Upside/Downside - a podcast for Finance Business Partners

Send us a textUpside/Downside is a podcast about value creation and the strategies finance and business leaders can use to grow profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  In this episode, Liam and I follow up on our efforts to start myAgeTechlab, a family side hustle introducing technology solutions to people who want to age in place in their own homes. We have a check-in to review where we are with the business, what we've learned so far, and what to do next.  Liam shares what it was like demonstrating a fall detection watch to older adults at our first Lab Experience, and how the insights he learned can be used to move our value creation journey forward.Join us!Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

According to my guest Keren Etkin - founder, author, podcast host, known as The Gerontechnologist - never have so many people reached old age in good health in the history of the world.  This is driving business opportunity in a vast ecosystem learning to embrace what it means to grow old.  Ready to explore this wide frontier for value creation?Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

AgeTech leader Keren Etkin, The Gerontechnologist, invites you to learn and grow in this information packed webinar:- The most significant age tech developments and deals of 2024 - How global events shaped the longevity economy - Key market trends and emerging opportunities - Technologies to watch in 2025 - Predictions for the age tech ecosystem - Q&A session Who should attend? - Startup founders and aspiring entrepreneurs - Investors and VCs - Elder care professionals - Tech professionals - Anyone interested in the intersection of tech and agingRegister now at https://thegerontechnologist.com/Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation and the strategies finance and business leaders can use to grow profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  This is our fifth episode in a series about establishing myAgeTechlab.com, a family side hustle bringing AgeTech to people who want to age in place in their own homes. This time, Liam and I share how we intend to attract suppliers and customers to our AgeTech lab experience.  We outline our value proposition for both supply and demand, and wonder where were the uncles this episode?Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation and the strategies finance and business leaders can use to grow profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  Produced by my teenage son and co-founder Liam, this is the fourth episode in our series about establishing myAgeTechlab.com, a family side hustle bringing AgeTech to people who want to age in place in their own homes. Join Liam, my brothers and me as we explore what our hands-on lab experience will be like for customers, how we collect early feedback crucial for any startup, and how we turn our two-sided business model into a profitable venture.Put on your lab coats and listen in!Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation and the strategies finance and business leaders can use to grow profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley. In our third episode about starting myAgeTechlab.com, produced by my teenage son and co-founder Liam, we delve into how we expect to find product and market fit.  Not easy in a new and fragmented business like AgeTech!  What do customers really want? Why should suppliers care about us?  Can we generate cash flow?Join us!Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation and the strategies finance and business leaders can use to grow profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley. In this episode, we continue our series about starting the family side hustle, myAgeTechlab.com, and focus on the business model for our Lab Experience.  We envision a constant balancing between supplier portfolio and customer needs and foresee an evolving business model with lots of potential upsides and downsides.  Where will all these variables lead us?Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation and the strategies finance and business leaders can use to grow profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  In the next several episodes, we share the challenges of starting a family side hustle, myAgeTechlab.com,  helping people live in their own homes longer through the use of age technology, or AgeTech for short.  Driven by our own family experiences caring for loved ones as they age, can my teenage son, brothers and I apply sound principles of value creation to build a business that helps people while also turning a profit?In this episode, we share our inspiration, skills we expect to learn, challenges ahead, and what to remember when the naysayers come knocking.Dial in and join us here on Upside/Downside!Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation and the strategies finance and business leaders can use to grow profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  In this episode, information security executive David de Martin joins me to analyze the many threats businesses face, and how adaptive tools like Calamu can neutralize those threats while growing your profits and cash flow through competitive advantage.From threat Prevention to Detection to Response, what should value-focused companies be thinking about and how are security solutions responding in the era of AI?  Take a seat at your security console and dial up your value creation skills on this episode of Upside/Downside!Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I may be able to help. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Welcome!  Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation, and how finance business partners, managers and business owners like you can grow your profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  In this episode, Tommy Huynh returns and we share our predictions how AI will impact businesses and people in 2024.  Referencing new stats and reports from respected third parties, we make our cases and challenge each other's assumptions.What minimum skills will be required?  Will investment levels continue unabated?  Who's most at risk of losing their job?  Does anyone really know what they're talking about?   And what do we do if all hell breaks loose?Let's plow through the details together on this episode of Upside/Downside.Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I sometimes accept brief consulting engagements that can be performed after hours. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation, and how the actions we take affect profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  In this episode, Tommy Huynh joins me to explore the democratization of AI and how SMBs in particular can increasingly take advantage.From sales battlecard creation to low code/no code customer service chatbots, use cases abound if you know the problems you want to solve. Get ready to accelerate your value creation curve on this episode of Upside/Downside!Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I sometimes accept brief consulting engagements that can be performed after hours. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation, and how the actions we take affect profits and cash flow.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  Executive recruiter, coach, and company founder Samuel Dergel returns for a super informative update on the market for CFOs.Why is the opportunity pipeline about to increase?   What functional skills are most important?  Are you ready for that Saturday call from the Board?We cover a lot of ground, plus a corny joke.  Time to make the uncomfortable comfortable with this episode of Upside/Downside!Thank you for listening and please tell your friends about Upside/Downside - a podcast about value creation.If your organization needs customized assistance, I sometimes accept brief consulting engagements that can be performed after hours. All revenues after taxes earned from consulting engagements are donated to registered charities working on challenges in the United States. See my host page for more details.

Upside/Downside is a podcast for finance and business geeks about the hard work of value creation with a dose of humor thrown in for good measure.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  Panelists Dana Price and Sami Akbay join me to discuss the cultivated meat and meat substitute industries.  Sustainability, ethics and taste are all on the value creation menu.   Ready for dinner?Then we move on to consumer prices in the US vs Europe.    From mobile plans to pharmaceuticals to live concerts, it can seem like we're getting the short end of the stick here in the states.   But are markets more rational than you think?Get down to the meat of value creation with us on this episode of Upside/Downside!

Upside/Downside is a podcast for finance and business geeks about the hard work of value creation with a dose of humor thrown in for good measure.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  Panelists Dana Price and Sami Akbay join me to discuss the recent banking debacle at Silicon Valley Bank and how value creation goes hand in hand with avoiding value destruction.   Do you know where your money is tonight?Then it's about tipping practices gone mad.   Technology, fear of embarrassment and oh yeah, a pandemic have piled on to the confusion for consumers about how much extra to leave on the tab.  Where do the percentages go from here?Share this 23 minutes with us and stretch your value creation skills!

Upside/Downside is a podcast for finance and business geeks about the hard work of value creation with a dose of humor thrown in for good measure.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  Panelists Dana Price and Sami Akbay join me to discuss variable pricing models, and why we should expect wider adoption going forward.  Is P x Q just a distant dream?Then we turn our attention to conversational artificial intelligence.  As the technology moves into a generative phase, will there be anything left for humans to do at the office?Wonky, funny, thought-provoking discussion waiting for you on this episode of Upside/Downside.

Upside/Downside is a podcast for finance and business geeks about the hard work of value creation with a dose of humor thrown in for good measure.  I'm your host, Matt Cooley.  In this episode, panelists Dana Price and Sami Akbay join me to explore the coming roboticization of the restaurant industry.  Quick-serve formats in particular (or should it be Quick-bytes?) are poised for a productivity boost.  But who might get left behind and how important is the human element to the everyday consumer?We then delve into the world of Buy-Now-Pay-Later.  Facing likely regulation and a growing but not surprising default rate, this payment method is seeing substantial uptake by consumers and merchants for its simplicity.  Is it just another way for lenders to make a buck, or is this an emerging disruptor to the credit card industry?Robots, food, credit, humor and anxiety all on today's Upside/Downside menu.  Pull up to the first window and join us!

Upside/Downside is a podcast for finance and business geeks about the hard work of value creation with a dose of humor thrown in.  In this episode, panelists Dana Price and Sami Akbay join me to nosh over Amazon Fresh and its impact on profits and cash flows.  Do we really have to bag our own groceries?Then we dig into recent challenges faced by streaming companies and discuss whether a return to bunny ears and tin foil is inevitable.Join us for an informative and entertaining 19 minutes!

Upside/Downside is a podcast about the hard work of value creation with a dose of humor thrown in.  Panelists Dana Price and Sami Akbay join me to discuss two recent news stories:  health insurers must now report publicly what they pay for every item and procedure, and venture capital firms pull back as the longest bull market ever becomes a distant memory.  What does all this mean for companies, investors and regular everyday people?   We also take a question from an entrepreneur considering a start-up in the home caregiver industry.  Join us!

Panelists Dana Price and Sami Akbay join me in a discussion of value creation upsides and downsides of two recent news events.  First, what has happened to the Summer supply of sriracha, and how will we possibly cope?  Then we explore Oracle's acquisition of Cerner and what that could mean for value drivers in healthcare.  We round off the episode with advice to a CFO pondering the use of crypto currency.  Join us for this fun 16-minute investment in your skills as a Finance Business Partner.

We've covered early stage career strategies in previous episodes of Upside/Downside.  This time, George Pastidis, Head of Sales Enablement Programs at Ericsson, joins me to talk about age bias in the workplace and strategies for thriving later in your career.  With a long history selling to multinational companies, coaching sales executives, and publishing the very insightful blog GeorgeTalkSales, George also shares why a growth mindset is critical.  Listen in!

Supply chain professional, Marc Rancourt, joins me in this episode to share key lessons learned from the last year and a half, and the role Finance Business Partners play in building resiliency and value creation into this complex part of the business.  It's going to take time, but your ship will come in!  Join us.

Almost like a long, rolling earthquake, bedrock changes are underway in the job market and it's no different for the CFO role.  Everyone seems to be looking.  Samuel Dergel of Dergel Executive Search joins me to discuss this phenomenon, what skills are most in-demand, and how CFOs are finding their next gigs.  We also cover what aspiring CFOs should be doing to prepare for their turn in the seat.  Grab onto something as we unpack this seismic topic on this episode of Upside/Downside.

Data analytics has moved quickly into the realm of self-service.  How do Finance Business Partners know the models, dashboards and advice they are providing are reliable?  Assistant Professor Gregory Kogan returns to Upside/Downside to talk about integrity of output, and to share insights from a new book he has co-authored, "Self-Service Data Analytics and Governance for Managers" published by Wiley.   Join us!

Finance Business Partners face this question early on and throughout our careers.  Nick Mitrakis, Senior Vice President, Corporate Controller at WSP USA joins me to explore the pros and cons of these two supposedly dichotomous paths, and how it really boils down to what motivates you as an individual.   Spoiler alert:  Relax! You can explore both paths while building a great career.  Questions were generously submitted by students of Assistant Dean, Chris Bates and Professor Glenn Tyranski at Long Island University.   Join us for this hopefully inspirational 20-minute investment in your career!

From working capital and contract management use cases to Bitcoin as a treasury asset to Star Trek TNG and the future of currencies, we cover some fun ground in this episode of Upside/Downside.  Todd Feldman, Associate Professor of Finance at San Francisco State University, shares how fintech is becoming practical and why CFOs need to pay attention.   Welcome! 

As things digital become the new norm,  what does this mean for how we learn, how we analyze data and how we as Finance Business Partners advise our organizations?  I explore these questions and more with guest Chang Xia, Assistant Professor of Finance at St Francis College in Brooklyn.  Listen in!

As self-service data analytics tools become more mainstream, how do Finance Business Partners know their outputs are accurate?  Greg Kogan, Assistant Professor of Accounting at Long Island University, shares how governance frameworks are critical to protecting value from our data.  Greg also shares how college curriculum is changing to ensure higher productivity and a focus on interpretation of data rather than just aggregation.  And he offers several steps Finance Business Partners can take to incorporate these critical skills into our daily work (hint: it's time to learn Tableau).   Join us!

Mitch Peipert, CFO of Thomasnet, returns to Upside/Downside to help me answer career questions from students of Professor Chang Xia at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. From navigating the transition into your first job to why continuous learning is so important, we share our thoughts and remind you to take a deep breath and enjoy the journey. Join us!

Fascinated by numbers from an early age, Nerma Kolenovic, student at St. Francis College in New York City, shares how determination and being deliberate in the steps you take can push anyone towards a bright career. We'll also hear what Nerma and her friends talk about when they get together after class, and why you should start training your opposite hand how to use the mouse! If Nerma is any indication, the next generation will take the Finance Business Partner role to new heights. Join us.

Welcome to Season 2 of Upside/Downside! Samuel Dergel, Founder & Principal of Dergel Executive Search, shares what companies are looking for in a CFO/Finance Business Partner, why you need to be a people person, and how to deliver value at every stage of your career. Straighten that collar and listen in.

In this episode, Alex Kotlyarevsky, VP of Finance at Maxx Properties, compares the recent real estate market to flying a plane. Monitoring real-time metrics and making timely, fact-based course corrections drive value. Getting there requires digital and cultural transformations that will ultimately separate winners from losers. Forward-thinking Finance Business Partners are in the cockpit. Fasten your seat belts and let's go!

What are the most critical skills for Finance Business Partners that support very large and visible civil engineering projects? Nick Mitrakis, SVP & Corporate Controller at WSP USA, shares the cornerstones of good project management and how Finance Business Partners need to step up in a world where our function is increasingly at the intersection of everything. Join us!

We all want to allocate capital where we anticipate maximum returns. But how you measure those returns depends on your mission. In this episode, hear why Peter Wise felt compelled to leave his high tech job building satellites and enter a completely different world as Soup Kitchen Director. Peter also offers a word to the wise (pun intended) on career resiliency for Finance Business Partners. Five, four, three, two, one...!

What are the tools enabling Industry 4.0 and how should Finance Business Partners incorporate their promises into a broader value creation strategy? CFO and Industry 4.0 Advocate Dave Sackett, shares the first application at his company, and why filtering a broad variety of information is critical to narrowing down the solutions you really need. Dave also explains how these solutions are no longer the exclusive domain of large companies as SMBs also start feeling the benefit. Listen in!

With a heritage dating back 88 years, Financial Executives International (FEI) has been providing generations of finance professionals with a strong community for networking, learning and professional growth. In this episode of Upside/Downside, Andrej Suskavcevic, President & CEO of FEI, shares how Finance Business Partners are really in the relationship business, and the days of getting by with technical and cost-cutting skills alone are gone. We also discuss why professional associations are an important component to your career resilience strategy. Join us!

What if you are your own Finance Business Partner? And what if you were able to combine your love of technology and wine into a viable business? In this episode, we explore value creation from the perspective of an entrepreneur and business owner. Thea Dwelle, Founder & Principal at Vine Wire Consulting, shares her insights on making business decisions when the buck starts and stops with you, what customers are really buying when they introduce a new technology, and why Finance Business Partners need to be creative and see the big picture at every level. Cin cin!

Managing our careers for long-term resilience takes time and effort. In this episode of Upside/Downside, Alyssa Gelbard, Founder & President of Point Road Group, tells us to fight through our Zoom fatigue, keep building our networks, and to show empathy towards others. Alyssa also explains why a lot of things can come next after a Finance Business Partner role and offers strategies to keep growing. Rev your engines and tune in!

From his first job as a kid mowing lawns to today's role as Customer Unit Controller at Ericsson, Riccardo Govender shares how understanding the business and the flow of money are fundamental skills for Finance Business Partners. And improving your ability to listen, observe and be courageous will complement your impact. Riccardo joins from sunny Johannesburg, South Africa. Listen in!

What are those foundational truths of Finance Business Partnership that persist across roles, companies and industries? Cliff Merchant, Finance Manager at ForeScout Technologies, shares his insights on what makes a strong relationship with your partner, and how to grow our arsenal of skills for the road ahead. Welcome!

When you're a mission-driven early stage tech company headquartered in the heartland, does it change the fundamental skills you need as a Finance Business Partner? Not exactly, but you'd better be comfortable wearing extra hats. Dana Price, CFO of Kenzie Academy, shares smart career hacks for Finance Business Partners and how a strong network can propel your success at any career stage. Listen in!

We cover a lot of fascinating ground in this episode about learning. Vidya Krishnan, Chief Learning Officer at Ericsson, shares what makes learning stick, how to build and grow an effective learning plan, and how to prepare for the future of Finance Business Partnership. Oh yeah, we also cover the future of Earth! Join us.

Mitch Peipert, CFO of Thomas, one of New York City's longest continuously operating companies, joins podcast host Matt Cooley in a discussion about value creation and the key skills required of Finance Business Partners at today's leading companies. What skills matter, how to deal with change and the future of the role are all on the table.