Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Jeff Woolard shares an example from Intel where finance’s broad view helped realign the product roadmap with market demands, enhancing margins. Woolard advocates a structured decision-making process to navigate uncertainties effectively. He stresses the importance of not just operational efficiency but also actively seeking opportunities to enhance the firm’s value.
978: From Silicon Roots to Global Routes | Jeff Woolard, CFO, Velocity Global
Looking back at his 26 years at Intel Corp., Jeff Woolard has more than a few moments of important discernment from which to choose when we ask for a single finance strategic moment. Nevertheless, without hesitation, he takes us back in time to when the giant chipmaker was experiencing a recurring mismatch between the products…
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Ep 32: Operating IN and ON the Business
Planning Aces co-hosts Brett Knowles and Jack Sweeney discuss the strategic efforts of two CFOs leading organizational turnarounds, and a third CFO, who offers key organizational insights from an earlier career chapter. Emphasizing simplification, strategic focus, and leveraging both human insight and technology, Marc Suidan of The Beachbody Company, Emma Brown of Medius and David…
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The Mentoring Round | Marc Suidan, CFO, The Beachbody Company
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Marc Suidan reflects on (1) his decision to join McKinsey & Company following business school, (2) a unique approach to stimulating demand in the semiconductor memory business, (3) and why after 17 years with PwC, he decided to join The Beachbody Company during a pivotal time of turnaround and transformation. […]
975: Turning the Tide at Beachbody | Marc Suidan, CFO, The Beachbody Company
When PwC partner and relentless champion of shareholder value Marc Suidan stepped into the CFO office at The Beachbody Company in April 2022, intrigue was bound to follow. Certainly, a struggling fitness and health company may not be viewed by many as the optimal door-of-entry to the operations side of things. However, for Suidan—a 17-year…
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974: Crafting Strategy in a Data-Driven World | Eric Jenny, CFO, SOCi
It's the type of story that we can't resist repeating, and one that without question underscores Eric Jenny's entrepreneurial spirit. Still, the entertainment value of his tale of zapping wasp nests with a homemade rubber band gun for a dollar a pop was at risk of eclipsing the more traditional milestones that populate a career…
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972: Recalibrating Your Strategic Lens | Rachel Stack, CFO, Cologix, Inc.
Not unlike that of many of her CFO peers, Rachel Stack's journey toward becoming a CFO has been punctuated by pivotal transactions. No single example of this turns out to have been more complicated or rich with lessons than what Stack refers to simply as "the take-private of Zayo." However, before the path forward for…
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The Mentoring Round | Sam Kemp, CFO, Built
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Sam Kemp emphasizes the importance of understanding the gap between a business’s formal operating model and the actual, informal ways it functions. Recognizing this gap is crucial for new leaders to gain leverage quickly within an organization or a new division. Looking forward, Sam outlined his top three priorities: ensuring […]
971: Navigating Growth and Transformation | Sam Kemp, CFO, Built Technologies
Looking back on his days with GoDaddy, Sam Kemp recalls a pivotal page in the domain registry giant's strategic M&A playbook. As he prepared to present to the executive team his analysis of a recent acquisition, he included a simple slide to convey data that would challenge the company's conventional thinking around acquisitions and how—free…
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970: Growing in Good Company | Dennis Johnson, CFO, Qlik
It's an all-too-familiar tale among the ranks of senior finance executives: A private equity firm acquires a company, reshuffles the finance team, and reserves the top finance spot for one of its own portfolio CFOs. At Qlik, though, this story had a less familiar ending—or at least one that did not include a portfolio CFO.…
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969: The Human Equation in Finance | Elizabeth Mann, CFO, Verisk
Elizabeth Mann began her career as a mathematician in academia, spending a decade in the field. Her initial plan had been to become a professor, on a path that would start with a Ph.D. and a postdoc. However, something was missing. Eager to engage more directly with the world at large, she pivoted her career…
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965: Removing Complexity for Strategic Success | Emma Brown, CFO, Medius
For Emma Brown, it was as though she had just removed the sword from the fabled stone, a moment that would challenge the inclination to persistently question her own judgment when it came to business. As is often the case, Brown’s moment of insight occurred in a high-pressure situation. Faced with poor financial visibility and…
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