Cycling in tariff territory – FP&A at top e-bike brand
Derek Paulson is Director of Finance and Performing Marketing at Rad Power Bikes, a Seattle-based e-bike company changing transportation. In this episode he talks about his approach to navigating tariffs (“There no, no word in the English language more scary to a finance professional than the word uncertainty” says Paulson as he discusses required “efficiency” and “flexibility” in their supply chains). He also reveals his approach to the finance transformation required to shift Rad Power from a direct-to-consumer to an e-commerce and retail focused model, that is “starting with a blank Excel sheet to do the modeling for Rad Power Bikes”.
In this episode:
How Honeywell and PepsiCo are top training grounds for finance leaders
Efficiency vs flexibility in supply chains
Is an MBA worth it in finance?
Data privacy, AI, and finance
Making the case for SUMIFs
Connect with Derek Paulson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekpaulson/
--------
48:05
Big shifts in FP&A – Bryan Lapidus
“The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) is a non-for-profit with a really simple mission, which makes it really easy for me to wake up and know what I’m doing every day,” says Bryan Lapidus, Director, FP&A Practice at the Association for Financial Professionals. “We exist for the success of the corporate finance and treasury professionals. FPAC, our certified corporate FP&A certification has been in the market for about 11 years now and 5,000 people have earned it in more than 80 countries.”
Returning guest Lapidus joins Glenn Hopper as they discuss the climate for FP&A including:
Evolution of FP&A and AI
Certificates vs Certification
Why business school doesn’t prepare you for FP&A roles
The impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on changing the CFO role
Why you need different CFOs at various stages of a company lifecycle
Why FP&A professionals are so hirable and promotable
How to become CFO from an FP&A role
--------
48:59
How I learned to love FP&A again – Annette deYoung
Annette DeYoung, Principal Solutions Consultant at Datarails, is an accountant-turned FP&A manufacturing leader. She has deep experience in leading finance teams at manufacturing companies including Berner Food and Beverage, Rockford Products, Fairbanks Morse Engine, and JL Clark. It was at JL Clark, as Director of FP&A, that Annette implemented FP&A Solution, Datarails to mop up inefficiencies and end drain all-late night sessions at the finance department— she liked the product so much she ended up joining the company and has since spoken to more than 1000 FP&A professionals seeking to love FP&A again by removing tedious repetitive processes.
In this episode
Why I fell in love with manufacturing and finance over my career
How creativity drew me from accounting to FP&A
Why a hard-coded accountant attitude was difficult to reconcile with more creative FP&A
How to create finance business partnerships on the manufacturing floor
Why I brought Datarails into my finance team at JL Clarke
The future of Excel in FP&A
Is finance (finally) making a move with AI?
The power of getting out of your comfort zone in finance
Connect with Annette on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahdeyoung/
--------
38:21
May the FP&A Be with you: a hero’s journey from Pixar, Lucasfilm, and LinkedIn (with Craig Barry)
Craig Barry has held senior finance roles at some of the most iconic companies in tech and entertainment, including LinkedIn, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Electronic Arts. At LinkedIn, he led central forecasting, supported more than 10 acquisitions, and played a key role in the company’s integration with Microsoft before becoming Head of FP&A at BioRender- building FP&A from the ground up helping the company scale ARR from $18 million to $50 million. Now Barry is principal consultant at ClearSightIQ.
In this episode
My winding road to strategic finance
Junior FP&A Analyst position at Electronic Arts as my first break
Cost center focus in creative industries at EA with $3b sales
LucasFilm (pre-Disney) run as a sole proprietorship by George Lucas
Pixar head of finance for their Canadian operations and production planning
LinkedIn and focus on “revenue, revenue, revenue”
FP&A focus on modeling for acquisitions at LinkedIn and “virtual” P&Ls
Strategy for building out FP&A from scratch at BioRender
My fractional CFO life
--------
1:02:39
FP&A from Fortune 100 to Scrappy Startups – Mike Dion
Mike Dion works at a Fortune 100 company. He has previously worked as a finance leader at Verizon-as well as startups and as a mentor to enterprise giants to scrappy startups—unlocking tens of millions of dollars in value across industries like Entertainment and Telecom. He does this through Mike’s F9 Finance: a no nonsense website and newsletter (with 20k subscribers) passing on the skills that have accelerated his career, providing a guide to new tools (based on his experience automating 100,000 hours of labour) and secrets to promotion. He tells Glenn Hopper: “Three things, increasing revenue, decreasing expenses, and making your leaders look good. Those are the three things that move your career, not the reports, not the forecast tools to get to that.”
In this episode
Passion in media and entertainment
putting in our first consolidated planning system
At Verizon starting a center of Excellence (after facing a situation where 40 VPs wanted 30 decks based on Excel files
Lack of approachable finance content: introducing Mike’s F9 Finanance
Secrets to dynamic modeling and scenario planning
3 Ways teams are getting overwhelmed with forecasts
Better prompting and my relationship with AI
A completely new answer for Fave Excel Function
F9 Finance: https://www.f9finance.com/
F9 Finance YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance
FP&A Today is the podcast for Financial Planning and Analysis. The weekly show dives into the challenges and opportunities within the world of FP&A, interviewing FP&A leaders, CFOs and other finance pros in order to give you the freshest insights and takeaways. Each week our top guests provide actionable advice about financial planning and analysis – from career goals to navigating challenges, and powerful Excel tips.
Our weekly show provides unrivalled insights for navigating FP&A.
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the AI-powered Financial Planning and Analysis platform for Excel users.