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Brian Kush: https://www.intend2lead.com/brian-kush/ Top 10 Books for Accountants: https://www.intend2lead.com/top-ten-books/ Intend2Lead: www.intend2lead.com FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:00)This is episode 34 of Count me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson, and I'd like to welcome you back for another great perspective on the skills needed to succeed in today's accounting industry. For this episode, Mitch spoke to Brian Kush and executive leadership coach and the co-founder of intend to lead. Brian explains the importance of strong leadership and personal development when trying to create a sustainable accounting career. Let's go to the conversation to hear more.  Mitch: (00:36)One of the central competencies for our accounting and finance audience revolves around leadership. What natural leadership and coaching skills do accountants commonly possess? And tell us a little bit about what you do to support that skill set.  Brian: (00:58)Right, Mitch? So I always think of maybe an overused term in our industry, in the accounting industry is the idea of adding value. however, I feel like accountants are really good at that. I feel like they bring a value added mindset to everything that they do. And so some of the natural leadership qualities that they possess or that I find in a lot of accountants are, they're very good and open about sharing with each other and learning from each other, different in newer ways on how did you do things, you know, it might even just be, Hey here, allergy and, you know, here's what our firm or here's what our organization does. And, and, and being very good about sharing it with others, you know, and trying to learn from each other, whether it's you're in public accounting or if you're an internal audit shop, it's like how can we learn from other entities that are out there and really having that learning mindset in a way where they're sharing well with each other there. They're building upon each other. In some cases. It's brainstorming. I've done a lot of facilitated facilitated work or I've been here, well work with accounts even at different companies or firms. And it's just amazing and it's inspiring to me how well they are, are good. They are an open that they are about sharing new ideas and ways to improve and just really supporting each other in that way. So it's cool for me to be able to see that. I think that's something that accountants naturally do. I think accountants are also very good goal setters. You know, we have to be, and a lot of the, the work that we do, we have to set milestones. So how many of the projects that we're tasked with doing are not easy. They are complex and you have to set multiple milestones. So accounts are good at that when they're somewhat forced to do that and intend to lead. We're, you know, we're a leadership development company and we do a lot of coaching with, with accountants and one of the things we like to do is we like to really work off of that off of the idea of the learning mindset. How can you uncover, you know, what's really important you, how can you learn from each other? And coaching is really about helping someone to learn more about themselves and to move their acts just forward in their life. And so we like to tap into their learning mindset. And figuring out ways that they can progress in it, they can improve. And we like to also tap into that goal setting mindset where it's like, Hey, where do you want to go in your life? What's important to you? And how do we create a road map on how to get there? And that's what coaching is about. It's about, you know, where do you want to go? What are you now, what's the gap, you know? And as a coach, I'm going to help you to create a roadmap and an intentional way for you to move your learning and your actions for us that we can get to where you want to go. And by doing that, you can grow your skills as a leader and grow your influence of others.  Mitch: (03:50)Now that's the perfect segue to my next question because I'm curious, you know, kind of being a former accountant now, working with many accountants, what are some of the common goals that you've come across from these accounting leaders? What are they typically attempting to reach and what kind of roadmaps are you putting together for them?  Brian: (04:09)Yeah, Mitch. I think one of the most common goals that they have, it's really a, there's a big emotional part of this, but there's so many accountants out there where they, they want to, they want to feel bold enough to be able to create the life that they want in the future that they want and they want to feel like they have enough power to carve their job around what they want instead of, and let me compare that to sometimes how they feel. And it's usually fear based. It's usually all about struggle. A lot of times they feel like, wow, I've got this job and I've got to carve the rest of my life around my job because everything in my job comes first. And this is the way I've seen my peers do it. Or this is the way I've seen the people that have come before me do it. You know, job comes first. What I need to do comes first and the rest of my life is around that and what I love is we've worked with a lot of people with a lot of big hearts and they want to be bold and they want to create that future as they want it. Not always as how they've seen it. And so what they do is they want to have the boldness to say, Hey, can I visualize the future that I want? If I want to make partner in accounting farmer or if I want to be the CFO, can I become a CFO at this organization in a way where I can create the life I want? And the job of CFO or the job of partner fits into that. And, and so it can be the life I want sort of a life of someone else's or another type of model that's been created for me by somebody else. And that's really challenging for them and that's really, I think at the heart of what their bigger goals are, which is that life that they want and making everything and helping everything to fit into what is it they want. And.  Mitch: (06:04)What are some of the challenges that you typically encounter when trying to lead these accounting professionals through this plan that you develop or, you know, down this road? You know, the, the, the challenge is first kind of separating that emotional piece as you said, but once you're kind of on track, what typically happens?  Brian: (06:24)Yeah, it's unfortunate, but we've worked with a lot of accountants where they feel overwhelmed a big part of the time. And so they might ask, how do I take care of myself so that I don't burn out even when I'm really busy? You know, and you know, how can I work with my stress? How can I be proactive with my stress? You know, and this is to me in a lot of ways is a foundational challenge because whatever other challenges I made share with you are very common in our industry. This one is going to affect it, you know, so how do I manage my stress? How do I manage my anxiety and all that? And if I can do that well it's going to help me with so many of my other goals and so much of my vision and where I want to go. You know? And, and we always say, Hey, you know what, in order to do that, you have to be able to have a plan. You have to be intentional ...

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Welcome back to episode 33 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam Larson. And today we are going to hear from Jordan Savage, a successful CFO who quickly climbed the traditional corporate ladder to get where he is today. And his conversation with Mitch, he explains the risks he took and the opportunities he recognized to overcome some challenges and obtain the skills needed to progress in our accounting industry. Let's keep listening to hear Jordan talk about today CFO.  Mitch: (00:41)So it kind of looks like you followed a pretty linear career path as far as the different roles and responsibilities you've had. Can you talk to us a little bit about the different roles and kind of how each time things have changed as far as your responsibilities and the value that you offered to the position?  Jordan: (00:58)Sure. So when I first started my career, I started kind of with an entry level position as a project accountant. And what I learned early on is you know, you just have to do the best you can in the role that you're in. And once you prove yourself and you do a good job, you have good internal and external opportunities for growth. And in my case I've had a lot of good internal growth and so I went from a project accountant to a senior financial analyst with one company. And what you find as far as responsibilities, how they change is you really have to you understand the lower levels and so as you grow your personal responsibilities will increase every time you move up the ladder. And so you become responsible not only for your work but the work of the entire team and that's the biggest change as you work your way up up the ladder.  Mitch: (01:57)How about just the industry as a whole? I mean, I know you talked about how your roles change, but what have you seen as far as accounting and what do you feel has really affected those changes the most?  Jordan: (02:09)I think the biggest change within the accounting industry is long gone are the days where an accountant comes in, books a transaction and just keeps up with the daily record keeping. now the role of the accountant is much more value driven. You know, there, there's not a lot of value with day to day record keeping because most of our ERP systems are starting to catch up and allow us to book transactions that are routine or simple, you know, automatically. And so the role of the accountant has changed significantly. I think you have to possess more skills that relate to technology, you know, how to interpret and work with data. I think the IMA has done a fantastic job of kind of highlighting these changes with their you got to earn it campaign. I think we've all seen the commercials where, you know, there's the robot that's walking through the office and I think that's starting to occur. It hasn't hit every industry yet, but that, that change will certainly come. And so the value that we have to provide as accountants is just different in today's day and age.  Mitch: (03:17)In what position did you personally realize these changes? When did you see the technology and the automation really start to take some of your responsibilities away?  Jordan: (03:28)I think when I was a senior financial analyst, you know, when, when we first started, our systems weren't very robust. And so we had to do a lot of data manipulation before we could get to what we really wanted to study or, or look at. And over time as our systems became more robust and, and as they were able to handle more routine transactions and so forth, we were able to get better data out. And so we were able to spend more of our time doing the analysis and so forth. And so I think, you know, any of those entry level or you know, kind of second level above entry level positions will start to feel that transition the most.  Mitch: (04:12)Kind of going along this ladder that we're climbing here, you start to realize these different transitions in the role. I'm assuming that you've probably come across some new challenges also. Right? So can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges you have faced in some of these higher positions?  Jordan: (04:28)Sure. Well, and I think I'd first say, you know, in my opinion, the technical accounting skills, you know, those come with time and experience. And so from a challenge perspective you know, I kind of list it into three different areas. For me personally you know, with my role as a CFO now the first would be sourcing capital for our organization. The second would be managing the operations. And then the third is people management. And so in the, in the real estate and construction industry, good access to capital is absolutely necessary to achieve growth. We work a lot with our banking relationships to increase the amount of capital that they're willing to deploy with our group. And it's a constant challenge for us because we've got a tremendous amount of good projects but limited and constrained resources. So for us, that's a huge challenge. How do we increase the amount of capital that our banking partners are willing to spend with us? second, you know, for us it's, you know, our operations, which is, you know, processes, procedures, allowing us to scale. We've got three main operations at the challenger group. We do single family homes kind of traditional home building. And then we do commercial development, which would be mostly apartment complexes. And then we've just started modular manufacturing facility and of these companies, most of them are less than two years old. We've, we've got a lot of startups that we're doing. And what's interesting about, you know, our environment and our challenges you know, some people work on one startup and it's hectic and crazy. And in our case we're working at about or working on about seven of them all at the same time in various stages. So finding ways to streamline the processes and procedures and to make sure that the lessons we learn in one company are applied to our other startups I mean is very important for us. And it really does present a lot of unique challenges as we try to grow. And then the third, as you grow in your career you know, people management becomes incredibly vital. We talked a lot about servant leadership at the IMA and, and that's important. And I think in most cases the most important asset that a company has is not their intellectual property or the way they do certain things or the product itself. It's absolutely the people that they employ. So one of the missions of the challenge of group is making life better. And that goes for our customers, trade partners and employees. And I love that if we're actually servant leaders, we can have a positive impact, not only on our businesses that we operate, but also the lives of the people that would come in contact with. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges we face is how do we manage people, you know, customers, trade partners coworkers, you know, the list goes on and on. And I found that that people management to be the most rewarding and difficult endeavors that I face. there's a great book called the outward mindset that I'd recommend the listeners to read. one of the things I took from that book was that people aren't just simply objects to help us achieve what we're trying to achieve. Each individual has needs, ob...

Contact Robert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwleonard/The Investors Network Podcast: www.theinvestorspodcast.com IMA Life-Robert Leonard: https://sfmagazine.com/post-entry/july-2019-ima-life-adding-impact/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Mitch: (00:00)This is Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I am Mitch Roshong and I'd like to welcome you back for episode 32 with corporate finance manager Robert Leonard. In this episode, Robert talks to us about climbing the ladder in today's industry and why accounting skills are so valuable. So now let's head over to his conversation with Adam  Adam: (00:26)So Robert, what advice do you have for students or recent graduates hoping to break into accounting and finance fields?  Robert: (00:40)I think one of the biggest things is don't be afraid to take a position that isn't perfect or doesn't pay the most. I think you need to think longterm and you know, ideally look for opportunities where you'll have a mentor.  Adam: (00:58)So how do they find that mentor?  Robert: (01:01)I think it's through the interview process. Usually when you go to interview, you'll have three or four different people that you'll be meeting with in general and see if any of those people seem like they might be be great mentors for you. And I recently made a job change actually, but within the last six months or so and I was in a position where I was very, very happy. I didn't want to leave the organization that I was at, but the new company, the the gentleman that was going to be hiring me had those characteristics that I was looking for in a mentor. Yeah, I thought he was going to be a great mentor and that was one of the big things that really swayed me there and, and I think you should interview even if you're not a hundred percent certain on the position, you can learn a lot in the interview and that can really help you determine if there's opportunities that might not be present in the job description. I've interviewed for positions before in the past that weren't necessarily right up my alley, but it ended up being a great opportunity for me that I really enjoyed. And I think other ways you can break into the accounting and finance field, they're learning outside the classroom. I think that's so big these days. Well, a lot of people are still going to college and there is great value in college. I think learning outside the classroom is critical and specifically skills outside of like a normal college. So Excel or just how to professionally write emails and professional communications that can be taught in school. When I, back when I was in college, probably the best course I took throughout my entire college career was my professional communications course and that's helped me in various ways that I never would've expected in my career. And I think it's those skills that are more tailored for outside the classroom that can really help [inaudible] break into an accounting and finance field. And just one more thing that I think you can do these days is published content on LinkedIn and it should be tailored to the type of job that you want to get. So if you want to get in accounting and finance, post content about accounting and finance on LinkedIn and that should be able to help you get in front of either recruiters or just prove your knowledge too, potential employers. So you've got a mentor, you've got those first few jobs, you've gone on interviews and then you know, you start your first job. You know, what does it take to kind of climb that corporate ladder in today's accounting industry? I think what's so interesting about climbing the corporate ladder today is that it doesn't just take time anymore. You know, decades ago you could just kind of do the same thing and day in and day out and eventually you would follow the path and you gradually climb the corporate ladder. And I don't really think that's the case anymore. I think what you need to do to climb the corporate ladder is you need to work really hard and do things above and beyond so that you're the first person that a company thinks of when they have an opening. I think there's a lot of turnover these days in companies and so it's almost eminent that there's going to be an opening and when that opening does happen, you want to be the first person that your boss or their boss thinks of when that opening come so that they choose you to go into that new position. And I think that just comes from going above and beyond taking on additional projects that maybe no fit your job description perfectly, but you know the company needs pure hard work. Just be the first one in the office and the last one to leave and if you don't know how to do something, find a way to do it. If you take on additional projects area, there's additional projects that you want to take on and you might not know how to do it. You can, there's so many free resources out there these days to learn what you may need to know to get that project completed. So I just say find a way to do it. And I think the other, I live my career, bye. Three things and it's really helped me advance my career. And that's humility, a dedication to lifelong learning and hard work. Humility allows you to realize that you don't know everything and that you still have a lot to learn. But by being dedicated to learning, you can learn the things that you don't know and then apply it through hard work. And I think, I honestly think what those three things, anything is possible. And I'm still relatively early on in my career myself, but I've scaled my career pretty quickly by those three things. And I think those are really the three critical things that you need to climb the corporate ladder in today's accounting industry. And another aspect of it that I think is relatively uncommon to be talked about, especially when we're talking about work, we're talking about climbing the corporate ladder, right? So what does, what does personal finance have to do climbing the corporate ladder in an accounting industry? Well, I think it has a big role and I think what we'll see play out over the next few years and I think it'll be an increasingly important role. And the reason I say that is because if you can get your personal finances in order, you're able to take risks with your career that will play out over the long term, better for you but might not be as helpful in the short term. Right? So if you are in a financial position with your personal finances where you're a little bit tight on money and okay, you might need to take a the next job that you want to take and you might have to go to the job that has the highest salary even though it might be short term, highest salary and not a lot of opportunities for growth. Sure you could switch companies and you know, kind of do the job hopping thing. But in general that's not a great strategy. Whereas if you have your personal finances in order and you're coming from a really strong background of, of your finances, you can take us a little bit of a short term hit maybe that that next job isn't as big of an increase in pay as you want, but you're getting a great mentor, you have huge opportunities for growth. And over the next three to five years you could double your salary or you know even more, you know, I think, but if you don't come from a position of financial strength where you have that abi...

Contact Monisha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monishadequadros/Sparkbox Group: www.sparkboxgrp.com FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Hey everyone. Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Adam Larson and this is episode 31 of count me in for today's episode. We're going to hear Mitchell's conversation with Monisha de Quadros, a former CFO in both the public and nonprofit sector and now founder of her own outsource CFO firm. Let's listen to Mona. Just take on the role of today's CFO. Mitch: (00:44)What are the main differences in the finance function between public organizations and the nonprofit sector?  Monisha: (00:44)So yeah, that's a really good question. there are very few nonprofits today that have a proper finance function. Many times what happens in a nonprofit organization is that the accounting team subsidizes and doubles up as a finance team. And unfortunately the skills required for an optimal finance function is actually quite different than the skills needed for accounting. So nonprofits can certainly train their teams for financial modeling skills, critical thinking and analysis. But it's challenging because the two functions actually a wired differently. And then the hiring process is also a bit of a catch 22 because it's difficult to recruit finance talent in the nonprofit sector and yet it is critical to the success of these organizations. So having the right financial support and the nonprofits helps drive profitability, grow revenue, stretch and maximize each dollar expense, deliver valuable insights, and then also create long term sustainable strategies.  Mitch: (01:40)Now with a perspective, from, you know, both sides of that conversation, what is the greatest challenge you faced as a CFO with today's changing finance function? Particularly with, technology and digital age?  Monisha: (01:55)Yeah. You know I think it's two fold. Like one of the biggest challenges the CFO faces today is transforming the finance function from a cost center to a value creation center. The second challenge subsequently is the evolution of the CFO role itself. So both the finance team and the CFO are gatekeepers of critical data required to support decisions and strategic plans as they chart their journey through the digital age, the success of one becomes more intrinsic in the success of the other. So let's talk about the value creation center first. So it's safe to say our environment is changing at a rapid rate and this is probably the slowest pace we will see in our lifetime. So the speed at which change is happening, it's forcing businesses to evolve and transform at quicker intervals in order to stay relevant and competitive. So factors such as disruption, innovation, technology, consumer behavior, and globalization are all contributing to this space of change. Without the right data and financial insights, businesses will have a tough time making intelligent business decisions compete in this environment. and as a result it becomes increasingly critical for the finance function to step up and equip the business with the right financial insights for better decisions. So we need to evolve into value centers. And what I mean by value centers as I'm preparing to choose thoughtful analysis, predictive analytics strategies, and most importantly actionable insights with respect to the CFO. What's really interesting is that the rule is actually sitting at the center of the digital transformation. So we're seeing a greater need for real time data enabled decision support to meet that need. The CFO is moving away from the traditional activities like transactions. And reports to a more strategic role. So they're driving business decisions and preparing the business for the future. CFOs are being asked to be leaders within this evolution, taking on advisory roles to the CEO leadership team and the board. And the speed at which digital transformation is happening is also producing a greater appetite for business risk. And in turn, the CFO will need to be more resilient and proactive in their strategies to innovate. We're also seeing trends where the CFO is taking on additional responsibilities like taking over the operations functions and the it and technology functions. And some would argue that the role is expanding and becoming increasingly more challenging. And I would, I would actually agree, but I would also say it's becoming more interesting. So the CFO has a wide perspective with visibility across all business functions. They can act as the bridge connecting and driving the business in a cohesive manner. And then they have this ability now at this point and the structure to influence leadership, to be change agents and impact long term growth within the business. And lastly, they're in this unique position to actually define their own path. In this digital age.  Mitch: (04:48)Now let's go back to step one for just a second. What are some ways the finance function can actually transition from this cost center to this new value center that you mentioned?  Monisha: (04:58)Yeah, so I think we're the hardest, but probably most needed task is to develop an agile analytical mindset within the department. So agile is the ability to learn fast, adapt quickly, and iterate. Often one of the ways CFOs can adopt an agile mindset within their teams is to foster more creativity and curiosity. It's about creating an environment where it's okay to innovate, embrace risk, and sometimes even fail on the process. So just remember to have a feedback loop in place for lessons learned when you actually implement this process. Cause that's very, that's a critical step. Some of the practical approaches implemented today have been to create special projects with small teams or rotate job functions within the department. And of course offer continuous learning. Agile requires a different set of skills and talents that I think the CFO is going to have to either train or hire for. And these skills include digital competency, predictive analytics, agility, and even the human skills such as empathy and decision making capabilities. Another equally important step in creating this value center is to to emphasize collaboration across functional departments. You know, interestingly enough, recent studies have shown that there's a direct correlation between effective collaboration and the rate of revenue growth. So in order for businesses to make better decisions, there needs to be greater collaboration and the continuous flow of information back and forth between the functions. One can foster collaboration by developing a platform, a mutual trust. And by this I mean a space where both parties feel safe to share and constructively challenge each other with the common goal to increase customer value. Lastly, spend the time and resources to optimize current systems and improve integrations like the long term savings and efficiency and agility the business will see from doing these initiatives are well worth the effort and costs upfront. And I cannot stress that enough. Like the goal was optimization is to transfer data seamlessly between systems like the ERP system and the CRM and the finance system and enables finance function to pull clean and accurate information on a timely basis. In today's environment, finance team spent an inordinate amou...

Contact Fatima: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatima-mamod-ca-sa-cia-60837876/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Hey everyone. Welcome back for episode 30 of Count Me In. I'm your host, Adam Larson and our featured expert guests for today's conversation is Fatima Mamod. Fatima is a chartered accountant, entrepreneur and a business coach from Johannesburg, South Africa who joined Mitch for a conversation on what she calls the business savvy accountant. Let's tune in now to learn more.  Mitch: (00:31)In your opinion, what skills are most necessary for an accountant to be successful in today's business environment?  Fatima: (00:38)Okay, so I think the most important thing, I mean we are accountants by profession is definitely the technical skills. I think that goes without saying. But on top of that is to have a very important elements I think. And the second one is business acumen. And when I say business acumen, you know, I really mean where you can tie in your technical skills with helping the business achieve what that moods to. So it's not just knowing or understanding how the business works, what's the dentist process? It's actually tying in your technical skills with what the business needs. And I'll use the data's process as an example. So we all know you need to do a data's check in the beginning. You need to ensure that they have a credit limit. You've done the credit fitting, etc. Now as the accountant, you know that what I've realized is simple things like this, sometimes within the company, people don't understand the importance of it until you're way down the line and you're not getting the money from your datas. So what I find is communicate, talk and let your sales people know why it's so important and how this impact and fix them. And that's a difference between understanding the business and business acumen which is really important. and then the third thing that too, we are never taught as accountants I would say, is communication skills. We understand numbers. We never thought how to present those numbers through a story that business leaders can actually understand. I mean, how many meetings have we been in where the accountant is just asked to then present the numbers as he or she is going through it. No one's actively engaging. They either busy with something else because we don't present our numbers in a way that tells a story of the business. And I find it really useful and what has helped me a lot and I get very great feedback, is when I present with telling a story and I do that by talking to my colleagues beforehand saying, hey, I see our sales that actually up this month. That's great. What was the reason behind the, it's how did it go? Was it customer A and tying that in. So when you're presenting the people you've spoken to actually feel like they part of your presentation, they feel like you're presenting a part of this story. And that's really key.  Mitch: (03:01)Now, how do these different skills change or adapt when you're looking to be an entrepreneur?  Fatima: (03:08)So what are the three realized and running three, four businesses of my own and then successfully selling them off my technical skills. As much as I thought they would either be center around my entrepreneurship journey, they were not. And I think that's a big common mistake that we make as accountants. We feel that because you know, I'm a charted accountant, I know what I need to do with the technical skills at the center know I find that your business acumen, your business knowledge is the most important thing when you start your entrepreneurship journey. They, you know who you do business with, the client you get into, they don't really care whether you're a charted accountant video to qualify the content by proficient, they have a problem and they need to understand that you as a person have the skillset to solve that problem for them. And they may not even realize that it's an accounting problem. So you need to be able to, again, the business actually meant to show them that the skillset that you have actually matches, and this goes with any business where they use starting their retail businesses as well. Customers and consumers will come in with a certain need and you have to be able to identify and resolve it for them. The second thing that I find is really important is on the leadership side, we learn accounting, learn everything on that but none of us had really thought leadership skills. So in that post communication, networking, networking is, you know, a baby that everyone uses. Attend networking sessions. Why don't you meet with this one? But how do you it yet? What do you go and what do you want to get out of attending things? Because time is key on skins, 50% of your time attending different events and you don't get any leads from me. So it's your leadership, your communication. When you attend these sessions, who are you targeting? Who are you going to meet? How are you going to start the conversation with them? Need to think all these things through before you go in. And the last bit is you need to identify within your mentors who's the right people to help you unlock the path that you need forward. Because an entrepreneurship journey can get very lonely and you cannot really resolve everything on your own. So you need to understand that it's certain points you will need help. And who are the people you can turn to for help. I remember when I started my practice the first three months I had not one client, not one lead. And that was really because I sat and I said, you know, I'm qualified to offer service. This is what I'm worth and I'm not willing to talk, negotiate or even understand what's happening in the market. And three months with not a client and then realize, you know what, entrepreneurship doesn't work like this.  Mitch: (06:03)So you've used the word business acumen a few times now, but in preparing for our call, I know you referenced business savvy quite a few times, so I'm curious, what does an accountant who is business savvy actually look like?  Fatima: (06:17)So I could find an accountant who is business savvy, what do they look like? That's the person who has a seat at every table with business decisions that are being made with strategies in discuss. Your opinions are actually in us and you have people who make these decisions within the organization come through and saying, Hey, this is what we're thinking. we heard your presentation or you really helped us on this exercise. What are your thoughts around this? How do you think we should approach this new contract that we are looking at signing with this customer? Do you want to join him in the meeting? And then when you join in, in the meeting, it's having a voice on the table that's actually hurt. And that's when you realize that your business acumen has translated to becoming business savvy. People now know what you bring to the table and people can see you as beyond just being the accountant in the business.  Mitch: (07:16)Many of our listeners are more corporate accountants. So I'm curious, how does a business savvy accountant function in the corporate world as opposed to the entrepreneurial environment?  Fatima: (07:29)So the key difference in the key item that's different in the two, and I've had seats on both sides. ...

Connect with Laura:https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-landmark/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbedHQf3GYH46-QoqMODU3ghttps://www.mantleanalytics.com/blogSoftware:https://www.bizviewsystems.com/bizview365https://onestopreporting.com/https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Hey everyone. 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 today we're going to hear episode 29 of our series. Our featured expert guests for today is Laura Landmark, who spoke to Mitch from Norway about business performance management for a concept that everyone may not be too familiar with. Laura does a great job making important connections for accountants. So let's go ahead and listen to what she has to say.  Mitch: (00:37)What is business performance management? Why is it important and why is it so hard?  Laura: (00:44)That's a great question. Business performance management is actually a set of processes really that enables the, you know, the managers to to keep track on whether they're actually heading towards achieving their goals or not. I think that many people these days call it financial planning and analytics and you know, so there are, there are different words for it, but the reason why it's important is that without keeping focused on how the company's performing, there's a very good chance that you're not going to end up where you want to be. And especially with these days, things moving at the rate of knots, you know, moving so quickly, it's important to be fully on the ball and keep a track month by month, week by week, day by day, whichever is the relevant time-span on, on how you're performing against the goals and the targets for the company. And the reason why this is so hard is basically because there are so many moving parts, so it's not easy to, you know, to basically capture the actuals that are in the economy system and match them up potentially with the time registration that's going on in the time system. And then the project transactions that are in the project system and the whole ecosystem of, of different applications that exist in an organization make it very difficult to actually do unless you've got good systems in place of course. Mitch: (02:15)Now our main audience is the management accountants and you referenced financial planning and analysis. So from FP&A or business performance management, what is your view on the budgeting and the forecast that accountants are typically responsible for?  Laura: (02:32)Yeah, that's, well that's another good question. I can resonate with your audience cause I'm also a chartered management accountant. So I took my exams in London, well many years ago, I think about 20 years ago now. And I have spent an entire career trying to look at the future of companies, the different companies that I worked with or worked for because that's what we're trying to do. You know, as management accountants, we're to take data and to utilize it for reporting, forecasting and prediction. Budgeting and forecasting are extremely important. I would say forecasting more so than budgeting because it says it's live information. Really, when I talk about forecasting, I'm talking about rolling forecasts. So every month that goes by is another month of history and an extended month on the end of the forecast, whether it be a 12 month rolling forecast or an 18 month rolling forecast. You know, in reality, we've used these for all of our customers for quite some years now that we've been working in this way. And I've had many stories of customers that have been able to use the rolling forecast for effectively managing their businesses and also avoiding potential fools and, and threats. So one particular customer that I worked with, she was very proactive. This was a few years ago now, and she wanted to build a very detailed cashflow forecast because I think she could detect that they were potentially troubles ahead. So I worked with her for a while and actually understanding her business, I'm putting together a driver base full cost for her, which would roll forwards and it rolled forwards for 18 months. So every month that went by, she could look forwards and see 18 months into the future. And what she could see that in month 16, there was this big cashflow Dip and for a number of different reasons, it meant that she needed to go and renegotiate some, covenants with the bank. Now, what we found and what I found is that if you can go to the bank with a full cost and with a set of financial statements that show, you know, your, profit and loss, your balance sheet, your cashflow forecast in, you know, a period of say 12 to 18 months, they love it. And it's so much easier to go to the bank and renegotiate terms when you actually don't need the money. You know, when you get to the stage where, you know, in crisis and you need the money now, then it's very, very difficult to actually work, you know, with the banks. Naturally they see the risk of lending the money or extending the times. So I would say, although full costs, you know, they, they can't tell you the future, nobody can tell you the future. And the goal of forecasting is not actually to predict the future, to tell you what might happen and to allow you to do that scenario planning. So what if this, what if that, and as I say every month that goes by as new information allows you to, to adjust the forecast, it allows you to play with the figures and to create a future before the future happens.  Mitch: (05:46)So many of our previous conversations have been around data analytics and how there is technology available to really enhance this efficiency that you were talking about, you know, enable our management accountants to offer more foresight as opposed to insight into what's currently going on. So I'm curious what kind of technology you know, you are accustomed to or you know, is available to accountants to really improve in this planning and overall business performance,  Laura: (06:15)Right? Yes. Well we primarily use three tools for this. And when we started all business, we went actually all over Europe looking at different types of tools, different types of software to actually create the kind of environment for our customers that we wanted to be able to create. And what we found is, you know, a range of different great software, you know, so there's a lot of software out there, but for us it was important that it was SQL based because that's what our skillsets are. So what we found a is actually a Scandinavian product, which has recently been bought up by I think an American company actually, but it's called Bizview365. And what happens? Well what happened when we found this product was that it wasn't particularly set up for accountants. Now accountants, you know, we work a lot with accountants and they typically have a portfolio of let's say 300 or 3000 clients. You know, they're often working with many, many, many companies. And this particular product that we found ...

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05)Hey everybody. Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Mitch Roshong. Thank you for joining us again today. You're about to hear the third bonus episode of our IMA focused mini series within Count Me In. We're going to listen to Adam speak with IMA CFO and senior vice president of operations, Doreen Remmen. This episode will be especially relevant as you'll hear Doreen talk about her various responsibilities which really highlight the changing role of the CFO in today's industry. I'll let Doreen and Adam fill you in on the rest. So let's head over to the conversation now.  Doreen: (00:46)So Adam, it's really nice to have you visit me here in my office today.  Adam: (00:50)Glad to be here Doreen. Could you tell us a little bit about your roles and responsibilities here at IMA?  Doreen: (00:56)Sure. Well, as you know, I'm the chief financial officer and I have the traditional role of leading the finance organization. I ensure that our financial reporting and regulatory reporting are timely and accurate. I lead the budgeting process and I work with the external advisors, the accountants and attorneys, who keep us moving in the right direction. And thankfully I have a very professional finance team in place that's led by a highly skilled controller. So I have other responsibilities as well. My title is senior vice president of operations and my role goes beyond finance to include information technology, human resources, customer service and facilities. And here again, luckily I have wonderful teams in place and talented leaders.  Adam: (01:46)So during, I also know you work with the board of directors. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?  Doreen: (01:50)Okay. Well, my favorite part of my job is being the staff liaison to the strategic planning committee of the board of directors. And in this role I ensure that we have a continuous systematic process for refining our strategic plan every year. And that includes collecting input from our stakeholders who could be our members, our staff, our board, our vendors, performing an environmental scan and risk assessment and communicating the strategic priorities.  Adam: (02:22)So we know that there's many changes happening in the accounting industry. So how do your various responsibilities reflect those changes?  Doreen: (02:31)Well, Adam, there's been a lot written about the changing role of the CFO and I think more and more finance leaders are broadening their scope and becoming involved in strategy. And I think this is very true in large companies, where the CFO may have been seen as a functional trusted advisor in the past. That CFO is now being called upon to be a true business partner in strategic decisions. And this requires that we expand beyond a financial reporting and develop those analytical skills that help us predict an influence the future. But I'm asked this question quite often, Adam. And what I've said before is nobody told me at the beginning of my career that I was supposed to just stay in the finance function and I had the opportunity to work as the finance leader in mid size companies typically, but not always privately held. And as the CFO I was always the next person to the CEO in every business decision. So people relied on me to bring my analytical skills to different roles. Uh, in the company that I worked at before IMA I was able to move into a vice president of supply chain role. I also worked as the vice president of sales and marketing for a period of time. Having competent leaders on the teams that reported to me was really important. Having a highly competent controller in place enabled me to trust that she had everything under control. And I could step away from finance when necessary, go on a sales call, close a deal, or visit a supplier's factory and try to understand if they had the quality systems in place that would make them a reliable partner in a supplier managed inventory program. So nobody ever told me I was supposed to stick to finance. If I'd gotten that lesson early in my career, I think my life would have been a lot simpler. But I've enjoyed my career and I've enjoyed being in a lot of different roles and I have a lot of different roles here at IMA as well.  Adam: (04:43)So as you've already mentioned, how your different roles here at IMA kind of spread that and you've become that business partner with, you know, whether it's with the board or helping out with operations and in the finance function as well.  Doreen: (04:58)I'm just naturally curious person. I'm nosy. I like to get involved in different things. And uh, here at IMA I'm passionate about what is going on because I'm an IMA member and I am a, was always a really important, support system in my career. So I'm passionate about making sure that we're doing the strategic things that will serve the profession in the future.  Adam: (05:23)So on that same note, measurements and metrics are obviously very important for the CFO to monitor, as you've already mentioned. So what are a few keys of your key performance indicators or goals as a CFO at IMA? And how or why might they be different from those at a CFO to public organization?  Doreen: (05:41)Okay. So many of our financial metrics are very, very similar. Even though we're not for profit, we operate like a for profit business, in a very disciplined manner. We look at all the traditional indicators of financial that include profitability, cashflow and balance sheet ratios that measure liquidity and stability. Of course we do all of those things, but as a mission based, not for profit organization, not everything we do has dollars attached to it. So we look deeply at measures of member engagement to understand whether we're delivering the value that we should be.  Adam: (06:20)So one of the biggest areas of emphasis in finance and accounting competencies is data analytics. And we had, I may know that a very important and so how heavily, how heavily do you use or rely on data analytics for financial decisions and recommendations?  Doreen: (06:37)Well, we rely very heavily on data to support our decisions. We try to walk the walk here at IMA and we know that data analytics are very important to all of our members. We look at leading indicators in our data such as the number of new candidates for the CMA program. We also look at things like pass rates on the exam by region and it's very important for us to understand the trends as they're developing. My staff has been exploring new technology products such as Tableau and the advanced features in Excel to unlock the secrets and the trends that are showing up in our database. We also look at external data such as the GDP in our target markets and the numbers of students that are graduating from accounting and finance programs at universities.  Adam: (07:27)So how do you think the use of those new tools that they're looking at will help IMA]?  Doreen: (07:3...

George Azih bio: https://leasequery.com/about-us/leadership/#georgeContact George: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeazihleasesoftware/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 for this week's episode, Mitch spoke with the CEO and founder of Lease Query George Azih. This conversation focused on ASC842 and how lease accounting software can help businesses enhance their processes when complying with the new lease standards. George also offers a unique perspective on future changes to accounting standards. So let's go to the conversation to find out more.  Mitch: (00:35)I know FASB has issued new standards pertaining to leases recently. What triggered these accounting changes?  George: (00:49)Well, Mitchell, thank you so much for, for having me. Essentially it all begins and ends with transparency, right? essentially the boards FASB and ICB are concerned with making liabilities, which by definition mean obligations to make payments at some future time. Making these liabilities actually be reflected on the balance sheet under current gap and undercurrent for us what we have, most leases are called are classified as operating leases and these leases are no longer reflected on the balance sheet as liabilities are. The boards are trying to increase transparency and make financial statement users understand set transparency. And what they're trying to do is make those obligations to make lease payments be reflected on the balance sheets of companies that are, you know, entering the sunset set at least transactions.  Mitch: (01:51)And what are the biggest challenges with these new rules? How have accountants been working through some of the challenges to make sure they're complying with these new regulations?  George: (02:00)Well, interestingly, there's these three major items, right? One is complexity, the second is time, and the third is completeness. So let's start with complexity. The rules, the new lease accounting standards are 492 pages, right? 492 pages of documentation. Literally these are, I mean it's the fixed stack. So the sheer complexity of the new lease accounting standards is a big challenge. There's also some amorphous or a big use details there, right? Where companies have to, it's not exactly rules-based. So just to predicate this FASB is moving from rules-based accounting. So principles based accounting. Well this means essentially that rather than give you an exact means to explain the way things are supposed to work, they're giving you a general guideline. And what that means essentially is that it's not in black and white, right? So there's a lot of challenges with, first of all, understanding the spirit of what the boards are trying to issue versus the actual way they want you to account for it, right? So the sheer complexity of this standard is a big challenge. The second thing is how much time it takes to comply, right? There's a lot of things that you'll have to go through. Think about a large global corporation or even a small one. Think about the people that are within that organization that need to take part in the requisitions process, which leasing falls under, right? It could be someone in legal, it could be someone in purchasing, it could be someone in supply chain, it could be someone in accounting, right? There's so many people that, that any leasing, any particular lease introduction could could go through. And as such, if you want to capture your entire lease portfolio, these are the individuals that you or the departments, you know, accounts receivable, accounts payable, I'm sorry, not in accounts receivable, but accounts payable. These are the different departments that you have to actually hit. So in a global corporation, it takes a lot of time to coordinate such efforts. Right? The last part is completely it is very difficult for large corporations or even small corporations to determine, okay, what is my actual portfolio of these transactions? Right? It's not just the challenge here is that you don't identify a lease by reading the contract and it says you are leasing this asset, right? There's different things that could be deemed a lease. But in the contractual terms, it never states that it's a lease, right? So companies have this challenge where they have to look at all their contractual obligations to determine, okay, do I have all these, is this the least that should be that should be complied with under topic 842, 842 is the new lease accounting standard, is this a leak that should be followed under 842 or is this a service, a service contract? Right. So, the big three things there are complexity, as I said, time and completeness actually getting a complete look at your, your entire portfolio.  Mitch: (05:23)Now what are your personal experiences with these new lease accounting rules? You know, what specifically triggered your initiative of creating a lease query?  George: (05:36)Oh, that's a great question. And in my previous life, I used to be, I used to work in financial reporting and in accounting research. And that was my main role. Essentially what that meant is I had to look at what the upcoming guidance is. Upcoming guidance from what's called the EITF is called the emerging issues task force from the, which is a subset of the FASB, and figure out, okay, what are the upcoming rules that they're going to make and how do I make sure that the company gets the preferred accounting treatment? Right? So that was my main role. Now in the same company we, the company had the change auditors and they went from one big four firm to another, and the new auditor said, okay, we're going to take a deeper dive into the financials. And what they did was they looked at every single area to be deemed a risk worthy. And one of the areas they looked at were leases while they pet the pen of the least 10 of the leases at 10 out of 10 of them were wrong. They tested another 10 and tell them the tenor or the world. So basically there were batting, you know, zero out of, you know, zero out of 20 which obviously, you know, is below the Medusa line. So essentially what happened there is that they had to go through and figure out, okay, how do we account for leases in a global corporation? And the chief accounting officer tasked me with teaching the different controllers. I said this was a global organization, how to account for leases. Well, the challenge there was this was accounting for leases under the current at the time, current lease lease standard, which was relatively simple, right on the previously standard was it was topic 840, right? The new standards before the two. So this was accounted for under the easier method, which is 840. Now the boards change it obviously it's 842. And in my role as accounting research and, you know, financial reporting, that in that role, I knew that the boards were changing the rules, right? Going from this easy process to the new co, more complex guidelines. And so I figured, well, if as a company they were having challenges applying easy 840, then by God, when the new rules come and change when the new rules change, then it's going to be a huge headache for them. Right. Once again, batting zero out of 20 under current guidelines when it becomes more complex than it'...

Contact Fatema:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatemaelwakeelmbacma/Fatema's Blog: https://strategicalanalytics.com/Fatema's Articles:https://sfmagazine.com/post-entry/may-2019-agile-project-management-in-analytics/https://sfmagazine.com/post-entry/august-2019-further-demystification-of-agile-project-management/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 this week's episode, Mitch was joined by Fatema El-Zahraa El-Wakeel to talk about agile project management methodology. Fatema helps us understand agile by breaking down the process and giving us a simple how to, when looking to start using this project management methodology. Let's listen to learn more.  Fatema: (00:30)So traditional project management model is really what we're used to seeing for several years. It consists of a project manager and a team of specialists who work on a project. The project team begins by meeting with the customer, can be another department or another company and external party depending on the project. And then once they collect the project requirements, they break it down into milestones. And then the project manager is tasked with keeping the customer posted on the status and completing the project. This model is really vulnerable to a lot of things like delays, miscalculations or unforeseen costs, which can be caused by the budget overruns or an overall failure to deliver a stated goals.  Mitch: (01:25)How is the agile project management different than the waterfall method in terms of, you know, the variables that come along with the project and which methodology is better for analytics.  Fatema: (01:39)So when you look at any project, really there are three main variables. The time set for the project, the resources that the project will be using, and the main thing is the scope. Oh, and in a traditional project management, the scope is fixed and obviously you can increase the resources by increasing the budget signing off an additional budget or adding additional employees to the project, the time needed is an estimate. People like to fix it. But normally, unfortunately you see overrun. In agile project management, the resources and time components are more fixed. While the scope is estimated. So you know that kind of the direction where you're going but it is not set on set in stone somehow. In agile because, because we are really responding to like the business needs. So we re we prefer using it in analytics project rather than sticking to a scope that is fixed. So normally what happens is a product owner, the product owner and the customer would agree on a, an MVP, which is the minimum viable product. I'm using this method. The time spent for the MVPs for each iteration is called a sprint. And at the beginning of the sprint normally the customer and the project team, agree on the sprint goals and the MVPs that are expected. And then they kind of establish a plan really to complete the work. And at the end of the sprint, the project team goes back to the customer to show the MVP and get the feedback. So they show the customer a demo of what they've done so far. Sometimes even you can go live with part of the project and launch it. And I think this is the benefit of using agile methodology in data analytics because you're utilizing the data.  Mitch: (03:41)Now I know there are a lot of terms that I'm sure our listeners hear frequently, but may not necessarily know what they mean. So within the agile project management methodology, what are some of the most important facets and some of the terms that you should really understand to understand agile project management?  Fatema: (04:01)That's a great question, Mitch really, because I think when you start using agile project management it's a bit overwhelming. Like when I first started i was like what are all those terminologies that people use? And what does that mean? I think few of them, well one of it is, for example the scrum and I'm a scrum is or no, those are normally regular meetings to reviews the progress of the adult project, similar to a project management manager. Oh the scrum master oversees the development process and ensures everyone is on track and it's really aligned to the planned sprints. Another term used is scrum of scrums and that happens when you have several projects, multiple teams working on different projects and they need to keep the wider team updated. Product backlog is another, term that is widely used and you can see as like list of tasks to be completed by the team, open items that the team needs to go through and kind of close in each sprint. Normally the product, owner and manages the backlog to ensure the product delivery. So he or she discusses with the, which items on the backlog need to be done. There's different like labeling, like if it's a should or could. How important is the item on the backlog.  Mitch: (05:35)Now that we have a better understanding of the terminology that goes into agile project management, what is a practical example? Can you give us a case study or something that you've worked on where all of this kind of comes together? Fatema: (05:50)So let me think of an example. So, let's say a customer described some challenges with current reporting used for pricing and they explained that they would like, that's a visualization to understand relevant issues. So it's basically a visualization and analytics project. So I'm the agreed MVP in this case or the minimum viable project would be a dashboard that helps report pricing. The team working on the project agrees with the customer to me by weekly for example, and review the progress and MVPs based on expected sprint deliverables at the start. As you can see from here, the project time is agreed and it might be three months and the number of team members is, for example, set to five. So the main, the three main, um, facets, it's really of the radar project management is you have a scope, you know, the direction where you are, and in this case you're going towards a visualization project. You have the time set, which is three months, and you have the resources set, which in this case the team members, the five team members, Oh, the product owner in this case create some backlog listing the tasks needed such as tools used for the visualization, preliminary KPIs and other reporting requirements. The scrum meetings normally would occur daily and the scrum master would ensure everything is on track. A scrum meeting is normally like 10 minutes and it's a stand up. So everyone in the team would just say what they've done this day before what they're doing today. And like if there are any blockers so that in this case the scrum master would unblock those challenges that the team is facing. If you assume that at the end of sprint one the team meets with the customer to present and discuss the print preliminary KPI and the basic dashboards. So it's still the start of the project and the ...

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm Adam Larson and today we're going to listen to Mitch speak with Indra Moeljadi from Switzerland about the evolving role of a finance business partner. In their conversation Indra talks about business partnering technology in analytics, strategic decision making and storytelling. Let's go to the conversation now.  Mitch: (00:26)How has your role as a finance business partner and the head of finance changed over the last few years?  Indra: (00:37)Yeah, so you know, I said progress in my career. I found out that it's less about the data crunching and more about finding a story within a numbers. You know, days of going through the numbers on a spreadsheet, there's becoming less and less, I mean, they still exist of course there's the bread and butter, but now I spend more time putting the numbers into PowerPoint presentation and then doing some analysis on it and presenting the analysis and the story to the organization. So as a finance business partner, you know the asks from the people I spend the most possibly thought as part they are commercial minded team. So you know, they're not really great with numbers. You know, they always ask how can I help them get certain messages based on the financials across the organization. You know, and to be able to do that, I need to understand a couple of things. I need to understand the business, why they say that we do, you know, whether the products work, all that stuff. I need to understand the organization. So who are the people that I'm dealing with that I'm interacting with. And then also the last thing is what message is it that they want me to convey? Cause that's really important in trying to, you know, be the right business partner. So for me it's more about understanding and preparing a story and less about data crunching numbers. And I've seen that over the past few years. And I also see people going into finance roles. You know, the technology is there that enables them to do the data crunching. So you know, you need to do a bit more than just the data crunching.  Mitch: (02:10)How do technology and analytics skills help you and your team understand the business and the message you are trying to share as data change the necessary skillsets and how decisions are ultimately made?  Indra: (02:21)Yes, I believe so. There's a lot of data out there. You know, take, take an example. In the past when I started, I started working almost 20 years ago, still worked on paper invoices and you know what we do with paper versus we take what's important only the important bits because we didn't have the resource nor the capability to store all the information. Nowadays one transaction has a lot of data points, you know, multiple data points in there. You have to date, customer location, payment method, delivery method, stock keeping, unit currency, everything else. And now we actually have the resources and capabilities to store all this data. So yes, we need to technological skills cause we need to be able to go to this data and filter out what is important. You know, what do we actually need and then once we find what's important we need the analytical skills to come up with a meaningful analysis that will aid this with the decision making process. So yes, and when we talk about strategic decisions, these are decisions impact in the future. Data that we have is from the past. You know, the historical data. So how do we take historical data and make a decision for the future with it and, and be sort of accurate sort of where we can predict the future. And technology really helps. There are lots of tools and can predict and forecast for the future. They can do trend analysis, they can, you know, it's obviously not perfect but it really helps a lot. But then on top of the technology, you also need our analytic skills and our experience. And that's fundamental because we should be able to predict, you know, when the peaks and the dips are in the sales from an expenses should be able to predict and calculate return of investment and then adding our ethics skills and our experience on top of that. Then we get a good story and then you know, we can have the right parameters to make the strategic decision for the organization.  Mitch: (04:13)Business partnering, strategic decision making. These are popular terms today relating to finance, but another one that seems to be becoming even more important, and I know you referenced it earlier, is storytelling. So what exactly is storytelling and how does it fit into the finance function?  Indra: (04:28)So storytelling and finance to me it's a couple of things. One is translating the numbers into something coherent for the audience. Most finance people you know they get a headache when you show them an Excel table. And I've had that a lot where I give them access table and they just shake their heads and they don't want to even see it. So how do you make these people at ease with numbers? Right? So what do I do? I replaced the numbers for a story and that makes it understandable for these people. Now a lot of the senior managers in the organization that I've worked with, they don't have the time, neither nor the mental capacity to go through an Excel file. So as a finance business partner, it's our task to make the numbers understandable and to do that, you know, providing a story is a really good tool. And then also another aspect of storytelling in finances, stories have a distinct pattern, right? We learned that when we're children, as long as the beginning, a middle and an ending. And if you look at, you know, strategic decisions that, that a company's making, they also for beginning. Beginning being the reason why do we need to do this? And there is a middle, you know, to how, what's the process to get there? And then the ending, the ending is being like, what is the objective? Most companies started with the ending first, but then it all goes from the beginning of middle and ending. So by putting all of this in the story, it will help everybody. You know, cause we are as humans, we're conditioned to learn about stories all around us. Everything is about a story. That's how we are. This is how we grew up. This is how we are conditioned as human beings and also storytelling. It's the most powerful tool to pass on a message, right? But a good or bad, if you put a right story behind it, a bad message can become a good story. And vice versa. If you have the wrong story, a good message become a bad story. Right? And so, so if you have this tool, you know, use it because then the audience can relate to it and they can really understand what is going on.  Mitch: (06:24)So let's put all of the pieces of this conversation together. What advice can you give to accounting and finance professionals attempting to develop a strategic driven story to add value to their organization?  Indra: (06:35)So by telling a story, you're adding value to an organization. Now, would your business partner, would you prefer, would they prefer it? If you just give them an extra table and then get on with it. Or would your business partner prefer you tell them what is going on when you show them the numbers? I think it's most cases and I think majority, I'm pretty sure they just want to tell. They just want you to tell them what's going on....