Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Dan Murphy emphasizes the importance of understanding the underlying factors behind key metrics such as net dollar retention. This involves analyzing why certain customers are buying more and why others aren’t, which can reveal insights into product or service improvements.Looking ahead, his priorities include maintaining rigorous execution, structuring the organization […]
995: Embracing Change to Energize Your Career | Dan Murphy, CFO, Commercetools
The way that Dan Murphy sees it, the CFO position demands that leaders always be kept on high alert. This is a mindset that has led him to habitually monitor updates and alerts related to key vendors, including banking institutions. And so it was, in first quarter of 2023, that he spotted a vague tweet…
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The Mentoring Round | Naresh Bansal, CFO, Menlo Security
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Naresh Bansal emphasizes the importance of flexibility and readiness to adapt to unforeseen changes in the business environment, illustrating this with his own experiences of sudden shifts in company strategy and market conditions. He discusses how his role shifted towards more strategic capital allocation, particularly in response to changing economic […]
994: Balancing Top-Line Growth and Bottom-Line Results | Naresh Bansal, CFO, Menlo Security
Ask any CFO about their career-building years, and they will likely attribute their success to their adaptability and ability to render strategic insight. This tendency was recently amplified for us when we heard about the experience of Naresh Bansal, a seasoned finance executive who during a pivotal chapter early in his early career discovered that…
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993: Building Resilient Careers: Lessons From an Expat CFO | Hilary Norris, CFO, GTreasury
A little more than 15 years ago, Hilary Norris had landed her "dream job" at a tech company in sunny California—a perfect alignment of her professional goals and personal life. However, the idyllic scenario was disrupted when the company was acquired, a common turning point that often spells uncertainty for existing executives. Facing a potential…
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991: Transforming Investment Wisdom Into Management Strategy | Jeff Bray, CFO, Semperis
Long ago, the power of focus was a lesson that Jeff Bray learned early in his career while transitioning from the role of analyst to that of portfolio manager. He recalls a strategic moment when he realized that narrowing his investments from many down to just three to five key areas would greatly amplify his…
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990: From Print to Platform: Strategic Shifts in a Digital Age | CFO Mitch Peipert
Back in 2016, Mitch Peipert stood at a crossroads. With a career foundation deeply rooted in the precision and rigor of public accounting, he had honed his CFO leadership and operational prowess as he navigated his way through the financial landscapes of various companies. Still, nothing could have prepared him for the arrival of a…
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The Mentoring Round | Jeremy Johnson, CFO, Dayforce
Inside The Mentoring Round, Dayforce CFO Jeremy Johnson reflects back on his arrival inside the CFO office at SmartRecruiters, where Johnson was surprised to find that his role as CFO extended beyond traditional finance duties to include oversight of HR, privacy, and legal matters. Despite the initial surprise, he views his experience in managing diverse […]
989: The Homecoming: A Tale of Growth, Leadership, and Return | Jeremy Johnson, CFO, Dayforce
Back in September 2021, Jeremy Johnson, senior vice president of finance at Ceridian (now Dayforce), decided that it was time to test his mettle—a step that would lead him to returning from a long personal journey with a leadership perspective somewhat different from what he had expected might be the case. Determined to challenge himself…
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Ep 33: Driving Value Beyond the Balance Sheet
This episode our Planning Aces emphasize the importance of leveraging one's breadth of experience, stepping beyond traditional FP&A roles, and focusing on execution to bring significant value to organizations. They also emphasize the evolving nature of finance professional interactions and the idea that strategic insights can serve as catalysts for organizational change, prompting shifts in…
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A CFO Helps Cardinal Health Find Its Value-Creation Groove
This story originally appeared on Forbes.com Back in August 2022, when Cardinal Health, Inc.’s finance chief, Jason Hollar, succeeded CEO Mike Kaufmann as the healthcare giant’s top executive, among the immediate challenges facing new CEO Hollar was filling the company’s CFO vacancy. At the time, an activist investor with an eye toward management change had […]
The Mentoring Round | Bob Houghton, CFO, Pivot Bio
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Bob Houghton’s first investor relations role at General Mills highlights the importance of external representation and engagement with investors in shaping a finance leader’s career. Houghton’s observation that well-rounded experiences attract proactive recruitment efforts for CFO and other finance leadership roles illustrates the market value of a broad and diverse […]