CFO Bookshelf

If you liked the book, Barbarians at the Gate, then you'll like The Ceasars Palace Coup.Max Frumes is one of the co-authors of the book, and we learn more about what went wrong when the investors levered Harrah's with nearly $27 billion in debt when they took the gaming business private.

Probably everything you know about setting goals and how to achieve them rests on the research of Dr. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham in the 1980s.Dr. Edwin Locke is also the author of the underrated book The Prime Movers which is as good if not better than Good to Great.In this show, we talk about Dr. Locke's pioneering research on the theory of goal setting along with the men and women who are wealth creators.

While intellectual capital is nearly impossible to value, it clearly counts in the process of building wealth.Ron Baker is the author of Mind Over Matter which is an exploration of where wealth comes from and its three pillars of capital - human, structural, and social.As Ron would say, there's nothing more pragmatic than a good theory. That's why we'll come away from this conversation with so many actionable ideas.

Gary Harpst is one of the co-founders of Solomon Software which was ultimately acquired by Great Plains.After that divestiture, Gary did a deep dive into what drove success in small businesses. The research resulted in two books on strategy and execution, and a consulting framework called Six Disciplines.Gary is the author of two books: Six Disciplines for Excellence and Six Disciplines Execution Revolution.

Are we to celebrate startups that fail or fail fast? What if you are the founder of one of those startups? How do you deal with that failure?Mark Jacobsen attacks that topic head-on in his book, Eating Glass, an honest manuscript about his inner journey through failure and renewal.

One of my favorite parts of The Education of a Value Investor is when Guy Spier talks about his lunch with Warren Buffett.  Similar to the Buffett lunch, what if I could have a virtual dinner with this incredible and deep-thinking business author and money manager?The end result was a satisfying conversation rich with investing, business, and economic insights.

In the world of value investing, Guy Spier never needs an introduction. I believe his book, The Education of a Value Investor is one of the Top 5 investing books ever written in the past 25 years. While we hit many high points in Guy's book, we do a lightning round of topics where Guy over-delivers with mindful and thorough responses.

Steve Wexler is one of my favorite teachers in the data visualization space because he's easy to understand and doesn't speak over our heads.He's the co-author of The Big Book of Dashboards, and his newest book is The Big Picture.Our topics include preattentive attributes, the love affair with stoplight colors, dead-end dashboards, and important tips when building visualizations.

I've met and talked to many CFOs around the country. We're rational, analytical, and can be direct at times.Some of us these CFOs are rare in that they have great people skills. But I'm not sure that's the case for the majority of financial leaders.Gilbert Eijkelenboom is the author of People Skills for Analytical Thinkers, our guest on this week's episode where we talk about the tools of gaining better communication skills.

I was captivated by the website 2x3y.com months before the creative genius of that site released his book, Scale at Speed.The author is Felix Velarde, and his growth accelerator canvas is elegant, pragmatic, and impactful. If you like the writing of Verne Harnish, then you'll enjoy what Felix has to say about scaling at a rapid pace.