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IMA Diversity & Inclusion: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/diversity-and-inclusionD&I Toolkit Press Release: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/news-and-media-relations/press-releases/2020/6/3/ima-unveils-diversity-and-inclusion-toolkitThe D&I Toolkit: https://www.imanet.org/-/media/1cb71380a29540f2af5aad35e04f2930.ashx?la=enContact Karmin Bailey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karmin-bailey-0a849346/

Contact Matthias Tillmann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthias-tillmann-58997a53/Trivago: https://www.trivago.com/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:00) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson. And I'm here with episode 103 of our series. Today's expert guest is Matthias Tillmann, CFO of Trivago. In this episode, he speaks with Mitch about how COVID-19 crisis impacted the travel industry and speaks to the various crisis management plans he implemented to maintain operations. For an interesting discussion around business continuity, technology, enablement, and finance in the travel industry, keep listening as we head over to the conversation now. Mitch: (00:42) The COVID-19 crisis disrupted the global travel and hospitality industry immensely, and I know it affected everything from air travel to hotel accommodations. So in your line of business, what were the immediate steps that you took to ensure business continuity at Trivago? Matthias: (01:01) Yeah, that is right, the COVID crisis had a huge impact on our business. And let me start with giving you an idea of the magnitude of that effect, and just for context, we are an accommodation  meta search platform. So comparing price of hotels, apartments, vacation rentals, and other accommodations on this, so we're not active in the air space, for example. So while we run and operate over 50 countries, only a minor part of our business is in Asia and we have no presence in China. So when the virus first broke out there, we got an idea of what this could mean to our business, but we did not see it immediately in our numbers. That quickly changed when infection started to spread in Italy, end of February. Within a couple of days we lost all of our revenue in that country, and as the virus spread throughout, Europe first and then Americas, our revenue declined more than 95% year over year by end of March. So why, I'm  telling you this, we did not have much time to react. Our cost structure pre COVID was roughly 80% variable, which is predominantly marketing and 20% fixed costs. So  to preserve our cash, we first focused on cutting our marketing spend and on the performance marketing side, you can do that immediately as you just lower your bids  or stop campaigns altogether. On the other hand, on the brand marketing side, it is a bit more tricky. So we usually have part of our budget committed with certain TV channels, and you also need to brief the channels and commit budgets a bit in advance to go through clearing and secure the desired ad products, et cetera. So we started right away to cancel commitments and negotiated to post campaigns. And that was very important. As every dollar on TV advertisement obviously would have been wasted and might've had a negative effect as during a global pandemic countries and countries being in lockdowns. The last thing you want to do is to promote travel. So after we had taken care off of the 80% of our costs, we started to analyze our overhead structure as well. We are based in Germany. So as an immediate action, we utilized short labor, a government aid scheme where people work reduced hours and the government subsidized the salaries. This bought us some time to think about the implication of the pandemic, not only for us, but for the overall industry for the next couple of years and then we spoke to other industry participants to get different perspectives and try to understand how the action would impact the dynamics and all that occurred. And based on that, we formed a hypothesis around different phases of recovery. And by doing that, it became apparent that we cannot manage, through the spirit by just putting people on short labor, but we needed to restructure the business. That means reducing complexity, streamlining operations, and certainly also letting some of our talents go.As a consequence we closed or sold our remote offices and moved to everybody to our headquarter in Dusseldorf. And we reduced our headcount. but on the other hand, brought back everyone from, from short labor. And then lastly, I would mention that on the B2B side, we proactively reached out to our partners and implemented payment plans for those being in a difficult financial situation. And, that was very important because, at that moment we had a high amount of outstanding accounts receivable, but as we acted as a partner of trust and we collected almost all of the receivables, by the end of the second quarter, and as a result of all these measures, we did not burn any cash over six months period since the outbreak of the virus. Mitch: (04:59) So it sounds like you had to, you had to take a lot of steps upfront, but I'm just curious if you had any crisis management plans or any of these ideas in place prior to actually having the change the business. Matthias: (05:13) Yeah. We have operated in a very dynamic environment over many years and despite our global footprint and, a well known brand, we are still a small company, thus we always had to adapt change and innovate in order to be able to compete with large global companies. And this, I believe has fostered a very agile culture. So we always had to prepare for big changes and learn to stay flexible and adapt fast. So when the crisis hit, it did not take us long to adapt, and also, we also have a relatively simple business, with key leavers and product marketplace and marketing, and the biggest short-term, is clearly marketing. I mentioned it before. however, during, even during normal times, our marketing channels can be very volatile. And so we constantly reassess what we are doing there, and we always keep the flexibility to adjust quickly. So in a way we are at any time prepared for different scenarios, on the fixed cost side, our largest cost category by far is personnel and related costs. And, we are investing in people, thus we constantly have to evaluate how to allocate this precious resource. And when the crisis hit, we had to reassess our investment and projects outside of our core. And based on that, we came up with a restructionplan. So in a nutshell, I think we almost always operate, in an environment where we do have, a plan for all kinds of different scenarios and didn't need a specific one for this crisis. Mitch: (06:54) Well, that's great. And I know, you know, you've mentioned talent a few times now, already in this conversation, and I'd like to kind of talk about that a little bit further. You know, obviously you had urgent financial needs going into this crisis and you certainly had to adapt the business, but how did you really balance that with your desire to maintain the top talent in your organization and also, you know, address the concerns of the talent and the organization? Matthias: (07:18) Yeah, absolutely. So our first reaction was to focus on preserving our cash. and that means that we, cut all unnecessary costs and, came up with a reconstruction plan, as I mentioned, and have all partners with flexible payment terms. Internally we were very open-ended and transparent about this. So for example, we established weekly all hands Q&A's where we as management gave updates on our view of the industry, the implications for us and how we need to react. And the feedback from our talents was very positive on that, and I believe that the transparency about how we are approaching the crisis increased the acceptance of our measures. And, just to remind you that we had to take some very difficult decisions, like the headcount reduction. On the other hand, we clearly communicated as well that we will continue to invest in key...

Contact Liv: https://www.linkedin.com/in/livwatson/Contact David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-w-29627882/IMA's Paper - https://www.imanet.org/insights-and-trends/external-reporting-and-disclosure-management/a-digital-transformation-brief-business-reporting-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolutionFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:00) Hey everybody, welcome back. This is episode 102 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch Roshong and I'm here to open up today's conversation by reintroducing you to Liv Watson & David Wray. If you'll recall, Liv and David joined us a while back to talk about business reporting in the fourth industrial revolution. Today we'll hear them talk with Adam about their paper on nonfinancial standards, digitizing transformation. Liv and David are leaders in the process of assessing the infrastructure required for the digitization of nonfinancial information, and they are here to share their perspectives with us again now. Let's head over to the conversation. Adam: (00:51) What does digital transformation of nonfinancial disclosures mean? Liv: (00:55) Thank you for the question here. What does digital transformation for non-financial disclosure mean is it's fragmented how people look at it, but let me try and put some perspective into it.  At the bottom or at the end goal, if we put it that way. We want auditable, traceable data. One truth to the data, and as long as we create data sitting locked up in proprietary documents or PDFs, there is a copy and paste process that is very human intensive and error prone. So what we really need is a digital transformation to create non-financial data and bring that into the same kind of environment where financial data is today, where regulator mandates companies to disclose XBRL as an open standard for financial information. And if you look today at a data captured from analysis, which used to be a cumbersome process from the U S Security Exchange Commission. Today, 89% of that data is captured in bots and becomes machine-readable data to automate analysis. So we need to take this whole non-financial data into a digital transformation, into a taxonomies ecosystem, where there are trusted available taxonomies for non-financial data. And it allows then also for companies to use this taxonomies is to improve their internal system so that you truly can create one truth to the data and link to multiple reports. And I know we will speak a little bit more about that later, but the regulators now are stepping out and understanding that non-financial data, sustainability data or ESG, however you want to put it, it's actually just as important to making economic decisions, but also policy makers wanting this to try and drive economies, to align with the global goals. So we need a data revolution. Thank you. Adam: (03:38) So that we've discussed what it means. Why is the digital transformation of nonfinancial disclosures, a burning platform need? David: (03:47) That's a great question, Adam. I'll answer it from two different perspectives. So firstly, as a working group member and then as a preparer. so let me look at the working group member perspective first. So despite the increasing attention in the role of sustainability disclosure, there clearly is a lack of trust taxonomies for non-financial standards and frameworks. And what this basically means is that the prepare of information is really limited in the way that they can access and disclose information against these nonfinancial standards as Liv alluded to earlier. So one possible outcome is that the data that's being passed from the preparer to the user, really risks being misinterpreted without contextual information being provided. So that results in restricted access potentially limited visibility and compareability of the information for the user. And ultimately it really hampers the uptake and growth of sustainability disclosure standards, which is not great. So a taxonomy therefore would go a long way to help address these issues by enabling a steady flow of machine readable, really comprehensive and accurate information for users to be able to make much more informed decisions. So now, if I look at this from the perspective of a preparer, the burning platform at its most basic level is the cost of compliance, and we talked about this in our paper, digital transformation, brief business reporting in the fourth industrial revolution, where we said that the international Federation of accountants or IFAC as it's commonly known estimates, that fragmented regulation really costs the financial industry sector alone 780 billion every year. Now multiply that out across all sectors and the numbers become absolutely astronomical. Imagine what we might achieve if we could spend that same money in sustainability areas. So think about education, equality, clean water so much would be possible if we weren't spending well over a trillion dollars on compliance costs around the world. Adam: (05:52) Then how do we practically propose to tackle these issues? Liv: (05:58) Thanks, Adam. At the heart of this, is that just like the rail road, right? If we only had rail cars without the railroads, those cars would not be mobilized. So we need an infrastructure when it comes to, digitizing non-financial data and what we truly need, and I speak a little bit about that from my, involvement and appointment to the European Lab steering group that was appointed by the European Commission to, look at what kind of digital infrastructure as well as what kind of standards should be mandated as they update their next release of the non-financial directive that impacts any company with over 500 employees that they have to disclose their ESG, to the market place. So Europe being a driver of this is trying to understand that this time around let's do it right. Let's not ask for more glossy, colorful PDF files that are totally unsustainable and not reusable, as David alluded to earlier. This task force is giving recommendation. We are currently in the recommendation stage and one of the things that we as a group have assessed, is the fact that we need a digital infrastructure with that. David also alluded to being involved with, I&P who he has created a task force which IMA is a part of as well, to be able to make that assessment. What kind of an infrastructure would that look like? So what do I mean by that? We believe that unless there is a central repository with taxonomies, for disclosure, for non-financial information that this taxonomy registry can help the standard setters to disseminate their standards to the marketplace in a digital way where software vendors and users can then take that to easily embed them to solutions and search engines so that we can start retrieving information and pinpoint this data looking into the needle in the haystack, as we said. So what is that mean? It means that there's digital taxonomy registrywill be a place for the taxonomy I mean, for the standard sharing to disseminate their standards digitally and also to collaborate, to start harmonizing the definitions around the metrics, because often your standards shared in the non-financial space as for the same metrics, they've kind of defined them differently. So trying to build that kind of harmonize station infrastructure allows for, digital transformation versus just an alphabet soup of taxonomies out there that wil...

Contact Kavya Ramesh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kavyavramesh/IMA Life: Earn What You Deserve, by Kavya Ramesh: https://sfmagazine.com/post-entry/february-2020-ima-life-earn-what-you-deserve/IMA Launches Global Ad Campaign to Highlight How CMAs Make a Difference in Business:https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/news-and-media-relations/press-releases/2020/9/14/ima-launches-global-ad-campaign-to-highlight-how-cmas-make-a-difference-in-businessWatch IMA’s “The CMA makes all the difference” television commercials on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9TUx2zNJuk&list=PL_PvlGddtOgFQUwJV7pWyXJoBox5f33Or&index=1FULL 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 I'm going to bring you a bonus episode of our series. In this episode, we're featuring one of our CMAs Making a Difference. The CMA is Making a Difference campaign is a part of a worldwide initiative at IMA its goal is to showcase the many ways that earning IMA's Certified Management Accountant certification can set your career on an incredible new path, giving accounting and finance professionals access to exciting career and leadership opportunities. The campaign also tells stories of CMAs who are truly making an impact within their organizations, and in some cases around the world. Today, we're speaking with Kavya Ramesh, a CMA who is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Techno Grow Analytics, LLP Techno Grow provides technology consulting services to the hospitality industry. Kavya is based in Bangalore, and she speaks with my co-host Adam about earning her CMA and the various opportunities it has presented. So now let's head over to the conversation and hear how this CMA is Making a Difference. Adam: (01:19) So can you share something specific that the CMA has enabled you to do? Kavya: (01:24) All right, so this might come off as a bit unusual, but for me it wasn't just the accounting part of the course, but actually the non-accounting part of the CMA that gave me an incredible edge.  It was strategic planning, decision analysis, risk management, investment decision-making, and to an extent, even the technology and analytics part that, helped me to broaden my horizon and to look for continued innovation and everything I did. So soon after graduating and passing my CMA exams, this is an interesting story, right? So I joined this company, as an associate consultant, and I was a part of their projects division. So I was involved in budgeting and financing projects from scratch. This firm operates in the hospitality sector, and while working here, I got the opportunity to explore a lot of operational aspects of the industry. So the above-mentioned concepts, right, that I learned from the US CMA, they drove a spirit of innovation if I could say. And I realized that I could bring a sort of change in the setup of the form.A new extort process, if you will, that could bring in a lot of change in the way the company operates. So while we were delving into this, I actually got struck by an idea that could in the very near future change the way the entire industry operated. So as a result of that, we have formed a startup today that is called Techno and Analytics, LLP, and I'm one of their co-founding partners. So our startup is basically in the process of free thinking and reinventing the role of technology in the hospitality industry. So we currently have a very diverse team working on our applications, and we're now ready to launch in the market. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, this is brought in our new marketing team and we're working on, how we can strategize our market entry. So all said and done, whatever the case may be, the ability to develop and conceptualize a new idea and to lead a team and to see it grow to this extent, all of this came to me, thanks to the CMA. Adam: (03:36) So I think it's amazing that you're part of a startup so early in your career. So what's that like being part of a startup? Kavya: (03:41) So I always knew I wanted to do something by myself that I could really connect to and I could make an impact with, right. So when we had this idea of, we jumped right into forming a team and all the process, every step, every day was a learning curve. Seeing that my day starts by working with 50 year olds, people who have seen generations together before I was born and seeing people my age step in and take the lead on the forefront of operations. It's been a great mix of people that I could learn so much from. And technology and analytics was something new to me. So while working towards the startup and these, the applications that we working on, I in fact, got to do a lot of up-skilling or cross skilling for that matter. So I took up some coding lessons. I took a few, designing because we worked on most of this from scratch. So it's like, it's like seeing a baby grow up, you know, infancy to say a toddlers is so far. It's been great every day, I wake up with a drive to, to see, you know, what this day holds for me. Adam: (04:57) That's amazing. So looking at that beautiful story that you just told, where do you kind of envision yourself in 5to 10 years? Kavya: (05:05) In the next 5-10 years, I envisioned myself as a happy leader who is devoted to serving causes that empower people around me. I see myself as the head of my startup that's on itself, great trust and confidence from the industry. I also see myself as a loving individual doing the best I can for everyone around me. On a personal note, I see myself devoting a lot more time of my day and teaching yoga. So a lesson on fact about me is that I'm a certified yoga instructor. So there's nothing better than seeing my students leave the class with a smile. So that's the way I love to begin my day. And I'd like to see myself doing more of that five years down the line. I think in the next 10 years, I'd have gained a lot more volunteering experience too, and what opportunities IMA would have for me then are only imaginable. And so I really can't wait to give back my most of this institution that has so wonderfully shaped my career. So my goal in the next five to 10 years is basically channeled all that I have learned so far into giving back. Adam: (06:08) What's one goal that you want to accomplish in your career? Kavya: (06:12) Alright, so my goal in courier and also in life is to have harmony. I believe that for all of us, there are three aspects of life, that make and break who we are and how we living. So these three aspects for me are health, wealth, and love. I would see my career as a successful one. If every day, all my actions are bringing harmony in these three facets of life, health, wealth, and love. I've given this quite a lot of thought since I started at university with the rights and CRT competence and motivation, excellence would follow. But what is that? What truly matters, right? For me, it isn't just the materialistic success it's and that's why my goal is to succeed in all these three aspects, have great health, create wealth and create love. And this isn't something that I look to achieve one day, the goal is to keep accomplishing this e...

Contact Dell Ann Janney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dell-ann-janney-at-c-sc/Contact Wendy Tietz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendytietz/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:00) Welcome back to Count Me In IMA’s a podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch Roshong. And this is episode 101 of our series. Today's conversation includes my co-host Adam Larson, Wendy Tietz, and Dell Ann Janney. Wendy and Dell Ann are two academic leaders in accounting, higher education. In this episode, they discuss the high flex teaching model, which has gained value in popularity, following the recent educational and economic environments around the world. Keep listening to hear how high flex teaching is being implemented and can be used to help accounting education. Adam: (00:45) So let's start by defining what is high flex teaching? What is the high flex teaching model, and how has it affected the accounting classroom? Wendy: (00:53) So I'll answer that. The high flex teaching model gives students a choice of how to attend class. So they're going to be able to attend face to face,  traditional classroom, or they can attend during class time online and to be able to see what's going on in the classroom or the screen, and have a chat room to communicate with and/or video cameras and microphones. And then the third option is allowing students to view the recording at their own time. So that's the high flex model teaching like that, giving students the option and with this pandemic that really comes in handy to be able to accommodate all the student needs, and at my school I've been doing high flex for about 10 years because I teach large classes and this has worked very well for us. It's especially nice now. I'm not, we don't have the face-to-face option in the large classes right now, but we're still operating under that same mode. And I know Dell Ann has been in the high flex model. So Dell Ann. Dell Ann: (02:03) Sure. So last May, when, if we go back to May, when the spring semester ended and all classes went online and students were taking classes remotely, I think that all academic leaders began to contemplate what a fall semester would look like. And Culver Stockton College is located in a rural area, and at the time we had no cases whatsoever of COVID. However, we have students from all across the country and even around the globe. So we anticipated the likelihood that students traveling from more populated areas would arrive and land in quarantine or isolation. So as we began to plan, we decided that faculty needed to prepare to teach both face-to-face, but also allow those students that are in quarantine isolation to attend synchronously online from luxuries of their gorgeous residence halls. So some faculty would have students that were unable to attend completely due to the COVID illness and thus would record their class session for those students to watch the video asynchronously at a later time. So this approach is referred to as high flex. Adam: (03:22) So, and I know you have both different, schools that you teach at and they are different models, but what are some of the challenges you've encountered with this teaching model? Dell Ann: (03:34) Well, the challenges are many. We can start out with equipment. So in May, we began to determine that faculty would need to bring in their own lab laptops into the classroom, in order to zoom, the, the faculty would need Zoom pro accounts, they would need external web cameras, headsets, and stylists and pad in order to stay at their computer to, to teach their classes. We had all classrooms reconfigured so that the chairs were all six feet apart. That was pretty crazy. In fact, there were a lot of our faculty leaders who were going room to room to rearrange and ensure that that the rooms would actually accommodate the number of students that were originally assigned to it. So for example, our chapel, which normally seats 200 students, ended up becoming a classroom and was re reconfigured to seat 30 students in it. One of the other interesting changes that we made was that all students would be required to sit in the same seat for the purpose of contract contact tracing,and so faculty, we actually created seating chart, which felt very elementary school. And although the students are six feet apart, we still felt that that was important to be able to verify. So I would mention that actually ends up being a pandemic positive if there are any we'll, we'll count this one, because those seating charts have been really a win, not for the purpose of contact tracing, but more so it's really helped the faculty to become much quicker at learning names. So I think the combination of faculty, of the students sitting in that same seat, each class period, and then having the seating chart to glance down at and learn their names, it was definitely a win. I think another challenge was the sanitizing. We felt that as the students entered, we would expect them to sanitize the desk upon their arrival and at their departure. So faculty really needed to monitor and ensure that that happened. And probably one of the biggest challenges with the students that were in person in the classroom was of course we do require all students to wear mask. And it's often difficult to hear students through their mask when they were speaking. Now, the challenges with the students that are online synchronously probably was getting them to participate and keeping them engaged, you know, certainly the opportunity for them to just log in on Zoom, turn off their camera and then possibly head back to bed and fall asleep was pretty good. So, and occasionally of course there were the dreaded technology, wifi issues for students attending via Zoom. As I previously mentioned, we're a pretty rural area. So there are students that live out in the country with limited internet access. And I think from a teaching perspective, probably one of the biggest challenges was staying in front of the computer at all times. So that the camera was on you not being able to write on the board. I'm a very animated professor. So when I'm teaching, I'm moving around, I'm helping my students and all of this makes it incredibly challenging, especially when you're trying to help a student with an Excel issue and you're trying to stay six feet away from them. So the, the last challenge I'd mentioned would be really no breaks. We consolidated, we removed every single break from this semester. So students definitely felt that you could see it in their eyes, and certainly for the students that were here in person, as it got into week eight and nine, that you could just see in their eyes, how stressed they were. So I know that the students needed breaks, and I think I could say that our faculty needed breaks as well. Wendy: (07:46) Okay. We had some of the same challenges. Our classrooms were equipped with, cameras that would follow faculty moving around the room. So that was over the summer. That was a nice add on. We also have got camps in every room and every classroom has the same exact, equipment layout so faculty could go,.Of course, my classes with hundreds of students, are not being held in person. Anything above 50 cannot be held in person. So we're just doing the online. But I would, thinking back to when I started doing high flex several years ago, high flex, it's certainly harder to engage students, whether they're in front of you, whether they're online with you or whether they're watching the recording. So you always have to keep those three modes as you're teaching, as you're designing the class, because the class isn't like a face-to...

Contact Rachael Bertrandt Crump: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-bertrandt-crump-cpa-cgma-303b057/About Rachael Bertrandt Crump: https://www.insight.com/en_US/about/management/rachael-bertrandt.htmlLeadership Article with Rachael: https://profilemagazine.com/2020/rachael-bertrandt-insight/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Adam: (00:04) Welcome back for the hundredth episode of Count Me In IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Once again, I'm your host Adam Larson, and I'm pleased to introduce the featured guest for today's episode Rachael Bertrandt Crump. Rachel is a Global Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer for Insight, a leading provider of computer hardware, software cloud solutions, and IT services. In her conversation with Mitch, she discusses what it means to be a global leader, the importance of culture, and how to develop top leadership talent. Let's head over and listen to the full episode now. Mitch: (00:44) So our conversation today revolves around a leadership article that you wrote earlier this year about being a global leader, to kick off the conversation. Let's first start by getting your definition of a leader. You know, I'd really like to get an idea of who it is that you see as a leader or who can be a leader in the organization, and then particularly for this conversation, we're going to focus on global leadership and global organization. So what does all of that really mean to you? What does that look like? Rachael: (01:12) Sure. So to me, my definition of a leader is anyone or someone who's driven to influence a particular outcome. So really in any organization that can be anyone who has a passion or a drive, around a particular topic, or to achieve a particular outcome. So if everyone can be a leader, right, and an organization just isn't what we might do in our nine to five or how we interact during that work time. I'm a firm believer that, you know, we're training our future leaders, in all of our organizational units today, in our family units, and our schools and the volunteer work and everything we do. And those are, those are our future global leaders, global citizens. So it, it's almost  most important that everyone who steps up to lead is their leading, where their passion drives them to. I think that the diversity and experience that everyone brings, is really what, what kind of brings out passion in someone. And, and that's what makes a good leader to me. Mitch: (02:30) Well, I really liked the fact that you brought up, you know, home in school particular. Just my personal background, I actually come from classroom teaching before I started this. I was working with students and coaching and, you know, I think a big part of that growth in an individual is the leadership that they see on a daily basis. So now from our perspective, you know, obviously more professionally, the organizational culture will certainly shape a leader as well. So I'm curious, you know, how exactly does that happen and can culture affect an individual's ability to be a leader, particularly globally? Rachael: (03:12) I absolutely believe that that culture, impacts leadership. I think it can propel leadership forward, kind of that Lightspeed, if you will, but I also think the wrong culture can stifle would be leaders. particularly if they have less direct leadership experience and they're looking to step into, you know, a leadership role, whether it's, you know, official or unofficial. They can lose confidence if the organization and the culture doesn't embrace diversity and experience. I think that, you know, maybe many decades ago, experience was measured mainly, based on jobs months, years, sorry, days, months, years in a job and now I think there's a lot more that defines experience based more than just on kind of the time in the seat or the time in the job and I think it's that, you know, that diversity of experience that really gets about how global organizations can be so effective today. Someone coming into the workforce today that, and I use myself as an example, you know, went to the same university in Wisconsin, got the same degree I did, you know, few decades ago. Their experiences actually entirely different than mine. Their context, how they learn the tools, the office tools with which they learned on, and that puts them at a different starting point than it did me, and that experience just because, you know, I've been in the workforce, then maybe I've learned my tools on the job. Doesn't put me, you know, necessarily at an advantage, from a leadership perspective over what their experience might have to offer. So I really think that that is, you know, important in our global organizations today, that we acknowledge the diversity in experience, and how people, how people achieve experience in what we define as experience, because I think that's what really takes, an organization to the next level. And culture has to embrace that, right? I mean, culture can be a whole other  podcast, right. But, you know, culture really has to embrace diversity and to draw it out, to draw out your, your future leaders, because I mean, if we don't, if we don't train ourselves, train up ourselves, right, we're going to be in a, I think a world of hurt, we'll be at a disadvantage, as an organization. Mitch: (06:01) Well, you certainly make great points, and I think the one thing that I want to emphasize is, you know, there has been a shift in what someone's experience is, you know, you mentioned that the time piece of it, and I think a lot of businesses today are recognizing that certain skills certainly differentiate, applicants, regardless of, you know, how many years they have on the job, but to your other point, you know, culture, it certainly has existing barriers still when it comes to leadership development. And while, you know, there might be a shift in mindset as far as experience and skills and whatnot. What are some of the other barriers that you think are really affecting these organizations? And then what is hindering individuals from reaping some leadership development from their organization? Rachael: (06:52) So I tend to believe that that we ourselves and our unconscious bias is one of our biggest barriers to effective global leadership. We have to think bigger than our own, you know, kind of universe right in the moment. And that can be super fun, mindblowing, but it can also be a bit overwhelming. I also think desire and passion have to come naturally. I believe every human, you know, it, they have it for something in their life, but it, it  they have to feel it and want it for it to come out, and kind of break through their own natural barrier. And then, you know, kind of along the same lines, we're, we're our own best advocate and our own worst enemy, maybe. But other barriers showing compassion and empathy and being vulnerable. So when you think of global leadership that the people that you are leading likely are, you know, very, diverse geographically, across many different regions. And, and so you're serving them as a leader and you're not in there, you know, you're not in their seat. You don't know your day to day in your region likely looks very different than their day to day in their region. And so really being vulnerable and having, that empathetic view for what they, you know, may be going through, I think really makes a difference as to whether you'll be an effective global leader or not. Mitch: (08:33) And...

Contact Andrea Williams: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-williams-201a9a12/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Mitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In. IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch Roshong, and this is episode 99 of our series. Today's conversation features Andrea Williams, Senior Vice President and Controller at Perdue Foods. In this episode, Andrea talks with Adam about the future of accounting work and the ethical challenges management accountants need to be aware of as their roles continue to evolve. Let's get over to the discussion and hear more about the topic now.   Adam: (00:40) What do you see as the differences between management reporting and financial reporting?   Andrea: (00:45) Well, financial reporting certainly has to follow all of the accounting roles that we were trained on as accounting professionals and those roles continue to evolve over time. Management reporting should certainly follow all those rules, but normally management reporting looks at slices of the business and targets insights into subsets of the financial statement. And so it's really important for the management accounting teams that are preparing that information to keep the financial reporting in mind and certainly tied to it and every possible way that they can, but to recognize that they're peeling the onion and that they really need to be careful in how they represent those pieces, that they would still represent what is in the ultimate financial statements. In our business, we have, we use management reporting for certainly for what I  would call, accountability reporting. We provide levels of reporting for all layers of management, from folks that are running a subset of the production floor all the way up, of course, to the executive. And we also provide reporting that is targeted to certain functional areas, you know, the sales teams and the marketing teams and the, the critical aspect of this is that as management accountants, again, we need to really be sure that ultimately these are subsets of the financial reporting and be really careful that we don't mislead folks as we're just providing their slice of the pie.AdamSo how do those differences, provide some additional ethical challenges that management accountants need to be aware of? Andrea:Well, providing the multiple views, doesn't always easily coalesce, into the total. And so an example of that is, we actually provide, what we call sales value of production to each of our plant facilities. Sometimes they like to call them income statements. We always correct them and say, no, this isn't an income statement. This is a sales value of production. And the critical difference there is that from a production perspective, they're interested in understanding a margin related to products they produce that week or that month or that quarter, even. And of course we are as many businesses, we don't sell out everything that we produce in a particular alignment with a financial week or financial close, and so consequently, we are put in a position of bringing in what we call a representative sales value. It may end up being more or less than what we ultimately realized as the invoice value. And so where this becomes an ethical challenge is that, of course we have algorithms that go out and choose what sales value to use, for example, that's based on history. And so everyone's happy to use that sales value when it, when we're in a rising market, unless happy to use it when we're in a declining market or in a business that is impacted by some commodity values. And, that becomes, can become an ethical challenge because obviously you can't play both sides of the coin and because it isn't, tied to invoice sale, we get into very interesting conversations with our production folks, and we all just need to remember what was the point of what we're trying to represent and be as honest as we can with the business and ourselves and what we're representing.   Adam: (04:35) Definitely. So, you know, you're kind of referring to how, you know, things are constantly changing in the industry and all over the world, and obviously we're still in a pandemic that's happening. how have you seen like the management accountant role evolve over time, especially with all the, everything that's been happening?   Andrea: (04:52) Well, in the most recent day, I would say the, just like everyone else, we all have to learn how to work from our homes, where we were traditionally more used to being in the offices or in the plant, the plant, buildings. So certainly our technology skills have had to improve and our collaborative skills, you know, building  itand, you know, as everyone in the world that seems to be doing as our zoom meetings. So that's in the more recent, the more recent days of how we've had to evolve. I would say over time in my career, there's really been an evolution of what the management accountants are expected to do. When I started, the roles were very, closing focused. The closing calendar was paramount. We, you know, work through task lists that were either leading to, or coming out of closing cycles, and it was still very much, an accounting role. And although we still have those responsibilities, our business partners really, don't expect to live and die by a resource that is connected to closing calendars, and consequently we've had to smooth out our tasks, and actually provide information in a more consistent basis every single week. And then some, some cases every single day. That is not really impacted, by the strict financial reporting. And what that means is then we've added to our plate, a significant amount of what we call estimates. We do a weekly estimate, all throughout the entire business of what we based on information that, you know, certainly happened in that prior week. But, you know, we're making, you know, educated guesses of what something will actually realize based on education and history and foresight and those types of activitieswe're not anywhere in the role when we, when I first started. And so then that's transitioned to not just, you know, that's still looking backwards, and so in the last several years, of course, then now we're being asked to look forward and providing, much more of our time is providing information of what we believe will happen, not reporting on what has happened. That's a significant shift and it requires, um, very demanding skills on, on accounting folks, very different than, you know, the traditional auditing skills or traditional just financial closing skills.  Adam: (07:39) For sure. So you, you know, you've described kind of how the roles evolved for that you've seen over time, but where do you kind of see it going in the future?   Andrea: (07:47) So, interestingly enough, I feel like the profession's at a crossroads. A  crossroads being that, are we going to continue as management accountants covering both roles? Are we going to continue to be the ones that, you know, shepherd the books and really make sure that things are tied out, in addition to all the analytical demands, or are we going to split into separate groups? That one group is handling the accounting and one group is deeper into the analytics. I've seen that certainly some of the other bigger companies as they, as they create separate FP&Agroups. and I feel like I'm seeing a trend of that, that's more and more what's requested, certainly at the, at the bigger, at the bigger companies. And so what happens there is that then how do those teams ...

Contact Nicole Gonzalez Cumberbatch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleggonzalez/IMA's Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/diversity-and-inclusionFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:00) 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 this is episode 98 of our podcast series. Today's episode features a conversation between my co-host Adam and member of IMA's Diversity and Inclusion committee, Nicole Gonzalez Cumberbatch. Nicole is a senior accounting professional with over 17 years of experience. She is an advocate for leadership and mentorship, and in this episode, she shares some strategies for the working parents who find themselves juggling various priorities on a daily basis. This timely conversation is helpful for many accounting and finance professionals who find themselves working from home and looking for some tips to better balance their time. So to hear more action that you can take, keep listening as we head over to the conversation now. Adam: (00:52) So Nicole given the COVID pandemic, so many of us parents have found ourselves in a unique environment of juggling our careers and family without substantial caregiver or employer support. What impact has that had on the workforce? Nicole: (01:12) Well, Adam it has had a tremendous impact Obviously, economically, you know, we see change drastically due to high unemployment, massive lay-offs companies going out of business. So in that aspect, it's, you know, working parents are now out of work, right? Trying to figure out how to support their families. But on the flip side of that, for working parents, especially with young children, it's been extremely challenging just recently. I read a New York times op-ed that said, there was a quote that said, “You can have a kid or a job. You can't have both.” And I was like, Oh gosh, that's so, you know, that really, I think summed up a good portion of the last seven months. And then just briefly to kind of pivot, and I know you're a male and I'm a female, not trying to be biased, but more specifically female working, working parents only because in general women are the ones who kind of run the household and they were usually the ones that stayed at home. So another statistic I have is that it said, according to this benefits platform called Cleo, one-third of working parents have already left the workforce, and that was from July, do or gone part-time due to COVID related reasons, and 70% of those parents were women. And the reason why that affects the workforce is because as I previous, previously stated, women were usually the ones that worked from home, the mentor, their breadwinners, the ones who worked out outside of the home, and you know, where the support system for the family over the past 10, 20 years, women were joining the, joining the workforce at tremendous numbers. I think recently it said it was like up 50% and equal to men in the workforce. So now we're seeing a setback of that, right? So you see women going back and having to choose. And if that is 70% of women back in July, we're in October, you know, so I'm assuming that the numbers have either have probably more so gone up, and I guess the bigger question is what does that do for the future? I know I've read articles that say, some women will not be going back because there's so much uncertainty with childcare and not having support. sSo it's, it's had a tremendous impact, and I think it's actually frightening, for what the future holds, you know, working parents in general, again, had to struggle with before the pandemic of trying to find support and balance and, all of those things. And now even more so in trying to find childcare amongst the pandemic, when, who else can watch your children, but yourself. Adam: (03:50) So what are some actions that parents can take, you know, to work through and to be better prepared during, as these challenges continue to come up, because as we see it, you know, the pandemics not really going away as, as soon as we all thought it may be. Nicole: (04:04) You know, I think first off, I think you have to surrender and accept the fact that this is what it is. And that's, I think important in all things of life, right? You just got to kind of surrender to it. I think it's kinda ingrained in us that we want things to go this way, especially as a parents in general. You know, we may want our children to act a certain way or we want to react this way, but that's just not life. And especially during a pandemic, as I'm sure you've seen and myself, you know, things just arise that we can't control. So surrender. Next I would say, adjust your expectations, allow yourself grace for the chaos and imperfect reality that's going to ensue, like we just know that's going to happen and allow for flexibility. you know, I think it's important again, as parents in general, but more so when you're trying to work from home and, and be a caregiver to your children at the same time, like you just have to allow yourself that grace and know some days are going to be more chaotic. Some days are not going to run smoothly and you just have to be okay with that. And then I would say aesthetically, you know, make sure that you have a comfortable working space for yourself and for your children, if they are, you know, doing virtual school, if you have a younger child turn on your TV and Disney plus, you know, just kidding, but no, you have to find ways of maybe creating spaces for them that next to your desk that makes them feel comfortable that mommy and daddy are right there, but they kind of have a comfortable space. And then just a few other things I would say, create a routine, this way you and your child goals kind of know what the day is like, as opposed to just waking up and be like, Hey, what's going to happen today. Make sure you have the right equipment supplies and honestly ask, ask for help. I think one of the biggest things, is again, prior to the pandemic working parents had these issues of trying to balance and finding childcare and all these things and get proper time off, and now in the pandemic everybody's having these issues. I think men are seeing the struggles women have had of trying to run a household and work while the children are kind of there. You know? so I think it's had everyone kind of slowed down and realized like, Oh, wow, this is a thing, this is something that's major. So I would say, ask for help, you know, whatever that, whatever that is, you know, that you need, but ask for help from your employer, your village, your community, and go from there. Adam: (06:34) Definitely. I mean, because there's so many new challenges and you kind of have to be flexible. That's the kind of the thing I kind of centered it on is like being flexible because not only do you have, you know, kids working from kids doing their school from home, but then they also have projects that they need to do and you have your work that you have to do and you have to kind of balance it all You have to be flexible and not only do we have to be flexible, but companies have to be flexible with their employees. Like, Hey, this person can't come to this meeting at this time because their kid has something that they need to help them with at that time, and they need to be able to be flexible in that as well. Nicole: (07:06) Yeah. And I think the struggles with the smaller companies are probably the biggest thing, like some of the biggest bigger companies, and I'm sure we'll get into what companies are kind of doing this quote unquote the right way. but I th...

Contact Eli Amdur: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliamdur/Email Eli Amdur: eli.amdur@amdurcoaching.comEli Amdur Website and Contact info: http://eliamdur.com/Eli's Blog: http://eliamdur.com/index.php/blog/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05) Welcome back for episode 97 of Count Me iIn, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson, and I'm happy to bring you our latest episode on the work environment and personal development, Eli Amdur, Career and Executive coach, Journalist, and Keynote Speaker, joined my cohost Mitch to talk about recent business decisions, what they've meant to those in the workforce and what individuals can do to best prepare themselves for the future. I'm sure you will enjoy this conversation. So let's go listen. Mitch: (00:34) What is your perspective on the current business environment and how would you rate businesses in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Eli: (00:51) Mitch, good question. First, let me say, thanks for inviting me here. I'm happy to be with you and your membership. Current business environment, for sure, it's unlike any we've ever experienced. It's, it's being, it's being influenced by as many serious, conditions as has ever existed together at one time in an  economic meltdown, massive job losses, COVID-19 social and racial and gender unrest. We're doing, we're experiencing as much as we've ever experienced before. What I'm afraid of is knee jerk reactions on the parts of employers, entire industries, even government agencies, but it's, it's natural, but it's something that I think is way overboard. For instance, the thing about working remote. Well, we didn't have a choice on that. We understand that. And having technology that permits us to do it is a pretty awesome thing, but companies already having said that we're going to work remote until 2022. They're getting out of lease deals, they're selling office space. I think they're making decisions that one day soon, they're going to be kind of sorry, they've made as, as suddenly, and as, I should say thoughtlessly as they have made them. I don't think enough thought has gone into it. Mitch: (02:37) Well, what are the potential outcomes of these decisions? You know, it's something you're afraid of. It. It might be a little thoughtlessness, but you know, as far as businesses and their sustainability longevity, why might these decisions may not be the best ones for the business? Eli: (02:52) That's a, that's a great question, and I think it's because we're reacting to things we can see immediately. We're not holding off on our decisions. You know, I'm very fond of saying, and I've said this for many years, going way, way back to like corporate leadership roles. That if we thought about the consequences of our decisions before we made them, we would make better decisions. So yeah, COVID hits and we got to get everybody out of each other's ways. Otherwise the transmission of the disease will be increasing, which it is now anyway, as you know, but the things we can't see are things that have now become a little clearer to a lot of people, both workers and leaders, and decision-makers in organizations. And that is that we're missing the interpersonal connections that we so very much we rely on and enjoy during our work days and our careers. We are social creatures. We rely on belonging to groups. In human history, those groups have taken all kinds of shapes, like a corporate division of religion, a fan club, a, a community we need that. It is one of the most basic of all human needs. Abraham Maslow pointed that asked to us very well. Once we get done with our physiological needs, for food, clothing, and shelter and things like that, and our longer term security needs the most basic need of all his belongings. We're missing that, people are lonely. They don't like being alone. They want to be part of a team where somebody slapped somebody on the back or shakes hands and  nods approval in a conference room. And those, the lack of those things tend to decrease the effectiveness and the efficiency of performance, but not, not enough companies are realizing that yet. There's still an element of their technology and their ability to work remotely. Mitch: (05:00) Now, obviously there are circumstances that are preventing businesses from reopening and people being able to gather in the manner that you're discussing. there are going to obviously be those who have their concerns going forward. Long-term so what can businesses do? How can businesses accommodate the needs of the human being of their employees, keeping in mind their safety, most importantly, but also being able to offer this human interaction and this gathering so that they may be able to feel slightly more accomplished and, and achieve all the benefits that you previously mentioned. Eli: (05:37) Well, let me answer that two ways in the very, very short term, nothing. We've got to continue doing what we're doing, because we don't have a way to prevent this disease, and we don't have a way to treat this disease. And with the spikes that are going on predominantly in the United States, more than any other country, now we're headed into the third wave and winter time, it's, it's serious business. We're going to have to sacrifice something and that's our belongingness, our togetherness, our interaction. So in the short term, until there is a vaccine that is safe, effective, and plentiful, because we don't know if it's going to be a one time, or if you have to do a second booster, we don't know that any of that yet. Until that time, there's just very little we can do other than continue to reach out remotely as much as we possibly can, but go longer term, and I can't tell you exactly what that long return is. It's going to be six months from now. Is it going to be eight months? Don't know, but I can tell you that there's, there are indications that companies have already realized this. Recent news has shown that in the world of big tech and I referred to the big four, which is Google, Amazon, Facebook, and, Microsoft have taken up new leases on a couple of million square feet of office space in Manhattan. So they apparently have given this some thought and Facebook is a company, but that early on in this pandemic said that they have that their employees could work remote until 2021 and 2022, but they're buying up office space. I think they know what's going on. Maybe they're getting good deals because of the situation, but, they're going to be calling employees back into work, and I think they understand the thing about the consequences of their decisions. And so I think what companies can do is to let their employees know and their vendors and their customers as well, we're not running away, we're not going to be a one 800 don't bother me.com type of business. but that they are indeed intending to get back to working closely together and to strengthen the interpersonal bonds. If I were to advise corporations and not just big tech, but all corporations, that's exactly where I would go. Mitch: (08:11) Now, how about logistically more specific to our audience? Right? We work for accounting and finance professionals at large, you know, their role was already changing prior to this pandemic. And then you add the remote aspect to everything, you know, their jobs have shifted. What can you recommend as far as, you know, accounting and finance professionals, accounting and finance organizations to, you know, best again, accommodate these needs while maintaining the safety of their e...

Contact Amir Tabch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amir-tabch/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:00) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. In this special new episode, my co-host Rouba dives into the world of FinTech in the Middle East region through an elaborate discussion with Amir Tabch. Amir has close to two decades of experience as a finance professional advisory board member for multinational companies in various FinTech and wealth tech initiatives. This conversation features the state of the sector in the region, and Amir explains how finance and accounting professionals can leverage these technologies to better support their organizations. Keep listening as we head over to their conversation now. Rouba: (00:47) I mean, you're someone who's acquired a successful career mainly because of your ability to read the trends and the patterns with passion. I mean, looking at the chart, I remember it, one of the stories was that whether it was your wife's contraction monitor or a financial chart, you have an eye for seeing the patterns behind the, when they manifest. So you pride yourself on looking past the complexity to see the certainty. How does one develop such an outlook, especially at a critical time, like now where God knows where the global economy is headed and trends are being accelerated or even annihilated , in some cases overnight? Amir: (01:26) Well, as much as I'd like to claim that identifying trends and patterns and forecasting is an inherent skill, it really isn't. Of course, on the other hand the creation is. Now there are essentially a lot of things that can take credit for being responsible when it comes to analyzing these prices and trends and patterns either when one's inspecting them in isolation or in totality. So, first of all, when it comes to looking at trends and patterns, it goes without saying that these analytical skills need to be honed. So one has to be in touch with market realities. We have to also look at human behavior industry changes, social and economic forces, and no amount of experience in the industry can make up for constant and consistent research. To be ever updated and in touch, not just with the events they can place in our industry, but all other events, whether it's culture, whether it's fashion. And the point I mentioned earlier, which is inclination. So being inquisitive by nature allowed me to always look beyond the final results and really go into these matters of causation behind those results. That being said, all who believed that being a man of numbers, someone like me, boring is not really accurate,  To be able to analyze these trends and immediately place the ones that are not in tandem with the market environment, which requires an extremely creative bent of mind. You have to be able to think outside the box when predicting matters of extreme relevance. And one also needs to be very well versed with consumer behavior and producer behavior trends that are a consequence of human psychology. And you have to have an approachable and inclusive outlook to things which allows you more room to acknowledge the possible mistakes and even benefit in detecting trends that would otherwise go unnoticed. And like you said, in such uncertain times, the only thing we can be certain of is the constant, unpredictable nature of things. And that's when we look at these trends and these patterns and these price formations, we can only doing so by living in the moment. And that is something I learned from, from Master Oogway in Kung Fu Panda, one of my son's favorite movies. He said, yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present. So Master Oogway a fantastic follower and really good at pattern. So basically living in the moment. Rouba: (04:23) If we were to look at this particular area, which is your area of expertise and, you know, something that's been on an evolutionary scale for the past three decades, we see most of   e-trading online banking and wealth tech driving it, but there's a recent report by KPMG that stated that over $135 billion were invested in FinTech last year globally. And, that the transactional transaction value is expected to grow to some $10 trillion in 2023. The Middle East financial services revenue will account for 8% of these figures. So experts find that this growth is directly related to the increasing number of FinTech, startups, growth of the Islamic banking sector and the high mobile penetration, which is above the entire planet. I mean the UAE loan has 173% So the UAE also accounts for one third of the total number of FinTech startups. We talk about 46% in the world, but in your opinion, what is really driving such an exponential growth? Amir: (05:29) Well, the underlying cause behind such results is the foundation really to building Syntech development, by the UAE policy makers. They began to implement these forward thinking policies, regarding the FinTech since 2017. Two leading, financial free zones, I've actually development and some tech space global markets on one hand and the IFC Dubai International Financial Center. Now the IFC created the FinTech hive, which was essentially a a hundred million dollar fund that gave companies access to accelerate a program mentorship from leading financial institutions and insurance partners. And in 2018 IFC I see an Accenture, which is a firm I'm sure everyone knows about, but to those that don't, it's a prominent consulting company. They signed a MOU to foster growth of FinTechs and enabled such types of collaboration in the region. ADGM created the reg lab FinTech sandbox where FinTech participants could actually develop and innovate FinTech solutions in a controlled environment. And obviously the after effect of these efforts have not only provided FinTEch startup much confidence and support, you know, also kind of generated an acceptance from the public, making them popular, so to speak. It's kind of like in football or any other sport for that matter when sponsorships not only provide teams with the financial support they require, but also the added benefit of being part of the sponsors, PR tactics, which can help grow the public state and the team. On another front, the demographics and these kind of things definitely play a role. almost half of the population in the MENA region is younger than 25. And this factor alone allows for growing market of early technological adopters. Now, the younger, the population, the more flexible and adaptable they are to these types of technological investments and UAE in particular acts as a gateway to a wider region, and enables FinTechs to enter emerging markets across Africa, South Asia, and of course the middle East. Now this expanded region along with being an $8 trillion market is home to 3 billion people, with 70% of them, having limited to no access to financial services. Now, although the middle East constitutes about 1% of the global FinTech investment, this sector is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 30%. This means that for a mere and significantly smaller investments, the growth levels are multifold in amount. Now at the same time as ADJM and BRC created these environments to foster FinTechs and enabled them to grow, the Central Bank of the UAE and the SCA, the Securities and Commodity Authority, they established a dedicated  FinTech office to set national regulations specific to the industry. In 2018, they launched the production strategy, which aims to convert 50% of government transactions to e-payment services to allow these FinTechs to partake in the game. And they're also then, different investment funds who have come up over the years, like the, [inaudible] f...