My favorite go-to person on all matters, Tableau and Dataviz, is Andy Kriebel.Andy was the first person to create a YouTube channel on Tableau. His subscriber base has surpassed 61,000, and his 750+ videos have 7.5 million views and counting.Andy is the co-author with Eva Murray of the book #Makeover Monday, and you can also follow his informative and insightful helpful hints each day on LinkedIn.In this conversation, we find out why Andy has been publishing online for more than ten years, why asking for a dashboard is rarely the right starting point for Dataviz, and why his five daily habits, which I found to be pure gold.Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
I have my theories on why W. Edwards Deming is not a household name in 'all' business circles. Many view him as the 'quality' guy who had an impact on Japanese manufacturing after the Second World War.That view is limiting as Deming's management mindset was complete with four central tenets:PragmatismThe Law of VariationHuman psychologySystems ThinkingI used to recommend Mary Walton's book to start learning about Deming. That book gave way to a new title by Edward Martin Baker. After meeting and interviewing Gene Kim a few months ago, I have a favorite book on Deming by John Willis. The title is Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge. John was one of the earliest cloud evangelists and is considered one of the founders of the DevOps movement. John is the author of 7 IBM Redbooks. He is also the co-author of the “DevOps Handbook” and “Beyond the Phoenix Project,” along with author Gene Kim.During this conversation, we discuss Deming's influences and how he became such a complete thinker about helping others improve.Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, technology activist, and journalist. He has written many books, most recently The Bezzle, a follow-up to Red Team Blues, which are the two books we'll discuss in this episode.These two books are the beginning of a series featuring the fictional forensic accountant Martin Hench. Hench is self-employed, loves being on the red team, and rakes in 25% of the assets he can recover.Cory's books are fast-paced and entertaining but also deeply thought-provoking, especially The Bezzle.Cory has authored many books, is a long-time blogger and journalist, and hosts a podcast. You can learn more about him at his website, Craphound.Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors was an immediate success and is considered one of the best management books written by CEOs of his era. Before his book, we'd probably have to go back to Henry Ford's autobiography to find a management book of this popularity.And then there's Harvey Firestone's book, which CFO Bookshelf considers a gem. Originally published in 1926, the great people behind the Farnam Street blog have republished Men and Rubber, and the author's message is as relevant now as when he published it.During this episode, we hit some of the big themes in this book:Money, capital, and planningThe key to selling and no superstarsTreating people right and employee ownershipDeep thinking and decision-makingTaking time off and Ford's vagabondsMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Gary Stevenson grew up in an impoverished area of East London where he could hold his life's belongings in two arms. About three years after graduating from the London School of Economics, Citibank made him a millionaire at a very young age.Gary was 'all in' on winning the trading game. But did overnight success bring him happiness? And why did he want to leave the Citibank trading floor?Gary tells his story in his new book, The Trading Game, which I believe is this era's Liar's Poker, but with more life lessons shared in this special book. Some of the topics explored include:The reason why it's challenging to get a job on a trading floorGary's childhood and how it influenced his drive to masteryThe reason poor people are looked down upon by the richGary's first day on the trading floor in 2007Profound thoughts on the mindset of a traderThe P&Ls of traders and how they got paidThe meaning of negative 4.5% interest ratesMoney was never Gary's driverHealth and mental stress in TokyoAdvice for kids wanting to be tradersGary's YouTube channelReturn to the classicsMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Agile, DevOps, TPS, TOC, Deming's System of Profound Knowledge. Is there a mental construct or latticework that connects these robust systems?In Wiring the Winning Organization, Gene Kim and Steve Spear introduce the concepts of the three layers of work and social circuitry. The book also explains the author's three biggest learning pillars: Simplification, Slowification, and Amplification.Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Readers of Corporate Counsel do not need to be legal professionals to enjoy this short book writen as a business fable.Anna is leaving a prestigious law firm to become the first in-house lawyer at a regional real estate firm in the Midwest. The book includes drama, conflict, and a grey beard, Anna's guide throughout the story.Our guest is the author, Peter Carayiannis, and some of the topics we address include:Anna's first 100 daysThe wrong reason to hire an in-house lawyerThe concept of budgets and #LegalOpsThe Big 3 of risk mitigationDefinitions for ASLP and MLSThe moral authority in a businessA full-scope legal review of all corporate documentsMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Of all the books written about Warren Buffett, I am unaware of any authors who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and went to school with his children.Todd Finkle is the author of Warren Buffett: Investor and Entrepreneur, a book that was fourteen years in the making.If you are a Buffett student, perhaps you will have heard several of Todd's stories, but are you aware of Buffett's numerous investing mistakes throughout the years or several of Charlie Munger's thoughts on behavioral investing?In this conversation, we also discussed three of my favorite stories in the book. My favorite is the five-hour conversation between Buffett and Davy Davidson, and Todd does a great job of filling in the details.You can find additional resources to the conversation on the show notes page.Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
John Rossman is making his second appearance on CFO Bookshelf. We interviewed him two years ago for one of our top 10 books of 2022, The Amazon Way, Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles.John's newest book which he co-authored with Kevin McCaffrey is Big Bet Leadership. Highlights from the conversation include:What is and what is not a big betA topic for low- and high-tech companies, bothBig bets are generally found in Day 1 organizationsSmall teams vs. R&D labsThinking, environment, managementThe power of writingThe portfolio of ideas with limited resourcesThe lightning round - lazy pivot, Chief Repeating Officer, quivers, MLPsJohn's recent favorite booksFull Show NotesMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Gary Harpst co-founded the ERP solution Solomon Software, which was ultimately sold to Great Plains. The CFO Bookshelf enjoys Gary's work and past books, including Six Disciplines for Excellence and Six Disciplines Revolution.Gary's newest book has been 40 years in the making. The title is Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others. A few of the themes we cover in this conversation include:addressing the elephant in the room, the integration of faith in the workplacethe Great Plains storyA leader's first and second responsibilitythe reason Monet destroyed some paintingsthe reason a specific management system doesn't matter based on 1200 businesses studiedhow to get the 85% involved and the impact on one-to-one timethe 100-point exercisethe Harold Morgan storywisdom and tips for learning to mentor othersthe purpose and mission of LeadFirst.aiMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
A Beautiful Constraint by Morgan and Barden: is it a marketing, branding, psychology, or management book? Or is it all four?In this episode, Willy Donaldson (Simple_Complexity and Estimated Time of Departure) and I discuss five of the biggest ideas in the thought-provoking book A Beautiful Constraint. The authors state the goal is not to eliminate a constraint but to leverage it. Their book explains how.Below are some of the topics we addressed:the definition of a constraintGoldratt's definitionreasons you may not need to read the bookthe relationship between ambition and constraintsthe three-part continuum of thought: victim, neutralizer, transformerpath dependence and an impactful poemcan-if thinkingthe problem with too many resourcesthumbs up or thumbs downDuring the conversation, we mentioned this book would be a great master class where a one-hour conversation could provide all of the ideas and tools created by the authors. If you are not ready to read the book yet, this YouTube video by one of the authors is a great starting point.Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Since starting the CFO Bookshelf podcast, I have released a ‘favorite books’ show each January. I’ve always been reluctant to do so because my reading tastes may differ from yours. However, these episodes are some of the most downloaded in our podcast catalog. In this discussion, I list my Top 10 books, honorable mentions, fiction, and even books that I did not like. Other insights include what and how much to read and if fiction matters.Access the ListMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Many pricing books are heavy in ideas, abstractions, and behavioral science mind-shifting. Others are focused merely on simple tactics.Jean-Manual Izaret's (JMI) book, Game Changer, fills a void by showing readers and pricing practitioners how to approach pricing strategically through cleverly designed frameworks and thought-provoking questions.This conversation starts with who should read this book and why a cover-to-cover reading is unnecessary. Other topics include:Ford's greatest insightThe cupcake pricing dilemmaThe three pricing tools: elasticity, differentiation, game theoryThe reason why pricing methods and pricing strategy are not the same thingJMI's framework gridJMI's seven gamesBuyers, sellers, and offersA definition of pricing governanceA deeper dive into the uniform gameMicrosoft vs. IntuitNext steps for owners and pricing teamsJMI's favorite booksImportant LinksJMI's bio page at The Boston Consulting GroupTED Talk - A New Netflix-style Pricing ModelMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
CFO Bookshelf considers The Wisdom of Finance one of its favorite 25 business books.Mihir Desai combines abstract and obtuse finance concepts with literature, history, movies, and poems in his book, which was released in 2017.In this bookclub-style episode, we cover several of the themes Mihir highlighted in his educational and entertaining book:Bankruptcy (the history of Robert Morris)Options and Diversification (Pride and Prejudice)Value Creation (The Parable of the Talents)Corporate Governance (The Producers)Mergers (marriages)The Demonization of Finance (O Pioneers!)Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
One of the best books we've read on private equity is by Adam Coffey. The title is The Private Equity Playbook.Adam's newest book is based on a two-day presentation he gave on how to roll up an industry purposely and effectively. He turned his 300-plus page slide deck into the book Empire Builder: The Road to a Billion.Some of the topics we cover include:investing in what you knowa simple example using a mowing company and its unit economicsthe industry traits for empire buildingthe 30:1 rule for managersthe rule of 130price escalation clausesSandy OggFinancial diligence and proctology examsthe best way to read this five-hour bookImportant Links:Adam's websiteLinkedIn profileAdam's Forbes articlesShow Notes page at CFO Bookshelf Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Since I am not a customer of Dunkin' Donuts, I know very little about their origin story. When Around the Corner, Around the World hit my reading radar, I was intrigued and was compelled to read it. I was pleasantly surprised because the book was a mini MBA on how to grow a small business into an international brand.Bruce Reed joins the host to uncover some of the big ideas in this book, including:working for a father after graduationknowing when and how to turn down a $7.5 million offerideas for quarterly board meetingsthe author's four management pillarslearning the art of exploitation and experimentationDrucker's advice on successionthe author's reading listMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
I had never considered the business aspects of pirating until I read Katherine Howe's newest book, A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself.Every ship's captain had a vision, as did the crew. A mission steered each voyage. The crew was kept in line with its bylaws or code of conduct. Loot was allocated based on a profit-sharing plan.In this conversation, Katherine reveals why moviegoers romanticize the golden era of pirating. Not only do we get a sneak preview of the characters and the plot in Katherine's new book, but we are also reminded of our country's history of public hangings and gibbeting.About Katherine HoweKatherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist. She is the author of several novels for adults and young adults, has edited two volumes of primary sources for Penguin Classics, and is the co-author with Anderson Cooper of the #1 New York Times bestselling books VANDERBILT and ASTOR. You can follow her on the following social media links:Katherine's websiteAmazon author pageFacebookTwitterInstagramOur show notes for this episode are on the CFO Bookshelf website.Make More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
I'd recommend The Phoenix Project if I could only recommend one book to a CEO, CFO, or COO about the essentials or the heart of IT in a heartbeat.The Phoenix Project is the IT version of The Goal, as both are written as a novel with a protagonist with doubts, worries, and fears. Like The Goal, the main character in The Phoenix project encounters a sage who helps him glean insights from the manufacturing plant floor and apply them in a DevOps environment.Gene Kim is one of the co-authors of this special book. In this conversation with Gene, we address The Three Ways, the four types of work, internal audit, security, and why this novel has universal appeal for all industries and all professions.Important Links:IT RevolutionThe Idealcast with Gene KimThe DevOps bookshelfThe COSO Cube (there are book spoilers)Wiring the Winning OrganizationDetailed show notesMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
I cannot begin to count the number of times I've heard the following question or something similar, "Mark, I've heard my industry EBITDA multiple is 5x. What do you think?"As much as I want to scream at that question, this type of thinking on business value is prevalent amongst many CEOs of both big and small companies.When the book Quick Value by Reed Phillips hit my radar, I bought it immediately and couldn't put it down as I started reading it.Reed's process for valuing a private company is a simple but powerful method that should be completed annually by an internal leadership team. The process is easy to learn and can even replace annual strategic planning sessions.In this conversation, we learn the Quick Value process, who should use it, and some other nifty nuggets for leaders wanting to grow the value of their business, even when they do not want to sell it.Important LinksThe book's websiteOaklins Valuation Index (sign-up is free)Reed's LinkedIn profileMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
As much as I enjoy reading the Goldratt books and his theory of constraints (TOC), I never considered his early book, The Race, a solid and readable primer on throughput for financial minds.Several books have been published on throughput accounting since The Race was released in the early 1990s. In 2019, three TOC experts finished what I believe is now the best work on throughput accounting that even CEOs should read. The title is Throughput Economics.In this conversation, we address simple definitions such as throughput, operating expense, and investment. We learn why efficiency measurements can lead to disastrous results and why this book is not just for manufacturers.Notable links:Eli Schragenheim blog (one of the co-authors)Goldratt BharatThe Vanguard MethodKelvyn YoungmanMake More with Matt HeslinExplore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify