FP&A Today

Brent Dykes: People Hear Statistics, But they Feel Stories

In this episode we are joined by Brent Dykes, the bestselling author of Effective Data Storytelling (Wiley, 2020), founder of Analytics Hero, and Forbes contributor. He has helped  thousands of finance leaders at companies including Microsoft, IKEA, Nike, Sony,  and Pfizer, enhance their data storytelling, visualization, and interpretation skills. “I strive to ensure analytics is always aligned with business priorities and maximizing business value.“In this episode Brent Dykes says: “One of the things that I saw quickly was that a lot of people struggled to communicate their findings and, and their insights, uh, around data. And I would go to conferences and I’d see people present data, and I’d be horrified by what I’d see. It’s just overwhelming,data dumps. And that really flagged for me in my mind that there’s a real opportunity here to do better.”
Early college days choosing between marketing vs accounting as my focus 
The aspects of humans that AI and machines can’t replicate
Business consultant at Adobe for 12 years and Domo 
Effective Data Storytelling
The evolution of data 
Evolving perspective of finance and analytics
Value AI vs Humans 
Lessons from coaching and mentoring companies on their story 
Challenges of data storytelling in large and small companies 
The biggest challenges in data storytelling
What do you do when your story is contradictory to what their bosses want to hear
Recommendations for tools and systems to up your data maturity 
Why Excel’s a great starting point
https://www.effectivedatastorytelling.com/contact
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentdykes
Effective Data Storytelling (Wiley, 2020)

Budget Battles, Politics, and AI: CFO Anna Tiomina

Anna Tiomina has faced multiple FP&A challenges in a 15-year finance career. This has included budget nightmares, all-nighters, and the  stark realization that “politics” is central to any FP&A or finance role.The former CFO of Sandoz, a huge pharmaceutical company,  describes her move to finance chief at Softeq, a smaller IT and consulting firm. Most recently she has pivoted to become a fractional CFO with a passion to help finance professionals bridge the gap between “curiosity and confident AI adoption”. In this honest and frank interview, Anna describes
The challenges for anyone  in a full time finance role when you don’t have enough time to look at new things
Structuring FP&A in a big company vs a smaller one
Comparing and contrasting FP&A at a large and big companies
Budget war stories
When your key accounting person… is not an accountant 
Ensuring a higher level of agility in budgeting
Using AI in a safe way in FP&AConnect with Anna at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-tiomina/https://blend2balance.com/Subscribe to her insights at: https://balancedai-newsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe

A bird’s-eye view of FP&A from a top fintech VC – Saaya Nath

Saaya Nath is a partner of Jump Capital, a VC firm specializing in investments in software and infrastructure (their portfolio includes treasury software to products helping companies visualize and understand their cloud bills). 
In this episode talks to Glenn about:
How the CFO’s Office can automate workflows around finance  and  AI 
The most common complaint talking to finance teams 
Main focus of AI for finance teams we are seeing and rates of adoption
Spend management, finOps, cloud cost management, and cash flow management opportunities
How well are SMBs served by the proliferation of CFO Tech stack tools?
Regulatory challenges in founder pitches 
Ways to begin in a low risk way for AI in finance 
Case study from Glenn on finance automation challenges in a manufacturing finance team
How Jump Capital chooses the companies and early stages in an era of change vs FOMO and bubbles 
Favorite Excel function 
Follow Saaya Nath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saaya-nath-12ba82a3/overlay/about-this-profile/

Business Partnering from Maersk to Lego: Christian Franz Hansen

Christian Franz Hansen is a seasoned management consultant and finance thought leader. He’s made it his mission to bridge the gap between strategic decision making and data analysis with a background that includes roles at EY and a finance consultant helping big-names including General Motors, Lego Group, and Maersk. He’s now a member of the Business Partnering Institute, where he’s revolutionizing how finance professionals approach their roles.
In this episode:
From Excel Wizard as a stepping stone to career growth (“ I still love the beauty of a well designed Excel model”)
From EY to a change-oriented consulting company at Finance Business Partnering Institute
Top ways to elevate the finance professional
Partnering, communication, influencing stakeholders, problem solving and understanding the value drivers 
Working with 500 business professionals at Maersk to turn the finance ship around from bean counters to business partners 
Meeting Anders Liu Lindberg and starting the Business Partnering Institute 
Outcomes vs Outputs in finance 
Allocating finance hours to not drown in tasks 
Resistance against our “soft skills” training and how to overcome it in your finance team
Top down communication
One piece of advice to make daily finance easier 
PowerQuery in Excel 
Connect with Christian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantzhansen/

Top Senior Data Scientist on AI and Future proofing FP&A

Tobias Zwingmann is an ex-Senior Data Scientist-turned managing partner of RAPYD.AI - which is empowering companies from B2B SaaS startups  to leading financial institutions towards a unified AI strategy.  His data insights are shared in his books including “AI-Powered Business Intelligence” (O’Reilly 2022) and “Augmented Analytics” (Co-author, O‘Reilly 2024) as well as weekly newsletter “The Augmented Advantage” read by 4,500+ business leaders from brands like Amazon, Mercedes-Benz, Gucci, and Santander. 
In this episode:
My rise in data science
Did the latest changes to Co-Pilot actually make it good?
What finance can learn from other departments using AI
Consolidating reports and augmenting processes using AI 
Let’s talk forecasting and analytics and regression analysis 
Leveraging Excel and Power BI to enhance their data analysis capabilities
Getting to “data progressive” and “data active” in your organization 
Augmented Analytics Explained 
Clean (but not tidy) data in finance
Two ways to make data tidy in ChatGPT
Connect with Tobias Zwingmann on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-zwingmann

An Excel MVP walks into a podcast

George Mount is an Excel MVP and author of Modern Data Analytics in Excel (he describes it as a guide to becoming a data analyst in Excel). His latest book, Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and R could be subtitled “becoming a data scientist in Excel. As founder and CEO of Stringfest Analytics, he provides analytics education and upskilling including works with finance departments at the top ten banks. In this episode he answers how someone in FP&A – killing it in Excel – can go further in their career while using Excel as home base.
In this episode: 
Two books and the ROI you get as a finance professional from reading it 
Using Excel as your home base for FP&A
When to use Excel vs Python 
citizen data scientists (or citizen data analysts) in Python 
Using low code/no code tools
Excel, copilot and Python as a new “trinity” for FP&A
Getting your data house in order before getting to AI
A surprising Excel favorite befitting an MVPConnect with George Mount on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjmount/Further Reading
George Mount: Modern Data Analytics in Excel: Using Power Query, Power Pivot, and More for Enhanced Data AnalyticsGeorge Mount: Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and R

Soaring Through FP&A: How Bruno Oliveira is Helping Swissport Take Flight

This year Bruno Oliveira got promoted to CFO, flying up the FP&A route at Swissport, the world’s leader in airport ground services and air cargo handling, active at 286 airports in 60 countries.
In this must-listen episode:
FP&A in the trenches from banks, to automotive, agriculture and aviation at Swissport
How to cope without control on demand in aviation
Financial planning three to six months ahead 
Structure of FP&A at Swissport 
Factoring in safety as the most important aviation metric, direct labor and fleet management costs 
How our FP&A Team works together with our data analytics team 
Cross functional relationships piloting Swissport success 
Walking through the business budget planning at Swissport  
Instead of  dreaming  of a new technology (such as AI) use the specific blade of a swiss army knife for your business  
Why PowerQuery is mandatory for FP&A
Getting to fifth place in Latin America in the Financial Modeling World Cup
Follow and connect with Bruno  on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bosilva/

IBM CFO’s powerful lessons for getting FP&A into Owner Mode

Forget “Founder Mode”. For those in FP&A your CFO expects Owner Mode. “In rugby, if you observe, a player often clings on to the ball, not letting it go out of his hands until the goal is scored. That’s how we need to handle things. Own it — cling onto it — achieve the goal,” says former IBM India CFO Ravikumar Ramanan, author of the brilliant book: The CFO Lens, how to Thrive in the Fast Changing World of FinanceHe tells Glenn Hopper: “The expectation of a finance partner is not to stop at the sign off and say, okay, I have now committed $10m in company money. You then need to get  involved in the execution of the strategy. I changed my role from just being the person who signed off and asked for periodic reports to actually going out into the field and starting to talk and feel like an owner.”In this masterclass episode Ravikumar reveals
The Bigger business context we are living through that finance cannot ignore
The failures when strategy projects are not being tracked by finance 
How to feel really that the results are yours
Storytelling and  influencing secrets from the finance seat 
Good and bad costs 
Balancing short term and long term in your finance role
My biggest advice for people to succeed in a finance role at any stage of their career 
My favorite Excel Function (even corporate legends get asked)
Further reading
Ravikumar Ramanan: The CFO Lens: How to Thrive in the Fast-Changing World of FinanceMade to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath:Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Getting to big wins with AI in FP&A – Don Tomoff

“Not having the answer is no longer acceptable because you are 30 seconds from having the answer. You’ve just gotta ask.” – Don Tomoff 
Don Tomoff, founder of Invenio Advisors, is a finance rockstar and a trailblazer in AI adoption for finance. As a CMA his life’s mission is to make work easier for literally everyone he encounters. The CMA and finance expert  has more than 30 years of experience spanning accounting, being a CFO, and consulting. Don Tomoff is not just an expert in his field including AI. He’s a passionate advocate for using technology to drive efficiency and innovation.
In this episode, Don emphasizes how AI has transformed the speed at which financial professionals can access information and solve problems. “Right now, if you’re doing AI, you have a huge advantage against those that aren’t. But I think in the next year or so, you’re going to quickly shift to, it’s a liability for you if you aren’t doing it.”
In this episode 
Streamling finance tasks as an accountant and FP&A
Why efficiency is only a part of the finance AI revolution 
Biggest area ripe for AI FP&A Disruption?
Democratization of data science 
Retrieval augmented generation to analyze hundreds of documents (for instance filings)
Get the Paid Plan 
TwinzTalk Tips 
Why what hat you can do in two minutes gets done 
Distinctions between OpenAI and Claude
Finance in five years
Power Query  and UNIQUE
Follow and connect with Don Tomoff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dontomoff/

How to sell your report successfully- with Skip Kastroll

Skip Katroll is Senior Director, Insights and Analytics at AmPhil. AmPhil helps big-name nonprofits raise more money and advance their missions. This episode is packed with practical and honest insights and takeaways you can apply to your day job. Skip gives the inside story on creating and selling a report at Amphil, "Unlocking the Secrets of Lost Sales Opportunities", and the approach that he followed. Skip also reveals how a background leading finance at top universities alongside math, economics (and a love of sci-fi) informs his FP&A.
Prior to joining AmPhil, Skip was an associate vice provost at Liberty University responsible for the institution’s strategic planning and regulatory compliance. 
In this episode: 
My multidisciplinary journey (aka “confused youth”) - studying math, economics, educational leadership and religion  (and how it applies to my data insights) 
FP&A business partnering at a University Finance team - navigating functions from the Dean of Arts to the Dean of Engineering 
3 proven strategies for financial data and analysis getting management to informed decisions
Countering “so what, and "why am I am here” approaches from business partners
How to navigate ad hoc requestsWhen you don’t have enough access to data 
The power of benchmarking 
Leading vs lagging indicators 
Unlocking the Secrets of Lost Sales Opportunities - a big impact report and the challenges, impact and approach
My favorite Excel function
Connect and and ask questions to Skip over on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkastroll/
Further Reading:
Skip Kastroll: Bridging the Gap: Translating Finance Insights for Effective Decision-Making