What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

mentorship

1182: From Cockpit Decisions to Capital Decisions | Andre Mancl, CFO, Nium

Andre Mancl recalls sitting only a few months into his first CFO role when a senior technology executive arrived with an urgent warning: engineers were leaving for Google and Facebook, and the company needed an immediate across-the-board compensation increase of 30% to 40%. It would have been a major financial commitment. But Mancl hesitated. Drawing…
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1177: Navigating an Acquisition at the Edge of Change | Tom DiDesidero, CFO, SmartRecruiters

Tom DiDesidero describes a period when SmartRecruiters was actively taking customers from a much larger competitor. It wasn’t just momentum—it was proof. “We were stealing a lot of their customers,” DiDesidero tells us, describing how that traction became a defining signal of value. At the same time, SmartRecruiters was moving quickly on a new front.…
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Shrink to Grow: The Hardest Call in Finance | Burt Chao, CFO, Nintex

Facing tighter capital and slower growth, Burt Chao led “shrink-to-grow” decisions—redirecting investment away from still-profitable product lines toward higher-ROI priorities. The shift required redefining asset allocation discipline while aligning stakeholders around long-term value creation in a constrained environment. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Burt Chao of Nintex In his first months at Nintex, […]

1160: Disciplined Bets in an Expensive-Capital World | Burt Chao, CFO, Nintex

As he nears the end of his first 100 days at Nintex, Burt Chao is doing something many new CFOs resist: listening more than talking. Understanding the business, its people, and its real growth potential comes before dashboards or directives, he tells us. Chao describes Nintex as a company with a “long and rich history”…
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1155: Scaling Growth Without Sacrificing Outcomes | Bruce Schuman, CFO, Universal Technical Institute

At Intel, Bruce Schuman remembers walking into a meeting as a controller, proud of a product change his team had worked on “for months.” Then CFO Andy Bryant asked one question—one that reframed the proposal around customer impact. “Nobody had thought about (it),” Schuman tells us, and that question “completely changed the entire conversation,” leading…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:51:49)
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The Power Behind Story-Driven Growth | David lee, CFO & COO, WEBTOON

During Best Buy’s Renew Blue turnaround, David Lee helped redirect over $1 billion in savings to reinvent stores as “omnichannel showrooms,” blending digital and in-store experiences. By aligning consumer insight with disciplined finance, the team defied predictions of retail decline—driving one of the fastest stock recoveries in the S&P 500. Now Watch the Complete Episode […]

1142: From Webcomics to Wall Street: Inside a Storytelling Powerhouse | David Lee, COO & CFO, WEBTOON

When David Lee joined PG&E in San Francisco, the company was collapsing under the weight of California’s first energy crisis. “These utility veterans kind of got us into this,” the new CFO told him, handing him an unusual assignment: act as an “anti-CFO.” Lee spent his days testing every forecast and financing plan, proposing contrarian…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:53:28)
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1137: When Finance Leads With Curiosity | Amy Foo, CFO, Ignition

She starts with tape from the field, not the spreadsheet. Listening to enterprise sales calls, Amy Foo heard customers whose usage rose and fell with seasons. Fixed per-seat pricing “wasn’t quite hitting the mark,” she tells us, so she piloted a pooled-seat model that flexed monthly within an annual commitment—turning smaller clips into “one to…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:57:16)
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1136: From Projects to Playbooks: Making Transformation Stick | Joe Custer, CFO, Intrado

When Joe Custer describes Intrado’s purpose, he begins with a story that traces back almost half a century. The company, he tells us, was born inside the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department when someone asked whether there might be a better way to connect a caller in distress with a first responder. “Turns out they were…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:59:52)
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1133: Finance That Explains (and Scales) the Why | Kimberlee Duval, CFO, Cymbiotika

When Kimberlee Duval arrived at Cymbiotika, the wellness company was preparing a leap few bootstrapped brands attempt—moving from direct-to-consumer to retail shelves. “Our two owners, Charlene and Shahab, have done everything direct,” she tells us. “They wanted to build an organization for the long term.” That resolve led the company to take on debt rather…
Listen to the Episode Below (1:03:38)
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Empower Numbers, Accelerate Restaurant Success | Emma Whelan, CFO, MarginEdge

A Finance Strategic Moment Seeing 65 finance staff siloed on three continents, Emma Whelan realized succession and scale were impossible. She collapsed the structure into one truly global team, cross‑training and centralizing every process. The painful year paid off: faster closes, zero attrition, soaring engagement, and worldwide talent sharing propelled sustainable growth. Now Watch the Complete […]

Embedding AI Into Finance Workflows | Gillian Munson, CFO, Vimeo

A Finance Strategic Moment One week into a CFO post, Munson was air‑dropped into a foreign audit room and told to fix a complex tax exposure outside her expertise. She mobilized auditors, tapped her network, and resolved it quickly. The baptism fortified her “learn‑fast, call‑everyone” playbook, sharpening courage and pattern recognition for future unknowns. Now […]