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IMA is celebrating International Women's Day on March 8th to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women.  In this special Count Me In podcast Yvonne Barber, CFO, HR Knowledge Source, discusses how the pandemic affected female small business owners and how some used management accounting strategies to help them become more  resilient. Connect with Yvonne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonnebarber/Episode Transcript:Margaret:       Hello, and welcome to Count Me In. I'm your host, Margaret Michaels. Every March, IMA celebrates International Women's Day. A day recognizing the unique contributions and accomplishments of women.  Embracing equity is the theme of this year's celebration. Questions of equity are prevalent when speaking about women and the workplace. Nowhere is equity defined as the promotion of justice, impartiality, and fairness. Within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources, according to IMA's Diversifying U.S. Accounting Talent Report. More important than in the realm of small business. Where female, small business owners account for 21.4% or 1.24 million of all small businesses in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau.  Today, I am here with Yvonne Barber, CFO of HR Knowledge Source and IMA's Small Business Committee Chair. To discuss how the pandemic affected female small business owners. And how some used management accounting strategies to help them become more resilient.  We will consider the challenges these owners face in a competitive, post-pandemic business environment. And the ways strong management accounting principles, can help them operate their businesses more efficiently and profitably. Thank you for being here today, Yvonne. Yvonne:          Thank you for having me. Margaret:       So I guess we'll start with looking back at the pandemic. Which really did bring a lot of attention to small business owners and their challenges. At the height of the pandemic, you worked for Blue Abacus Solutions. An accounting services firm specializing in small businesses. Small businesses took a huge hit during the pandemic. With quarantines, social distancing rules, and employee turnover affecting their ability to operate and stay profitable.  According to the World Economic Forum's Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, female small business owners were hit harder than men. With women 20% more likely than men to report business closures, due to the pandemic. Can you offer some perspective on why female-owned businesses were especially at risk? Yvonne:          Sure, in addition to the resource that you mentioned. I've researched this topic to develop a better understanding of the challenges faced by small businesses. So that the IMA's Small Business Committee, where I serve, can offer the support needed to the small business community.  And I found that the biggest factor to be the lack of access to funding and capital. A majority of female entrepreneurs self-fund their business. And this can limit the ability to scale their business or invest in the needed resources, to improve operations.  One of the things that small businesses, in general, struggle with is looking forward at what's coming, as opposed to reacting to what's currently on their plate. And I think that is where a lot of small businesses found themselves.  They just weren't in a position to handle what the pandemic served out to them, and that is one of the biggest factors. But among that, bias among customers was also listed as another factor.  Now, this may not be a great obstacle for some women. Especially, here in the United States, I think we've made a lot of progress in that area. But I found several studies, throughout the world, that found customers are less likely to purchase goods or services from women-owned businesses.  So there's a variety of reasons that women were impacted as they were. And I think it's difficult to offer a one-size-fits-all approach to this. I think, instead, it's good to look at each individual item. And address as it pertains to your business, as a female-owned business or a small business owner in general. Margaret:       Yes, those are great points and I think the funding issue is very top of mind. And that's really interesting, the bias, I never thought about that. But women experience bias in a lot of realms. So it shouldn't be surprising that it's also prevalent in small business ownership and customer choices. Those are great points. Yvonne:          Yes, that surprised me as well. Just because my perspective here, being in the United States, I think that we've learned to navigate that a little better. But in that The Small Business Committee, we serve a global membership. I am interested in what the challenges are for our membership. All over the world, not just here in the United States. So that was surprising to me. But it was helpful to see the information, so that I'm in a better position to offer what's needed for our members. Margaret:       And the IMA's Small Business Committee does a great job, with helping members who are struggling with these issues. In fact, IMA's Small Business Committee published two important reports, to help guide small businesses through the COVID crisis, and to help them stay resilient post pandemic.  I wonder what differentiated the businesses, who managed through the crisis versus the ones who failed? And from your perspective, why is it difficult, when you are a small business owner, to address both short-term crises and long-term strategy? Yvonne:          I think the businesses who survived focused on sustainability and leveraged strong relationships, and a diverse network of sources to meet their needs. Those who prioritized relationships were just better positioned to survive the storm. The relationships include the customers, suppliers, as well as employees. And it can be tough to think about tomorrow when you're just trying to survive another week.  I know a lot of small business owners. I know they're just trying to make payroll. But making short-term decisions that impact the long-term sustainability of a company, they may seem to help the short-term, but ultimately they do end up hurting the company. Margaret:       I think that's something that even mid and large-sized businesses grapple with, is that balance between the short-term and the long-term. And not having those short-term decisions affect your ability to operate in the long-term. So that's absolutely on point.  And now, as the immediate crisis of COVID passes, new risks are also emerging for small businesses. These include worker shortages, failure to embrace digitization, inflation, and supply chain disruptions. And without the resources that larger size companies enjoy. How can small businesses mitigate these risks? Yvonne:    &...

Today we're excited to have Robert Cooke, the founder and Principal Architect of 3Forge, a New York-based fintech company that focuses on solving complex data problems in the accounting world. Robert joins Count Me In to share his story about his lifelong passion for computers and his journey to founding 3Forge. He breaks down the three buckets of data that the company focuses on: real-time streaming of data, asking computers about data, and data entry. Robert emphasizes the importance of having the right technology in place to analyze data properly and shares his experience working with various organizations to solve their data problems. Join us as we explore the fascinating world of fintech and data.Episode Transcript: Adam:            Welcome to Count Me In. The podcast, where we examine all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm Adam Larson, and I'm excited to introduce our speaker today, Robert Cooke. Robert is the founder and principal architect at 3Forge, a New York-based provider of data visualization and visualization technology. Today, Robert and I discuss his passion on the interrelationship between computers, people, and data. And describes the future trends he expects to see in data management.  Businesses of all sizes can gain value through using data to optimize and streamline their business. And we discuss how the technology chosen plays a role in driving a competitive advantage. Let's listen in to learn more. Well, Robert, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. We're really excited to talk about you and your organization, and fintech. And before we go there, I just wanted to start with maybe you could tell a little bit about your story and how you got to where you are? Robert:           Okay, yes, great, Adam, thanks for having me on today. So my story is I'm a lover of all things computers. I've been into computers my whole life, ever since when I was a little kid. I went through the natural learning curve, which is, originally, I wanted to build video games, and this is in the early '80s. So I was focusing on what does it mean to write efficient code and things along those lines. And then later on, we had this club, and in the club people could buy sodas and buy candy bars, and things like that and it was like a Boy Scouts equivalent. But it was all being paper-driven in terms of the accounting and everything. And I felt, "Well, this is a great opportunity for computers." And that's when I realized, wow, computers, as a kid, I always saw video games, and I realized these really are business machines, they can really help streamline things. And, so, our little club was actually, probably, one of the first grade school clubs to, actually, be managed through electric accounting.  Now, I'm embarrassed by the system I built at the time it was very hardcoded for sodas and candy bars, but it still got me started on the concept. So I've really spent my whole life thinking about, abstractly, what it means to connect humans to data. And that can take you in a lot of places.  And then I ended up working in fintech, it was Bear Stearns, it was in 2002. And I was head of infrastructure at the dark pool Liquidnet. My work product has been at many of the tier-one banks, but all the while it's been this, I would say my story has been one of interest in computers and interested in how humans and data interact. Adam:            And that's a huge part of, especially, in the accounting world. Where you have to understand where your data is and what your data is doing. To be able to visualize it properly, to give the right reports to your CEO and all of those items. And, so, we all understand how important data is. What does your organization, what does 3Forge do in terms of data? How do they look at data?Robert:           Well, I look at data, I've actually broken the problem down into three buckets. I think two of which are very important for accounting. But to be exhaustive, I'll go through all three of them. The first bucket is what I would call real-time streaming of data. And that is not necessarily as important for this conversation, but it is something that we focus on as well. So the idea is, as data is taking place somewhere you want to be able to have that streaming in, and as a human be able to read that in real-time.  An example I could give is, if you think of, at this point, cars are pretty advanced. That dashboard in your car, that's real-time streaming information coming to you, telling you your speed limit. You don't have to ask the car, "What's my speed limit?" It's just always showing it to you, that's real-time. I think very cool things could be done in accounting with that, as you start to move into workflows, but I'll digress on that.  The second thing is what I would call asking your computer about data. And, so, a very simple analogy would be you simply go on to Google and you type in, "Who is Adam Larson?" And then it comes up and gives you an answer. That would be you, a human, invoking a question, asking the computer and the computer comes back, that's the second thing.  And then the third thing is data entry, which is pretty much what it sounds like. The ability to fill out a form, hit Submit and send that. And then that goes into the computer. Maybe it goes through some validity, maybe it goes through some workflow process, with the ability to enter data. So, to recap, we break it into three buckets–  Data moving in real-time.The ability to ask questions about data.And the ability to enter data.  And I think one of the cool things is, and this is like decades to come up with this answer. It almost seems embarrassing because it seems so simple, at the end of the day. But once you've thought about it in those three buckets, you can really start to tackle just about any problem that comes your way. And, frankly, accounting has some of the most deceptively, challenging problems there is.  I mean, some of the systems that I've seen built on our platform are way beyond my understanding, to be quite frank. You know what I mean? But there's a lot that goes into it. Adam:            Yes, there is a lot that goes into it. So that just goes to show it's really important to have the right technology in place, at your organization. To make sure that you can analyze your data properly. What have you seen as you've worked with many organizations. As they come to you with different problems and having to work through their data issues? Robert:           Well, it's interesting because it goes without saying that Excel is the predominant piece of software being used. And Excel, I'm sure if I look, I've got five monitors here, I'm sure if I look around enough I'll find Excel up on one of them for something. And, I think, Excel is an incredibly powerful tool for certain activities, especially, if you're trying to mock things up quickly. You're trying to aggregate some data, maybe determine interest rates, something like that it's very good for that.  But I do think it has a tendency to be overused, to the point of abused, and I think a lot of people would agree. But a...

Links mentioned in today's Podcast:https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.comhttps://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com/resourcesConnect with Mark:https://www.linkedin.com/in/hershey/https://twitter.com/CareerToolkitBkhttps://www.facebook.com/TheCareerToolkitBookhttps://www.instagram.com/thecareertoolkit/Full Episode Transcript:  < Intro > Adam:            Welcome back to Count Me In. IMA's podcast for finance and accounting professionals working in business. I'm Adam Larson, and today I'm excited to bring you part two of my conversation with Mark Herschberg. In which he provides a helpful framework for thinking about hybrid work plans and how you should approach finding most productive balance for individuals, managers, and teams within your organization.  In the interest of time, I'm not going to list all of Mark's credentials, again. Just high-level for those who missed the first episode. Mark teaches at MIT, he's a serial entrepreneur and business innovator, and he's the author of The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills For Success That No One Taught You, which I highly recommend you check out, just follow the link in the show notes.  Okay, that's enough introduction. Let's get right into another highly insightful conversation with Mark Herschberg. < Music > So, Mark, I want to welcome you back to the Count Me In podcast. We had a great time talking about The Great Resignation last time. And today we're going to be talking about hybrid and hybrid work and what that means for organizations. And, so, to start off, I know that during Covid everybody went remote because you couldn't unless you were certain types of organizations that had to still work in person.  But many organizations went remote completely. And now as we're on the third year of Covid, and people are coming back to work, everybody's moved to hybrid. So what it really boils down to is what can we do to be more effective in this hybrid model, going forward? Mark:             That's a great question, and there are a number of ways we can look at this. But to start, here's four things to think about as you begin to return to the office.  First, let's formalize the rules. Often we have a certain way of working, and in our last episode, we talked about corporate culture. Usually, it's not written down, we just know this is how things get done on our team, in our department. But we want to be more explicit about how we do that, and this is for two reasons.  First, it's a little different, this is a disruption. Now, we had a disruption in 2020 when we said, one day, "Stop coming to the office." And that was very disruptive. We know what's coming, we can be a little more intentional and planned this time. But also we have new people coming on board, who aren't going to be around us as much to learn by seeing. To get that osmosis, that just feel for it by being there. So we want to be more explicit with the rules. I don't mean employee handbook; I mean how we do things. When should you call a meeting, versus this could have been email, versus this could have been a Slack message.  When you create these rules get input, you, the manager, you have enough to do. Don't think, "Here's one more thing I have to do." Get input from the whole team. In fact, you can even potentially pass this off to others to take the first pass.  Now, you as the manager will get the final say, the ultimate decision. But others are probably really excited to say, "Oh, I get to be a larger voice in this. You're asking me to take the lead on this, this is fantastic." They see it as opportunity, whereas you see it as one more burden. But, again, you will have the final say. But that's to say you should really, as a leader, incorporate the voices of the whole team. Don't be afraid to almost be a little formal, in terms of the welcome back. There was a trend back in the .com era, back when companies would shut down. It was very sad, these people you had worked with for a while, there was a shift, and they did something rather clever. They said, "We have some experts who understand how to make a shift, we call them clergy." Clergy are very good at you're transitioning from being single to being married. You're transitioning from having this person in your life to now they aren't anymore, and we have ceremonies to mark that. You're doing a big transition when you say, "Welcome back to the office."  You can just say, "Well, you're showing up Monday, deal with it." Or you can say, "Hey, we're coming back and we want to welcome you back. We want to recognize there is a formal change here." And that can be a ceremony and that can be a fun, good ceremony. It doesn't have to be solemn, it could be a party. It could be more than just a happy hour.  Don't just say, "Well, we're going to do drinks, Monday, when you're back in the office." Make it symbolic. Make people understand and feel this change, just as we do with other life cycle events. So I think you should create a formal one.  And, finally, don't be afraid to change what you're doing, this is new for most of us. Now I've run hybrid companies before. I've run virtual companies before, but everyone has been different, and, especially, as we do it at a global scale.  As we do it, not just our company, but every company. Don't be afraid to say, "Maybe we need to change this up, how we do it." And that's okay, it's not a mistake, it doesn't make you look weak; it makes you look responsive to your employees. Adam:            And it also sounds like you're saying that when we come together, it should be more than just doing our meetings. Like when we come together makes sure we're meeting face to face. It should be more than that. It should be more social activity, so that we're engaging and connecting outside of, "Hey, let's meet about this spreadsheet." Mark:             Well, the ceremony I was referring to is when you first come back. Maybe in the first week or two you do something formal and that's probably more of a one-time event. But you've brought up a very good point.  The initial thinking by many people is, "Okay, you're in the office two days a week, three days a week, you really need to be productive." We know employees, you're at social or chat, you surf the web sometimes....

Connect with Kyrill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrill-asatur/Full Episode Transcript:< Intro > Adam:            Welcome back to Count Me In. The podcast for accounting and finance professionals working in business. I'm Adam Larson, and today we're going to talk about something that is, no doubt, near and dear to you, namely, your money.  My guest is Kyrill Asatur, the CEO and co-founder of Centerfin. As a longtime advisor to hedge funds and other large institutional investors, Kyrill was often asked by friends and relatives for advice on how they could better manage their money. How the big shots on Wall Street do it? And for a long time, he didn't have a good answer for them because that institutional level of service and expertise, simply did not exist for individual investors.  This is the story of how he decided to correct that inefficiency, in the investment and management ecosystem through the power of fintech. This podcast is a must listen for anyone with a 401K and IRA, or any other investment accounts, which means it's pretty much for everyone. So let's get started.  < Music > So, Kyrill, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I'm really excited to have you on. And I figured we could start off by just introducing you to our audience, and just so you can give us a little bit of background and your story. Kyrill:             Sure, thanks for having me on, Adam. So my background is about 20 years ago, well, a little over 20 years ago now. Out of undergrad, I joined, at the time it was called the Global Operations Division at Goldman Sachs. And it was an analyst program, three-year program, where I got to rotate through several different roles. And, so, I did that. I was in foreign exchange for a little bit. Then equities, and then decided to find an area of the firm that aligned itself with the hedge fund industry.  So I got, personally, very interested in the hedge fund industry, just always been reading about hedge fund managers. And at Goldman Sachs there's many different ways, as you can imagine, you can interact with hedge funds.  But the one business that was directly correlated, so to speak, with the hedge fund industry, was the prime brokerage business, which is basically serving all hedge fund needs. And Goldman had, and still does have, the kind of premier prime brokerage business, top three prime brokerage business in the country.  And, so, I was able to get myself a role in that business. So I was there for another six years, five, six years after that, after my first three-year rotation. And then I joined a hedge fund that I covered, they were actually ex-Goldman guys, too, and I was with them for another five years.  Ultimately, I got recruited into a couple of different roles with other firms, and decided in 2016, so now about six years ago, to start my own advisory practice. And initially focused on working with hedge funds and other alternative investment managers, very organically and really through, as they say, necessity is the mother of all invention.  I decided to start what is now Centerfin. And the idea was really because over the two decades or so that I've been working on Wall Street, I've always struggled to help friends and family that will come to me and ask me about what to do with their money. So they might have a retirement account, or a 401K, or just savings that they've saved up, that they would like to invest. And, frankly, I just never saw any great options out there that I can point them to.  And having spent my whole career, or at least the biggest part of my career, interacting with large, sophisticated, institutional investors like pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices. I, basically, learned the way that they invest their money, and it was very different than the options that were available for if you're an average Joe or Jane, so to speak.  And, so, Centerfin was founded to address that need, in my mind. And we're basically two years into it, a little or two years into it. We went live at the beginning of this year. We have a tech-enabled, kind of tech-forward service. And, so, we spent a bunch of time building it, but we went live at the beginning of this year and growing nicely in these crazy markets. Adam:            Yes, the markets are very crazy with everything that's happening, the inflation. And in the past three years with the market, the way it's going, I know it's been really crazy for everybody. And I know organizations, and our focus will probably be more on organizations and people within those organizations.  I know organizations are looking to invest and trying to build their wealth. As well as they're trying to keep above water in this industry. What do you think the future of finance is looking at as things are, continuously, changing and the finance team has to adapt as they go along? Kyrill:             Yes, absolutely. So really technology is playing a bigger role in everything. So one of the reasons why we started our company and the way we structured it, it was because we felt like technology was something that could be used to just create more efficiency in really any process.  But, for us, it's the investment process, managing people's money. And by "Create efficiency", I just mean do things in a way that are cheaper to the end consumer. So for us it's an individual. But this works all the way up and down the chain internally at an organization or externally depending on we all have clients we serve. And, so, I think technology is a major, and you've heard about it, people have referred to it as fintech. It's finance and technology combining, and the interesting thing is that it's still early, quite frankly. Because I do think that technology is making its headway in helping create efficiencies in organizations, and processes, and procedures. But, quite frankly, most of the financial world infrastructure is still what existed 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, in some cases. And, so, there's just a lot of opportunity. Adam:            There is a lot of opportunity. And as you mentioned there, a lot of the systems that are in place, are still the same things that were built years ago.                         Now, is it more advantageous to go with a solution that may be more digitally native, that doesn't have the backbone of the original structures, but it's trying to be more agile and adaptive with technology advances? Kyrill:             Yes, I think it's absolutely advantageous. So I actually was having a conversation with a former colleague this morning. And what struck me is that even when you try, and this is somewhat by design.  But even when you try to structure your business in a way that's very customer-driven. And that's really our ethos, is that we really want to focus on the customer. What'...

Connect with Robert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbendetti/ Check out IMA's Statement of Cash Flow TutorialFull Episode Transcript: < Intro >Adam:            Welcome to Count Me In. The podcast that brings you an insider's look at accounting and finance professionals working in business. I'm Adam Larson. My guest today is Robert Bendetti Jr. Robert is a CPA and the CFO of Lifecycle Engineering, and he joins me for a high-energy discussion about cash flow management. He shares timeless wisdom, he learned from an early boss, to how he uses the latest technologies to optimize his entire cash flow process. This is one of those inspiring podcasts where you can tell the guest is not only a true expert in his field, but passionate about helping others take their skills to the next level. Enjoy.  < Music >Robert, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's really exciting to have you on. And today we're going to be talking a lot about cash flow and cash flow management, which is near and dear to the accountant's heart. But before we get to that, I just wanted to start with if you could just tell a little bit about your story and how you got to where you are, and then we'll continue the conversation from there.Robert:           Adam, pleasure to be here. Cash flow management is my favorite topic and always has been. I describe myself as a CFO, husband, father ultra-runner, and when I'm doing all of those things, I'm thinking about cash flow management. I don't know about everybody else, but it's certainly important and it seems like everywhere I work it has been important. Yes, a little background, I've always done corporate accounting. I am a CPA and member of the IMA, best org ever. But I never worked in public accounting, it's always been corporate accounting and the kind of standard internal individual contributor to manager, director, to VP, to CFO.Adam:            So what is it about cash flow and cash flow management that excites you so much?Robert:           Really early on, I had a boss tell me, and he stole this quote, and I don't know who said it originally, "Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is reality." And it just really stuck with me that everything else is just fun and games, until we actually get paid cash. I cannot pay payroll with your hopes and dreams, your purchase order, your good meeting. The only thing I can make payroll with is cash.Adam:            That's very true. And speaking of cash flow, IMA has a Cash Flow Management course, that I know you took. So you can take that course and you can learn the basis of cash flow management. Which most accountants do know, but they probably forget, depending on what their job role is. But then what happens?Robert:           Yes, first I'm going to plug the course, free CPE for IMA members. I am, like many CPAs and CMAs, always delinquent in getting my CPE. It's two months before the time to send in the paperwork. I'm like, "Ha! What? Do I have to do that again? Is that every year?"I don't know how I've forgotten it for 20 years. But, yes, I love it when there's free CPE, as a member of the IMA, and, yes, Statement of Cash Flows tutorial. Great course, one hour, little hitter is a fantastic reminder on the foundation of the cash flow statement and how important it's. But to, "Now what?" It started to get my creative juices flowing, and I started to think about also the framework of the days of the fast, cheap, easy money might be over. That we might look back at 2010, '18, '19, even '20 as the good times and that the future '23, '24, '25 might be rising interest rates, recession, it might be inflation all in the same stew. So no time better than the present to get your cash flow in order.Adam:            So how do you do that?Robert:           Number one, I think is, obviously, the cash conversion cycle, CCC. That’s the foundation and, yes, check mark. And I'm not going to cover that because we're a bunch of accountants. But next, maybe 102 level accounting is going to be; you need to review your customer and job selection for profit and credit worthiness. A lot has changed in the past two years and maybe you looked at it pre-pandemic and you understood your customer profitability, project profitability. Or you understood your job profitability, or your customer credit worthiness, a lot has changed. Somebody that was credit-worthy before may not be in the future. And, so, I think right now is the perfect time to be checking those things. Number two is what are your policies and procedures around job or milestone, invoice timing, and, for that matter, what's your invoice processes like?Well, did it used to all be physical and now you're fully remote? Did it used to be lean and now it is cumbersome? That's the number two thing. And then the third thing is collections, not everybody likes collections. Some people find that it's a little uncomfortable to, "Am I being annoying? Am I being rude? Will the salespeople not like me?"You need to stop caring, there is somebody on your team who is a little rough around the edges, and that is the perfect person to promote to leader of collections and to be right on top. Because the squeaky wheel gets the grease and you want to get the grease, you want to get the cash. As maybe we are entering into Q4 '22, and '23, and '24, maybe we're entering into some tough financial times, if not you, potentially your customers.Adam:            So as the customers enter that tough financial times. As we're looking at rising interest rates, and all the different things that are affecting us. What can accountants do to prepare for that? You just mentioned some things that they can do. But I imagine that there are other elements that they would have to do like technologies, making sure that all their systems are in place. Making sure all the regulations and all those things are in place. But what recommendations can you give them as we look to that future? Because it's not going to get better yet.Robert:           Yes, I'll give you level one and level two. Because sometimes you skip level one because you assume everybody's doing it. But maybe there's one person on the call that isn't. Level one stuff is just to remind the team that it's really important, that maybe you got PPP money, or customers were paying you early. You're a government contractor and the government was paying you in seven days instead of 27 days. That's not going to happen in the future and I know everyone's overtasked, and they are super busy with other things. Level one is just reminding the team, "Hey, sending those invoices out on time, coll...

Connect with Jennifer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferreneesmith/Learn more about Scribe: https://scribehow.com/Full Episode Transcript:  < Intro > Adam:            Hello and welcome to Count Me In. The podcast that explores the world of business from a management accountant's perspective. This is Adam Larson, and today my co-host Neha, is talking to a woman who describes herself as an accidental CEO. Jennifer Smith is the founder and CEO of Scribe.  A software company that helps businesses capture and scale the expertise of their top performers, to drive new levels of productivity. From fighting collaboration overload to leveraging RPA, to attracting the right talent, Jennifer discusses how her obsession with efficiency has fueled her unique and unplanned leadership journey. Let's start the conversation.  < Music > Neha:              Welcome to Count Me In, Jennifer, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show. Jennifer:         Thanks so much, I'm excited to be here. Neha:              Awesome. So first things first, you call yourself an accidental CEO. Tell me more about that and what brought you to this point in life? Jennifer:         Because if you were to ask me 15, 20 years ago, gosh, maybe even five, seven years ago, "Would you ever be CEO? Would you ever start your own company?" I probably would've laughed at you and said, "No." It's not something I've ever thought about. I don't know anyone who does that, that's not in the cards for me. I started my career as a management consultant.  So I was at McKinsey for seven years. I worked mostly with financial institutions in the Oregon operations practice. Which functionally meant I would spend nine to five sitting next to agents, in operations centers, looking over their shoulder and watching what they did.  And if you ever do that work, you learn the name of the game is you figure out who the best person is. And you sit next to them and you say, "Well, what are you doing differently than everyone else?" And you find that they've found better ways of working. They would say, "Oh, I was trained to do all of these things, but here's how I do this better." And they would show me, they're all tabbing, they're doing really fast things on their computer. They became whizzes at finding these shortcuts and these very complicated pieces of software they were using.  And, as a consultant, I would dutifully write that up and sell that back to my client. But I always thought like, "Gosh, if we had a way to just capture what these people knew how to do. They could have had really big impact on that op center. They could have helped their colleagues all be better." And I said, "Well, it's an obvious problem, someone will solve that someday, surely." And then, you fast-forward 10 years later and then I'm working in venture capital, and investing in enterprise software companies. And I spent a lot of my time talking to buyers of enterprise software, again, folks in financial services. Just trying to understand like, "What are your open problems? What are your challenges? What are you trying to solve?" And this idea kept coming back. People saying like, "Oh, gosh, well, I or my people are spending a lot of time doing similar tasks over and over again. And actually they do it differently, it's definitely different between people, everyone finds their own way." Sometimes it's not even consistent within the same person. They do something once a quarter, they don't quite remember it, they try to do the process, especially, if they've a very complicated software.  I'm like, "Wouldn't it be really nice if there were a way to just know what was the best of what everyone knew how to do?" And I don't really have a way of doing that today. My only option is to tell someone, "Just take time away from doing your actual work and please generate a document that shows what you know how to do." That's not a very popular request.  And, so, I looked at it and said, "Gosh, technology has gotten so much better. It's so many years later and we're still facing the exact same problems." And I shifted from like, "Someone should do something about this." To, "Well, I don't think anyone is doing anything about this and they should, so I guess I'll do something about this." And, so, I very much did not intend to start a company. I cared a lot about solving a particular problem. I'm obsessed with efficiency. And I just saw a massive inefficiency in how millions, hundreds of millions of people around the world are spending their nine to five, trying to navigate these complicated pieces of software and trying to do it quickly, because everyone's got a million things going on and everyone's just doing their best. But most people are doing it sub-optimally and it's taking them more time, and they're spending a lot of time even just trying to figure out what to do, that's not a good feeling. And, so, I said, "Well, gosh, if I could solve that for people, why would I do something else? This feels like what I should be doing." And, so, I started my company, Scribe, three and a half years ago now. Neha:              Wow, that's really insightful and thank you for connecting it to common business problems that we are all facing every day. So this reminds me of a conversation I was having with my daughter, she's 10 years old. And I was telling her about coming on this interview and meeting you, the CEO of the company.  And she was very curious, of course, about the company and your work. I was, of course, able to help her understand what the word Scribe means. But how would you explain to a fifth grader, in simplest terms, what you and your team does? Jennifer:         Yes, we actually design our software, so a fifth grader could use it, it's designed for people across digital literacy. So you could actually tell her to just try it out if she's at all curious, and she should be able to do it.  So, Scribe, very simply, we're a desktop application or a browser extension, your choice. And we will watch you do work and auto-generate step-by-step, written guides with screenshots showing how to do that process.  So let's say, for example, you have a client who is constantly asking you, let's pick something very simple, "How do I log into my QuickBooks Portal?" I don’t know, that's probably a question you've gotten before. So all you would do is you would click the Record button and you would log into the QuickBooks portal, and you would click Start Record. And, boom, Scribe would auto-generate step-by-step written guide on how to log into a QuickBooks Portal. Again, very simple example, but it would say, "Step one, navigate to www.quickbooks.com. Step two, click on the Login icon, instead, it's got a...

Connect with Douglas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-douglas-clayton-414a785/Learn more about FilmDoc: https://thefilmdoc.com/Heart of Camden Trailer: https://vimeo.com/439742490Dovere of Camden Trailer: https://vimeo.com/327729693 Full Episode Transcript:[00:00:00]       < Intro > Adam:            Welcome to Count Me In, the podcast for accounting and finance pros working in business. I'm Adam Larson, and today we examine leadership from a different angle, with Douglas Clayton, affectionately known as the FilmDoc.  Neha Ratnakar caught up with him to discuss his journey from making crowd-pleasing HR videos for a satellite company, to researching leadership at Wharton for his PhD. To advising C-suite executives through the lens of filmmaking. There's links to the trailers for the award-winning documentaries in the show notes. So be sure to check them out if you're interested. Now sit back and enjoy this great conversation with Douglas Clayton. [00:00:43]       < Music > Neha:              I was going through your profile and it fascinated me, among many other things, by the way, that you had a very long and interesting career in SES satellites. Tell us how was it working with actual rocket scientists and what lessons did your time in SES teach you? Douglas:         That's a great question. There are a couple of really fun elements of working with rocket scientists. One of them is when I go to family dinners, or parties, or functions, and people say, "What do you do?" I get to say that I work with rocket scientists, and that's an instant attention grabber.  But certainly much more substantial than that is just working with folks who are so smart. And most of the engineers and scientists who I've had the pleasure of working with are modest folks. They don't have big egos, they work really hard, they love to figure out problems. They actually love to have problems so they can have something to figure out. So I've always enjoyed it. Always considered it a great privilege to work with people who are so smart and, in many ways, so very kind as well. In terms of, "What was it like to work at SES?" It was a lovely experience, life-changing experience, I'll say, actually. The way I ended up working at SES is I worked for GE Capital for many years. Then I ended up transferring to their satellite business, which was headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. And three months later, we were sold to a tiny company called SES, in the tiny country of Luxembourg.  Now, you can maybe imagine going from working for this giant company being acquired by a small company. We all had choices to stay, or to maybe move on with our careers, or to stay with SES. And the best decision that I made, career decision, was to stay with SES, and the reason is because, at that point, I was an HR manager, or also known as a generalist. And what we discovered is that as an HR person, and then eventually as a leader, our decisions really mattered when you worked for a small company. Where when we worked for GE we were often in execution mode.  So then to move from a big company where the big decisions were being made in Connecticut. To a small company where they were relying on us in Princeton to help guide the corporate office in Luxembourg, which, again, it was a very small company. It really mattered and it helped to develop our confidence. And then as I evolved in terms of leadership and the company moving up in the organization, that happened more rapidly because of the size of the company than it would have happened with GE.  Working for a company that's headquartered in Europe was a real game changer, as well. Because I needed to put on a different hat and look at work and look at the world through a different lens, not just an American lens, which was fine. But, now, I really needed to understand, "Hey, how do we do leadership?  How do our accountants and finance people, how do they need to work together from Europe, between Europe and the U.S.?  How do our rocket scientists work together?  How do we merge these two cultures? Very different country cultures and company cultures?" So it was quite a learning experience, for me, something that I could have never gained at GE, in the position that I was in, and it's something that I would've never gained just through university. Neha:              That's so fascinating, and I'm glad you made the switch and stayed on. All right, I loved what you said about having problems to solve, actually loving the fact that you have problems to solve. Now, tell me when Covid-19 hit, it must have been very difficult for SES. Because satellite making or maintaining them is not something that you can take back home with your laptop and do it from your dining table. So how did the leaders, and the people teams, in SES make this new reality work? Douglas:         It was extraordinary, what happened. I had a front-row seat because I was part of a task force, the Covid task force, and we would meet weekly, and I was on that team for several months and until I retired. But watching the team, which was led by our human resources leader, Evie Roos, at the time.  It was extraordinary, the decisions that they were making and the stakes were so high. Part of our satellite business is, certainly, working with space engineers, and satellite engineers, and rocket scientists. But we also have, just as important, dynamite teams of people who actually operate. And I'll say quote-unquote, "Fly our satellites." They work 24/7. And, so, what were we going to do with them? So certainly we allowed, I'll say 95% of the organization to work from home, or the vast majority, and that was a whole another challenge and project. But then we have this other group of people where we can't allow them to work from home. We really needed them to come into the office. To sit at the monitors and to take care of that part of our very important, essential, part of our business. And, so, it was really around listening, and listening to what people recommended. Listening to the experts in the field. Listening to the supervisors and the employees, and just making decisions based on what was best for them. So, for instance, the folks who were our satellite operators, who had to come into the office every day, we had meals delivered to them. It was an extremely sterile environment. If there was anyone who was near someone who had Covid, then, that person needed to quarantine. It was very strict because you can imagine potential disaster of having a team of people, who can no longer come into the office to fly satellites because Covid has spread through there. It was executed exceptionally, so that was just one area of our business.  And, then, of co...

Connect with Ane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aneohm/ LeaseCrunch Website: www.leasecrunch.comWhat is ASC 824? The ultimate guide: https://www.leasecrunch.com/blog/asc-8425 FAQs about embedded leases: https://www.leasecrunch.com/blog/embedded-leasesRequest a demo: www.leasecrunch.com/request-a-demoFull Episode Transcript:[00:00:00] < Intro > Adam:            Welcome back to Count Me In. The podcast for accounting and finance professionals working in business. I'm Adam Larson. Today we'll be discussing a perennial hot topic lease accounting, specifically, FASB's new standards for private companies and nonprofits under ASC 842. And just in case you're unaware, the deadline to transition to the new standards is December 31st, 2022. Thankfully, I'm joined, today, by a true expert in this, infamously, thorny topic. Ane Ohm, is a CPA as well as co-founder and CEO of LeaseCrunch, a software company that helps companies simplify their lease accounting. If you're looking for practical tips and best practices to make lease accounting a little less stressful, this is the conversation for you. Let's get started.  [00:00:51]       < Music > Well, Ane, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast, today. We are going to be talking about lease accounting. And as all of us know that the standard, the new Lease Accounting Standard deadline is approaching very quickly, and people should get started. We've been talking about this since what? 2018. And if you haven't gotten started the time now is to get started. What do you think? What is your advice to people as we start talking about this? Ane:                I think the big thing with any accounting standard is that, and when I was running a different company. A new accounting standard would come up and I would ask my accountant, "What is the last moment I have to do anything about this?" And that's when I would do it. And the challenge with the lease accounting standard, if you wait there's a couple of things, first of all, leases can be complicated.  And, so, that analysis of your lease, spending the time understanding it in the context of the new lease standard can take some time. And, secondly, if you need help and you wait the experts are going to be busy. So you're going to have a really difficult time getting a hold of someone who can really guide you through the right steps.  So we're actually hearing CPA firms state that if their clients wait, they're going to have to charge them more in order to be able to offer that assistance. Because they're going to be so busy with other things. If you wait until January, February, this is going to be rough. So start now, get on top of it, it's just going to make things, life, better for you. Adam:            Yes, for sure, because you don't want to wait till the last possible second because it's going to fall back in your face. Do you think that maybe we could start, in this podcast, to maybe go over some practical expectations and how to make your adoption easier? Especially if you are just getting started now, or even if you've been aware, you've been preparing. But to the actual practical application, it's still going to be a difficult process. Ane:                Yes, so there's something to it when you think about the new Lease Standard, you have basically two types of leases. Leases that existed before the standards needed to be implemented, and then leases that start after the standard need to be implemented. So talking about those leases that started before your initial application date of the new standard. The FASB, Financial Accounting Standard Board really wanted to make sure that this was as easy as possible. It sounds like that might not be true, but it is, they have said that repeatedly.  And, so, what they've done is they've actually provided some practical expedience and those practical expedience, the whole purpose of them is to simplify the new standard. So for those transition leases, those leases that existed before, if you have a nice software available to you, there's really only six pieces of information that you need to do.  If you apply those practical expedience, make sure you're doing the things that make this as easy as possible. And then collect those six basic pieces of information. And those are; start date, well, guess what, that start date is going to be the initial application date of the standard.  So if you know that already, huh! If your end is December 31st, that's going to be January 1st, of 2022. All right, so we got one. Second one is, "When does the lease end?" It can be a little more complicated because you have to not just say, "When do I stop paying? When is the initial end of the lease?" I have to, also, look at it and see, "What might I be reasonably certain to renew a term or might I be reasonably certain to terminate early?" So you really have to look at what is the total lease term, including renewals, if you're reasonably certain. It's a high bar but you do have to look at it. The third thing is discount rate. So, and I don't think we know this but those first two seem, they are pretty easy. And the discount rate is the FASB offers the ability to just use the risk-free rate. So that's great because that's publicly available.  You don't have to really think about it too hard. Or the challenge with the risk-free rate is that it will tend to be lower, which means your lease liability will be higher. If you don't want that for larger leases, the FASB, also, more recently, allows us to decide your discount rate based on asset class.  So you can say, "All right, for my office lease, which is a big lease, it's going to be big dollars, I'll spend the time to figure out the higher discount rate. And if I have vehicles or photocopiers, I'm just going to use the risk-free rate." So that's a nice thing, so that's the third piece of information. Fourth one, is, hey, is this an operating lease or a finance lease? Well, once again, FASB says, "You know what, if you had an operating lease before it's an operating lease now. If you had a capital lease...

Contact Michael Teape: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teapetraining/Teape Training International (TTI): https://www.teapetraininginternational.comGet my FREE eGuide 7 Best Facilitation Tips to Ensure Engagement & Learning to ensure your Online Training Success: https://tti-signup.ck.page/eguideFull Episode Transcript:[00:00:00]       < Intro > Adam:            Welcome back to Count Me In. I'm Adam Larson from IMA, or the Institute of Management Accountants. For those of us joining us for the first time. I'm excited to welcome back Michael Teape to the podcast. Michael is a seasoned management coach and the co-founder and president of Teape Training International. Today, we discuss the tips for leaders in the face of constant disruption to business as usual. With Covid, inflation, supply chain issues, technology changes, leaders need to stop bracing for the next curve ball, and instead look for ways they can adapt to find new paths to success.  It was great to get Michael's insight and optimism on this important topic. Let's get the conversation started.  [00:00:45]       < Music > Michael, thank you so much for coming back to Count Me In. We've talked about being more productive at work and maximizing our human capital management, in the past with you. But today we're going to focus in on the disrupted leader. And I figured we can start off by what do we mean by the disrupted leader, and how are leaders being disrupted? Michael:         I think it's easier to say, "How are they not being disrupted? " Adam:            Yes.  Michael:         Because, I think, when you're a leader in your organization and everyone thinks about what's going on? What are the challenges right now? There's some common themes that are only getting quicker, faster, more challenging. So you can think of climate change. Climate change has a huge impact on how we work? Where we work? All of those, and safety elements of that as well.  Social change; the diversity of the people we work with now, that's been being disrupted. We're not all in the office in one place, that's another part of social change as well. Covid-19, I mean, hello? Last three years, it's been a real challenge. And that's one of the biggest ones because it was an unknown challenge.  The others climate, social, and the last one, technology. The technology revolution, what they call the fourth industrial revolution, are the four key areas I see right now, and there'll be more. There'll be more things that come along, let alone the small challenges of running a business. Issues with clients, lack of clients, too many clients, things not going well with clients, disruption on so many levels.  So now we've cheered your audience up. And, so, it is not an easy place. It's more about how we react to it, and technology is one of the biggest ones. That fourth industrial revolution talking about the technology revolution. It's that people are coming up with intuitive ways of breaking our systems and doing things differently. If you have an organization that's run on mainframe systems, spreadsheets, there are so much things available to skip all of that.Fintech, the financial technologies that really don't have any of those and are just very simply making connections, using the technology in front of them quicker, faster, cheaper, that's a huge part that's going on as well. So, yes, where are they not being disrupted, Adam? Adam:            Exactly, I think, you hit it on the nose, there's so much disruption happening all over. But when you're thinking about, as a leader yourself, if I'm thinking about my team and how I act with my team. Yes, there's so many outside disruptions. What does it look like, for me, if I want to look upon myself and how am I being disrupted? And what does a disrupted one look like? Because you don't want to stay there, obviously. Michael:         No, it's a stressful place to be, being disrupted, you're playing defense. You're frustrated that things aren't working, which causes stress. Which also limits our vision and our focus. A lot of being creative and getting ourselves out of these issues, by thinking of new things that we could do to face a challenge and move forward.  So, yes, that looks like, and I'll say this, Adam, a lot of the time we don't realize we're in this space. Call it the disruptive leader, we don't know that we're acting in a certain way because we're under stress. We've got our blinkers on, like, "My business is not making money. How are we going to make some money?" And being stressful, following up on one particular client who's never going to give you the money is a blinkered approach. You need to be looking at, "Well, what could I do to create another million dollars?" Depending on the size of your organization; 50, 100, million. "What could I be doing?" So they're disrupted, they're blind to the problem, really. And what I mean by that is that they're focused on the minute, the tactical, trying to get the number of accounts, trying to charge more per client. When really the problem is maybe what I'm offering the client is not what they're looking for. Have you ever thought about that? And that would be a curious mindset.  So being blind to the problem is all about losing your focus overall and focusing on the minutiae and doing… Have you ever heard that adage, "If you're ever doing the same thing and expecting a different result, that's a definition of insanity." I love that term, that phrase. So that's where someone would be stuck, that would be one of them.  And that links into the other one is having no direction, no purpose, and what I mean is that; where are we going? Where do I want to go? And I think I shared on our last podcast, a little bit, I'll have to go back and have a little look at it, maybe your listeners would do as well. Is that I was working with a client who was totally disrupted by Covid.  They were a Fintech. They were 30% growth they were aiming at and it just disappeared overnight. Because people didn't need to manage cash flow because they weren't out spending cash. And, so, the flow was very different and it wasn't where their market was. But instead of panicking this person found the purpose. Well, her purpose was to take over the world and help the cash management globally, however, that's not possible right now.  So I believe it's coming back but let's focus on rebuilding what we have. The mergers, the acquisitions, being more efficient. Let's focus on fixing what we have, and we have a dream time right now. Let's not think of it as, "Oh, my goodn...

In this special podcast celebrating 50 years of the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) program, Margaret Michaels, IMA’s Brand Content and Storytelling Manager will be talking with two CMAs, one who earned his CMA in 1975 soon after the CMA program had just begun, and another who earned her CMA quite recently in April 2022.  Connect with our Speakers:John Macaulay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncmacaulay/ Colleen Lucero: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-lucero/Full Episode Transcript:[00:00:00]       < Intro > Margaret:       So in this special podcast, Celebrating 50 Years of the CMA, or the Certified Management Accountant program. Margaret Michaels, myself, IMA's Brand Content and Storytelling Manager, will be talking with two CMAs. One who earned his CMA in 1975, soon after the CMA program had just begun. And another who earned her CMA quite recently, in April of 2022.  John Macaulay is a former IMA chair, who was among the first CMA program completers. He held a number of distinguished roles in the industry. Including serving as CFO of the telecom company, Royal Street Communications.  Colleen Lucero is a Manager of Client Analytics at Graebel, a relocation services company. Colleen earned her CMA in April of 2022. I am so pleased we could chat, today, with both John and Colleen about their CMA experiences and career journeys.  [00:01:15]       < Music > Margaret:       So, John, I'll start with you. I noticed in your bio that you did not study accounting as undergraduate major. Rather you pursued a biology and chemistry degree. What made you decide to shift into accounting, and how did you hear about the CMA program? John:              Thank you, Margaret. It's good to be here today and chat with everyone. That's a rather complicated story, but I will try to shorten it up as best I can. I graduated from college in 1965, with a degree in biology and chemistry. I was studying pre-med.  I had pretty much decided, by the end of my junior year, that I probably didn't want to spend another six years in school. And, so, I decided I wasn't going to medical school.  1965 was the middle of Vietnam. And, so, I signed up for Navy Officer Candidate School and I went and became a Navy officer. A guided-missile officer on a couple of different destroyers. And it was a great experience and exposure, for me, to not only international travel and different cultures, but also to leadership and the military.  When I got out of the military, I knew I wanted to go to graduate school and get an MBA. I hadn't settled on accounting at that point, clearly, but I knew I was headed in the direction of business. I had worked at a bank, in Cambridge, and I actually became the head of personnel. I was there for only a year and a half, actually, and after about six months, I became the head of personnel, we had 650 employees and 12 branches.  So it was a rather challenging decision to go back to graduate school. But I was accepted by Northwestern, the Kellogg School, and we moved from Boston, by that time I was married, from Boston to Chicago, and spent two years at Kellogg getting an MBA. And there I specialized in accounting and finance, Accounting, and Information Systems.  The second year, I became the assistant to the chair of the Accounting and Information Systems Department. And did some tutoring and wrote a couple of cases for him. From there, I went to work for General Mills in Minneapolis, and this was 1972, I started working in May. And in about September, my boss, two levels up, whose name was Jerry Ford, came around and said, "John, would you be interested in taking the CMA?" Well, I had actually refused, at Kellogg, to take the CPA exam, and I'd interviewed with some of the big, I guess it was the Big Six at that point, it may have been Big Eight still. And I told them I was willing to go into consulting, but I didn't want to be an auditor.  I had no interest in the CPA. And, so, they didn't accept me, but I had plenty of opportunities. And, so, I said to Jerry, "Sure I would. I'd absolutely love it." But I said I wanted a certification and I didn't want to be a CPA. I wanted to be a management accountant in business. So Jerry said, "Well, this organization, called NAA, is going to have this exam." And Susan's grandfather was actually a member of NAA and had been the president of the Boston Chapter many years ago. And I said, "Well, that's perfect."  And, so, we began to try to get ready for this exam, which we knew nothing about. And we held one or two, "Study sessions" in our headquarters, in Minneapolis. But we didn't have any real success because it was just a reading list. Some of the books I'd had in graduate school.  So, anyway, we went, it was a two-and-a-half-day exam at the University of Minnesota. And I listened to part of the previous podcast and Denny Beresford talked about the ice storm in Pittsburgh. Well, the second day we had a blizzard in Minneapolis, we actually lost the power. It was in the library at the University of Minnesota.  We actually lost the power, but there were plenty of windows. So we had a lot of light, and we just continued writing the exam, so it wasn't really an issue. I was fortunate, I did pass all five parts of the first exam.  So I say I got it in 1972, but IMA decided I didn't have, "Enough management experience" at that point, and, so, they wouldn't give me the certificate. So I actually got my certificate later in the second batch of certificates.  But that's fine, I didn't have a problem because I actually wrote them a letter and said, "Well, I think I have the experience and this and that." And next thing I knew they wanted me to be on an exam review committee. And, so, that's actually how I got involved with leadership in IMA, which I'll talk about a little bit later. Margaret:       That's a great story. It seems everyone, in the first class of CMA takers, had unfavorable weather conditions. To add to the challenge in taking the test for the first time.  And Colleen, like John, your undergraduate degree is not in accounting, but in Spanish Language and Literature. So what prompted you to embark on an accounting career, and how did you hear about the CMA program? Colleen:          Yes, so I got my undergrad in Spanish and I thought I was going to do interpreting and translating. So after I graduated from my undergrad, I started down that road and then realized that it ended up not being quite the fit that I was hoping it was going to be. But I was getting other certifications for interpreting and translating for large conferences, and even in the courts, and some medical stuff.  And while I'm doing all this, on the side I got this, what I thought was a transitory side job with a small business. And I ende...