When it comes to the history of budgeting, America’s appetite for hot dogs is as good a place as any to reveal how the notorious business process became so deeply rooted in business enterprises. It seems that the revelry of 1920s triggered an unforeseen uptick in the sale of wieners, and the folks at Armour […]
Jack Sweeney Speaks to BackBone Media About The Power of Podcasting
The CFO Thought Leader and Middle-Market Thought Leader podcasts are today helping middle-market business leaders contribute their stories to a larger collective narrative for middle market businesses — a narrative that is finally exposing the critical role that middle-market firms play in the world economy. Learn more…
Ethan Carlson’s Four Priorities for Cloud Adopters
Why Finance Executives Must Own Their Own Narratives
“Yet while he was universally admired throughout the company, and known as a truly wise person, most managers wanted as little to do with him as possible. They simply could not understand a word he was saying. He was dependent on the CEO to translate him.”1 It was with these words and others like them […]
The Management Narrative Makes Room for Finance
In an earlier column titled “The Drucker Curse,” I argued that Peter Drucker, the much acclaimed 20th-century management thinker, could be found guilty of drawing an “iron curtain” across the corporation, a barrier designed to segregate a fledgling but maturing management narrative from a robust and authoritative finance function. I wrote that his influential writings […]
Special Offer For CFO Thought Leaders From CFO Rising East
We’re pleased to hear that a number of our CFO Thought Leaders will be participating in the Annual CFO Rising East Summit, taking place in Miami on March 11 & 12. Counted among this year’s CFO Rising presenters are CFOTL’s recent guests CFO Vince Burchianti of Firehouse Subs (Episode 72) and CFO Mathew Novick of Place […]
The Drucker Curse: How Finance Became Management’s Blind Eye
Long ago, before tribes of management gurus inhabited industry’s every corner, there was an automaker widely admired as the largest and most innovative company in all the land. Then, one day — during the final days of a world war — the firm’s CEO told the firm’s CFO that he would like to retire. The […]
Imagine Being a CFO Who Doesn’t Read Books: Welcome to the Bean Counters Club
I’m never surprised when our CFO guests tell us that they don’t read books. Like many senior professionals, they have little time to pursue extra reading, and, well, it’s been my experience that as a group CFOs tend to be dreadfully honest and tell it […]
Why B2B CFOs Are the MVPs of the Content Marketing World
For many of us, the phrase “content marketing” is a relatively new buzzword used to describe the art of communicating a message to customers and prospects without selling. And here’s why B2B CFOs can often be counted among their firm’s best content marketers. Think […]
The Six Ways to Finance Your Middle Market Firm
This guest post was written by Frank Williamson currently managing partner of FourBridges Capital — A Tennessee-based middle market investment banking firm. One of my favorite aspects of middle market financing is the impact that imaginative approaches to financing can have on companies’ business plans. But understanding all the options available, how each can fit a particular situation, […]
The Bookkeeper’s Technology: A Parable of Finance and Innovation
Once upon a time, in a valley known for innovation, there was an entrepreneur who believed that he knew everything there was to know about growing a business. Growth, he said, was the result of innovation, and innovation is created by people with vision and […]