FP&A Today

AI must look for work your finance team hates to do – Hyoun Park

CEO and Principal Analyst at Amalgam Insights, Hyoun Park helps CIOs & CFOs create the ROI and strategic business cases for better AI and IT FinOps. He is also host of the weekly podcast, This Week in Enterprise Tech.
In this episode Hyoun discusses some of the quick AI wins for finance departments.
My journey Starting as a CRM administrator to analyst 
Cloud spend getting out of control (unexpected cloud bills for $20m!)
AI use cases: invoices, contracts, billing and spending contracts (dealing with 1000 software contracts) and reconciliations
Agentic AI and uses in Finance 
Zero based budgeting and Forecasting in the AI age 
ROI for AI investment
People who will lose their jobs in AI in finance vs those who will survive  
My futurist prediction 
Connect with Hyoun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hyounpark/
Host of weekly podcast, This week in Enterprise Tech: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2319034
 http://www.amalgaminsights.com/

Getting to a great Controller FP&A Relationship – Bill Hanna

With nearly 300k subscribers on YouTube, Bill Hanna’s weekly videos on The Financial Controller Channels provide his audience with lessons over a 15-year career in Auditing & Corporate Accounting. He provides inspiration and practices in accounting and finance through his videos and courses “Designed To Save You Years of Learning” (as one reviewer wrote “I have learnt more with you than 3 years studying accounting and finance”).
In this episode:
How I stumbled into accounting 
Lessons in accounting leadership 
The power of mentoring teams about mistakes I make
FP&A vs controller 
The accounting crisis affecting the CFO’s Office  
My accidental influencer journey 
Bringing practical explanation of concepts through one company followed across the course
The accounting concepts needed to get to CFO
Having a wife who is also an accountant 
Being a Mac user using Excel 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-hanna-cpa-7653a851/YouTube channel (Financial Controller) https://www.youtube.com/@TheFinancialController
Courses: https://controller-academy.com/

Damon Fletcher, ex-CFO of Tableau, on Great Analytics

Today’s guest is perhaps the leading CFO name in data and analytics, the ex-CFO of Tableau and DataRobot. Now as Founder & CEO at Caliper, Fletcher draws on over a decade of executive experience at the intersection of finance and analytics. At Caliper, his mission is transform cloud cost and usage data into actionable insights
In this episode Fletcher discusses 
The relationship between analytics and the CFO
Subscription, net dollar retention, customer retention, and annual recurring revenue as key metrics 
Getting from CFO to CEO and the learning curve 
How we rely on AI and predictive ML and seasonal patterns to find anomalies
Getting to base analytics and starting in AI
Challenges and waste with cloud and holding engineers accountable
The opportunity to  save 30% on cloud spend
Moving from Excel to Google Sheets
Connect with Damon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damon-fletcher-bb8a6614/
https://calipersoftware.ai

From a deep struggle with personal skills to Storytelling Leader

Walmart, Kraft Heinz, Blue Rock Therapeutics, and the Four Seasons hotels are just some of companies that  regularly invite Ron Monteiro to coach their finance teams in storytelling. But Ron’s success followed decades of fear in presenting and public speaking in FP&A settings. Starting in accounting at Hitachi (“Ron Monteiro: “it was actually the only job I could get”) the CPA and CMA was inspired by a manager who gave him direction and mentorship doing FP&A as Kraft, as well as work over a decade in daily overcoming his debilitating fears. Now he delivers a playbook to teams across the world where finance is “expected to be at the table, not just tactically, but strategically.”Ron is also the author of a new book: Love Mondays which draws on his experience and interviews with finance leaders.  
In this episode 
Fear of public speaking I’ve carried through my life 
Kraft Foods and a leap of faith from my manager
15 years at Kraft with 7 jobs and five promotions including FP&A manager, analyst and director 
Transforming Kraft FP&A into strategic value: Kraft Singles and “Getting Our Shit Together” meetings
Brendan Flynn’s leadership of finance at Kraft developing future finance leaders 
The downward trend of FP&A post 3G Capital’s buyout 
CPG and the essential metrics 
Learning what you can do to grow – listening tour as business partnering and putting your hand up
Love Mondays! A Proven Process to Bring Joy Back Into Your Work Week and Life Paperback by Ron Monteiro https://www.amazon.ca/Love-Mondays-Proven-Process-Bring/dp/B0DPMTVYY3

The Consolidation King on Working Better with FP&A – Charaf Bourhalla

“Consolidation. A  lot of people don’t know exactly what it is. They think that it’s just an aggregation of numbers. Like you just add numbers, but it’s more technical than that. Most of the time when we are talking about consolidation, it’s international big groups that have subsidiaries around the world. Consolidation is the process of converting those financial statements normally built locally, because they have to be compliant with the local requirements and be compliant with the GAAP of the group.”
Charaf Bourhalla has been Head of Consolidation at Nestle Skin Health, Vimian Group and Edify Investment Partner.  He holds several key certifications, including the FMVA from CFI, ACCA with a focus on IFRS, and the PMP from PMI. His posts on LinkedIn reach millions of people explaining complex topics simply such as IFRS 10 – Consolidated Financial Statements, AS 16 – Property, Plant and Equipment and AS 1 – Presentation of Financial Statements.
In this episode:
From years of struggle, to Kimberly Clarke as a reporting analyst to entering a pharma company as business controller 
13-year tenure as a consultant developing a deep understanding of IFRS, USGAAP, French GAAP, and IPSAS, 
3 Jobs as Head of Consolidation including Nestle Skin Health with 70 subsidiaries around the world
Simplifying complexities of financial consolidation and non financial KPIs
Secrets to working with FP&A for consolidation and forecasting and building a mid-term plan
Continual training for teams in subsidiaries 
Technology and complexity changing the consolidation game
How Charaf called in when a company found itself consolidating more than 70  legal entities using Excel
Not to pick consultants with partnerships with only one provider 
Connect with Charaf on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charaf-bourhalla-04760a1b/

The perfect formula for FP&A and Beer – Pavels Cvetkovs at Carlsberg

Grab a beer and listen to this special episode. We are joined by Pavels Cvetkovs FP&A director at Carlsberg Group who reveals the formula of FP&A at the famous brand. Carlsberg was founded in 1847, has 140 brands, and 30,000 employees – and FP&A is core to their success, says Cvetkovs.
In this episode:
How my career in the Big Four (and audit) served as “finance military school” 
Moving from business controller to FP&A
The essence of Carlsberg – innovation in brewing and sustainability 
Distinct shareholder structure at Carlsberg run by Carlsberg foundation 
What’s so special about the beer and beverage industry and our FP&A practices 
Power of inventory management, sales seasonality, and supply chain and cost planning in brewing 
Forecasting and planning and achieving highest levels of collaboration 
FP&A set up and management of 10-20 KPIs at Carlsberg 
Business partnering as a mindset at Carlsberg 
Visiting sites in operations at Carlsberg 
Biggest challenges overcome in budget season
Refining my financial modeling skills
Follow and connect with Pavels on Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavels-cvetkovs-471b231a
 

Lies, Bias, and ESG in the finance function – Prof Alex Edmans

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

From Philadelphia Eagles to Sports FP&A

Over the last 12 years, Jason Hershman led financial planning & analysis at successful, hyper-growth companies in the sports arena. 
But his career started as a ballboy at the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a  job he spent months pursuing at 14 years old. This experience taught Jason a key lesson. He says: “things that seem out of touch, out of reach are not, it just takes a little hustle, a little effort.”
This attitude has stayed with him as he has led multiple finance teams and embarked on everything from redesigning the chart of accounts, owning  the month-end close, building financial models from scratch, raising millions in equity, renegotiated debt, to IPOs.
Finance highlights included leading the $400 million sale of Appetize, a B2B SaaS business in the sports industry (Appetize is the software provider for all of the MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL stadiums as well as theme parks such as Six Flags, Disney, and SeaWorld).  After this, Jason launched his own fractional CFO business, Point FP&A, providing FP&A to some of the most exciting companies in the sports industry. He has the luxury of turning down clients who are not in the sports world.
In this episode:
The Philadelphia Eagles as a ballboy for 5 years – things that are out of touch are not 
Learning accounting and FP&A on the job in my first online retail startup in New York – which eventually became public 
Getting hired at sports startup Appetize (B2B SaaS)- combining my passions for sports and finance + getting to exits 
The power of rebuilding a financial model as central to my career 
Going to market as a sports FP&A fractional CFO at  Point The ideal balance and differences between accountancy and FP&A
Secrets to rebuilding the financial model 
Being honest on my journey with AI and FP&A
Connect with Jason on LinkedIn
Check out Point at www.pointfpa.com 

Finance and passion always in fashion for 175-year old company

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/

FP&A as Fuel for Innovation – Lessons from Apple, Facebook Google and JFrog

Jarad Backlund is VP of FP&A at JFrog, a DevOps platform streamlining software development and delivery. In this episode Jarad provides frank insights and lessons from over 18 years of experience in FP&A spanning Apple, Google, and Facebook (as well as at bootstrapped startups). From overseeing multi-billion dollar capital projects to leading finance at cutting edge startups, he reveals his secrets to  building top quality FP&A teams, bringing strategic insights and creating a builder mentality.
In this episode: 
My journey from failing as an architectural major to FANG FP&A 
Canned reports vs the ability to create new processes and systems 
Facing an “impossible” project at Facebook/Meta
The skill needed to win an interview for FP&A at a FANG company
From Bootstrapped FP&A to billion dollar companies 
Raising the cap on Apple Care Products helping it become a $2billion+ business
Clean data and analytics  
LLMs contextual awareness and FP&A
Skills and education in the age of AI 
Becoming a builder in finance
How VLookUp almost cost me a job 
Connect with Jarad Backlund: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/