In this episode of Planning Aces, Jack Sweeney and Brett Knowles discuss the evolving role of FP&A professionals, emphasizing the importance of relationship-building and strategic collaboration within organizations. As summer ends and fall approaches, Brett predicts a surge in business activity, particularly as companies rush to meet year-end objectives. The conversation highlights the decline in […]
Ep 34: From Rearview to Road Ahead
On our latest episode three forward looking Planning Aces shared deep insights into optimizing financial performance. The conversation highlighted the significance of predictive metrics and proactive financial planning, with a strong focus on leading indicators to guide business strategies. Detailed exploration of operational efficiencies, particularly in sales and marketing, was discussed as a method to improve…
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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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Ep 30: Seeding Organizational Ownership
Planning Aces co-hosts Brett Knowles and Jack Sweeney discuss how AI's integration into FP&A is still in early stages, with many teams 'dabbling' in AI rather than regularly employing it. However, its use has been significant, inspiring creativity and improving team performance. This episode's conversation emphasizes how FP&A is not just about financial numbers but…
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912: Designing Your Operating Profile | Sapna Kapur, CFO, Sensor Tower
Among global management consulting firms, Boston Consulting Group—long recognized as one of the world’s top three “strategy houses” (along with McKinsey and Bain)—has remained an attractive early career chapter for many executives who wish to accelerate their learning by consulting to senior corporate leaders. Such was the path taken by Sapna Kapur, who in…
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Ep 21: When Sales is at the Table
In this Planning Aces episode, host Jack Sweeney and guest host Ben Murray discuss the collaborative organizational effort behind generating business intelligence (BI) and the different places BI resources may reside within a business, with reference to an episode featuring Gary Zyla, CFO of AssetMark. The hosts also discuss the role of finance in enabling…
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Using Compensation to Achieve Post Merger Sales Alignment | Teodora Gouneva, CFO Next Insurance
Gouneva: Through my career, I spend a lot of time supporting sales teams. And usually what is critical with the sales team is they respond really well to how you design compensation. And if you don’t design it the right way, you may get a different behavior that you don’t intend. So looking back at […]
Where FP&A Resides | Gary Zyla, CFO, AssetMark
Zyla: The Finance team I oversee, it’s fun and it’s broad. You have Business Intelligence, I have Investor Relations, Corporate Development, Communications, and PR are part of our Finance team, which is somewhat unusual. Sometimes, we have FP&A, of course, we have Controllership. But, the Business Intelligence is amazing. And, I think in many companies, […]
882: The Chronic Door Opener | Brianna Gerber, CFO, ChromaDex
When Brianna Gerber tells us that during earnings season at Mattel, Inc., she was once known as the investor relations person most likely to be “knocking on doors,” we can’t help but want to learn more about her IR tour of duty at the toy giant. “I’d be calling on the marketing team and…
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874: Completing Your Visibility to Predictability Framework | Wailun Chan, CFO, Grafana Labs
No matter how many chapters Wailun Chan’s finance career ultimately spans, the decade that he spent at LinkedIn will always stand out. It perhaps goes without saying that as a finance career investment, a 10-year resume stint is increasingly rare today, and it’s not uncommon for a “decade investor” looking back on his or her…
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872: Opportunities Along the xP&A Frontier | Dan Fletcher, CFO, Planful
During the early years of his finance career Dan Fletcher was accustomed to being the executive from somewhere else. When he first joined the asset management team at Allstate Investments, he was “the auditor from Price Waterhouse”, and when he landed inside an interim management role as a private equity advisor he was the former…
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869: Sharpening its Customer Focus | Ravi Narula, CFO, FinancialForce
Looking back, CFO Ravi Narula tells us that he wishes that he had become a “servant leader” sooner, as he references the familiar leadership tag signaling a mind-set focused on serving others. “If you asked me 15 years ago, ‘Do you have a servant leader mind-set?,’ unfortunately, I would have said ‘No,’” comments Narula, who…
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