FP&A Today

Alex Edmans is a professor of Finance, non-executive director, author, and TED speaker. He is regularly interviewed and writes for WSJ, Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports. He was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.  In this episode we talk to Alex about his new book “May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About.  He is also a co-author of the classic text book,  “Principles of Corporate Finance” and top business book (his first book) Grow the Pie, How Great Companies Deliver both purpose and Profit. His Ted Talk on what to trust in a post truth world has alone been viewed nearly 2m time. So many thought-provoking takeaways for anyone in FP&A!  Leaving Morgan Stanley to become a professor of finance Why I give Ted Talks rather than just publishing research  How CFOs and FP&A leaders can think about purpose  Is ESG a tick-box exercise for finance? How FP&A and finance leaders can check their biases  How you can control your addiction to bias Silicon Valley Bank and why financial models were affected by bias  Follow Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aedmans/ Links to Alex’s new book: May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases―And What We Can Do about TED: What to trust in a “post-truth” world

Jason Hershman, a finance leader with over 15 years of experience, shares his unique journey from being a ballboy for the Philadelphia Eagles to mastering FP&A in sports startups. He discusses essential lessons learned about perseverance and adaptability. Jason highlights his achievements, including a $400 million sale at Appetize and launching a fractional CFO business. He emphasizes the synergy between passion and finance, the critical role of technology in financial modeling, and how AI is transforming financial planning while maintaining the human touch.

Evgenia Elezova, Head of Regional Finance, Lindström joins us to talk about FP&A and finance transformation at the 175-year old textile giant.  Helsinki-based Lindström is one of Europe’s leading textile service companies employing over 5000 people in Europe and in Asia with turnover of 496€ million in 2022. Elezova herself has transformed the finance function during 14 years, during which time she’s driven M&A initiatives, to leading finance projects. Highlights include a two year development program for business controllers at Lindström, designed to move finance from back office roles to strategic co-pilots for management.  In this episode:  Being responsible for M&A Due diligence and integration  Experience in successful M&A Business Partnering at Lindstrom Focusing on future scenarios   HowControl assists strategy at Lindstrom  Our two-year long finance training Lindstrom Finance Business Development Program Moving from back office in finance to having impact on business  Lindstrom’s approach to budgeting/target setting  Core KPIs in a global textile company  Seeing change in controller work  Coaching finance leaders Connect with Evgenia at https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgenia-elezova-513ba12/

Jarad Backlund, VP of FP&A at JFrog, boasts 18+ years at tech giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook. In this discussion, he shares his career trajectory from architecture to finance and offers insights into building high-performing FP&A teams. He emphasizes the importance of clean data and the evolving role of AI in financial analysis. Jarad also dives into his experience managing multi-billion dollar projects and the skills needed to excel at leading firms while showcasing how a builder mentality can drive innovation in finance.

Anna Talerico, CEO of Corporate Finance Institute and Macabacus, shares insights into becoming a top-notch financial analyst. Discussing how technology democratizes education, she highlights essential 'desk ready skills' for finance leaders. Anna elaborates on CFI's mission to enhance practical training and the evolving landscape of finance skills, including coding and AI. She also addresses challenges of managing two brands and the importance of Excel in the industry, while offering personal anecdotes and humor about Excel features.

“I transitioned into FP&A when I realized that it wasn’t just about crunching the numbers, it was more about telling a story and trying to influence the future. Working with Fortune 100 companies has given me the fantastic platform to leave transformative projects in finance, procurement, and supply chain. I saw firsthand how FP&A acts as the strategic backbone of any type of organization” – Enrique Rodriguez, Finance Director, Walgreens Boots Alliance   Enrique Rodriguez is a multilingual finance director and business leader. With more than 15 years of experience in Fortune 100 companies, he has worked collaboratively with global functions directing FP&A, accounting and treasury teams. He’s headed finance departments overseeing $7 billion in annual spend and managing operational budgets of up to $750 million in billion dollar business units and is a passionate believer in Zero Based Budgeting revealing how he implemented this – despite challenges. My background in Guatemala  When I realized it is not just about crunching the numbers  FP&A as the backbone of the institution  Main financial metrics bio biopharmaceutical companies, medical devices, and healthcare companies How FP&A departments are set up at the companies you worked for – and the philosophy and the outputs expected from FP&A producing outputs like dynamic scenario planning and  specific KPI dashboards  guiding decisions at the highest level. Zero based budgeting – the why and how of our experience  Biggest challenges I have seen in budgeting in my career – managing budgets during a turnaround How finance business partnering has changed in my career  The problem solving aspect of FP&A The opportunities and challenges of fast-growing technology  Saving $8million on inventory write-off in a country on a health product  Financial Executives International (Chicago) The power of a great mentor and books: Hit Refresh Satya Nadella (Microsoft) and Shoe Dog (Joe Knight) supporting a procurement organization in, in an early level of maturity – my toughest challenge  Index Match – more flexible and scalable for complex analysis  Connect with Enrique Rodriguez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enrique-a-rodriguez/

Lindsey Martens, VP Finance at fintech company, Valera (Formerly PSCU/Co-op Solutions) talks about her transition from accounting to finance- and how she manages a remote FP&A team that has business partnering and storytelling at its heart. “Business partnering is my favorite thing about FP&A” Martens says, “I love being the translator. I think of myself as taking all this data, accounting data, and then all these other sources that come into it, and I’m packaging it up in a way that is very digestible by the rest of the organization, especially the leaders who are making decisions.” In this episode: Making the pivot to FP&A – why and how  Starting off in coding and the link to FP&A  My career at Valera (ex Co-Op solutions)- a fintech leader with clients that are credit unions  Opps and Challenges of managing a remote FP&A Team  Small talk at the beginning of meetings (not so small)  Using rolling forecasts at Valera  Challenging budget experiences  Why business partnering is my favorite part of FP&A My biggest FP&A success: rooting out the source of at “rise” in profits Storytelling in finance  My biggest mentors and what they taught me about management My biggest mistake and how it still leaves me shaking  Favorite Excel Function Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseymartens/

In more than 12 years at PepsiCo Tariq Munir, has held roles including FP&A Manager, Head of Integrated Business Planning, Head of Finance Supply Chain, and more recently APAC Finance Transformation Lead (based in Australia) delivering Financial Planning process simplification. This included founding the first-ever APAC Finance Digital Academy to build a digital mindset and culture. Tariq is sought out as an international keynote speaker and is a regular columnist for CFO Magazine ANZ, sharing insights on digital trends, strategies for digital resilience. In this episode: • Running digital transformation at large companies • The opportunities and challenges in your data • Core problems faced by finance teams including transactions • The big headache AI is causing for finance teams • M&A and AI Transformation • retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and plugging into external data source for your organization • Framework and governance for digital transformation

Laurynas Zabulis, CFO at Nord Security, is playing a starring role at one of Lithuania’s most famous success stories. Cybersecurity unicorn, Nord Security, went from being bootstrapped to a $3billion valuation in 12 years. Laurynas became CFO after a stint at Surfshark (which  merged with NordVPN in 2022). His achievements at NordSecurity include leading the first funding round for $100m – technically a “seed” round he says  (unusually the bootstrapped enjoyed revenues of over $100m when it approached investors). Laurynas is also building a purpose-driven finance team of 90 talented people across the department to deliver a “forward looking finance function” that propels growth at the leading startup. Laurynas has set out a powerful mission for FP&A whose vision to “earn respect from stakeholders at the company”, “have a seat at the decision-making table”, and use data and detailed knowledge of growth drivers to “make strategic decisions that drive our business”. In this episode: Moving back to my home country of Lithuania, from London. after success in investment banking (and not listening to those who tried to talk him out of it)  Battling the “negative connotations” of VPNs when talking to investors and and building conviction around the management and culture of the company  Bringing finance to strategic decision-making at the company including  a CFO tech stack focused on “availability of data and of analytics in a more timely fashion” Investing in building finance relations with stakeholders in the company (from engineers to product development) Building a finance team of 90 people based on data, tech, and stakeholder engagement FP&A analysis powering painful decisions to sunset certain products  Our FP&A team structure at Nord Security and the results we expect Benefit of working with founders and the culture this provides The Lithuanian tech ecosystem and finance opportunities  Connect with Laurynas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurynas-zabulis-0206333/

Nate Kaemingk, Chief Forecaster at BetterForecasting.com and former fractional CFO, dives into the world of AI-driven financial forecasting. He discusses the transition from annual budgets to rolling forecasts, highlighting the importance of real-time updates and market responsiveness. Nate also explores the significance of probabilistic forecasting and how small errors can cause major cash discrepancies. Plus, hear about his unique journey, including a three-year RV adventure, and his favorite Excel function!