FP&A Today

Fortune 500 to Startups: Multi-industry FP&A Leader Geetha Ramachandran

Geetha Ramachandran is an FP&A change agent. She helped transform FP&A operations at GE Healthcare and Cummins (“When I walked into the FP&A at GE Healthcare, and I saw the close was eight days, my approach to things is usually I don’t take things just on face value or just because someone has been doing something a particular way).”
Geetha has since swapped supersized companies for startups, most recently leading FP&A at fast-growing businesses including SimpleTire. In  her current role as Head of FP&A at New Jersey decor company, Triangle Home Fashions, she continues to propel FP&A as a “co-captain” in the business.
In this episode Geetha reveals:
Her career journey from PwC auditor to equity research to GE Healthcare 
The CPA in India and why the pass rate is only 10%
Key FP&A achievements including shrinking number of days of closing from 8 days and spending  more time on value added activities 
How to better establish KPIs for departments aligned with business goals 
Presenting  KPIs for improving warehouse efficiency at Triangle Home Fashions (pick and pack time, average utilization, inventory turnover, SKUS meeting minimal sales threshold)
The challenges at multinational manufacturer, Cummins, integrating four companies and restructuring the finance team at a time of low morale 
Doing FP&A at company as fast as Simple Tire vs more mature business 
Her approach at Triangle Home with inventory levels purchased during COVID
Lessons from two decades in business partnering 
Follow Geetha Ramachandran https://www.linkedin.com/in/geetharamachandran201/

Getting to a Winning FP&A Story

A compelling FP&A story is essential. In this second (and final) session from FP&ACon 2024, Glenn hosts Soufyan Hamid, FP&A leader for 16 years who runs the Financial Storytelling Program, and Matthew Herbert, Chewy Director of Finance. 
First poll: How confident are you in your ability to craft a compelling FP&A Story:?
The move  from numbers to storytelling
Soufyan on why the finance director was always frustrated by my business presentations (when I was even invited to meetings)
By contrast Matthew was forced to get to grips with storytelling early in investment banking (but faced a different challenge as an FP&A business partner at Walmart)
The gap between perception and reality in our storytelling 
When information becomes insights 
The connection between business partnering and storytelling 
What (selfishly) do FP&A pros get by developing storytelling skills?
Remember you are not giving a TED Talk 
The 5 Points that FP&A Pros Most Struggle with in their Storytelling
Actionable tips in your presentation 
Follow and connect with Soufyan Hamid: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soufyanhamid/
Follow and connect with Matthew Herbert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-herbert-6a56637/
Matthew’s training course at https://biztrix.us/
Soufyan (The Finance Circle) training www.thefinancecircle.com

AI and FP&A: Hype vs Reality

In this special episode (part of Datarails’ FP&A Con 2024) Glenn hosts an all-star panel to debate AI and FP&A: Hype vs reality.
 
Join Nicolas Boucher, Christian Martinez, and Gabriela Gutierrez, alongside CFO Glenn Hopper, host of FP&A Today, and an AI thought leader and author. Delve into real-world applications, separating fact from fiction, and gain valuable practical insights into the present and future of AI in financial planning and analysis. 
 
The Guests:
Nicolas Boucher, Keynote speaker on AI for Finance & FP&A
Christian Martinez, Finance Analytics Manager, Kraft Heinz
Gabriela Gutierrez, Financial Planning & Analysis Specialist
 
In this episode: 
How many FP&A pros are using AI in their work - how do you compare vs the results of our poll 
The main misconceptions + and what not to do in the  finance and AI era
The significance of ChatGPT 4o
The biggest barriers to AI adoptions 
Practical uses of AI to use today , including forecasting and practical ways to save time 
FP&A AI use cases that have shocked the panel 
Which FP&A processes could most use AI help?
How to get started practically
AI capabilities in existing tools  such as PowerBI
Why 2024 is about Python as the tool to learn to break the barrier of AI
Automation in finance’s relationship with other departments
Creating your own chatbot services
The importance of data maturity (before AI maturity)
How you will start to see AI inbuilt to all your finance techstackDownload financial data (balance sheets, savings) from a company on  Yahoo Finance and plug into Chat GPT 4o (Prompt: Act as a management consultant and analyze this data with an FP&A lens” (and getting volume analysis, volatility analysis, moving averages..) 
FP&ACon 2024 (on demand) https://www.datarails.com/events/fpa-con-2024/
Join the AI Finance Club: https://ai-finance.club/
 “Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models,”

FP&A as Business Intelligence – Len McFall

FP&A professionals are the original business intelligence (BI) experts, says Len Mcfall, senior consultant, finance at Windstream Holdings, a $1billion US telecoms company.
“FP&A itself is synonymous with business intelligence,” he says. “And honestly, weren’t, weren’t we the first business intelligence? We’ve always been working with data. We’ve always been trying to simplify and present data in a  meaningful way to people who might not,otherwise be literate.”
In this frank and honest interview McFall, whose background is heavily influenced by BI, gives insights from a 20 year career including HCT Investments, Sitel, Crossroads Treatment Center and a minefield of data at Windstream. 
 “I’m not a bullet point guy. I’m a paragraph guy” says Len– warning he’s not one for short, snappy answers, but a storyteller who loves to dive deep,  as he reveals:
Why 40% of my job is touching base with people to curate all the data we use across the organization
Putting sales on blast:  how often do you catch a forecast from a sales organization that’s even 50%, right?
Coming into a company to save them after they were delivering finance reporting 30 days after close (from 30 days to day 8)
the role of data analysis and bi  in finance and in the decision making process.
How business runs on “hunches” and why it is FP&A to prove that hunch 
Why if you cannot communicate to the business you are useless 
The vast amount of data we have access to in telecoms and how we separate the signal from the noise 
How finance rubs against IT and why it’s not pretty 
Why AI in finance is like a “very smart but green intern” and prompt engineers are ridiculous
Killing for food in winters during his childhood
Connect with Len on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/len-mcfall-6274857b/

My Adventures in Finance Real Estate: From Whistleblowing Fraud to Big Wins for Residents

CFO Seth Zimmerman faced a triple blow of tests in his decades-long  real estate career. Firstly, he witnessed the Lehman collapse first-hand from within a real estate division of the famed bank (“We just got a call from our New York office, a guy in New York. He’s like, well, it’s done. We’re bankrupt.”). Secondly, being forced to blow the whistle when his CEO boss pocketed $1m into his bank account–the day after a $10m raise (the startup is now defunct). Finally, being the finance person when a developer absconded with $12m. “One of the things that I’ve learned is that when it comes to money, you never know what somebody’s going to do”.
In this episode, Seth Zimmerman, CFO at Invest with Roots, explains the core metrics in finance real estate and why things are never cookie cutter (“Every deal is, is different and you have to look at them individually”)
Zimmerman talks:
Life as CFO at Invest with Roots, one of the hottest companies in Atlanta,the only real estate portfolio that creates wealth for renters.
The role of finance at a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) – a security that trades like a stock on the major exchanges and reports to the SEC. 
Blowing the whistle in finance  when a former CFO pocketed $1m
Creating $700,000 for residents at Invest with Roots
Becoming CFO and bringing in budgeting and FP&A processes
Love of modeling and how I am using  modeling skills to get into the multifamily space
How to find great finance staff +the accountant recruitment challenge 
Favorite Excel function 
My motorbike crash 
Follow Seth on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethazimmerman/

Ready FP&A One: From Assassin’s Creed to Battling Big Budget Bosses – David Fortin

As a lifelong gamer, David Fortin successfully landed  his dream job managing FP&A at Ubisoft – the $2.79 billion gaming company responsible for Assassin’s Creed, Driver, and Far Cry, For Honor. The former PwC auditor then decided to take on an even more daunting leap. He ran FP&A at  Saas Startup Polka “building the plane while we were flying” – cue  his boss leaving, learning how to fundraise, facing disinterested investors, budgets rejected by the board,  the CTO crying, before managing an eventual successful exit (in 2023 the company was acquired by Swedish enterprise software giant IFS). Now he is a full-time YouTuber teaching Excel and Microsoft Copilot – still using finance and analytics to build his business.
In this episode David talks:
PwC CPA audit coming up that way to FP&A
Quebec, loving video games and landing a role at Ubisoft
Moving from a big company to a startup and a steep finance learning curve
Building the plane while flying in FP&A
Learning the sales pitch of funding round facing questions and disinterterested investors
CTOs crying when the budget is rejected by the board
Due diligence and exit – lessons
Becoming a YouTuber making Excel fun again and grasping Microsoft Copilot 
How CoPilot and AI will transform FP&A
Scenario analysis in Copilot 
20,000 hours of gaming and my favorite Excel function
Follow David on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-fortin-cpa-816b20b5/
Follow David’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@piggybankaccountant

The FP&A Playbook from Nestlé, Mars, Kraft Heinz and Amazon: Swati Bagri

From being the First kid in her family to finish high school, Swati Bagri began as a role as auditor at Deloitte (“I did what any 17-year-old smart kid would do. I just followed my friends”). At Deloitte she discovered a “love of finance” realizing it’s “what I want to do for the rest of my life”.
Swati cemented her FP&A career at some of the world’s biggest brands: Nestlé, Mars, Amazon, and Kraft Heinz. At these giants she absorbed and built a playbook to get from “good” to “great” FP&A. Behing the success of FP&A at these teams, she explains is 3 things: strategic planning and forecasting, technology and risk management.
In this episode Swati talks about:
Finance transformation as a significant part of her role (the slippery term of “finance transformation” defined as the “effective use of technology to free up people’s time”)
How predictive analytics was used at Nestlé from rainfall data, and the wider playbook of building financial models with consumers in mind 
Hyperinflationary markets like Turkey and Egypt and FP&A and the lessons learned
Business partnering roles at Amazon and Nestlé and what I have learned about successful relationship building towards common objectives 
Co-founding The Strategy Story (including learning about Marriage insurance for wedding days)
Start by Explaining the P&L and coaching non-finance folk
War stories – annual planning cycles 
FP&A-led transformation at an ecommerce marketplace business and getting buy-in from senior management through a data story
The power of podcasts to keep your at the top of your finance game 
Sky Jumping and my favorite Excel function
Connect with Swati Bagri on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/swatibagri/
Book a mentoring session with Swati at https://topmate.io/swatibagri

Forecasting and Leading (FP&A) in Las Vegas

We host our first ever FP&A guest from the US casino and gambling sector with the head of FP&A at Genting Americas, a world leader in casinos and lodging with luxurious loactions in Las Vegas, Bimini, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom.
Bill Singh is VP FP&A of Genting Americas, part of the world’s largest Destination Resort operator operating as Resorts World . Genting boasting five public companies capitalized at $45 billion and employing more than 50,000 people worldwide. This episode  reveals their inside FP&A game including metrics such as “win per unit per day” tacking the “hold”. Bill is strategic leader with more than a decade leading FP&A and providing insights on skills and budgeting management, to insider advice about gaming.
In this episode:
Getting an unexpected offer of an FP&A role at a casino in Nevada
Why FP&A at the “nexus of data and decision-making” is an “ultimate” career path 
Critical skills you must develop in FP&A 
Giving “X+1” in your FP&A answers
Salesmanship in FP&A
FP&A metrics: “Win per unit per day and hold”
Lodging: occupancy, your ADR, your revenue per available room
Odds and statistics from tables, games and FP&A modeling 
Insider advice about gaming (including “Don’t play a game right by the door”)
The power of leading budget for the operating side and the capital budget for all divisions +lessons from 10 years of budgeting  
The impact of AI in getting answers faster for operators
MATCH+TEMPO – My favorite Excel function and lessons from drumming  
Follow and connect with Bill Singh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billsinghprofile/

Hitmaking, Taylor Swift, and FP&A

What’s the connection between FP&A and Taylor Swift? To answer we are joined by Michael Stotland, Vice President of FP&A at AEG Presents.
AEG Presents is one of the largest live music companies in the world, and most famously the concert promoter behind the $1 billion dollar revenue Eras Tour by Taylor Swift: the highest grossing tour of all time.For good measure, Stotland’s FP&A team also supports the tours of Paul McCartney, Katy Perry Elton John, and the Rolling Stones, and 25 music festivals, including the iconic Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, along with Stagecoach, the New Orleans Jazz Fest, hangout Fest, electric Forest, and Firefly.
In this blockbuster episode, we want to teach you how FP&A feels (apologies to Swifties):Michael Stotland VP of FP&A at AEG reveals in conversation with host Glenn Hopper:
How growing up in Los Angeles the entertainment industry the entertainment industry was a natural choice, and starting my career at MGM
Spreading my wings at 20th Century Fox 
Building up the FP&A function at MarVista (a TV and movie production company showcasing nearly 2,500 hours of content) and the story behind a facing a “fantastic year” during COVID FP&A leadership at AEG  helping live entertainment “ return from the abyss” 
“Seeing the financials bounce” back as pent up demand was realized 
Pulling external data into daily FP&A work 
Heatmaps on beer costs and price of living as part of FP&A planning 
Managing 3 areas of FP&A at AEG:  General, systems and business strategy units
The FP&A dimension of Taylor Swift Eras Tour 
Using local macroeconomics to impact business decision-making – from the UK to Singapore and the US
How Television revenues and licensing of big movies saves movie studios 
FP&A swiftness when Kanye West bowed out at the last minute at Coachella 
Using AI to look at past events and ticket sales and performance on a contribution margin basis 
Looking to optimize how we do FP&A and ambitions to become CFO
Links between FP&A and my triathlon career 
Connect with Michael Stotland Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis at AEG Presents: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikestotland/
Further Reading:
Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Is the Highest-Grossing of All Time and First-Ever to Hit $1 Billion
Investopedia: Swiftonomics: The Economic Influence of Taylor Swift
Datarails Blog: How FP&A makes Huge Hollywood Hits

The FP&A Life at GE, Microsoft–and Now Google

Antonio Reza is the Head of Finance for Google Cloud Consulting in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In this episode he reveals the FP&A life and lessons he has learned over the past 14 years working in finance and strategy at Google, Microsoft, and GE. He brings experiences across 10 different countries leading teams across the globe spanning different industries (he also speaks four languages). In this episode he reveals:
How Getting into GE’s finance and FP&A training was life-changing
Why so many tech people like himself are inspired to get into finance 
Country specific differences in finance that he has learnt over his career 
Google in the midst of AI revolution and how we used AI at Microsoft for our commercial forecasting 
How AI in finance is still about automation – with insights the next frontier for FP&A
How FP&A at Google and Microsoft FP&A teams are set up 
Why “Walking  the Shop” remains core to his career in finance
How the biggest companies in the world manage real-time data
Despite the technological avalanche storytelling and persuasion is fundamental at the top tech companies
Why FP&A needs to focus on snapshots vs “real-time” dashboards 
FP&A Need to Ask Why x5 Times: The Secret of great storytelling 
Why I am focused on grasping and applying the economic picture in my work 
My biggest challenges in moving from individual contributor to manager early in my career 
How a  “failure” led to my team and I staying in the office for 56 hours trying to close an audit – and the people skills I learnt along the way 
Why Despite working at Google, Excel still bosses Google Sheets for finance teams
Using your 20s to hustle and have a successful career 
Follow Antonio at X (Formerly Twitter) 48k Followers https://twitter.com/theantonioreza
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/theantonioreza/
Subscribe to Antoniio’s Newsletter Money & Robots https://www.theantonioreza.com/
Further Reading
WSJ: Google Finance Head: Anything That Can Be Automated, We Strive to Automate
The Pyramid Principle:Logic in Writing and Thinking by Barbara Minto
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It; Chris Voss
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma; Michael Bhaskar and Mustafa Suleyman