be knowledgeable if you're doing what's called paid media, you're paying for advertising. You really need to understand, are you effectively using your, advertising dollars on that platform? But if it makes sense.  Mitch: (06:46) I think, you know, for accounting and finance, everybody's looking to, you know, make sense of the numbers, right. And quantify things. And obviously everything you're talking about certainly relates to that. And I think one of the best or most common, however you want to say it, metrics really is, you know, that ROI, what is the returns? So when we talk about that, what is the actual measurement, as far as social media impact, you know, what are some scenarios where understanding ROI is really most important for, you know, the business owner, the accounting function.  Mfon: (07:22) Yeah. It is very important because you want to make sure that it's specifically would that pay media portion. You want to make sure that it's, it's being effective. It's being effective. There's measures, not in the dollar sentence, they call volume and valence, but you want to make sure that, okay, if I'm spending a thousand dollars a month, what does that equal in conversions? What, what is the return for me on that as a business owner and as an accountant, you want to be able to understand if these, these campaigns, as they call them are being a few, if you're advising your customers or your clients to, use paid media, is it being effective? So you, one of the measures as the impressions and the, the overall engagement with whatever, posts, which could lead to further...

Contact Kevin Au: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwau/Bill.com: https://www.bill.com/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. We're happy to have you back for episode 149 of our series. This is Mitch Roshong, and I'll be your host getting you ready for today's conversation. In this episode, you will hear from Kevin Au - bill.com's head of product marketing, accountant, and wealth management. In a moment, you'll hear him talk about lessons learned in the accounting industry and what the profession can anticipate as far as roles changing and skills needed in the future. So without further ado, let's transition over to the conversation now.  Adam: (00:47) So Kevin, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. We really appreciate you taking some time out of your busy schedule to be a part of count me in.  Kevin: (00:54) Great. Yeah. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. I'm a big fan of podcasts, so great to be here.  Adam: (00:59) Thank you. So there has been a tremendous lessons learned, and changes across society and business over the past 18 months, we've all been affected by it. You and I were just chatting about it before we started recording. What have you seen in the accounting industry? And do you think those changes are here to stay?  Kevin: (01:16) Yeah. So what we say in the accounting industry as small to size business markets is that the innovation and the adoption it's been accelerated about three to five years. And while every industry has been disrupted by digital transformation as a result of pandemic and working from home, right? This industry in particular has been ripe for disruption like for years. We've been just saying that over 90% of SMBs rely still on paper-based processes and checks, and that realization will be over-reliance on outdated labor and manual intensive ways to do business. As you know, bill.com works closely with the accounting community work with 85 of the top 100 firms plus 5,000 firms in total. And I remember I was talking with a couple of accounting partners and one partner in particular. I heard a horror story, literally during the pandemic, they had to use Uber and Lyft to transport documents between houses to get them signed. And they even use bike messengers. Like, I mean, this isn't sustainable, whether it's pre pandemic or post, and we believe that this community deserves innovation and we're here to deliver it.  Adam: (02:24) So when I hear innovation, I think of keywords like automation and AI, the, the buzzwords that we're hearing all around, and these are powerful tools that accountants need to have in their toolkit. Can you tell us a little bit about what bill.com harnesses, in your solution?  Kevin: (02:39) Yeah. So as, as part of the industry deception that we talked about earlier, you know, we believe that digital tools that all, that all three help our customers and partners to see it's really important, right? And automated those back office tasks and day-to-day activities. It gives our campuses actually more time and focus on areas of interests and right. So like inviting automation into the office, ultimately it just provides the accounting professionals just more time take control of their careers and just have more of a better work-life balance. As an example, you know, one of bill.com's customers is a wealth management firm and they mentioned that when they use bill.com, they experience a say percent time savings by streamlining all their accounts payable processes, but just then allows them to do something more that matters to them around financial planning and then managing their clients assets. An example for us on our platform, we do use artificial intelligence and we have a tool that we named, IVA, which stands for intelligent virtual assistant. And what IVA is, is a feature that just uses advanced technologies like machine learning that helps us extract invoices and vendor information from documents in our inbox. So that helps you actually create vendors and bills faster. So it takes information like the invoice number, like the, the amount you have to pay the due date, the amount. And it makes us so simple, like just literally imagine if you had a camera and he took a snap shot of your invoice and it gets automatically loaded in and IVA can read it and put all that data very easily for you to just help you get paid, to get paid faster. And that's, what's really exciting about, you know, automation and AI space.  Adam: (04:15) That is very exciting. Cause it, it allows you, it takes time away from the menial tasks, sometimes those tasks that take up more of your time and allows you to do other things right?  Kevin: (04:25) Exactly. Exactly. It's always about like the stuff that, you know, what would you be doing on a Friday night? Would you rather be doing all the manual checks and everything, or would you be going out having dinner with your family? And what we do is like with our technology and systems, it allows you to do the latter.  Adam: (04:39) So it sounds like the accountant's role is expanding and has been expanding, especially during the pandemic, you know, maybe they're saying, "Hey IVA, print me out my invoice". I don't, I doubt it's voice activated, but you've talked about a new Renaissance of the adversary accountant. What does that look like?  Kevin: (04:56) Yes. So even before the COVID pandemic, we saw, we heard businesses had a clear, and active need for advisory services. During the pandemic they became the go-to person, when they're helping clients through their PDP loans, through changing regulations and so much more. And they were the lifeline, they're literally the heroes, I think for a lot of the SMBs offering their clients the best, the latest information and advice actually keep them afloat. Like it was a really tough time. And we heard like accountants were just working endlessly nights and weekends to make sure, like they have to figure out how to do the PPP loans. Right. And that was a big thing that they did and their SMBs where their clients were also thankful for that. So now, as we're kind of getting out of the pandemic, right, accountants are just taking the opportunities to redesign their day-to-day jobs, especially by putting more time and focus through these advisory services. And they also offer things like client analysis and strategic counsel. And the goal here is not to add more hours to their already busy Workday, but instead it's about optimizing the work. And so for instance, you know, build a compromise, a lot of different tools, insights, and data, and we believe that data is going to be necessary to provide that efficient and essential path for that advisory services. How? It's that it can raise up all those data insights by unlocking that data in real time, in, in ways that they couldn't have done before. We're like in the past, this data will be trapped in some hidden spreadsheet or in a separate system that you can lock up. Now you have these systems and tools to bring this up to light and show it at the right time. And so we believe that the shift in like the bookkeeper's role is going to be actually more rewarding. It's also a really smart time for these firms in terms of growth and what we did like bill.com, in 2019, we had a fire hire index survey and we just asked them like what they're doing. And one of the things they said is like more than half of the S&P participants are actu...

Contact Gregory Kogan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-kogan-083bb07/Self-Service Data Analytics and Governance for Managers (book): https://www.amazon.com/Self-Service-Data-Analytics-Governance-Managers/dp/1119773296FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05) Welcome back to episode 148 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Adam Larson, and I'm pleased to kick off today's episode by introducing you to Gregory Kogan. Gregory is professor of practice and accounting at Long Island University, focusing on teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in accounting and finance. He is also currently pursuing his doctorate in business administration at the university of Scranton with the research focus of data analytics and accounting. So in our upcoming episode, you will hear Greg discuss self-service analytics. Keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.  Mitch: (00:49) In the field of finance and accounting, there's been a lot of talk about data and analytics. And, I know in your space you have a lot of experience. I'm just curious from your perspective, what is really driving the accelerated pace of analytics and the overall adoption at these larger enterprises?  Greg: (01:09) Yeah, so I think the biggest thing, and if we're talking about the finance function, it's really the, realization of ROI (return on investment), where companies can use these new techniques, analytics, automation to accelerate their processing, right? So in finance accounting, for years, we've been doing things manually and repetitively. And now with these new tools and these technologies, a lot of companies are adopting these tools to accelerate processing, reduced processing time, reduce hours, accelerate processes, and there are benefits like it's more accurate, there's more control, better internal control. And those are really big benefits on top of the financial benefits. So there's sort of a convergence, I think that, companies are just taking advantage of this, the, to have more smooth and streamlined processing. That's more efficient.  Mitch: (02:08) Now I know something that you focus on or, you know, you'd like to share a little bit more here are these, self service tools, right. And, you know, just for our listeners, what are some of the defining characteristics of this subset and how does it work into analytics? And, you know, when it comes to again, advancing some of these opportunities, I guess you could say, why do these tools lead to more of a decentralized pattern for your reference?  Greg: (02:36) Right? So the tools, yeah. So the tools we're talking about, you know, and coming out, you know, very much out of the what's happening in public accounting and what's happening in the finance function in terms of, financial and managerial accounting. We're really talking about Tableau and Alteryx, which are off the shelf tools. And even in higher education, we have a lot of these now in the classroom. So this is a still pretty, fairly new, but very much highly used. And we call themselves service tools because, it's not something you develop, what you end up developing is a specific process within that tool. So for example, an Alteryx, you can create a little process that say does a reconciliation or a certain reporting. And it's something that used to live in Excel. That's really now living in this tool and we call it self service. It's in that bucket of you can really do it yourself, much. Like you do Excel yourself. You could really, as a finance professional, since it's low code or really no code you pick up the tool you put in your data, which you really, you already have access to. That's really something you work with on a day to day, and you can set up these, we call them analytics, assisted automations for Alteryx and in Tableau it's really dashboards and visualizations. So it depends what part of it you're working with. But yeah.  Mitch: (04:04) That's very helpful. And I know, you know, in our space management accounts, specifically, a lot of that, you know, internal focused and we're really into, you know, the storytelling behind it and the tools that you referenced literally enable, you know, our, our listeners, our finance and accounting professionals to present this data in a way that's easily easy to understand for everybody, right. I think that's really the goal, but, you know, taking it even a step further here, try to, you know, set the stage for us a little bit. What are some of the primary motivations? And, you know, there is some kind of investment or, you know, even if it's just a learning curve in order to adopt these tools, what are the end goals, but what can our listeners expect if they're able to implement these strategies?  Greg: (04:48) Right. So what you can, what are the, some of the benefits, essentially, after some investment, what you can end up doing is something that you do on a recurring basis, manually in Excel, right? And, and we had this also, as a case study in the book that we're kind of referencing here, the self-service data analytics and governance for managers, but this is something that I've been doing as a case study with students and in the MBA. And what happens is we basically have like five years of data of balance sheet and income statement data. And, and we do this in Excel where we compute all the financial ratios, profit margin, asset turnover, return, and equity. And we do like the DuPont model, basically for all the companies in the S&P 500. So for example, what we did as a case study in the book, we put it in the Alteryx and then we set it up as like little steps, rather than Excel. It's sort of all in one big place and you could still see everything. And we do pivot tables and graphs. It's still a very, very good, but once we set it up in Alteryx, we're able to filter the data by industry. So all of a sudden we started looking just at information technology. We started looking at graphs for each company of all the ratios, and then we started looking at specific companies a little bit further down the line to see, oh, wait, we just keep looking for the best one. What is the best industry? What is the best company? And then for that company, we have four dashboards for each of the ratios over five years. And after we set that up, we thought, wow, if this was like, say this was in management accounting, and I was doing my own internal reports, it could still be profit margin by region or geography. I could really sit with that and just flip my filter from Europe to north America and see my ratios, you know, and then we were thinking about it for me to do it in Excel every month. And it's something I used to do as an accountant. I just imagine it's a lot of work, get the new data uploaded, reconcile it. And that's something that takes us a couple of dates and just the flip, the switch. And Alteryx where you just upload the new data. And it does it for you. That's what we sort of started imagining. And of course we have seen the benefits. We've talked to people who've seen the benefits, but just to feel it yourself, like that amount of work going down from three days to like 30 minutes is exciting. And I don't know, I don't think you lose anything in the process. In fact, it is still stable. It is controllable and it's more flexible because the, all the charts are, you still see them, you know, and you just, you do it yourself. It's not something you have to call an IT person too. So I think it can e...

Contact Jason Whitley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-whitley-18919711/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (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 today's episode is number 147 in our series. The featured guest speaker in today's conversation is Jason Whitley. Jason is the chief financial officer at Phi Inc. And he comes to count me in to share some of the knowledge he's gathered from his over 30 years of global industry experience. While talking with my cohost, Adam, Jason addresses how the CFO can become an effective business partner and emphasizes the various skills one should develop along the way. To hear more about what an aspiring CFO needs to do to contribute to sustainable organizational success, keep listening as we transition into the conversation now.   Adam: (00:57) CFOs are now being looked to for governance, risk management, business change, business resilience, technology advancement, and the list goes on from there. Are the inherited skills, finance and accounting professionals possess sufficient enough to make decisions? And if not, what are some of the crucial skills they need to evolve?   Jason: (01:16) Yeah, no, that's a, that's a great question. I would say that the, you know, the CFO role has really transformed pretty rapidly over the last several years and it's become, you know, one of the most difficult jobs in the organization to do really well because of the broad scope that you just mentioned. I know that, you know, myself, me and my colleagues who aspired to the role over the years, but it's really a job that's almost impossible to fully prepare for and I don't think the skills are easily inherited. You're expected many times to have a depth of knowledge in several different areas. The ones you mentioned, including, you know, treasury, accounting, risk management tax, IT, controls. And then on top of all that you need to really have a good in-depth knowledge of the business operations. If you want to be an effective business partner. And it probably even left out a few areas, but the point is that it's, it's really extensive. It's difficult obviously to have depth of knowledge in all of those areas. So inevitably you're going to enter the job with some, some skill gaps. And I've seen this in my role. I've seen it observed in probably every CFO that I've interacted with in my career. And I think the key is really to surround yourself with a team of folks that are they're technical experts in these areas and ensure your weaknesses are really covered by their strengths. I think it's also important to develop a strong network. I need a network of mentors and a network of you know, technology and technical aspects for service providers that you can really draw on to supplement your knowledge and some of the skill gaps that you have, or just to bounce ideas off, as the time comes and things are needed, in that fashion. I guess, in addition to, and as you alluded to in your question, and it's really imperative that you develop and hone certain skills throughout your career. And I think those can be developed in many different functions and many different roles, but you know, you're going to need these, if you really want to lead the team and be proactive and addressing the problems that come up every day in business. And I think some of those skills specifically would be, you know, leadership, analytics, planning, communication, and the strategic decision making. It's really key that you're developing these kinds of skills throughout your career. And those can be things that you develop in finance and accounting. It could be in strategy, business development, operations, or other functions, but, you know, every role should involve developing, utilizing those skills. So that you're really ready, when the time comes to take on all of the responsibility and scope, that comes along with the CFO role.   Adam: (04:07) So as I hear you talking about all the skills that are involved, one of the things I heard you mention was, having a good network surrounding yourself with people, even people that are smarter than you, I've heard, a lot of people say, it's almost like you're being, almost like you have to be an effective business partner. You have to connect with all these different people. So we've covered some of the skills needed to evolve, then what's next?   Jason: (04:30) Yeah, then I think it's, it is like you just said, you know, becoming an effective business partner. I think the, you know, the way that you do that, you know, first and foremost is you've got to have the trust and respect of, you know, whoever it is. You're partnering with the CEO, the general manager, plant manager, department manager, you know, whoever it is you're supporting as a finance leader, this comes through, you know, basically experienced performance on the job. You know, sometimes it develops quickly. Sometimes it takes some time, but every one of my CFO roles has really evolved and become more impactful, over time. So it was more impactful, I would say at the end than it was at the beginning, as you know, I've developed trust and, you know, and experience was gained, you know, with the individual that I was partnering with and supporting. So I think you have to realize you have to be flexible and, you know, one approach to partnering is not necessarily going to be sufficient, over your entire career. And I've seen really great business partnerships and I've seen some not so great business partnerships in these roles. You know, the one, you know, the ones that didn't work out were usually sort of doomed from the start. It was just, you know, a lack of trust, lack of respect, or maybe appreciation for the role or function of the, of the other person. and that was just something that was never overcome, for one reason or another. So I think, you know, as I mentioned, that's first and foremost, is that you gain trust and respect. I think it's also important to know you can have two really great people, you know, it can be world-class in their respective functions and they still don't have really an effective partnership because they can't work together as a team. So it requires a lot of effort, you need to share information, there needs to be, you know, information and thoughts being shared on a two-way basis, you're working towards common goals and as are said earlier, you really need to respect responsibilities and the focus of each other. But if you, if you get all of these in place, then you can really maximize the effectiveness of both roles. I don't think either person can be highly effective. I think, you know, they can still be effective and really good, but I don't think they can be highly effective and at their best, without really the help and support of the other person. So it's imperative that the partnership work well, you know, for the benefit of that team, for the company and really for the organization overall.   Adam: (06:53) Now, Jason, there's something I've heard, you know, other CFOs, your colleagues, your, your peers say and things I've read that in IMA's research that, you know, the CFO of an organization must not also miss not only be able to share insight, but also lead through foresight. So when it comes to innovation data value, how can the CFO navigate the challenges associated with forecasting and best position the organization for sustainable success into the future?   Jason: (07:20) Yeah, that's another really great question. I think it's one of the biggest challenges for the CFO, but I think, you know, at the end of the day, the CFO really has a great perspective with...