CFO Bookshelf

Are you fan of Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, or Richard Thaler? Have you enjoyed books like Fooled by Randomness, Factfulness, or Thinking in Bets? If so, you may want to read Jaime Lester's new book, Pause to Think, about cognitive biases.Jaime's concise book is engaging, memorable, and accessible. It features over thirty mental and conceptual models. This discussion explores some of these concepts, including fast and slow thinking, sunk costs, satisfaction, and randomness.

Glenn Hopper's newest book is AI Mastery for Finance Professionals, but the content is also for CEOs, board members, and all other organizational leaders. We keep the topics pragmatic, applicable, and example-centric in this conversation. We'll also discover what Glenn means by saying, "AI will not replace people. People who use AI will replace those who don't use AI."

One of the best books I've read on leadership in several years is by a former big-company CEO who is now a professor. Willie Pietersen's third book is Leadership - The Inside Story.In this fast-moving conversation, we hear about how Nelson Mandela learned, unlearned, and relearned the central tenets of philosophy and leadership well before his vision of a unified country could become a reality.We also learn how a diamond is formed and how those three forces apply to leadership. The question that won a war is profound, as is finding out what happens when an elder dies.

When I think of HP, three things quickly emerge in my mind: Deskjet and laser printers, the 12C calculator, and David Packard's The HP Way.The HP Way is one of my top 25 books written by CEOs. In this conversation, we're rolling with a book club format with a special guest who writes book summaries on his blog. Dan Lebrero is a software engineer based in Spain, and he'll help us unpack concepts such as MBO, management by walking around, profit-sharing plans, corporate offsites, growth frameworks, and philosophies on debt management. 

Cat Mulvihill is becoming a rising YouTube star with her video content focused on communication and presentation skills, including technology, Zoom, and personal knowledge management systems.This conversation teaches us what sets the best professionals apart from the rest on their Zoom calls. We gain insights on the best mics, videocams, and other technologies to use. We also wrap up the visit with simple ways to kill our filler words.

If you work for yourself or would like to, have you ever thought about whose shoulders you are standing on, especially if you decide to have no employees?Ben Waterhouse is a professor and faculty director at the University of North Carolina. His research interests include deciphering how self-employment became a key to personal fulfillment, a central topic in his newest book, One Day I'll Work for Myself.In this conversation, we explore some of history's most pivotal stories that led to the plateau of big business starting in the late 1800s and reaching its peak in the 1970s. We learn why the move to self-employment became a potential remedy to professional and personal relevance in Ben's engaging style. 

Have you ever wondered how Amazon, Netflix, and Starbucks started their customer personalization programs? What was the starting point? What were the costs? Who was involved?The co-authors answer these questions in the very readable Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI.Mark Abraham and David Edelman explain that personalization is not email or glorified loyalty rewards programs. Instead, this cross-functional activity starts with a few simple questions in their 5 Promises framework, a launching pad for creating a customer personalization journey. 

Adam Coffey, author of 'The Private Equity Playbook,' shares his insights as a former CEO in the private equity realm. He discusses the growth of private equity and introduces his intriguing 70-30 rule for success. With the release of his updated book, Adam highlights the importance of committed capital and offers a humorous locksmith story. The conversation also touches on investment returns, explaining key metrics like IRR and MOIC while emphasizing the need for innovation and strategic thinking in this ever-evolving landscape.

Laura Barnard, a global thought leader on Project Management Offices, discusses her book, The IMPACT Engine: Accelerating Strategy Delivery for PMO and Transformation Leaders. She emphasizes the shift from outputs to impactful outcomes and shares insights on the PMO mindset that drives organizational success. The conversation also covers MVPs versus prototypes, the importance of stakeholder engagement, and the significance of 30-90 day metrics for assessing project progress. Barnard's approach champions community, collaboration, and transformative leadership in project management.

Numerous financial blog articles and LinkedIn posts highlight the benefits of a small business owner hiring a portfolio CFO. However, I do not recall these writers commenting on why financial professionals step away from the W-2 world to serve multiple owners as clients instead of sticking to a steady paycheck.Sara Daw may be the first author to articulate why CFOs jump into the gig economy through her comprehensive research, which we can read about in Strategy and Leadership as Service. In this conversation, we hit on access vs. ownership, psychological ownership, career future-proofing, and liquid vs. solid consumption.