FP&A Today

What Gen Z Wants in FP&A

What does Generation Z Want from FP&A?
 
Between them, college students Gabriel Valentin Navarro, Charlee Wambolt, and Derek Baker secured FP&A and finance internships at companies as diverse as Credit Suisse, Clark Construction, Amex, Expedia, Regeneron, and SavviLegal. In this special episode we explore the experiences of a Gen Z cohort experiencing work in FP&A for the first time. 
 
In this special episode we meet guests:
 
Gabriel Valentin Navarro , Intern at American Express (University of Washington)
Charlee Wambolt, Intern at Credit Suisse (Brigham Young University)
Derek Baker, Financial Analyst at Clientbook (Brigham Young University)
 
They reveal:
How to get an internship in FP&A and is it necessary?
The best advice for people seeking their first FP&A role?
Skills and tactics to maximize your internship experience?
How to take ownership of your internship experience?
What employers need to know about the approach of Gen Z in finance, and where employers  are failing.
The university classes which most prepared them for a career in finance
The values that Gen Z is looking for in their next finance role? 
Their biggest advice and takeaways for other college students taking their first steps towards internships and jobs?
Their favorite Excel function of the next generation!
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FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails  you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Leader being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com

John King: Inside the Success of FP&A at Walmart

 
John King, Senior Manager, Analytics & Insights, Private Brands at Walmart reveals how the largest US retailer makes use of a “firehose” of data. This amounts (according to some estimates) to 2.5 petabytes of unstructured data from 1 million customers every hour. 
 
Walmart’s FP&A unit ensures this potentially limitless information provide instant business decisions for the US retail giant.
 
First John explains his path to being an FP&A leader, starting as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS analyst) at Tradewind Energy in Kansas. 
 
Here his love and appreciation for technology - which plays a central role at Walmart- was born. John's passion for technology saw him thrive at his roles at two of Walmart’s FP&A divisions: Realty Market Strategy, and now Private Brands. Private brands - a good that is manufactured for and sold by Walmart competing with brand-name products is a huge source of data and revenue. In fact,18 of Walmart’s private brands do more than $1 billion in sales and its largest name, Great Value does more than $27 billion a year globally.
 
In this interview John speaks about the intersection of FP&A and business-decisions at Walmart and his career.
 
His passion for technology and the tech stack used at Walmart 
The core metrics which Walmart judges FP&A on and what other retailers can learn 
How to get insights for the business “today or tomorrow” through dimensional modeling 
How to keep focus on the most important data in the face of potentially limitless consumer data
As both a Python and Excel expert, whether FP&A leaders need to know Python, Excel or both?
The importance of taking logic and analysis to the data - rather than the other way around
The most important advice for anyone starting in FP&A to succeed 
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FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails  you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Leader being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com

Jamie Genge: Winning Big with Monte Carlo analysis in FP&A

More FP&A teams should take advantage of the secret power of Monte Carlo simulations, argues Jamie Genge, Head of Financial Planning and Analysis at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL).
Genge runs FP&A at the NPL which employs 775 scientists to provide research in science, engineering and technology to support scientific and commercial innovation in the UK. Some of the world’s most significant innovations have origins at NPL, including radar; packet switching, the forbearer of the internet; the ACE computer; and the cesium atomic clock.
Jamie’s start began studying Human Geography before moving to audit at PwC. Jamie went to work for the National Physical Laboratory in the UK where over 11 years he has held multiple roles, including his current role as head of financial planning and analysis for the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). 
In this wide-ranging interview Jamie provides his take on
Moving from audit to FP&A
How FP&A acts as bid support in governmental organizations such as the NPL
His passion for Monte Carlo analysis,  a mathematical technique to account for risk and upside in decision making
How Monte Carlo is used in the sales funnel, with examples from NPL
How NPL conducts its budget and forecasting
Bottom up vs Top Down budgeting 
The pride of building a team in FP&A as one of the greatest career achievements
The challenges and opportunities in FP&A at this crossroads
Jamie’s gardening project as an analogy for FP&A
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FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails  you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Leader being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com

FP&A Today: Matthew Bernath, Host of The Financial Modelling Podcast

Matthew Bernath, based in South Africa, has been a financial modeler for 15 years. Such was his thirst to learn best practices in the field, he set up a podcast, The Financial Modelling Podcast. Eighty episodes and 100,000 followers later The Financial Modelling Podcast  is  now  ranked as one of the  top finance podcasts.
Matthew is head of data ecosystems at Shoprite. In  his previous role, Matthew steered the data analytics capability of Rand Merchant Bank, building a Rand-wide data ecosystem. He is also a startup investor.
In this special crossover edition between FP&A Today and The Financial Modelling Podcast Paul Barnhurst (aka The FP&A Guy) and Matthew Bermath, explore:
Why Many FP&A teams are missing a trick to perform real analysis (the “a” in FP&A)
How FP&A can better use financial modeling
Key skills you need to improve your financial modeling
The vital importance of understanding macro events in FP&A
Matthew then turns the tables asking Paul key questions such as
His take on the state of FP&A?
How non-finance people (who hate finance) should approach dreaded budgeting and finance?
 
Follow Matthew, Host of The Financial Modelling Podcast, on LinkedIn
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FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails on your side for FP&A you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news

Lance Rubin: Becoming the World’s Next Top Financial Modeler

Lance Rubin is one of the world’s leading experts on financial models. He has created thousands of models for some of the biggest companies and literally wrote the instruction manual on financial modeling as a certified trainer for the Financial Modeling Institute. 
In this wide ranging interview Lance reveals the secrets to successful financial modeling:
-How to Instantly Improve your Financial Modeling
-Why you need to build and Treat a Financial Model like your House
-The Best Resources to Learn better Financial Models
-How to achieve Better Storytelling in FP&A, and bringing Emotion to the Numbers
-The power of non-financial data to change your models
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails on your side for FP&A you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript 
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
 
Episode Links
 
FM Knowledge Hub
https://fmwiki.glideapp.io/
 
Oz Du Soleil
https://www.youtube.com/user/WalrusCandy
 
Financial Modeling Institute
https://fminstitute.com/
 
Modelcitizn website
https://www.modelcitizn.com/knowledge-hub-apps
 
Financial Modelling Elective by the CA (ANZ) which includes the study guide Lance wrote a significant portion of (Chapter 4 design and build a financial model).
https://www.charteredaccountantsanz.com/become-a-member/course-descriptions/ca-program/financial-modelling
 
Financial Modelling Podcast
https://financialmodellingpodcast.com/
 
Eloquens
https://www.eloquens.com/?ref=modelcitizn
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Leader being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com

Christian Wattig: Getting from Good to Great in FP&A

Christian Wattig is one of the world’s leading experts in FP&A having led teams at Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Squarespace. Today Christian is FP&A Solution Architect, Datarails, and manages the top-rated FP&A Bootcamp explicitly designed for professionals who work full-time and want to ramp up their FP&A game.
In this wide-ranging interview Christian provides actionable advice for any FP&A professional:
➡How FP&A can help marketing attribution 
➡The need for FP&A to embrace Gray Areas
➡The importance of curiosity 
➡His FP&A Bootcamp teaching hundreds of FP&A leaders 
➡Hard-won secrets for business partnering 
➡The need to forecast ranges
➡How to cope with vast data 
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FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails on your side for FP&A you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Leader being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com

Kathy Svetina: The Fractional CFO’s Inspiring Guide to FP&A

From a family of entrepreneurs, Kathy Svetina was always going to run her own business. Kathy first took financial planning and analysis roles at big companies such as AON and Wolters Kluwer for more than a decade. Then, Kathy founded Newcastle Finance, providing Fractional CFO services – supplying financial expertise to startups and fast-growing companies not yet able to justify a full-time CFO and facing growing pains. Kathy uniquely serves women-owned businesses (achieving $1M to $10M in annual sales). 
In this wide-ranging interview Kathy describes:
The growth of fractional CFOs in business
The challenge of data consolidation nightmares in small companies 
The optimal way of starting FP&A in fast-growing businesses
A favorite Excel function that felt like angels had landed on earth.
Follow Kathy on LinkedIn
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails on your side for FP&A you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Leader being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com

Aliyyah Abdullah: How to Succeed with Supply Chain Value

Aliyyah Abdullah is Strategic and Operational Finance Leader, Universal Foods Limited. Based in Trinidad and Tobago, Aliyya began studying management, which she describes as “closer to psychology”. Aliyya only shifted careers to finance when a friend told her about an opportunity. After getting a degree in accounting, she specializes today in working with top SMEs in finance in the food and beverage industry, most recently at Universal Foods Limited – maker of Charles Chocolates, Sunshine Snacks and Universal Lightly Frosted Corn.  
Being a leading finance expert in a country of 1.4 million people, Aliyya gets to perform a number of roles including FP&A specializing in supply chain value.
In this episode of FP&A Today Aliyyah discusses
The importance of leading and lagging indicators in food and beverage FP&A
Why she has focused in the past 12 years on small business FP&A
Secrets to mixing  finance and operations to add value
How a food and beverage leader is managing mounting supply chain issues such as the rise in the cost of a containers
How her love of Horror movies has got her through anxious FP&A moments
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails on your side for FP&A you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Leader being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com
 

Carl Seidman: FP&A as the Great Anticipator

Carl Seidman  is an FP&A Leader who works with Fortune 500 companies providing advice and strategy on best practices and scaling FP&A. In this interview Carl discusses:
His background in turnaround and restructuring of businesses
His “first retirement” from business at 32, which formed the basis of a TEDx Talk (519,000 views and counting).
Setting up his own business focused on FP&A advice to the Fortune 500
Why successful FP&A always means anticipating
Why large companies do not always have the best FP&A processes
Public speaking skills as a game changer for any FP&A solution
The evolution of software as the biggest opportunity in FP&A
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FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails on your side for FP&A you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Leader being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com

Anna Oblakova: 50 Shades of FP&A Maturity

Anna Oblakova has spent 15 years in FP&A - it is the only job she ever wanted. 
She started her career in large Russian companies. Beginning her career at VMHY Holding her first taste of FP&A was being pushed into the deep end of M&A, due diligence and business valuations.
Future accomplishments include building an FP&A function from scratch at Bank Zenit where she eventually managed a team of 10 FP&A professionals. Following a career break, Anna moved to France where she is manager of FP&A at Sodastream (bought by Pepsico for $3.2 billion in 2018). In this interview Anna discusses some of the highlights of her career including:
The reasons for setting up the online resource and blog FPANDA CLUB
The 50 shades of FP&A Maturity and why it is important to measure FP&A progress
How FP&A teams can use personas to build better business partnerships 
Why it is vital that key metrics to follow should be aligned with the strategic objectives of the company
The constantly growing gap between expectations of stakeholders and FP&A teams
The need for continuous learning to succeed in FP&A
Follow Anna on LinkedIn
Check out the FP&A Club website founded by Anna Oblakova
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
With Datarails on your side for FP&A you get improved data integrity and visibility helping your relationships with your internal business partners and external stakeholders; real-time latest version of all your company’s data in one place, with version control, audit trail and records, ensuring errors and multiple versions are avoided; the ability to let your data tell your story through proprietary, built-in visualization of critical KPIs in real-down; and drill-downs to answer questions on underlying data on the spot.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Follow DataRails on LinkedIn to find out about upcoming episodes and the latest FP&A news
Read the Full Program Transcript
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
To suggest a great guest for the show, or if you would like to be the FP&A Pro being interviewed contact jonathan.m@datarails.com