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Email:  heatherp@heatherpsolutions.comLinkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherpolivka/Design your hybrid/remote work experience:  https://www.heatherpsolutions.com/Train your new/first-time managers to lead hybrid and remote teams:  https://www.awesomepeopleleaders.com/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In. Here with you again is your host Mitch Roshong and this is episode 153 of IMA's podcast series. In today's conversation. You'll hear about leadership needs that relate to hybrid or remote teams as you listen to my co-host Adam, speak with CEO advisor and speaker Heather Polivka. Heather founded Heather P solutions to work with progressive leaders of small and mid-sized businesses to accelerate revenue growth by creating work environments where people thrive. Keep listening to hear her discuss the evolution of business leadership styles and how to overcome the challenges associated with each.  Adam: (00:50) We're talking about remote work today, and it's been something, a topic that everybody's been talking about, especially with the commencing of COVID-19 and every that, how that shook the modern world as far as the work world and everything else. So we're going to focus really on a remote and hybrid work, as people are coming back to offices. And so let's start with this question. How is remote and or hybrid work benefiting teams or businesses now?  Heather: (01:17) There was a lot of benefits. I obviously, I think people know the benefits from an individual employee perspective in terms of flexibility, maybe saving on that commute. And you give some of the time back to the company and some of the time back to your, your personal life. But that also that, that benefits teams a lot, first of all, teams and business now have a broader access to talent. You're no longer stuck within your particular geography in terms of, you know, who has the skills or the experience that you're looking for. So it allows you to build the team with the skills and capabilities and experience needed to forward your business strategy. The other thing is retention of talent. You know, an employee moves away, goes to school for whatever reason gets married here, relocates, you don't have to actually lose that talent. You can keep them wherever they go. And I think that's particularly when I've worked for employers that really like to employ military veterans and their families. And so that is a whole host of talent that you get to retain even as they, as they move around. And there has been some productivity, at least maintenance and in many cases gains. And I think it's because the number of people are doing what I said at the beginning. I used to do this. Like if my commute time was an hour, I would give a half hour back to me for sleep or working out or whatever, and I'd give a half hour back to the company. and so that has helped with some productivity. And then the last thing I'd highlight is it's broken down some of the barriers between work and life. And I know that, millennials in that have not necessarily had those strict walls between work and their real life, but I know maybe for those of us a little bit older, we kind of had that separation going on. But when you've got kids hopping in the zooms and dogs barking in the background, it makes everyone more human. So while we've had less one-on-one interaction, it's also, I think, broken down some of those barriers that we used to maintain between work and life and a good way.  Adam: (03:27) It's almost like you can still be professional and then have a dog barking in the background and under, and everybody's been there and seen that, and it's no longer this taboo thing, you know, like that businessman who was talking on the phone in the news and his wife came in and the kid came in, his wife came in to just get the kid out and nowadays people are like, oh, there's your child. And they would just keep moving on, you know?  Heather: (03:48) Exactly, exactly. And I think that's, that's, I think that's healthy and that's really good. And I think it's particularly healthy for leaders to kind of shed a bit of that and make themselves a bit more human and vulnerable in the workplace.  Adam: (04:05) Speaking of leaders, how do you think they need to evolve their style to work with remote teams? And then, you know, on the other side of that, what types of leaders should companies be looking for in this type of environment?  Heather: (04:19) Yeah, that is such a great question. I think one that a lot of companies are struggling with, particularly I tend to work with more small and mid-sized businesses. And, but my background obviously is in fortune 100, many times, especially when you're talking executive leaders, regardless of the size of the organization, there is a way that we have all learned how to be successful. I pulled this lever, I do this thing and it creates those results, right? So we're now asking a whole host, a generation really of executive leaders to no longer really use the formula that they know, and that has been successful for them. And guess what, they're human and that scares them very much. And that's led to some of the defaults thinking of, we've got to get everyone back in the office and because that's the way they know how to lead. And so when we asked, like, what do we need from leaders to lead in this environment? You know, one is the old command and control model of leadership doesn't work well in hybrid and virtual work, right? Because even if you're in a hybrid work, you can see how people, when they're in the office are going to be doing more of the kinds of work that it involves interacting with other people. So a leader could walk through an area and just see a bunch of employees sort of sitting and talking in the lounge area, which quote, unquote, doesn't look like work. And yet that's the kind of work they're going to focus in on when they're in the office, because their intense focus, productivity work is the work that they can do at home. So that command and control of if you monitor and you manage employees that doesn't work well in hybrid or virtual work, instead leaders have to shift to managing the outcomes and the objectives and supporting people in whatever they need, whether it's what resources do you need, or what roadblocks do I need to break down? You know, what is it I can do as a leader to support you, to deliver on that outcome? And that's very, very different than managing people.  Adam: (06:34) For sure. So what are some of the challenges that come up when you're, when you're, when you, so let's say you've gotten that style, you're getting that style down. What are some of the challenges that you are going to start facing as you work with remote and hybrid teams?  Heather: (06:46) Yeah, there's, there's four buckets that I see most of the challenges come into and it has to do with communication, performance management, relationships and project or task management. Those are the four buckets and some...

Contact Nishant Nair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninair/Forbes Technology Council: https://profiles.forbes.com/members/tech/profile/Nishant-Nair-CEO-RecVue-Inc/329296c5-b50e-4cfc-a7dd-c6813580978dFintech Times article: https://thefintechtimes.com/recvue-dont-let-outdated-systems-become-your-legacy/Global FinTech Series interview: https://www.recvue.com/blog/qa-with-recvues-ceo/?utm_content=172261129&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-6640106FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host, Adam Larson, and you're now listening to episode 152 of our series. The guest speaker for this series is Nishant Nair, CEO and founder of RecVue, a modern order lifecycle management solutions provider. In this episode, Nishant speaks with Mitch about the value of new financial systems over traditional legacy systems and the importance of streamlining your corporate structure to enable further innovation. Nishant believes businesses are walking when they should be running through today's business landscape of adaptable digital technology. So keep listening to hear more of what he has to say as we head to the conversation now.  Mitch: (00:54) Why is it important now more than ever for companies to implement new financial systems within their businesses?  Nishant: (01:01) Oh, that's a great question. Which, a simple way to explain this would be with an example that we are all too familiar with. Now, we don't go and get our movies from Blockbuster anymore. We have Netflix, we have Amazon, we have Hulu. Essentially we are in a digital economy and companies are changing the way they do business. They're not selling products anymore. They're converting the product into a service and selling services. So if you look at the financial and audit systems that were essentially designed for the Blockbuster world just does not meet the needs of the Netflix business model. I mean, they're just not designed for it. And it requires a completely new technology architecture and thought process.  Mitch: (01:53) Now with this new technology, these new thought processes, obviously there are a lot of opportunities. So for those businesses who are working on traditional legacy systems, what are some of the main issues that they are really coming across today?  Nishant: (02:11) Sure, sure. So the main, the main challenge, right, that we see with a traditional legacy system, it's its inflexibility, inability to scale and the need for an army of IT resources and business analysts to maintain it. Now compare that to modern cloud-based server-less platforms that lets companies be agile, right? Modern platforms built on cloud technologies make businesses nimbler and more flexible to meet the customer's need. I mean, if you look at, you know, these modern cloud platforms take away the whole operational aspects of running and managing huge software applications so that companies can now solely focus on growing the business, introducing new revenue models and making the customer successful, and then modern systems don't require an army of people to maintain it as well. So a lot of things that a, you know, a lot of challenges that we see with traditional legacy systems that, that, that we don't, or that can be avoided by transforming or with modern technology.  Mitch: (03:31) Now you've mentioned some of the challenges that businesses are facing. And again, the opportunities, the more streamlined new approaches that are available for listeners in business who are interested in taking action, right? What are some of the key actions? these business leaders can take within their organizations to accomplish a more streamlined, you know, simplified corporate structure, where the army is not needed, as you just said.  Nishant: (04:01) So it all starts with aligning your finance, your it, and revenue operations team towards a singular goal of transforming the organization and, setting the course to innovate and win in what we call a digital economy, right? And, that requires, fostering a culture that is receptive to change. That's going to be very important, right? To streamline operations. And even for these digital transformation projects to be successful, finally, it's the, it's the people that's going to make or break any transformation, like this.  Mitch: (04:48) And now you provided a great analogy, right? Going from say, Blockbuster to Amazon and the trends that are happening all across business. In general. I'm curious if you have recognized and seen other trends, you know, are there other things happening and obviously, particularly in finance financial services, what are some of the trends that are really exciting you and things that our listeners should be aware of? Maybe a little bit more interested in.  Nishant: (05:19) Yeah. From a, I mean, that is a lot of innovation. I mean, a lot of innovation that is currently happening in the financial services industry it's happening across, but specifically in the financial services industry, there is a lot of innovation that's happening that I'm really excited about. Right? I mean, if you look at, you know, if you, if you go back 10, 15, 20 years gone are the days when you had one or two large financial systems doing a mediocre job of all the different business processes. Now what I'm seeing is companies coming up using these modern cloud technologies and focusing on one particular business process and excelling it and being the best at it, right? I mean, if you look at, Cooper is a good example for procure to pay. And if you look at RecVue, which is for order to cash are prime examples of cloud technology being used to essentially improve or optimize a particular business process. And another area that I see is with cloud technology and API based architecture, it actually allows different systems to seamlessly talk to each other, and that's driving a lot of adoption as well. I mean, people, especially the next generation users are no longer compromising on any business process. They want a system that is the best for that particular business process. And today with the cloud technology and all the different integration platforms that are available, it is possible, right. And they want the best solution for each and every business process. And that is resulting in a lot of innovation in the financial services industry. It's a very exciting times with both, you know, technology and the business knowledge pretty much aligning with each other.  Mitch: (07:25) And what happens if businesses essentially don't take your advice, right? Everything we're talking about here, if a business chooses to continue using its legacy, the antiquated processes and systems, if they haven't gone digital, what are the risks? You know, what would you predict will happen to these businesses?  Nishant: (07:46) The world is changing. The world is changing. We all recognize that. I know the common example is obviously Blockbuster to Netflix, but what I see is that same change happening in each and every industry t...

Contact Hema Vyas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemavyas/Hema's Website: https://www.hemavyas.com (Book a complimentary 20-minute Discovery call!)FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host, Mitch Roshong and today I'm happy to introduce our guest speaker for episode 151, Hema Vyas. Hema is a renowned speaker on heart wisdom, human consciousness, spirituality, health, and energy. She works with individuals, corporates, startups, and diverse global audiences to provide needle turning solutions for problems of all kinds. In this episode, Hema speaks with Adam about the significance of heart, passion and emotion. When it comes to leadership and building high performance teams. Keep listening as we head over to their conversation now.  Adam: (00:52) Our initial discussions or, conversations back and forth. I was seeing you have this term omnipreneur, and I, you know, for many years there's been a celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit and business. And I was looking in like the definition of entrepreneur is a person who organizers or operates a business or businesses taking a greater risk than normal or financial risks. Cause they're usually going out there and starting their own business. So I'd like to take a step. So where is it? Where does Omnipreneurs fit into all that? And how does someone to get from an entrepreneur to an omnipreneur?  Hema: (01:26) I think an omnipreneur is what the world needs now. So, you know, we have lots of businesses. We have lots of entrepreneurs now, more than ever. We've got so many startups and people wanting to run their own business and run with their own ideas and taking the risk. As you said, you know, an entrepreneur who's willing to take risk and, and put the money behind themselves. And for me omnipreneurship is really about the next level where you align those sort of business skills. You align the financial and entrepreneurial skills together with health, wealth and meaning. So it's not just about, you know, in terms of running a successful business, it's about how we look after ourselves, how we look after other people, not just the people we employ, but also the people around us, the people, you know, when we're putting out products, how we're taking into consideration, you know, what's going to be for the benefit of the whole and also the planet. So for me, it's really a holistic approach to business, a holistic approach to life. And I believe that each of us should be omnipreneurs in our own way, where we are not only taking care of our own financial success, whether it's in a corporation or whether it's in as an entrepreneur doing, not running our own business, but also taking care of all aspects of our lives, making sure that we have time for relationships, family, making sure we have time to take care of ourselves and those around us and doing it in a way that is sustainable to the planet and the world that we live in.  Adam: (03:11) So it's taking all of the things that an entrepreneur would do, but adding in a holistic approach, it makes me think of terms like sustainability and those things are becoming more and more prevalent in business and being able to connect all those things in a holistic manner, which is not the easiest thing to do, especially when the bottom line is most important thing in any business, right? Because you have to make money to stay in business.  Hema: (03:39) Absolutely so, you know, one of the things that we teach is really how to be a tucked down business, where, you know, the people at the top are taking care of more than just the bottom line. They are taking care of people, making sure that they're fulfilling the sense of purpose that they have a sense of meaning. And they are also contributing to a sustainable business as well as a sustainable growth of business because you know, a lot of startups sort of growing exponentially and then don't have the means to take care of the people. Other dues. There's a huge turnover of staff because they're burning out and, and, and that's not healthy for anybody. It's not healthy for the people. It's not healthy for relationships, but it's also not healthy for business every few years. If they have to keep training new people or get new people involved in the vision and the goals you want people to grow in a healthy way. So really teaching the leaders how to lead in a way that takes care of, the people in such a way that the bottom line gets fed or can make do.  Adam: (04:49) That makes sense. I was reading that you say that you have to put your heart into it. So what's the role of like heart in leadership and in life, I guess, because we're trying to talk about the holistic approach.  Hema: (04:59) Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of the qualities that we teach I would say are qualities of the heart. So, you know, we have the cerebral intelligence, we have cognition, we have intellectual ability. We also have the gut intelligence, which is a body's intelligence, which is our instincts, you know, and that feeling, that knowingness that we get, which is more from an instinct place, that there's an instinct about something. And then there's heart intelligence, which I would say is more of a wisdom. And it's, you know, really tapping into that sense of wisdom that allows us to have that holistic approach. It is being able to come from our heart space to lead from our heart space, to make sure that we are being really heart-centered so that we have all the qualities, you know, that are heart centered sort of leader would have in order to be able to take care of the people in order to take of themselves. So heart has everything to do with business as far as I'm concerned, because that is where we get balanced. If we're not in balance, then whatever we're doing is not going to have the desired effect. So that's what causes extremism. And when we're too focused on one thing and not enough on another, eventually the way the universe works, that it creates his own balance. And that's what burnout is, is it, if you're not giving enough time to people to really, really take care of themselves and what's going to happen is they're going to burn out. So what you think is good, pushing people, for example, ultimately ends up not being good when we're centered in our hearts. We know what that balance is because each individual is different. So there's no sort of set of rules that says, well, you know, you have to stop people working at five. Some people might thrive working late into the evening. They might want to come in later in the day. You know, there's that flexibility that comes from not being so structured, not being, so process-oriented not being so cerebral, not being seen to lecture and not going well, this is what works, and this is how we have to do it. But actually looking at the people that you're working with, who you're working for, who's working for you and how to get the best out of that situation so that there is genuine expansion of the heart, which means that there's a, a sense of flow. And there's a sense of balance, which is really where real happiness lies, but also where prosperity lies. And if we want to be successful in business, I think we have to be successful and happy and heart centers qualities are those qualities that help us to really relate in that.  Adam: (07:48) Yeah. It's not something that you talk about often you don't, you don't pick up the Harvard business review and see, you know, things of the heart. but what you're saying ...

Contact Mfon Akpan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfon-akpan-5702325/The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Virtual Reality: https://www.biographbook.com/bookstore/hitchhikers-guide-to-virtual-reality/TED Talk - "Incorporating virtual reality in the classroom": https://www.ted.com/talks/mfon_akpan_incorporating_virtual_reality_in_the_classroomFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:00) We're so happy you decided to come back and listen to Count Me In's 150th episode. Welcome to today's conversation. I am your host, Adam Larson, and the speaker for this milestone episode is Mfon Akpan, assistant professor of accounting at Methodist University. Mfon has a passion for emerging technologies and as an expert in virtual reality technology. He researches new technologies and educational methods to offer students occurrent effective and relative teaching experience and his conversation with my co-host Mitch, Mfon talks about the value of social media and its accounting implications for accountants and finance professionals. Stay tuned now and thanks again for listening to another episode of our series.  Mitch: (00:51) Social media is not something that many, you know, accounting and finance people probably keep top of mind, but following, you know, initial conversation here, there are a lot of dots to connect between social media and accounting. So to kick off our conversation, can you please explain why is it important for our accounting and finance listeners to really understand the value of social media?  Mfon: (01:15) Well, I would say that, well, first of all, that's a great question, Mitchell, and I would say in one word data and another word funnels. So when we look at the outage of Facebook and Instagram, that just happened, there was a huge disruption in both of those areas, one data, so information, two funnels. So you have many businesses that use social media to drive traffic, not only to their websites, but also to their physical locations. And this was completely disrupted. So, so many of those, those individuals may say, well, my business doesn't rely on, social media is not that important. What, when it was gone, many, many business owners felt the impact of that. And I think it's important as accountants for us to understand number one, to advise clients on their situation, but also the environment as a whole. And we need to also understand where the environment is going. So, one thing, and we talked about this a bit before the interview was I found out that Facebook was down because I started getting text messages from, from companies and place idea of business with that said, "Hey, come to our website, Facebook is down, this is a chance for you to check out certain things". That's how I found out because I was getting text messages from it. So, you know, understanding how this can impact the flow of business, I think is very important. And I think the outage of Facebook for many business owners was a wake up call on its importance and also the importance of having some type of backup plan, which translates to a strategy on what to do if it's not working. And or if that platform that you are on for some reason is not as popular or as not as, effective.  Mitch: (03:32) Yeah, those are great points. And, you know, we, we talk about data, obviously, data technology, evolution across accounting and finance and, you know, social media, it kind of lives on all of that. So, you know, you don't, like I said, it may not be top of mind, but through our conversation and considering everything that happened with Facebook and Instagram and, you know, we're talking events of the start of October, but, you know, I think there are, are a lot of other points to connect with our listeners. And, you know, we also heavily rely on metrics right in different benchmarks and other data points specifically. So as far as that goes, what kind of social media metrics, really affect the accounting and finance team as these, you know, events trickle down?  Mfon: (04:18) Well, I think it goes back to, as far as social media, understanding that. So from a, I guess, putting at a very simple level, understanding the dashboards on the social media platforms that you're using, that's very important from the side of the accountant, because if you're going to advise your client, you need to have some type of understanding of it, what data is there and what may be relevant to your client. Your client needs to understand it cause needs to understand who's engaging with their content. And when we think about social media, it can be broken down into three areas. So you've got owned, you got paid and earned. And when you think about your, your own accounts, so what you're posting, if it's a Instagram, if it's a Facebook or if it's a Tik Tok understanding, okay, what I post who's looking at it, who's looking at it. What are their demographics? You know, are they moving? And you can also look to, to determine where the traffic is going. Are they coming into the store? If it's a physical location, are they going to the website? If they do go to the website, are they buying same thing. If they go into the physical location, they call that conversions. So understanding that, and really that, that movement of getting people from that social media to your website and location, that's, that's a funnel, what they call a funnel. So understanding that I think is important on both sides. So from the accountant side to the, to the, business owner side, the other thing is that what I tell people is, you know, many people are, are, overwhelmed. They said, well, this is a lot of stuff to learn. And I say, you know, you don't have to become an expert at it, but you should be knowledgeable, particularly if you're, if you're using it for your business, you're posting it. You may be missing out on opportunities by understanding that information. And particularly you need to be knowledgeable if you're doing what's called paid media, you're paying for advertising. You really need to understand, are you effectively using your, advertising dollars on that platform? But if it makes sense.  Mitch: (06:46) I think, you know, for accounting and finance, everybody's looking to, you know, make sense of the numbers, right. And quantify things. And obviously everything you're talking about certainly relates to that. And I think one of the best or most common, however you want to say it, metrics really is, you know, that ROI, what is the returns? So when we talk about that, what is the actual measurement, as far as social media impact, you know, what are some scenarios where understanding ROI is really most important for, you know, the business owner, the accounting function.  Mfon: (07:22) Yeah. It is very important because you want to make sure that it's specifically would that pay media portion. You want to make sure that it's, it's being effective. It's being effective. There's measures, not in the dollar sentence, they call volume and valence, but you want to make sure that, okay, if I'm spending a thousand dollars a month, what does that equal in conversions? What, what is the return for me on that as a business owner and as an accountant, you want to be able to understand if these, these campaigns, as they call them are being a few, if you're advising your customers or your clients to, use paid media, is it being effective? So you, one of the measures as the impressions and the, the overall engagement with whatever, posts, which could lead to further...

Contact Kevin Au: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwau/Bill.com: https://www.bill.com/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. We're happy to have you back for episode 149 of our series. This is Mitch Roshong, and I'll be your host getting you ready for today's conversation. In this episode, you will hear from Kevin Au - bill.com's head of product marketing, accountant, and wealth management. In a moment, you'll hear him talk about lessons learned in the accounting industry and what the profession can anticipate as far as roles changing and skills needed in the future. So without further ado, let's transition over to the conversation now.  Adam: (00:47) So Kevin, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. We really appreciate you taking some time out of your busy schedule to be a part of count me in.  Kevin: (00:54) Great. Yeah. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. I'm a big fan of podcasts, so great to be here.  Adam: (00:59) Thank you. So there has been a tremendous lessons learned, and changes across society and business over the past 18 months, we've all been affected by it. You and I were just chatting about it before we started recording. What have you seen in the accounting industry? And do you think those changes are here to stay?  Kevin: (01:16) Yeah. So what we say in the accounting industry as small to size business markets is that the innovation and the adoption it's been accelerated about three to five years. And while every industry has been disrupted by digital transformation as a result of pandemic and working from home, right? This industry in particular has been ripe for disruption like for years. We've been just saying that over 90% of SMBs rely still on paper-based processes and checks, and that realization will be over-reliance on outdated labor and manual intensive ways to do business. As you know, bill.com works closely with the accounting community work with 85 of the top 100 firms plus 5,000 firms in total. And I remember I was talking with a couple of accounting partners and one partner in particular. I heard a horror story, literally during the pandemic, they had to use Uber and Lyft to transport documents between houses to get them signed. And they even use bike messengers. Like, I mean, this isn't sustainable, whether it's pre pandemic or post, and we believe that this community deserves innovation and we're here to deliver it.  Adam: (02:24) So when I hear innovation, I think of keywords like automation and AI, the, the buzzwords that we're hearing all around, and these are powerful tools that accountants need to have in their toolkit. Can you tell us a little bit about what bill.com harnesses, in your solution?  Kevin: (02:39) Yeah. So as, as part of the industry deception that we talked about earlier, you know, we believe that digital tools that all, that all three help our customers and partners to see it's really important, right? And automated those back office tasks and day-to-day activities. It gives our campuses actually more time and focus on areas of interests and right. So like inviting automation into the office, ultimately it just provides the accounting professionals just more time take control of their careers and just have more of a better work-life balance. As an example, you know, one of bill.com's customers is a wealth management firm and they mentioned that when they use bill.com, they experience a say percent time savings by streamlining all their accounts payable processes, but just then allows them to do something more that matters to them around financial planning and then managing their clients assets. An example for us on our platform, we do use artificial intelligence and we have a tool that we named, IVA, which stands for intelligent virtual assistant. And what IVA is, is a feature that just uses advanced technologies like machine learning that helps us extract invoices and vendor information from documents in our inbox. So that helps you actually create vendors and bills faster. So it takes information like the invoice number, like the, the amount you have to pay the due date, the amount. And it makes us so simple, like just literally imagine if you had a camera and he took a snap shot of your invoice and it gets automatically loaded in and IVA can read it and put all that data very easily for you to just help you get paid, to get paid faster. And that's, what's really exciting about, you know, automation and AI space.  Adam: (04:15) That is very exciting. Cause it, it allows you, it takes time away from the menial tasks, sometimes those tasks that take up more of your time and allows you to do other things right?  Kevin: (04:25) Exactly. Exactly. It's always about like the stuff that, you know, what would you be doing on a Friday night? Would you rather be doing all the manual checks and everything, or would you be going out having dinner with your family? And what we do is like with our technology and systems, it allows you to do the latter.  Adam: (04:39) So it sounds like the accountant's role is expanding and has been expanding, especially during the pandemic, you know, maybe they're saying, "Hey IVA, print me out my invoice". I don't, I doubt it's voice activated, but you've talked about a new Renaissance of the adversary accountant. What does that look like?  Kevin: (04:56) Yes. So even before the COVID pandemic, we saw, we heard businesses had a clear, and active need for advisory services. During the pandemic they became the go-to person, when they're helping clients through their PDP loans, through changing regulations and so much more. And they were the lifeline, they're literally the heroes, I think for a lot of the SMBs offering their clients the best, the latest information and advice actually keep them afloat. Like it was a really tough time. And we heard like accountants were just working endlessly nights and weekends to make sure, like they have to figure out how to do the PPP loans. Right. And that was a big thing that they did and their SMBs where their clients were also thankful for that. So now, as we're kind of getting out of the pandemic, right, accountants are just taking the opportunities to redesign their day-to-day jobs, especially by putting more time and focus through these advisory services. And they also offer things like client analysis and strategic counsel. And the goal here is not to add more hours to their already busy Workday, but instead it's about optimizing the work. And so for instance, you know, build a compromise, a lot of different tools, insights, and data, and we believe that data is going to be necessary to provide that efficient and essential path for that advisory services. How? It's that it can raise up all those data insights by unlocking that data in real time, in, in ways that they couldn't have done before. We're like in the past, this data will be trapped in some hidden spreadsheet or in a separate system that you can lock up. Now you have these systems and tools to bring this up to light and show it at the right time. And so we believe that the shift in like the bookkeeper's role is going to be actually more rewarding. It's also a really smart time for these firms in terms of growth and what we did like bill.com, in 2019, we had a fire hire index survey and we just asked them like what they're doing. And one of the things they said is like more than half of the S&P participants are actu...

Contact Gregory Kogan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-kogan-083bb07/Self-Service Data Analytics and Governance for Managers (book): https://www.amazon.com/Self-Service-Data-Analytics-Governance-Managers/dp/1119773296FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05) Welcome back to episode 148 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Adam Larson, and I'm pleased to kick off today's episode by introducing you to Gregory Kogan. Gregory is professor of practice and accounting at Long Island University, focusing on teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in accounting and finance. He is also currently pursuing his doctorate in business administration at the university of Scranton with the research focus of data analytics and accounting. So in our upcoming episode, you will hear Greg discuss self-service analytics. Keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.  Mitch: (00:49) In the field of finance and accounting, there's been a lot of talk about data and analytics. And, I know in your space you have a lot of experience. I'm just curious from your perspective, what is really driving the accelerated pace of analytics and the overall adoption at these larger enterprises?  Greg: (01:09) Yeah, so I think the biggest thing, and if we're talking about the finance function, it's really the, realization of ROI (return on investment), where companies can use these new techniques, analytics, automation to accelerate their processing, right? So in finance accounting, for years, we've been doing things manually and repetitively. And now with these new tools and these technologies, a lot of companies are adopting these tools to accelerate processing, reduced processing time, reduce hours, accelerate processes, and there are benefits like it's more accurate, there's more control, better internal control. And those are really big benefits on top of the financial benefits. So there's sort of a convergence, I think that, companies are just taking advantage of this, the, to have more smooth and streamlined processing. That's more efficient.  Mitch: (02:08) Now I know something that you focus on or, you know, you'd like to share a little bit more here are these, self service tools, right. And, you know, just for our listeners, what are some of the defining characteristics of this subset and how does it work into analytics? And, you know, when it comes to again, advancing some of these opportunities, I guess you could say, why do these tools lead to more of a decentralized pattern for your reference?  Greg: (02:36) Right? So the tools, yeah. So the tools we're talking about, you know, and coming out, you know, very much out of the what's happening in public accounting and what's happening in the finance function in terms of, financial and managerial accounting. We're really talking about Tableau and Alteryx, which are off the shelf tools. And even in higher education, we have a lot of these now in the classroom. So this is a still pretty, fairly new, but very much highly used. And we call themselves service tools because, it's not something you develop, what you end up developing is a specific process within that tool. So for example, an Alteryx, you can create a little process that say does a reconciliation or a certain reporting. And it's something that used to live in Excel. That's really now living in this tool and we call it self service. It's in that bucket of you can really do it yourself, much. Like you do Excel yourself. You could really, as a finance professional, since it's low code or really no code you pick up the tool you put in your data, which you really, you already have access to. That's really something you work with on a day to day, and you can set up these, we call them analytics, assisted automations for Alteryx and in Tableau it's really dashboards and visualizations. So it depends what part of it you're working with. But yeah.  Mitch: (04:04) That's very helpful. And I know, you know, in our space management accounts, specifically, a lot of that, you know, internal focused and we're really into, you know, the storytelling behind it and the tools that you referenced literally enable, you know, our, our listeners, our finance and accounting professionals to present this data in a way that's easily easy to understand for everybody, right. I think that's really the goal, but, you know, taking it even a step further here, try to, you know, set the stage for us a little bit. What are some of the primary motivations? And, you know, there is some kind of investment or, you know, even if it's just a learning curve in order to adopt these tools, what are the end goals, but what can our listeners expect if they're able to implement these strategies?  Greg: (04:48) Right. So what you can, what are the, some of the benefits, essentially, after some investment, what you can end up doing is something that you do on a recurring basis, manually in Excel, right? And, and we had this also, as a case study in the book that we're kind of referencing here, the self-service data analytics and governance for managers, but this is something that I've been doing as a case study with students and in the MBA. And what happens is we basically have like five years of data of balance sheet and income statement data. And, and we do this in Excel where we compute all the financial ratios, profit margin, asset turnover, return, and equity. And we do like the DuPont model, basically for all the companies in the S&P 500. So for example, what we did as a case study in the book, we put it in the Alteryx and then we set it up as like little steps, rather than Excel. It's sort of all in one big place and you could still see everything. And we do pivot tables and graphs. It's still a very, very good, but once we set it up in Alteryx, we're able to filter the data by industry. So all of a sudden we started looking just at information technology. We started looking at graphs for each company of all the ratios, and then we started looking at specific companies a little bit further down the line to see, oh, wait, we just keep looking for the best one. What is the best industry? What is the best company? And then for that company, we have four dashboards for each of the ratios over five years. And after we set that up, we thought, wow, if this was like, say this was in management accounting, and I was doing my own internal reports, it could still be profit margin by region or geography. I could really sit with that and just flip my filter from Europe to north America and see my ratios, you know, and then we were thinking about it for me to do it in Excel every month. And it's something I used to do as an accountant. I just imagine it's a lot of work, get the new data uploaded, reconcile it. And that's something that takes us a couple of dates and just the flip, the switch. And Alteryx where you just upload the new data. And it does it for you. That's what we sort of started imagining. And of course we have seen the benefits. We've talked to people who've seen the benefits, but just to feel it yourself, like that amount of work going down from three days to like 30 minutes is exciting. And I don't know, I don't think you lose anything in the process. In fact, it is still stable. It is controllable and it's more flexible because the, all the charts are, you still see them, you know, and you just, you do it yourself. It's not something you have to call an IT person too. So I think it can e...

Contact Jason Whitley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-whitley-18919711/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch Roshong, and today's episode is number 147 in our series. The featured guest speaker in today's conversation is Jason Whitley. Jason is the chief financial officer at Phi Inc. And he comes to count me in to share some of the knowledge he's gathered from his over 30 years of global industry experience. While talking with my cohost, Adam, Jason addresses how the CFO can become an effective business partner and emphasizes the various skills one should develop along the way. To hear more about what an aspiring CFO needs to do to contribute to sustainable organizational success, keep listening as we transition into the conversation now.   Adam: (00:57) CFOs are now being looked to for governance, risk management, business change, business resilience, technology advancement, and the list goes on from there. Are the inherited skills, finance and accounting professionals possess sufficient enough to make decisions? And if not, what are some of the crucial skills they need to evolve?   Jason: (01:16) Yeah, no, that's a, that's a great question. I would say that the, you know, the CFO role has really transformed pretty rapidly over the last several years and it's become, you know, one of the most difficult jobs in the organization to do really well because of the broad scope that you just mentioned. I know that, you know, myself, me and my colleagues who aspired to the role over the years, but it's really a job that's almost impossible to fully prepare for and I don't think the skills are easily inherited. You're expected many times to have a depth of knowledge in several different areas. The ones you mentioned, including, you know, treasury, accounting, risk management tax, IT, controls. And then on top of all that you need to really have a good in-depth knowledge of the business operations. If you want to be an effective business partner. And it probably even left out a few areas, but the point is that it's, it's really extensive. It's difficult obviously to have depth of knowledge in all of those areas. So inevitably you're going to enter the job with some, some skill gaps. And I've seen this in my role. I've seen it observed in probably every CFO that I've interacted with in my career. And I think the key is really to surround yourself with a team of folks that are they're technical experts in these areas and ensure your weaknesses are really covered by their strengths. I think it's also important to develop a strong network. I need a network of mentors and a network of you know, technology and technical aspects for service providers that you can really draw on to supplement your knowledge and some of the skill gaps that you have, or just to bounce ideas off, as the time comes and things are needed, in that fashion. I guess, in addition to, and as you alluded to in your question, and it's really imperative that you develop and hone certain skills throughout your career. And I think those can be developed in many different functions and many different roles, but you know, you're going to need these, if you really want to lead the team and be proactive and addressing the problems that come up every day in business. And I think some of those skills specifically would be, you know, leadership, analytics, planning, communication, and the strategic decision making. It's really key that you're developing these kinds of skills throughout your career. And those can be things that you develop in finance and accounting. It could be in strategy, business development, operations, or other functions, but, you know, every role should involve developing, utilizing those skills. So that you're really ready, when the time comes to take on all of the responsibility and scope, that comes along with the CFO role.   Adam: (04:07) So as I hear you talking about all the skills that are involved, one of the things I heard you mention was, having a good network surrounding yourself with people, even people that are smarter than you, I've heard, a lot of people say, it's almost like you're being, almost like you have to be an effective business partner. You have to connect with all these different people. So we've covered some of the skills needed to evolve, then what's next?   Jason: (04:30) Yeah, then I think it's, it is like you just said, you know, becoming an effective business partner. I think the, you know, the way that you do that, you know, first and foremost is you've got to have the trust and respect of, you know, whoever it is. You're partnering with the CEO, the general manager, plant manager, department manager, you know, whoever it is you're supporting as a finance leader, this comes through, you know, basically experienced performance on the job. You know, sometimes it develops quickly. Sometimes it takes some time, but every one of my CFO roles has really evolved and become more impactful, over time. So it was more impactful, I would say at the end than it was at the beginning, as you know, I've developed trust and, you know, and experience was gained, you know, with the individual that I was partnering with and supporting. So I think you have to realize you have to be flexible and, you know, one approach to partnering is not necessarily going to be sufficient, over your entire career. And I've seen really great business partnerships and I've seen some not so great business partnerships in these roles. You know, the one, you know, the ones that didn't work out were usually sort of doomed from the start. It was just, you know, a lack of trust, lack of respect, or maybe appreciation for the role or function of the, of the other person. and that was just something that was never overcome, for one reason or another. So I think, you know, as I mentioned, that's first and foremost, is that you gain trust and respect. I think it's also important to know you can have two really great people, you know, it can be world-class in their respective functions and they still don't have really an effective partnership because they can't work together as a team. So it requires a lot of effort, you need to share information, there needs to be, you know, information and thoughts being shared on a two-way basis, you're working towards common goals and as are said earlier, you really need to respect responsibilities and the focus of each other. But if you, if you get all of these in place, then you can really maximize the effectiveness of both roles. I don't think either person can be highly effective. I think, you know, they can still be effective and really good, but I don't think they can be highly effective and at their best, without really the help and support of the other person. So it's imperative that the partnership work well, you know, for the benefit of that team, for the company and really for the organization overall.   Adam: (06:53) Now, Jason, there's something I've heard, you know, other CFOs, your colleagues, your, your peers say and things I've read that in IMA's research that, you know, the CFO of an organization must not also miss not only be able to share insight, but also lead through foresight. So when it comes to innovation data value, how can the CFO navigate the challenges associated with forecasting and best position the organization for sustainable success into the future?   Jason: (07:20) Yeah, that's another really great question. I think it's one of the biggest challenges for the CFO, but I think, you know, at the end of the day, the CFO really has a great perspective with...

Contact Russ Porter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russporter42/Contact Margaret Michaels: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-michaels/IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants): https://www.imanet.org/IMA's Ethics Center: https://www.imanet.org/career-resources/ethics-centerMembers of IMA shall behave ethically. A commitment to ethical professional practice includes overarching principles that express our values and standards that guide member conduct. IMA’s overarching ethical principles include: Honesty, Fairness, Objectivity, and Responsibility.  Members shall act in accordance with these principles and shall encourage others within their organizations to adhere to them. IMA members have a responsibility to comply with and uphold the standards of Competence, Confidentiality, Integrity, and Credibility. Failure to comply may result in disciplinary action FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch Roshong. And today I will be previewing a special bonus episode in our series. October 20th is global ethics day, a day created by the Carnegie council for ethics in international affairs. Global ethics day is an annual moment to empower ethics through the actions of individuals in organizations. It takes place annually on the third Wednesday of every October, ethics lies at the heart of the management accounting profession, and IMA considers ethics to be foundational to its work in core values. For this special count me in podcast, in honor, of this day, we are delighted to have IMA's CFO, Russell Porter discuss why ethics is so important to management, accounting and financial oversight for organizations. IMA's manager of brand content and storytelling, Margaret Michaels will ask for us to share his experiences working in management, accounting, some of the ethical dilemmas that can arise and how he learned to navigate questions around ethics to steer the organizations he has worked for in the right direction. Russ will also provide information on IMA resources that are available to members who want to learn more about navigating ethics. So to hear more about this very important topic, let's head over and listen to their conversation now.  Margaret: (01:34) So welcome Russ to IMA's Count Me In. We are so happy you could join us for this special and important episode.  Russ: (01:41) Pleasure to be here, Margaret, and, thanks for, initiating this discussion about ethics. It's a personal favorite topic of mine.  Margaret: (01:48) I know you are very interested in helping IMA members navigate ethical questions and issues they face every day in their work. You even did an unscientific LinkedIn poll asking what the most important ethics issue facing accounting and finance professionals today is. What did you find out? And what do you believe is the most pressing issue they face?  Russ: (02:11) Yeah, it's funny, Margaret. Unsurprisingly, I did not get a lot of responses. And a lot of the ones I did get were in one-to-one messages, as opposed to being on the LinkedIn message board. Ethics is one of those areas that people often don't like to talk about. Despite the fact that we read about issues of ethical lapses in the papers all the time, that said, when you look for them around any business environment, you'll see plenty of ethical issues. Most of them are addressed right up front in a company's culture, but when the ethical component of culture isn't strong enough, the temptation to overlook principles can overwhelm people. Keep in mind, also there are, in my mind, two types of ethics to consider: the macro and the micro. The micro is the one people often think about where an individual or a small group has to make a decision between the right way and the wrong way as if decisions were that black and white, but there are also macro ethical issues like sustainability, equitable treatment, proper governance, those are affected by individual decisions, but they can often have a much wider impact.  Margaret: (03:25) Yes, I agree. I think we are seeing those wider impact issues around us every day. I know that I am much more aware of those macro issues. And I do think that business has really been stepping up to the plate to try to address public concerns related to the climate or income inequality or gender bias or racial injustice through their work on sustainability. In this way, sustainability really has an ethical dimension beyond just reporting non financials. Is this a change you welcome in the profession and how does sustainability change the paradigm for accounting and finance professionals from an ethical perspective?  Russ: (04:07) So Margaret, all those items you just mentioned under the umbrella of sustainability economists call them externalities because in theory, these are effects that don't directly impact an organization making the decision. And for that reason, management accountants often exclude sustainability issues from a relevant cost benefit analysis. That idea of what costs are relevant to an organization. It's really been expanding though, in the eyes of consumers, regulators, and investors, they're all taking those elements into account when making their buying or investing decisions as society increases the focus on those areas, through the lens of ethical treatment of the planet and society, accountants, ignore those issues at their peril. I would also point out that, you know, perspectives on some of these macro ethical issues can vary greatly. Different cultures, whether those cultures are based upon geography, religion, political affiliation, or any other factor, they'll interpret an ethical approach to issues differently. Now exploring these different perspectives, that can really be valuable in increasing our understanding of the topics. But it's really important to be aware of how the societies in which we operate view these issues. For an management accountant, that perspective and that understanding - that's crucial.  Margaret: (05:39) Those macro ethical issues do have many dimensions and awareness of that fact is critical for the accounting and finance profession, as well as society at large. And since we're on the topic of macro issues and changes affecting society, I think it's a good time to up something that has literally transformed the profession, which is technology and digitization. At IMA, we are acutely aware of how technologies like automation, AI, and data analytics have changed the way management accountants work. Upskilling in technology is something we champion, but while the technical skills involved with these technologies are significant, so are the ethical questions. What is your view of technology from an ethics perspective?  Russ: (06:28) So Margaret, digitization, it's not just affecting the accounting profession, it's affecting almost every element of our lives and in society today. And there's a lot of good that comes out in terms of both individual, as well as societal welfare. That said, the application of technology, if not done well. Well, that can also exacerbate existing tendencies to a detrimental effect. For example, we've been hearing the term algorithmic bias lately, and that is the propensity for technology driven...

Contact Patti Humble: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patti-humble-46651235/FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm Adam Larson and I first like to thank you for coming back to hear episode 146 of our series today's conversation features Patti Humble, the chief accounting officer at UPS. Patty is an experienced senior leader with a broad background in both business unit and corporate headquarter environments. She is also a passionate leader who truly emphasizes personal development and the need for knowing yourself first. Next, you'll hear her discuss steps to successfully getting to know yourself and how that translates to strong leadership. So keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.  Mitch: (00:50) So I know our conversation for today is going to be about developing others, but I understand it's very important to you. And I know it's a topic that you're very passionate about. So for some background for our listeners, why don't you start off by telling us why this is so important to you?  Patti: (01:05) Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I'm just going to begin with kind of an overarching statement that, you know, what, we all have a unique purpose in our lives, right? We all want to make a difference for our families, for our workplaces, for our country, even globally. And so just pause for a second and think about that. How do you make a difference? Because in my view, effective leaders, they have to start by knowing themselves first, before they can start paying it forward to others. So for me, self journey, my self knowledge and my journey, that was a linchpin. And that's when I really started putting some of my leadership puzzle pieces together. And I'm really passionate about this because I really want to share some of my aha moments with other people. I think what I've observed is that people are often very hesitant to go deep inside themselves. It can be intimidating, it can be a little scary, but as I look back over the course of my career, I found that I really needed to know myself first. And only then is when some of these other leadership traits, my coping mechanisms, all of that started to fall into place. So that's why I'm so passionate about it.  Mitch: (02:31) It's very fascinating. And you know, I'm curious these aha moments, you know, you said a couple of times right there, you have to know yourself first. What does that actually look like? You know, and I'm sure it's different for different people. but what do you, what does that ultimately look like to you when you make that recognition?  Patti: (02:54) Well, I think it's knowing your style, right? It's what drains you of energy when you get home at the end of the day and you're just wiped out what happened that made that happen and what gives you energy? I mean, when you think about those moments where you're just really jazzed, what was that? What gives you energy or maybe it's where you look up at the clock and you've totally lost track of time. I mean, the hours have gone by, and you just don't even know where the time went to. It's knowing that it's knowing your personality type. I think we all kind of have a sense of what our personality types are like, what are our blind spots? Where, what are the landmines that we might step on more than once. And also it's knowing your hot buttons, right? We all, we all know what those are too, but I think knowing yourself is really, it's so important because people succeed differently. So for example, extroverts and introverts, they succeed very different in the world. And you may, or you may not know where you fit along that continuum. And when I say introvert, I don't mean people that are shy. All right, there's a misunderstanding about introverts. Introverts are people that get their energy differently from thoughtful and quiet activities, right? We know our extroverts love to, to be around people and go to events. It doesn't mean that you're different, you're different than in a way that you succeed differently. That information can be really critical to adapting how you lead and how you position yourself for advancement in your workplace. So there's that piece of it by knowing yourself and even on a more personal level, you have to know yourself to know how you cope and, and to conquer sometimes your own gremlins, whatever those might be. I mean, think about what happened to us during COVID right during this pandemic, our coping mechanisms were really taxed. They were really strained. And I think that's a global phenomenon. So you probably learned some things about yourself during the pandemic that you might not have known and some of your gremlins might've been more pronounced, but I think when you know yourself, you're aware of your thoughts, you know, how you talk to yourself and you can talk yourself through moments of fear or uncertainty, you know, how to speak to yourself in the third person. So, you know, you think about the movie that runs in your head and you know, you tell yourself, oh my God, I can't believe I screwed up or I, how could I have done that? There is not a third person that would speak to you the way you speak to yourself. So try talking to yourself, like another, someone who loved you would speak to you, they'd say, you know what? You tried your best, you did the best you could with the information that you had, or yeah. You know, I didn't handle that so great. But you'll do better next time. If we speak to ourselves that way you talk to yourself, instead of listening to yourself, you try things like being grateful, when you're stressed out, because you look to the bright side of things, it's all that, that movie that, that plays on in your head. and I think that's part of knowing yourself. It just helps all those coping mechanisms work really well. A good friend of mine recommended me to me once, to create an "I love Patti" box and then fill it up with all the positive affirmations that you get that you receive. And then when you're having a really bad day and you need a boost, you just go read all those things all over again to say, you know what I do well, I am loved. And it just helps that, that inner, that inner voice. And I think that's really, really an important part of knowing yourself because knowing your style, knowing your energy, knowing how you speak to yourself is the platform for leadership.  Mitch: (07:05) I think that's all amazing advice. And as you were sharing this information, I started thinking, you know, we kicked things off talking about or setting the stage, really developing others. And it starts with you first. And as you're speaking, I kind of said, you know, developing others that other person can still be yourself. You know, it's, it's, you know, it's the other person that, you know, people see that maybe you don't always see. So, it's really interesting. And as you, I can understand the more you learn about yourself, the easier it is, as you just said to then eventually develop other people other than yourself and lead. And it's just all full circle. So you'd already just mentioned a few really great techniques, but I'm sure, you know, you're very passionate about this. You have other things that we could share with the listeners, you know, specific steps, anything that, again, how do you identify when you are successful in knowing yourself, you know, what, how, how can our listeners take this another step further?  Patti: (08:05) Yeah. well, there is a wealth of information out there on the internet about personality types. I mean, if you, if you put that into a searc...

Contact Claire Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairechandlersphr/Claire's Website: https://www.clairechandler.net/Talent Boost: https://www.talentboost.net/checklistFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Mitch Roshong and I would like to say thank you for coming back and listening to another episode of our series. The guest speaker for episode 145 here today is Claire Chandler an acquisition, integration, and onboarding specialist. Claire is a corporate survivor who draws upon almost 30 years of business leadership and consulting experience. One of her specialties is business value creation. In this conversation, you will hear her discuss what finance and accounting quite often get wrong when calculating business value. Keep listening as you will now hear from Claire Chandler with Adam Larson.  Adam: (00:55) So Claire, according to stockanalysis.com, I was reading that there have been over around 703 IPOs in the US stock market in 2021 as of around mid August, which is when we're recording this, which is 331% more than the same time in 2020. So needless to say, there's been a lot of business valuation happening as companies seek to grow and expand. So as we start off our conversation, can we talk about what drives the value of business?  Claire: (01:23) Yes, please. Yeah. What a great question to open up with, right. So, you know, back in the day we lived in an industrial economy, I think a lot of people make the mistake of thinking we are still there. and back when we were more industrial close to a hundred percent, about 95% of the value of a business, any business was driven by tangible assets, right? So things like a company's technology, the products that it made and sold, their operations and of course their financial capital, but we don't live in an industrial economy anymore. We actually live in an intellectual economy. That economy is dependent primarily on the output of a human mind. And I know that sounds bizarre when I say it out loud, but think about it. We're really driven by intangible assets companies, brand its services, more so than its products, the intellectual property, that the knowledge in the heads of the human capital, right? And so with this shift that has happened gradually, but we are fully ensconced in an intellectual economy. That shift also, changed what drives business value. So before it was almost entirely driven by tangible assets today, it's well over 72% driven by the intangibles. And we're seeing this across every industry - in some industries, if you look at say tech and pharma, they're close to a hundred percent driven by intangible assets, right. The products of the human mind. and so it's really critical that businesses pay attention to that.  Adam: (03:04) And then on top of that, you not only are you having to worry about the numbers and the financials, you have to start worrying about, things like ESG and sustainability are becoming more and more essential that you have to report, not only the mind, but also how, how is my business affecting the environment?  Claire: (03:20) Yeah, and it's, and it's interesting to that point, the markets have shifted in that way as well, right? The SEC has become more stringent and, has raised its expectations on what companies do, not only in the sustainability space, but also in terms of how people are treating and nurturing the human capital. So the markets have shifted, the economy obviously has shifted and, you know, the, the more successful businesses have embraced this and sort of incorporated that into their business strategy.  Adam: (03:51) So as we're thinking about businesses and, getting investors and growing IPOs, the other thing I was reading, I saw an article on Fortune the other day, it was saying that there's been over $2 billion of mergers and acquisitions activity in just 2021. I think that was through July, like the beginning of July. We're now like to mid August, you know, how can investors reduce the risk of investing in the wrong company, especially with so many different factors that we were just talking about.  Claire: (04:17) Yeah, it's, it's a huge question. Obviously, the bottom line is investors want to make their money back, in multiples, right? And so the way that to reduce the risks starts with their value creation plan hypothesis. They need to be crystal clear on their end goal, right? The clearer they are on what they want to get out of that portfolio company on the back end, whether it's a holding period of three years, five years, you know, even longer the clearer they are on that going in, the easier it is on the front end to make sure that the company they're evaluating actually has the capacity and the capability to deliver that return for them. Because obviously that is the goal, whatever form it takes, that investor wants to get the most bang for their buck. So they've got to be really, really clear on the hypothesis going in on what they expect to get out of their VCP.  Adam: (05:09) So then on the other side, what about what should companies be doing to, to attract the right funding? You know, cause you got to think about their side too.  Claire: (05:16) Yeah, absolutely. And it's, and it's all about the right funding, right? To your point. And it's a similar process for companies on that, on that side that are looking to grow through the backing of the right investors. So they need to be really clear on their end goal as well. And it's probably not as far out for them, it may not be five or 10 years. It may be, you know, 12 months to 36 months, but they need to deeply understand where they want to take their business and how ready they are to grow in that direction with, or without funding. Right. So, and I say that to really make this point, a lot of startups make this fatal mistake of believing that money is going to solve everything right. We get to the next level. If only we have the financial capital and that's totally false, they really need to evaluate their capacity and capability just like the investor is going to do. Before that investor comes in and does that for them and finds that they're not really ready to grow and scale. So it's not just about getting investment. It's about understanding why you need that investment. Are you ready to take that investment and who is the right source of that funding?  Adam: (06:23) Yeah. Because somebody could come to your startup and say, we're going to give you $2 billion, but if you're not ready to grow, then that $2 billion would just kind of go to waste.  Claire: (06:32) It's going to be a wasted bet on, and both sides are going to be complete failures in that regard, right. Especially if you're talking about an investment to the tune of, you know, a billion dollars or more an investor is not going to do that on a wish and a prayer, they really do need to be very, very thorough in vetting the company they're about to put their money behind. And the company itself has to be really self-aware and disciplined before they take on that level of funding.  Adam: (07:00) So I can imagine that there's going to be mergers and acquisitions that aren't successful. We can, you can read about the famous ones when, I forget which company bought AOL, you know, no one really knows what AOL is anymore. You kn...