Podcasts about cfos

For a full transcript of this episode, click here. Are you on the board of directors of a company? Or are you a shareholder of a publicly traded company? Or are you a CEO or a CFO who reports to a board of directors or these shareholders? Well, this show is for you. And it's about how the healthcare industry has become financialized at the same time that providing health benefits has become the second-biggest line item after payroll for most companies. We talked about that with Mark Cuban (EP418) also. So, this show isn't really about health benefits; it's about the business that these health benefits have become and how, if the CEO or CFO of an employer is not intimately involved in the financial layer wrapping around health benefits, then the company is getting really taken advantage of by those entities who are intimately familiar with the financial layer surrounding those healthcare benefits. And the employees of that company also are getting equally taken advantage of. This is not a case where paying more or less results in better or worse employee health or healthcare. It is a case where not minding the shop in the C-suite means that financial actors just take more of the pie and nobody wins but them. Employer loses; employee loses. Andreas Mang, my guest today, kicks off this interview talking about the conversation that will go down between himself and any CEO whose company gets bought by Blackstone. So, if you're a CEO and you're aspiring for this to happen, yeah … heads up. But he says it's kind of an unnatural act to dig into anything that smells like health benefits or health insurance. Some may not even realize that this whole financial layer has developed that sits above the healthcare benefits themselves. And they also may not think that there's anything that's possible that can be done. As far as both of these points are concerned, Andreas Mang gives a list of, as he calls them, easy things a C-suite can do to save 10% while improving employee satisfaction and health. Saving 10% or more, this can be a really big number. A lot of this is just enforcing purchasing discipline that is being used elsewhere. Here's Andreas's list recapped: 1. Have CFO engagement throughout the year. (We talked about that with Mark Cuban also.) 2. Be self-insured once you have reached a certain size. (Andreas gets into this in more detail during the show itself.) 3. Be very, very careful who you hire as your broker or benefits consultant. There are five things that need to be true: ·      They have the experience to do the job. ·      Flat-fee model compensation ·      No product pushing ·      Fees at risk (30% or more) ·      Simple termination provisions 4. Do carrier/ASO/TPA RFPs once every three years or thereabouts. 5. Do dependent eligibility audits. (Cora Opsahl talked a lot about this also in an episode [EP372] last summer.) 6. Leverage pharmacy coalitions and stop-loss collectives. (In the show itself, Andreas offers some warnings because some of these coalitions and collectives are great and some are not.) But bottom line, just keep in mind, as Mark Cuban said two weeks ago (EP418), those that are taking your money, your company's money, are advantaged when you are confused. Where there's mystery, there's margin. If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em and all that. This is a business strategy. Healthcare should not be this complicated. But yet, it has become so; and anyone who doesn't realize that is letting themselves and their employees really get taken advantage of. Unknown unknowns are not benign. As I have said several times already, Andreas Mang is my guest today. He is a partner at Blackstone, the private equity and alternative asset manager. His job is helping portfolio companies manage their US healthcare benefits for their employees.   You can learn more at Blackstone and by connecting with Andreas on LinkedIn.     Andreas Mang is senior managing director, portfolio operations, and chief executive officer of Equity Healthcare, where he is involved in managing medical benefits spend across the Blackstone portfolio. Andreas brings 20 years of healthcare experience to Equity Healthcare, having held various roles in healthcare finance, operations, and strategy. Prior to joining Blackstone, Andreas was the vice president responsible for national provider network operations at CareCentrix, a PE-backed, leading home health benefit-management company. At Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, he held a variety of roles, including a leadership role identifying and implementing administrative cost savings opportunities throughout the organization and ultimately designing a new corporate business model. In addition, he held roles as the manager of strategic financial planning at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and was a senior consultant with Deloitte Consulting's Strategy and Operations group in Boston. Andreas has a bachelor's degree in healthcare management and policy from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from the University of Rochester's Simon School of Business Administration. He currently serves on the board of DECA Dental.   04:19 Why Andreas starts every conversation with the question, “How's your healthcare company?” 07:04 Why is it important, as a self-insured employer, to treat your business as a small healthcare company? 08:42 Why is it unnatural for companies to be providing health insurance? 10:13 What can be achieved when there is alignment between employers and insurers? 12:07 What things can a company do to reduce spend by 10%? 13:40 Why is it better to have CFO engagement in the benefits plan throughout the year? 15:51 Why does self-insurance save 5% to 9% for companies automatically? 17:41 “The funding isn't a healthcare thing; it's a CFO thing.” 17:54 Why is it vital to have a reliable, trustworthy broker? 24:38 When is the last time your company has RFP'd their health plan? 27:06 Why does changing a health plan feel scary but is necessary? 27:58 What is a dependent eligibility audit? 30:48 Why are employers better together? 34:02 How do employers truly get a flat-fee model with brokers?   You can learn more at Blackstone and by connecting with Andreas on LinkedIn.   Andreas Mang of @blackstone discusses the financialization of #healthcarebenefits in our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Karen Root (Encore! EP381), Mark Cuban and Ferrin Williams, Dan Mendelson (Encore! EP385), Josh Berlin, Dr Adam Brown, Rob Andrews, Justina Lehman, Dr Will Shrank, Dr Carly Eckert (Encore! EP361), Dr Robert Pearl

Kerry Lutz interviewed Matt Putra, a fractional CFO, who provided an overview of how fractional CFOs work and the benefits of hiring them. Matt explained that fractional CFOs help companies save costs and improve their financial performance by providing a full finance team and a broader market view. He also discussed his process for financial forecasting and risk management for turnarounds and growth companies, which involves building a detailed financial forecast and working with the leadership team to create a risk register and prioritize areas to work on. Matt's company specializes in turnarounds, fundraising, and growth for e-commerce, SAS, and clean tech industries, and he advised companies to look for a fractional CFO with lived experience and successes in their industry. Matt's linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattputra/ His company's website is https://eightx.co

In this week's episode of the Treasury Career Corner podcast, Henrik Welch, Vice President and Head of Group Treasury at Alfa Laval shares his career journey and the challenges he faced while working in the banking sector and in a state-owned organization.Henrik is currently at Alfa Laval, a leading global provider heat transfer, separation and fluid handling products. With his extensive experience in corporate finance, M&A transactions, structured finance and trade finance, Henrik brings valuable expertise to the treasury profession.On the episode Henrik discusses his early career in banking, where he focused on structured trade finance and worked with treasuries and corporates. He then transitioned to the Danish Export Credit Agency, EKF, where he gained experience in strategic discussions with CEOs and CFOs of companies in emerging markets. Henrik later joined Vestas Wind Systems during a challenging period of financial crisis and led the treasury team through a restructuring process. He then moved on to SSAB and eventually joined Alfa Laval, where he currently leads the treasury function.On the podcast we discuss…Henriks career journey to date Insights into the importance of a banking background in treasury roles The role of treasury in supporting sales and financing solutions for customers Challenges and lessons learned during a financial crisis and restructuring The significance of working capital management and cash flow forecastingThe future of treasury, including digitalization, sustainability, and challenges related to KYC and sanctions.You can connect with Henrik Welch on LinkedIn. Are you interested in pursuing a career within Treasury?Whether you've recently graduated, or you want to search for new job opportunities to help develop your treasury career, The Treasury Recruitment Company can help you in your search for the perfect job. Find out more here. Or, send us your CV and let us help you in your next career move!If you're enjoying the show please rate and review us on whatever podcast app you listen to us on, for Apple Podcasts click here!Subscribe to the Treasury Career Corner podcast newsletter to receive a link to every week's episode as soon as it's published via click here!

In this episode of The Role Forward, host Joe Michalowski welcomes CJ Gustafson, CFO of PartsTech and the mind behind Mostly Metrics. They dive into the intricacies of annual planning, a critical period for finance professionals. CJ shares his unique journey from M&A consulting to private equity and finally to his current role, emphasizing the importance of understanding business models and resource allocation.The conversation shifts to the practical steps of strategic planning. CJ outlines a three-month timeline for annual planning, stressing the collaboration between CEOs and CFOs. He breaks down the process into digestible stages, focusing on setting realistic goals for revenue, productivity, and profitability. His approach demystifies the complexities of financial forecasting in the startup ecosystem.Joe and CJ also tackle the challenges of planning with incomplete data, advocating for a proactive start and the ability to adapt. CJ's insights offer valuable lessons on balancing ambition with the realities of startup finance, providing a blueprint for listeners navigating their own annual planning.Guest-at-a-Glance

On this episode of Exit Is Now, Scott Snider is joined by two CEPAs from FocusCFO, Darren Cherry and Michael Stier. Darren, Michael, and Scott talk about the functional specialists on the exit planning team and how CFOs play a pivotal role in the value acceleration methodology.Want to learn more? Go to: https://linktr.ee/theexitplanninginstituteConnect with Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-snider-epi/============================================SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exit-is-now-plan-accordingly-with-scott-snider/id1663050204Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0iXzdvQN1ApWPOk3rVytFR============================================CONNECT WITH SCOTT ON SOCIAL MEDIA   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_Eh7TfhJHKRa5uc5R0uRgAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Exit-Planning-Institute-608403729259835Website: https://exit-planning-institute.org#ExitPlanningInstitute #ScottSnider #Podcast============================================About Scott:Scott Snider is the President of the Exit Planning Institute (EPI) and the Operating Partner of Snider Premier Growth, a small family investment company.  At EPI, Scott is responsible for the strategic direction of the organization along with overseeing the company's operations and chapter development. Since joining EPI, Scott has expanded the organization regionally, nationally, and globally, providing a transformational educational experience to advisors from all specialties across the globe.Scott Snider is a nationally recognized industry leader, growth specialist, and lifetime entrepreneur.  Two of Snider's biggest talents: market penetration and rapid growth strategies. As the operational and strategic leader of EPI, Snider thrives on helping advisors learn how to educate clients, achieve market distinction, and deliver real results.

Why did I decide to encore this show about being customer-centric and transforming or innovating at a very large organization? Well, two main reasons. First reason can be neatly summed up by this recent Tweet from Rik Renard, which I have edited slightly to suit my own purposes. Here's the Tweet: “The Achilles' heel for most healthcare [innovators] is overlooking the role of change management. The deal isn't sealed until the whole team is raving. Adoption doesn't [automatically follow innovative thoughts no matter how good they are or how much it cost to build or buy anything]. Take change mgmt seriously.” This is relevant to pharma companies, to big provider organizations, to SaaS vendors, to payers … pretty much anyone. So, yeah. This show … still relevant. But also there's a #2 reason for this encore. It's coming at ya smack in the middle of an ongoing series for boards of directors, CEOs, and CFOs of self-insured employers. As discussed last week in the show with Mark Cuban and Ferrin Williams, PharmD, MBA (EP418), healthcare has become financialized. There is a whole financial layer sitting in between health benefits and the employer, and dealing with that requires customer centricity, transformation, and innovation at the employer level—a little change management, if you will. And with that, here is your encore. I was at the PanAgora Pharma Customer Experience (CX) Summit. Let me tell you one of my big takeaways. Many at pharma companies who are trying to convince their organizations of the need to be provider- and/or patient-centric are having a tough go of it. Heard that coming from every direction. Seems there are quite a few pharma organizations out there who are not actually customer/patient-centric. Say it isn't so. Turns out, they continue to be pretty darn brand-centric whether or not anyone besides the CX team and the most successful KAMs (key account managers) realize this hard truth. This matters because, from a provider organization, physician, or patient standpoint, it's not what's written on the walls … it's what goes on in the halls. It's what a company actually does in their interactions with the rest of the healthcare ecosystem that matters and that builds their reputation. You see this lack of customer centricity and, et cetera et cetera, there are certainly other things going on here; but you see the lack of customer centricity manifesting, right? You see the pharma reps that get kicked out of hospital systems because the perception is they add little if any value and “waste doctors' time; all they do is shove detail aids in our faces.” Heard that recently. Look, this doesn't just pertain to Pharma; this is a message for the whole industry. But there is certainly a way to do well by doing good, and how that starts is helping provider organizations and patients improve patient outcomes as the primary goal. Being innovative to that end. It's about supporting the best-practice standard of care and bringing resources to bear that are truly helpful. That is how more of the right patients can get the right treatment/drug at the right time or take their meds as per the A1A clinical guideline. It's probably also the way to sustainable business success. I've said it here a thousand times: People trying to do the right thing by patients all need to work together. If there's a party in the mix that nobody else wants to deal with because they are deemed not a team player or they don't listen … yeah, that's what I call a competitive disadvantage, beyond just squandering their ability to achieve their mission statement and improve patient care and lives, that is. Today's conversation is with Karen Root, who was a speaker at the aforementioned PanAgora conference. In this healthcare podcast, we are talking about how to make transformation and innovation actionable at a large organization—maybe a pharma company but pretty much any large organization with lots of people, lots of human beings with different motivations and goals. As we all know, for every early adopter, there are (it feels like) five laggards who will fight you tooth and nail because they do not want to transform. They like being brand-centric, and it's been working out fine … well, up until this year, at least. Karen Root is currently director of experience strategy at Boehringer Ingelheim, which is a pharma company. For many years prior to her current role, she was an enterprise head of brand and culture at WL Gore & Associates. What we talk about in this show is how to break down the historical “brand is king” mentality so that people want to follow with the awareness, courage, and determination to do so. Everything that we talk about in this episode can also be applied to pretty much any organizational transformation or the rollout of any innovation or new capability. Here's the key things that Karen talks about which are essential for an organization to transform, maybe (again) in a way that is customer-centric and/or to roll out new innovations or capabilities: 1. Leaders must communicate a compelling vision that also includes a realistic assessment of what it's gonna take to reach that vision and offer hope and the promise that the hard work and inevitable problems will all be worth it. 2. Systems thinking—a consideration of the systems and the people who will need to be a part of the transformation, thinking through what is likely to go wrong and proactively planning for it 3. Identify the right entry point. This should be a micro-journey or a quick win so that the team can score a victory and get through the messy middle that exists in any transformation or rollout. Triple points if you can find a micro-moment that has some emotionality connected to it from your customers' perspective or patient perspective. If you can fix a so-called moment that matters, it really matters. Consider starting by looking into call center logs, finding a common complaint, and fixing it. Do it this way and it's harder for anybody to complain that the status quo is so super amazing and tell you to talk to the hand. 4. Determine how you are going to measure what your quick win accomplished, as well as your whole larger transformational effort. 5. Ensure you have a full story arc here that shows the before and the after that clearly articulates that the before (the status quo) is problematic and that we have to, with urgency, get to the after. 6. Never forget that we're working with human beings here and not, as they say, rational economic actors. One heads-up: In the conversation with Karen today, we talk a lot about the so-called J curve. As Karen says (and you can look this up), whenever you introduce a new anything into an organization, at some point, there's gonna be a mess-up. And when something messes up, the whole team will spiral into a so-called “trough of disillusionment” or a “trough of despair,” sometimes it's called. This is the rock-bottom hook of that J in the J curve. The thing is, if a leader's vision isn't sufficient or their will to continue isn't sufficient, then the organization quits at this low point instead of working through it and coming out in a better place on the other side of the J. And you know what happens then. From that point forward until eternity, everybody who brings up implementing an innovation or a transformation will definitely hear the lecture about the time we tried that and how it failed miserably. So, the J curve … Check it out. Don't underestimate it. One very last thing: If you are working for a large organization (like Fortune 500 large) and you have succeeded in moving a transformation forward (like being actually patient-centric or customer-centric, for example), hit me up. I would certainly love to hear your thoughts on how you did it and why you think you were successful and the impact that you had.   You can learn more by connecting with Karen on LinkedIn.     Karen Root, MBA, CCXP, is a strategy, innovation, operations, and marketing executive with more than two decades of experience in healthcare, including medical devices, biopharma, and pharmaceuticals. Her background spans more broadly to include computer software, publishing, and consumer package goods. She has driven transformation and growth as a senior executive for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 multinational organizations. Driving transformative capabilities include digital marketing for Sanofi Pasteur and marketing at start-up for their subsidiary, VaxServe. Karen then led the medical division in customer experience at WL Gore & Associates, later leaving the organization as enterprise leader of brand and culture. She is currently leading customer experience in the United States for Boehringer Ingelheim. Karen has been adding innovative experience design in the metaverse to her arsenal of knowledge. Certified in blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and as a metaverse expert, she has a patent pending in smart contracts and is exploring integrating NFTs and meta-realities into the healthcare space. Karen is the author of Spectrum Thinking and Signature Experience: The Intersection of Brand Promise and Customer Experience for Competitive Advantage. Her next book, Ready Worker One, was co-written with her daughter, Kayla Root, and is expected to be published in early 2024. It pulls from gaming and behavioral science, along with DAO structure (decentralized, autonomous organizations). Karen was recognized by Forbes in 2022 as one of the Top 10 Healthcare Entrepreneurs to Watch.   08:51 What skills does leading a large company in customer centricity require? 10:36 What needs to be included in a vision for customer-centric change? 11:01 “In transformation, we have to adjust the approach to that vision. We have to break it down into a couple of key steps.” 11:39 What is the J curve? 12:26 “Disruption is going to happen; it's just how do we minimize its impact.” 14:00 Why is hope so important for success in change? 17:22 “Leverage your people; understand where they are in the change curve.” 26:24 “We can't manage what we don't measure.” 26:33 “We have to not only measure in quantitative ways but qualitative.” 27:35 What's the downside to not being able to innovate? 28:55 Why does leadership need to have a story to tell? 31:19 “We have to remember that these are human beings and to look for those tells.”   You can learn more by connecting with Karen on LinkedIn.   Karen Root of @boehringerus discusses #customercentricity in our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #pharma   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Mark Cuban and Ferrin Williams, Dan Mendelson (Encore! EP385), Josh Berlin, Dr Adam Brown, Rob Andrews, Justina Lehman, Dr Will Shrank, Dr Carly Eckert (Encore! EP361), Dr Robert Pearl, Larry Bauer (Summer Shorts 8)  

Die Deloitte CFO-Studie gibt Einblicke in die Meinungen und Prognosen von Finanzvorständen großer deutscher Unternehmen bezüglich makroökonomischer, strategischer und finanzwirtschaftlicher Angelegenheiten. Die Studie wird zweimal jährlich veröffentlicht und zielt darauf ab, Entwicklungen und Wendepunkte aufzuspüren. In der Ausgabe Herbst 2023 erwarten die CFO einen weiteren Rückgang der Geschäftsaussichten aufgrund anhaltender Herausforderungen wie Inflation und sinkender globaler Nachfrage. Diese Herausforderungen veranlassen die Unternehmen zu strategischen Anpassungen. Besonders in Deutschland liegt der aktuelle Investitionsfokus auf Digitalisierung und Automatisierung. Generative KI wird als ein Kernbestandteil der zukünftigen Strategie gesehen. Zudem wächst die Bereitschaft der CFOs, Outsourcing als Option in Betracht zu ziehen. Peter Bluhm begrüßt im Podcast Dr. Alexander Börsch, Chefökonom und Leiter Research bei Deloitte Deutschland sowie Mitautor des CFO Survey. Zum CFO Survey Herbst 2023: https://www2.deloitte.com/de/de/pages/finance-transformation/articles/cfo-survey.html Zum Podcast – (Future Talk): https://www2.deloitte.com/de/de/pages/trends/deloitte-future-talk-podcast-series.html Interview auf atvisio.TV anschauen: https://www.atvisio.de/tv/der-cfo-survey-herbst-2023-der-abschwung-kehrt-zurueck/

Rob Gerberry, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Summa Health, explores the role Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) play in helping health care systems navigate the financial headwinds facing the industry. CFOs must work with commercial payer partners on pricing, Medicare and Medicaid on payment issues, and Boards on developing appropriate financial strategies. They must also confront issues like labor and staffing, the balance between maintaining bedside resources while keeping corporate staffing at a necessary level, and the rise of private equity. Rob's panel includes Robin Damschroder, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Business Development Officer, Henry Ford Health System, and Mike Browning, Chief Financial Officer, Ohio Health. To learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit americanhealthlaw.org.

Job descriptions, performance reviews, incentive schemes, recognition programmes are often box ticking activities in organisations, which often lead nowhere.  Overviewing these various systems and their execution may make the managers feel like they are earning their keep, but are they really contributing all that much to the required outcomes?  Counting what the heads do, getting those heads to think and think together are different challenges and the latter necessitates cultivating people. Cultivating people is the “new black” for managers, as they must move up and into real leadership. So what is the difference between being a manager and a leader?  There are many definitions but it doesn't have to be complex. Leadership is all about creating environments that influence others to achieve the group goals, because people will willingly support a world they create.  Management is the creation, implementation and monitoring of processes. People will willingly comply with a process that helps them succeed.  Moving forward means designating the next level of achievement.  In a busy life, with a deluge of emails every day, spiced up with endless meaningless meetings, we can sometimes forget what is the point to all of this, as we are totally consumed with activity.  We need to set the vision for the team of where we want to be and what is the next level for us.  It must be concrete, clear and well communicated.  I ran across one the other day: “delivering extraordinary customer experiences”.  Rather ambiguous – you could be delivering extraordinarily bad experiences to your customers!  A bit more clarity needed back at HQ by the look of that one.  It raises the point though, that clarity in the communication is key, if you want to get people behind your direction.  Don't kid yourself, semantics matter. So where possible, get buy in to the vision, such that it is a shared process.  This may be difficult when “The Vision” is lofting down from on high, but there are always sub-visions for the work group, that can take it to a further concrete stage or which further clarify the main message for the reality facing the team. With a successfully shared vision, the troops cease seeing their role as robotic task completion and switch to results completion.  How about down at your shop – is there a shared vision (or shared sub-vision), are the team focused on painting by numbers or on producing a group triumph, do they know what the designation is for the next level? We ask people to step up, but that also asks them to take on risks of the new or the different.  The outcomes must be totally defined and clear, and the team must buy into achieving them in order to step out of their current mode and take on the risks of the unknown.  “There be dragons” is a strong gravitational pull away from innovation or anything shiny and new.  It must be countered by you, the leader. “Leadership” begins to include “self-leadership” when we have buy in and clarity, because it allows the team to be more self-directed, handling their available resources without the need for micro-management.    We can all quote the buzz words such as “empowerment,” “empowered behavior” etc., but actually realising that desired state is another matter.  The poor communication skills of those in charge are often the breakdown point. The “Vision Statement” penned by the CEO goes up on the wall in a nice frame, on expensive paper, safely protected behind glass and there for all to completely ignore from now on.  No, no no! It has to live.  If your people can't quote the company, division or section vision on demand, from memory, you are not even on the first rung to having a real vision.  If you can't remember it you can't live it. It is not a one-shot all dancing, all singing pronouncement and move on affair. It always amazes me, how often to you have to keep telling the team the same thing, for it to really permeate. The leader will certainly get tired of saying it all the time, but has to keep going because the listeners always take much longer than expected to absorb the content.  It just points up the fact we are competing with a whole bunch of “other stuff”, for the real estate of cluttered minds. When you ask senior executives to identify the most significant personal characteristic needed by management, they will dutifully trot out “the ability to work with people”.  Take a look at the expense line in your P&L – people are a huge component. Yet, so many leaders are woeful communicators.  They are often promoted into position of accountability, on the basis they count.  They are insular, brainy technical experts, they are CFOs who can't grow but can watch the bottom line like a legend, they are the idiosyncratic salesperson who does it “my way”, but can't teach it to anyone else.  We need to teach these smart people how to be “people smart” – it is a different attitude and skill set.  The executive decisions get carried out by people, but how much time does your leadership team spend building your people, as opposed to issuing directives, giving orders, providing technical guidance etc.? These activities are all about the “how” and zero on the “why”?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Time to start work on some personal leadership, strongly communicating the “why” and getting the team to create a shared vision of your organisation's better and brighter future.

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 04:45:00 +0000 https://jungeanleger.podigee.io/1131-borsepeople-im-podcast-s9-22-walter-riess 8ad74c120daabb5d4255e2e4f2597549 Walter Riess ist Ex-Investkredit-Manager und jetzt CFO der Lasselsberger Group, dazu Bassist der CFO-All Star Band Liquid Spirit. In 15 Jahren Investkredit hatte Walter als Kundenbetreuer mit Kontakt zum Treasury und später als Leiter der Unternehmensfinanzierung eine gute Zeit. Die hat er jetzt auch seit 17 Jahren bei der Lasselsberger Group, für die Walter als CFO und CIO tätig ist und die anhand der Stichworte Äquator, Bodensee, Fussball- und Golfplätze erklärt wird. Und dann natürlich "Liquid Spirit", die neue Coverband aus CFOs und Finanzexperten mit Rampensau-Faktor, deren Name wir herleiten und feststellen, dass in Treasury auch Trash drinnensteckt. - Klemens Eiter (Porr) | vocals - Stefan Maxian (Raiffeisen Bank International AG) | guitar - Philip Tüttö (Schwabe, Ley & Greiner) | keys - Walter Riess (Lasselsberger Group) | bass - Martin Vörös (VBV-Gruppe) | drums https://www.lasselsberger.com Klemens Eiter als Leadsänger unserer Börse Band Aid 2022: https://audio-cd.at/page/playlist/2989 About: Die Serie Börsepeople findet im Rahmen von http://www.audio-cd.at und dem Podcast "Audio-CD.at Indie Podcasts" statt. Es handelt sich dabei um typische Personality- und Werdegang-Gespräche. Die Season 9 umfasst unter dem Motto „23 Börsepeople“ wieder 23 Talks Presenter der Season 9 ist EY https://www.ey.com/de_at . Welcher der meistgehörte Börsepeople Podcast ist, sieht man unter http://www.audio-cd.at/people. Der Zwirschenstand des laufenden Rankings ist tagesaktuell um 12 Uhr aktualisiert. Bewertungen bei Apple (oder auch Spotify) machen mir Freude: https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/audio-cd-at-indie-podcasts-wiener-boerse-sport-musik-und-mehr/id1484919130 . 1131 full no Christian Drastil Comm.

As leaders in the credit union, we have either been involved in or intrigued by the hiring process for executive level members.  Our guest, JT is the president of Angott Search Group. JT is committed to search and recruit for a wide range of position levels in the credit union sector, including everything from CEOs, CFOs and CIOs to loan officers, business bankers and branch managers. He shares with us the rookie mistakes and ways to be a memorable candidate when applying for a management or executive role.  In This Episode We Cover: The interview process is a two way street Mistakes we make during the recruiting process What makes a good resume How to prepare for an interview Using the CLAMPS model to learn why people are looking for a new job Tips to stand out in the CEO interview process  Links from the Show: Contact JT Westendorf Email JT at jtw@asgteam.com Click here to connect with JT over Linkedin Phone: 248-453-0107 Learn more about Angott Search Group here asgteam.com   Subscribe to ServiStar Leadership Podcast on your favorite streaming service   Click Here to look at all the trainings ServiStar has to offer

Employees with high levels of digital dexterity are 3.3 times more likely to deliver digital business outcomes than those with moderate digital dexterity. Learn the 5 competencies that matter most for achieving high digital dexterity and the building blocks that form a future-ready culture.

CFO — From Scorekeeper to Tech-Driven VisionaryThe CFO's changing role: Technology, specifically AI, is transforming the role of the chief financial officer (CFO) from a traditional scorekeeper who deals with financial reporting and risk management, to a futurist who leads enterprise-wide transformations. It allows CFOs to shift their focus from routine, time-consuming tasks to more strategic and forward-thinking responsibilities.The essential contribution of human skills: Value creation is a collaborative effort between humans and technology. Skills needed included empathy, communication, and consensus-building. In a future where automation handles routine tasks, finance professionals must harness these human skills to co-create and work together.Value creation through intangible assets: CFOs must shift their focus from managing financial and tangible assets to managing intangible assets like human capital, intellectual capital, social and relationship capital, and natural capital. These intangible assets often account for a significant portion of a company's value. Finance professionals need to use proxies and metrics to understand and quantify their impact on business outcomes.The Big Quote: "It's not just about automation for the sake of reducing workload, but actually to look at technology as an enabler of . . . transformational changes in your business model. How do you serve your customers in new ways? How do you transform your business model with new products?"

Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast! Today, Chris Lee, explores the topic of finances. Operating a business often starts with a cash-based approach, especially during the early stages. Chris reflects on his experience running Founder Acceleration, a group of 50 entrepreneurs, and emphasizes the critical role of understanding the basic financials for scaling your business. As Chris shares insights gained from scaling a business from zero to $233 million annually, he highlights the importance of CEOs and founders having a solid grasp of financial principles. While hiring professionals like controllers, CFOs, or accountants is valuable, Chris asserts that CEOs must possess fundamental financial knowledge to guide decision-making and drive profitability. If you're looking to enhance your understanding of financial aspects crucial for business growth, this episode provides valuable insights. Tune in and take the first step toward becoming a more informed and strategic founder! Don't forget to check out Founder Acceleration, where entrepreneurs gather weekly to discuss and learn from each other's experiences. Visit founderacceleration.com to apply and join this dynamic community of business leaders. Highlights: "Understanding the basic financials of your business is absolutely imperative to really be able to go and scale." "You can hire a controller, you can hire a CFO, you can have a great accountant. But as the CEO, as the founder of your organization, it's imperative that you have a grasp on the basic knowledge." "Your gross profit margin percentage should not vary tremendously, it should be within one to two points if you have a really tight dialed-in direct labor cost of goods sold, managing your inventory and those types of things." Timestamps: 00:00: Introduction 02:21: Product Cost & Profitability 03:59: Revenue & Gross Profit 06:34: Acquisition Cost 08:19: Cost Management Live Links:

CEOs and CFOs … hey, this show is for you. Let's start here: What do all of these numbers have in common: $140,000, $3 million, $35 million, and $3 billion? These are all actual examples of how much employers, unions, and some public entities saved on healthcare benefits for themselves and their employees. The roadmap to saving 25% on pharmacy spend and/or 15% on total cost of care in ways that improve employee health and satisfaction always begins when one thing happens. There's one vital first step. That first step is CEOs and/or CFOs or their equivalents roll up their sleeves and get involved in healthcare benefits. Why can't much happen without you, CEOs and CFOs? Here's the IRL: In 2023, the healthcare industry has been financialized. There is a whole financial layer in between your company and its healthcare benefits. And unless the C-suite is involved here and bringing their financial acumen and organizational willpower to the equation, your company and your employees are currently paying hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of dollars too much and doing so within a business model that deeply exacerbates inequities. There are people out there who are very strategically taking wild advantage of a situation where CEOs/CFOs fear anything to do with healthcare in the title and don't do their normal level of due diligence. You think it's an accident that this whole space got so “complicated”? HR needs your help. Bottom line, if you are a CEO or CFO and you do not know everything that Mark Cuban and Ferrin Williams talk about on the pod today … wow, are you getting shellacked. Mark Cuban uses a different word. Healthcare benefits are, after all, for most companies the second biggest line-item expense after payroll. But don't despair here, because all of this information is really and truly actionable. Others out there are cutting zeros off of their spend and actually doing it in ways that are a total win for employees as well. My guest today, Mark Cuban, is a CEO, after all; and when he looked into it, it took him T-minus ten minutes to figure out just the order of magnitude that his “trusted” benefits consultants and PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) and ASOs (administrative services only) and others were extracting from his business. He pushed back. So can you. But just another reason to dig into that financial layer wrapping around your employee health benefits right now, you might get sued by your employees. Below is an ad currently being sent around on LinkedIn by class action attorneys recruiting employee plan members to sue their employers for ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) violations. It's the same attorneys, by the way, from those 401(k) class action lawsuits. I've talked to a few CEOs and CFOs who are scrambling to get ahead of that. You might want to consider doing so as well. Now, for my HR professional listeners, considering that some of what Mark Cuban says in the pod that follows is indeed a little spicy, let me just recognize that the struggle is real. There are multiple competing priorities out there in the real world, for sure. And bottom line, because of those multiple competing priorities out there in the real world, it's really vital that everybody work together up and down the organization in alignment. Lauren Vela talks a lot about these realities here in episode 406. This is a longer show than normal, but it's also like a show and a half. Mark Cuban talks not only about his work with Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, which is a company that buys drugs direct from manufacturers and sells them for cost plus 15%, a dispensing fee, and shipping. It's kind of crazy how so often that price is cheaper, sometimes considerably cheaper, than the price that plan members would have paid using their insurance—and the price that the plan is currently paying the PBM. Most Relentless Health Value Tribe members (ie, regular listeners of this show) will already know all that, but what is also fascinating that Mark talks about is what he's doing with his own businesses and the Mavericks on other fronts, like dealing with hospital prices. In this show, we also talk the language of indie pharmacies, fee-only benefits consultants, TPAs (third-party administrators), PBMs, and providers doing direct contracting. There are, in fact, entities out there trying to do the right thing; and Mark acknowledges that. Ferrin Williams, PharmD, MBA, who is also my guest today, is chief pharmacy officer at Scripta and an expert in pharmacy benefits. She adds some great points and some context to this conversation. Scripta is partnering with Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs. Scripta has a neat Med Mapper tool and also services to help employees find the lowest costs for their prescriptions. If you are a self-insured employer, for sure, check out Scripta. Here are links to other shows that you should listen to now if you are inspired to take action. I would recommend the shows with Paul Holmes (EP397); Dan Mendelson (Encore! EP385); Andreas Mang (upcoming); Rob Andrews (EP415); Cora Opsahl (EP372); Lauren Vela (EP406); Peter Hayes (EP346); Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, and Chris Skisak, PhD (EP390); and Mike Thompson (EP389). Also Mark Cuban mentions in this show the beverage distributor L&F Distributors. Thanks to Ge Bai, Andreas Mang, Lauren Vela, Andrew Gordon, Andrew Williams, Cora Opsahl, Kevin Lyons, Pat Counihan, David Dierk, Connor Dierk, John Herrick, Helen Pfister, Kristin Begley, AJ Loiacono, and Joey Dizenhouse for your help preparing for this interview. For a full transcript of this episode, click here.   You can learn more at Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company and Scripta Insights. You can also connect with Scripta and Ferrin on LinkedIn.     Mark Cuban has been a natural businessman since the age of 12. Selling garbage bags door to door, the seed was planted early on for what would eventually become long-term success. After graduating from Indiana University—where he briefly owned the most popular bar in town—Mark moved to Dallas. After a dispute with an employer who wanted him to clean instead of closing an important sale, Mark created MicroSolutions, a computer consulting service. He went on to later sell MicroSolutions in 1990 to CompuServe. In 1995, Mark and longtime friend Todd Wagner came up with an internet-based solution to not being able to listen to Hoosiers basketball games out in Texas. That solution was Broadcast.com—streaming audio over the internet. In just four short years, Broadcast.com (then Audionet) would be sold to Yahoo! Since his acquisition of the Dallas Mavericks in 2000, Mark has overseen the Mavs competing in the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history in 2006—and becoming NBA World Champions in 2011. Mark first appeared as a “Shark” on the ABC show Shark Tank in 2011, becoming the first ever to live Tweet a TV show. He has been a star on the hit show ever since and is an investor in an ever-growing portfolio of small businesses. Mark is the best-selling author of How to Win at the Sport of Business. He holds multiple patents, including a virtual reality solution for vestibular-induced dizziness and a method for counting objects on the ground from a drone. He is the executive producer of movies that have been nominated for seven Academy Awards: Good Night and Good Luck and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Mark established Sharesleuth, a research and investigation Web site to uncover fraud in financial markets, and endowed the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents, an effort to fight patent trolls. Mark gives back to the communities that promoted his success through the Mark Cuban Foundation. The Foundation's AI Bootcamps Initiative hosts free Introduction to AI Bootcamps for low-income high schoolers, starting in Dallas. Mark also saved and annually funds the Dallas Saint Patrick's Day Parade, the largest parade in Dallas and a city institution. In January 2022, he started Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company as an effort to disrupt the drug industry and to help end ridiculous drug prices because every American should have access to safe, affordable medicines. Ferrin Williams, PharmD, MBA, is chief pharmacy officer of Scripta. With 15+ years' experience in the pharmacy industry, Ferrin brings a unique perspective to Scripta that spans the retail pharmacy, pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), and broker/consulting sectors. Her expertise ranges from pharmacy operations and services to innovative clinical programs, pharmacy audit, alternative payer funding, and specialty drugs. As chief pharmacy officer, Ferrin leads the company's clinical strategies organization responsible for devising innovative cost-containment strategies for prescription drugs, ensuring Scripta clients, members, and their providers are provided with best-in-class clinical insights and tools. Ferrin earned her bachelor's, Doctor of Pharmacy, and MBA degrees from the University of Oklahoma.   05:41 What was Mark Cuban's own journey as a self-insured employer with Cost Plus Drug Company? 06:56 What did Mark find when he decided to go through and look through his company's benefit program? 08:23 “When you think it through, you start to realize that money is being spent primarily by your sickest employees.” —Mark 09:13 How do you get CEOs and CFOs of self-insured employers to realize that their sickest employees are the ones subsidizing their checks? 12:10 What is the role of insurance in healthcare? 13:42 “If you can't convince them, confuse them and hide it.” —Mark 14:35 The reality behind getting a rebate check. 15:32 Why are rebates going away, and why isn't that changing PBM earnings? 18:17 How do you get CEOs and CFOs to dig into their benefits plan? 20:13 Does morally abhorrent move the needle? 20:47 “What we're trying to do is just simplify the [healthcare] industry.” —Mark 23:33 What's been changing in consumer behavior? 24:18 “Transparency is a huge part of building that trust.” —Ferrin 24:33 Why CEOs and CFOs really have the power to change healthcare. 31:42 What are Cost Plus Drugs' plans to expand? 38:36 Where is the future of the prescription drug market going? 41:25 What will happen to the prescription drug market in 10 to 20 years? 47:56 The wake-up call self-insured employers should be acknowledging now. 51:18 Where is the real change in the healthcare industry going to come from?   You can learn more at Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company and Scripta Insights. You can also connect with Scripta and Ferrin on LinkedIn.   @mcuban and Ferrin Williams provide advice for #CEOs and #CFOs of #selfinsuredemployers on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Dan Mendelson (Encore! EP385), Josh Berlin, Dr Adam Brown, Rob Andrews, Justina Lehman, Dr Will Shrank, Dr Carly Eckert (Encore! EP361), Dr Robert Pearl, Larry Bauer (Summer Shorts 8), Secretary Dr David Shulkin and Erin Mistry  

Grant Halloran, CEO of Planful, discusses AI's impact on CFOs and finance leaders, and ways these technologies have changed their role within organizations. He also shares how the financial industry will witness a future where extensive human involvement in routine financial tasks is reduced in favor of focusing on high-value, strategic work. Key Takeaways:  How AI is making non-financial people more financially savvy, faster Ways everyday people can better utilize artificial intelligence Unpacking the skepticism in finance due to the complexity and importance of accuracy with financial data The need for AI to be user-friendly and provide immediate utility, just like modern consumer technology Guest Bio: Grant Halloran, CEO of Planful, has been working to bring cutting-edge innovations to enterprise software for over 20 years. He's a champion for advancing how finance and accounting teams work. Specifically, Planful is using AI and machine learning in its market-leading financial performance management solutions to increase speed, reduce errors, spot trends, and more, and Grant is confident CFOs will soon come to rely on AI as a key to reaching peak financial performance. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software -  makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, now powering AI with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte  

Many hospital and health system CFOs rely on 340B discounts and other mechanisms like disproportionate share payments to maintain financial stability. In this episode, Attorney Jeff Davis, Partner at Bass, Berry, and Sims, chats with associate content manager Amanda Norris about the 340B payment unrest and how CFOs can strategize moving forward.

You know we had to get Caleb Foster on the pod after his dominant performance against Michigan State in the Champions Classic! CFOS takes us through his mindset and work ethic to always be ready for the moment like he was Tuesday night. Shout out to Charlotte's finest for coming through!

There are two big reasons why I decided to encore this show with Dan Mendelson from Morgan Health at this exact moment in time. 1. It's a great show (one of our most popular shows in the last year, actually) with lots of keen insights for self-insured employers—and by self-insured employers, I mean HR folks, of course, but also CEOs and CFOs. That was foreshadowing for my second reason. 2. It's gonna be an employer CEO/CFO triple play here on Relentless Health Value. Next week on the pod, my guest is Mark Cuban, along with Ferrin Williams from Scripta. And Mark Cuban, spoiler alert, has his own message for CEOs and CFOs of self-insured employers. Then the week after that, we hear from Andreas Mang from Blackstone who shares, among other things, what happens when some company gets bought by Blackstone and that CEO shows up for a meeting with Andreas and that CEO happens to know nothing about their vast, inefficient, and wildly wasteful healthcare spend. And with that, here is your encore. For a physician practice to transform itself from an FFS (fee-for-service) machine cranking out volume but not necessarily health or care, the office has to have a high enough percentage of their patients in value-based arrangements to make it actually feasible to transform. It is only when they hit a tipping point of enough patients in risk-based contracts that they can afford to be accountable for their results. At that point, yeah, everybody wins—doctors, patients, actually the entire community wins because when a local practice transforms, all of their patients tend to benefit at some level from the new processes and procedures and standardizations and pop health systems that get put in place. So, let's move forward with this with all haste, shall we? Why aren't we? What's the problem here? Well, there are lots of problems, don't get me wrong. But a big one is self-insured employers on the whole are not offering any sort of accountable care arrangements to the providers in their community. This is 150 million patient lives we're talking about here—a huge chunk of many providers' patient panels. Self-insured employers have a really big opportunity to level up the care in their whole community due to the spillover effect when a provider practice transforms itself because it has enough patients to do so. But these employers are stuck. They are paralyzed. They are doing the same thing this year that they've done last year, and therefore their whole community is equally stuck in a smorgasbord of suboptimal FFS goings-on. So, offering accountable care contracts is one thing (a very big consequential thing) that is also one of the five things self-insured employers can do to improve employee health that I talk about in this healthcare podcast with Dan Mendelson. Dan Mendelson, my guest today, also wrote a Forbes article listing out these five things. Here are all five things that Dan mentions in one handy list: 1. Expand availability of accountable care models to improve the care experience, quality, and affordability at a local level. For a deep dive on this, listen to the show with Dave Chase (EP374). 2. Invest in the data access needed to assess health outcomes. For a deep dive on this, listen to the show with Cora Opsahl (EP372). 3. Align employees' health benefits with pop health outcomes. For a deep dive on this, listen to the show with Mark Fendrick, MD (Encore! EP308). 4. Prioritize care models that can meet employees wherever they are. For a deep dive on the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) aspect of this, listen to the show with Monica Lypson, MD, MHPE (EP322). 5. Make care navigation a central part of the benefits package and experience. My guest today, Dan Mendelson, is CEO of Morgan Health at JPMorgan Chase. He previously founded Avalere Health. Before that, Dan served as associate director for health at the Office of Management and Budget. Besides exploring the why and the what for each of the five things employers should do right now, I also wanted to find out from Dan what's going on at Morgan Health and how they are looking to help self-insured employers who want to do these five things actually do them.   You can learn more at the Morgan Health Web site.     Dan Mendelson is the chief executive officer of Morgan Health at JPMorgan Chase & Co. He oversees a business unit at JPMorgan Chase focused on accelerating the delivery of new care models that improve the quality, equity, and affordability of employer-sponsored healthcare. Mendelson was previously founder and CEO of Avalere Health, a healthcare advisory company based in Washington, DC. He also served as operating partner at Welsh Carson, a private equity firm. Before founding Avalere, Mendelson served as associate director for health at the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton White House. Mendelson currently serves on the boards of Vera Whole Health and Champions Oncology (CSBR). He is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. He previously served on the boards of Coventry Healthcare, HMS Holdings, Pharmerica, Partners in Primary Care, Centrexion, and Audacious Inquiry. Mendelson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.   05:01 Why did Dan direct his article about health benefits at CEOs? 06:03 What does an accountable care model mean to a self-insured employer? 07:58 “This alignment of value will never work … if the 150 million Americans … getting their health insurance through their employer are not also aligned in the same way.” 11:28 “We're offering them a higher level of service.” 11:40 “Everything that we do is intended to be scalable and not just for us.” 12:09 “We have an obligation to do better for our employees.” 14:52 “Employers need to understand, the only way to get outstanding care is locally.” 17:28 Encore! EP206 with Ashok Subramanian and EP358 with Wayne Jenkins, MD. 18:18 Why is getting quantitative metric data important? 18:50 Encore! EP308 with Mark Fendrick, MD. 20:58 “This is a much broader vision of accountable care than … primary care.” 22:48 “Until everything is aligned, the employer is just not going to be providing an optimal product.” 23:39 “There are substantial issues with … health equity, and employers are paying for the care of 150 million Americans in this country.” 25:23 Is digital health access important for creating meaningful relationships between patients and providers? 29:50 What is the myth that employers need to tackle? 30:18 Why is care navigation important for employees? 31:44 EP334 with Sunita Desai, PhD.   You can learn more at the Morgan Health Web site.   @dnmendelson of @JPMorgan discusses #selfinsuredemployers on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Josh Berlin, Dr Adam Brown, Rob Andrews, Justina Lehman, Dr Will Shrank, Dr Carly Eckert (Encore! EP361), Dr Robert Pearl, Larry Bauer (Summer Shorts 8), Secretary Dr David Shulkin and Erin Mistry, Keith Passwater and JR Clark (Summer Shorts 7)  

Hey there, fellow entrepreneurs! We all know that when you work hard for your money, you should get to keep it. It's a fundamental principle in my business, and it resonates with numerous fractional CFOs and financial experts out there. Enter David Richter, a newfound friend I connected with at a recent conference, who shares this core belief. I've invited him to join us on the show today to delve into his perspective. David, much like myself, believes that your business should empower you to savor the things you love in life, and he's here to shed light on how the right frameworks can make this dream a reality. David Richter is the author of Profit First for Real Estate Investing - a derivative of the original Profit First by Mike Michalowicz that is tailored specifically to Real Estate Investors. His goal is to completely transform the Real Estate Investing industry by helping real estate investors make and KEEP more money in their businesses. As the founder and owner of SimpleCFO Solutions, he wants to bring investors true financial clarity and freedom and help every investor stop living deal to deal. This episode is a can't-miss for any entrepreneurs who are constantly feeling cash flow pressures or like their business isn't providing enough for them.   Give Relay Financial a Try: https://app.relayfi.com/register?referralcode=FitnancialSolutions Connect with David: simplecfo.com/gift IG: @richterscale91   What you'll hear in this episode: [3:00] So, who's David, and how did he stumble upon the Profit First framework? [6:44] Let's dive into the nitty-gritty of the Profit First framework's essentials. [17:15] How did David find his CFO calling when he didn't have a financial background? [23:29] Ready for the first steps to integrate Profit First into your life? [31:15] Unpacking the distinction between the business profit and owner's compensation accounts in Profit First. [34:15] Discovering your "keep" number for what you need from your business - how's it done? [37:35] Witness how David's weaved these strategies into the fabric of his growing CFO firm.   If you like this episode, check out: The Benefits of Creating a Sellable Business Ways to Increase Revenue If You Hate Sales Coaching Alone Can't Resolve Your Cash Flow Problem   Want to learn more so you can earn more? Download the Money Pro Matchmaker tool here Visit keepwhatyouearn.com to dive deeper on our episodes Visit keepwhatyouearncfo.com to work with Shannon and her team Watch this episode and more here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMlIuZsrllp1Uc_MlhriLvQ Connect with Shannon on IG: https://www.instagram.com/shannonkweinstein/ The information contained in this podcast is intended for educational purposes only and is not individual tax advice. Please consult a qualified professional before implementing anything you learn.  

In this episode, Nils welcomes guest Ian Campbell, author of "The Value Sale," to discuss selling value and quantifying ROI in sales. They explore the concept of value and benefits using the example of selling alligators and delve into different levels of benefits. Ian emphasizes the importance of grounding benefits in numbers, focusing on the top two benefits, and reframing the conversation to make it more relatable and impactful. They also discuss the value equation in leadership development and the significance of focusing on payback rather than ROI when selling a product or service. Tune in for more transformative discussions and redefine your approach to strategic selling today! Podcast highlights: 0:44 - The alligator story - Ian shares an absurd example of selling alligators and how the value of the opportunity can change perception. 3:42 - Different levels of benefits - Ian explains the concept of first-order, second-order, third-order, and fourth-order benefits and how they vary in credibility and variability. 11:00 - Avoiding the fourth-order benefit -  Ian advises against discussing fourth-order benefits as they can weaken the business case and recommends focusing on fewer, stronger benefits. 15:29 - Grounding benefits in quantifiable numbers - How does quantifying benefits in sales conversations help in upselling and building customer references? 18:44 - The significance of financial reasons for CFOs -  Ian highlights the importance of presenting financial reasons to CFOs when selling a SaaS product and how it helps in defending the decision and gaining internal support. 20:58 - Value equation for leadership development - How to approach and communicate the value of leadership development, even though it may be considered a third-order benefit? 27:15 - Using a range instead of a benchmark - Ian shares the benefits of using a range instead of a single benchmark number to avoid pushback and allow for individualized discussions about productivity increase. 31:17 - Payback period -  Ian discusses the significance of covering costs within a specific timeframe and the psychological impact it has on decision-making. 33:27 - Three real benefits for customers - Ian explains the three main benefits a customer can expect and how to determine which benefit is most relevant in a given situation. Connect with Ian at https://www.linkedin.com/in/iancampbellnucleusresearch/ Check out his book “The Value Sale” at https://www.thevaluesale.com/ Learn more about Nucleus Research at https://nucleusresearch.com/ This episode is brought to you by the Leadership MBA. The Leadership MBA is a 12-week comprehensive program that will give you all the practical tools you need to become a true leader and the CEO of your career. The product of nearly 2 decades of leadership coaching Managers, Directors, and VPs at companies like Apple and Oracle, the Leadership MBA will show you exactly how to crack the leadership code through a proven step-by-step process. Click here to download the Leadership MBA Program Guide

From Military Service to Employee Benefits - Two Veterans' Journey into Healthcare Transitioning from military service to civilian life can be a daunting task for some veterans. However, with the right support and guidance, veterans can find fulfilling careers in various industries. One such industry is insurance consulting, which offers a unique blend of strategic thinking, problem-solving, and client management. In a recent episode of the podcast @SelfFunded with Spencer, hosted by Spencer Smith and featuring Cliff Favors and Winston Elliott, the topic of veterans transitioning to civilian careers in insurance consulting was explored in depth. Networking and Support: Key Factors for Success One of the key takeaways from the episode was the importance of networking and support for veterans transitioning to civilian life. Cliff Favors and Winston Elliott, both veterans themselves and employees at Lockton, emphasized the value of reaching out to others who have already made the transition. They highlighted the Houston veteran community as an excellent resource for connecting with like-minded individuals and gaining insights into different industries. The Rewards of the Benefits Industry Despite its reputation as a potentially dull field, the benefits industry, particularly insurance consulting, offers rewarding opportunities for veterans. Cliff Favors mentioned that the benefits industry is often misunderstood and under-appreciated. He emphasized that the industry plays a crucial role in solving people problems rather than just crunching numbers. By focusing on the human aspect of business, insurance consultants can make a positive impact on the lives of employees and their families. Lockton: A Trusted Partner in Insurance Consulting Lockton, a privately held insurance broker, stands out as a company that prioritizes its clients' interests. Winston Elliott highlighted the unique advantage of being privately held, as it allows Lockton to focus solely on serving its clients without external pressures from shareholders or private equity firms. The company's commitment to comprehensive support was evident in its approach to medical coding and identifying questionable claims. With a team of medical doctors and coding experts, Lockton goes beyond traditional insurance brokers, acting as trusted advisors to business owners and CFOs. The People Solutions Approach Lockton's people solutions approach sets it apart from other insurance brokers. Rather than simply offering cost-saving solutions, Lockton aims to be a trusted advisor to its clients. By addressing not only healthcare concerns but also broader business challenges such as retention, compensation, and leadership development, Lockton positions itself as a strategic partner in the growth and success of its clients' businesses. Tradeoffs and Challenges While transitioning to a civilian career in insurance consulting can be rewarding, it is not without its challenges. Spencer Smith, the podcast host, highlighted the need for consultants to be proficient in their subject matter. The complexity of the healthcare industry requires consultants to continuously update their knowledge and skills to provide the best solutions for their clients. Additionally, veterans transitioning to civilian life may face the challenge of translating their military experience into relevant skills for the insurance consulting field. However, with the right support and networking opportunities, these challenges can be overcome. In conclusion, veterans transitioning to civilian careers in insurance consulting have a unique set of skills and experiences that can be valuable in this field. By leveraging networking opportunities, seeking support from veteran communities, and aligning with companies like Lockton that prioritize client interests and comprehensive support, veterans can find fulfilling careers in insurance consulting. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spencer-harlan-smith/support

Vicky Brown stands at the forefront of one of the most innovative human resources ventures, Idomeneo, and its educational extension, the Leaders Journey Experience. With a deep-seated belief in the transformative power of leadership, her journey has been about enabling leaders to excel in their businesses by offering them robust HR solutions and guiding them through the complex labyrinth of people management. Under her stewardship, Idomeneo has emerged as a bastion for established companies, allowing them to relinquish the burdens of HR management to focus on their core activities—growth and innovation. The Leaders Journey Experience complements this by educating entrepreneurs, particularly those who have unexpectedly found themselves in the throes of HR responsibilities, providing clarity and strategy where there was once chaos. Vicky's approach, shaped by her tenure as a CEO and HR specialist, has always been hands-on. Her team of certified HR experts doesn't just offer services; they become part of their clients' culture and growth journey. They tackle every element of the employee lifecycle while ensuring compliance with employment law, administering benefits, managing payroll, and offering personalized coaching. The appreciation for Idomeneo's partnership approach echoes through the testimonies of clients from various industries, from retail to music production, where CFOs and leaders praise the consistent, knowledgeable support they receive. Vicky's focus has always been on high-performance companies, particularly those that recognize the value of their teams and are poised for protection and growth. Vicky Brown's background as a seasoned CEO and HR professional has been characterized by a dedication to marrying HR expertise with the reality of running a client-centric business. Her story, which will be unpacked in the upcoming podcast episode, is a testament to her commitment to more human and more resourceful approaches to leadership and human resources. For more info, visit: https://MoreHumanMoreResources.info

From Military Service to Employee Benefits - Two Veterans' Journey into Healthcare Transitioning from military service to civilian life can be a daunting task for some veterans. However, with the right support and guidance, veterans can find fulfilling careers in various industries. One such industry is insurance consulting, which offers a unique blend of strategic thinking, problem-solving, and client management. In a recent episode of the podcast @SelfFunded with Spencer, hosted by Spencer Smith and featuring Cliff Favors and Winston Elliott, the topic of veterans transitioning to civilian careers in insurance consulting was explored in depth. Networking and Support: Key Factors for Success One of the key takeaways from the episode was the importance of networking and support for veterans transitioning to civilian life. Cliff Favors and Winston Elliott, both veterans themselves and employees at Lockton, emphasized the value of reaching out to others who have already made the transition. They highlighted the Houston veteran community as an excellent resource for connecting with like-minded individuals and gaining insights into different industries. The Rewards of the Benefits Industry Despite its reputation as a potentially dull field, the benefits industry, particularly insurance consulting, offers rewarding opportunities for veterans. Cliff Favors mentioned that the benefits industry is often misunderstood and under-appreciated. He emphasized that the industry plays a crucial role in solving people problems rather than just crunching numbers. By focusing on the human aspect of business, insurance consultants can make a positive impact on the lives of employees and their families. Lockton: A Trusted Partner in Insurance Consulting Lockton, a privately held insurance broker, stands out as a company that prioritizes its clients' interests. Winston Elliott highlighted the unique advantage of being privately held, as it allows Lockton to focus solely on serving its clients without external pressures from shareholders or private equity firms. The company's commitment to comprehensive support was evident in its approach to medical coding and identifying questionable claims. With a team of medical doctors and coding experts, Lockton goes beyond traditional insurance brokers, acting as trusted advisors to business owners and CFOs. The People Solutions Approach Lockton's people solutions approach sets it apart from other insurance brokers. Rather than simply offering cost-saving solutions, Lockton aims to be a trusted advisor to its clients. By addressing not only healthcare concerns but also broader business challenges such as retention, compensation, and leadership development, Lockton positions itself as a strategic partner in the growth and success of its clients' businesses. Tradeoffs and Challenges While transitioning to a civilian career in insurance consulting can be rewarding, it is not without its challenges. Spencer Smith, the podcast host, highlighted the need for consultants to be proficient in their subject matter. The complexity of the healthcare industry requires consultants to continuously update their knowledge and skills to provide the best solutions for their clients. Additionally, veterans transitioning to civilian life may face the challenge of translating their military experience into relevant skills for the insurance consulting field. However, with the right support and networking opportunities, these challenges can be overcome. In conclusion, veterans transitioning to civilian careers in insurance consulting have a unique set of skills and experiences that can be valuable in this field. By leveraging networking opportunities, seeking support from veteran communities, and aligning with companies like Lockton that prioritize client interests and comprehensive support, veterans can find fulfilling careers in insurance consulting. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spencer-harlan-smith/support

Welcome to the Count Me In podcast with your host Adam Larson and special guest Dan DeGolier! In this episode, Adam and Dan, founder and CEO of Ascent CFO Solutions, dive into the fascinating world of AI and its application in the finance and accounting sectors. Discover how AI is enhancing efficiency and reducing errors, while also exploring the potential challenges and ethical considerations it presents. Join us as we explore the evolving landscape of AI in fractional leadership. Tune in now for an engaging discussion you won't want to miss!Full Episode Transcript: Adam:            Welcome back for another exciting episode of Count Me In. I'm your host, Adam Larson, and today we have a special guest joining us, Dan DeGolier. The founder and CEO of Ascent CFO Solutions. We start off by exploring current use cases of AI in the industry. Such as coding transactions and streamlining forecasting processes.  But as Dan points out, we're only scratching the surface of what AI can do. The potential for growth and efficiency is immense. But it's important to proceed with caution and be aware of the biases and ethical considerations that come along with it.  Throughout this episode we highlight the evolving role of finance and accounting professionals, in the age of AI, and how they can adapt to leverage its benefits. From bookkeepers, to CFOs, to fractional CFOs, AI has the power to enhance efficiency and transform the way we approach financial management. So grab your headphones, and join us as we uncover the exciting world of AI in accounting. Let's dive in. < Music > Well, Dan, we're so excited to have you on the podcast today, as we're going to talk about AI and fractional leadership. And just to get started, as we think about AI, how is it currently being applied to finance and accounting sectors? Obviously, it does things like enhance efficiency and reduce errors, but how is it being applied in those areas?  Dan:                Yes, thanks for having me on, Adam. It's a pleasure to meet you, pleasure to be here. I think we're just getting started, for one thing. AI, even though it's been around for a while, ChatGPT, GPT 4, and all those things, are relatively new to the mainstream. And, so, a lot of this stuff we're just starting to figure out right now.  Definitely, in the accounting side, we're starting to see some use cases for coding transactions and things like that. I think there are a lot of opportunities in our world, in the finance realm. When it comes to forecasting, to be able to streamline multiple scenarios and make iterations to financial models and forecasts.  I think that's an area that we're starting to see develop. And, then, things like pricing strategy and looking at different ways to price and run different scenarios around that. Using large language models, and data, and being able to bring in data and run multiple scenarios and see what things look like there. I think those are all some areas that we're starting to see.  But, honestly, because it's so early, what is really going to be the biggest use cases, two years from now, is probably something we haven't thought of. Or somebody's thought of but hasn't really been implemented, yet. Adam:            Yes, that's a great point, that we're so early in the generative AI phase that some organizations are adapting quickly, other ones aren't. And software companies are trying to integrate it into there but it's still in the early phases. So our traditional role- Dan:                And it's still prone to errors as well. Adam:            Exactly. Dan:                Yes, we've all read the articles about the lawyer who tried to use it for briefs and got in huge trouble, and the hallucinations are still rampant. So I think proceed with caution, but recognize that it has enormous potential and don't be left behind.  I was going to say, I've heard that it's been compared to if you look at Web 1.0, the emergence of the Internet, and commercial use, that this could be a 10x-type of opportunity. From a growth potential, from an efficiency potential, et cetera, it's just fascinating to me, just how massive this could be, and how life-changing this is. Adam:            Well, and also the bias that's implicit in there, in the AI. Because there are so many biases among how people think, wording, that's out there in the Internet and how it's learning. There's going to be that bias that you have to get over as well. Because it's going to be embedded in there because of how it is societally. Dan:                Correct, yes, I agree with that. I think one other ethical consideration that needs to be taken into account, when you're implementing AI, is things around copyright infringement, and intellectual property, and protection there. I think the chatbots aren't necessarily aware of what's IP and protected and what's not.  And, so, it's important that we take into that, that there's a human overseeing that, and making sure that there's nothing being taken out of context or being utilized improperly. And along the same lines, research is another area. Tax research and other types of accounting research is a place where there is a lot of use cases for AI.  But, again, this is where you need to be very careful around trusting that research and validating that it is accurate. So we don't end up in a situation, where something that's not valid is being utilized. Adam:            It's going to be very difficult to understand what has been verified and what hasn't, and as you're doing research and as you're looking at things online. I imagine new tools are going to have to be developed to verify, "Yes, this is valid." Or "No, it's not." And how do you trust those as you go forward? Dan:                Yes, that's really important, and there are going to be mistakes made. As we start to adopt this, we're going to see mistakes being made. And, as humans, we need to learn from our mistakes and learn from others' mistakes, that's how we evolve. Adam:            Mh-hmm. Do you think that the traditional roles in finance and accounting are going to change because of these? I mean, obviously, they are. But how can we adapt as we go forward? Dan:                Yes, I think, first thing I would suggest is pay attention to what's going on, see what's evolving, see where things are taking it. I think it's going to definitely change the accounting side, the day-to-day transactional stuff. There's a YouTuber out there, Hector Garcia, who has done some demos of how you can plug in a ChatGPT tool into QuickBooks Online, and how that can help ease the coding of transactions and things like that. So it's definitely going to change that bookkeeper and junior accountant role significantly, I think it'll change all aspects. The CFO's desk, it's going to still require somebody with experience, and knowledge, and understanding, to validate what's coming out of it. Just like in any other industry, there's a lot of need to confirm, and double-check, and be heavily involved at that strategic level. But I think it'll make us more efficient. Adam:            Yes, I definitely agree with that. And as you're talking about things like analysis and looking at it from that higher level. I mean, obviously, the AI has a better computing power, but we still need that human element. And how does that traditional human analysis going to affect, as we look at the output from the AI? Dan:                Yes, that it's still going to be critical. Machines are going to do a lot of the analysis and it'll find pattern. It's better at pattern recognition than us, especially. with large data sets. But when it comes back to that human element of truly understanding, and the uniqueness of certain things, it's going to require a human element.  In preparation for this call, I was thinking a lot about fraud detection, and you got large data sets out there. I think, again, back to pattern recognition, AI can be really good at identifying things that stand out and look unusual. I mean, if you think about, maybe, purchase orders or sales orders that look unusual.  Maybe have overrides from managers and they can look for patterns there, where particular users, within an accounting system or ERP system, might see that something that a particular manager might tend to override things more often. Or looking at addresses, and zip codes, and understanding if there might be some inappropriate payments made that match up to addresses, vendors matchup to employee addresses or things like that. So that could be bogus, that could be fraudulent.  I think those things are going to be a huge area for auditors, both, internal and external auditors starting to use those data sets. Where that AI tool can go in and start digging around and finding some unusual patterns.  Adam:            Yes, and thinking about implementing AI, within your organization, if you're really considering this, you've done all the research. What are some challenges or ethical considerations that should be addressed, when implementing it? Dan:                The first thing that comes to mind is security. Right now, I've been reading some things that we're trying to be able to bring it inside your intranet, bring in those tools inside your internet. But you don't want to have breaches of data, things that go out, where the chatbot is getting a hold of your corporate data and then utilizing that in the greater universe. And, so, that's going to be really critical, is that we solve for security concerns where things stay within the four walls very clearly. That's the first thing that comes to mind.  And I think the other one is touched on earlier, which is just trusting it too much and seeing that something that comes out of it is just trustworthy, as opposed to really validating it. Whether that's research around case law, when it comes to tax law, or whether it has to do with... Just what comes out of a financial model, and what's practical from a pipeline perspective and things like that, when you're forecasting your financials. Adam:            Yes, so as we look to the future, when it comes to AI. What are some of the breakthroughs that you think will happen within the finance and accounting industry, as we look to the future with AI? Dan:                Automation, in general, and that can take multiple forms. We touched on the accounting coding of transactions and things like that, I think that's a big part of it. There can be a lot more automation around all of the accounting cycles. Whether it be payroll, invoicing, accounts payable, there can be a tremendous amount of automation on that side.  Variance analysis when it comes to your soft close of the books, your initial review of a month-end close. I think there can definitely be an analysis and digging in a transaction, and looking for those variances to prior periods variances, to budget variances, to forecast, and pulling those out. So I think there can be some automation around that. And, then, again, on the financial modeling piece, the forecast piece, there will be automation there as well. Adam:            So one area of expertise that you have a lot of expertise in, is the fractional leadership, the fractional executive, and especially the fractional CFO. And as we're talking about AI and the changing of how that CFO looks. How do you see the ability to have this AI as a fractional CFO? How does that really enhance your ability to help the organizations, that you're within that fractional capacity? Dan:                Yes, well at our firm, we're technology first, and we've always been focused on automation where we can. So I think for us, it's going to be those same types of approaches. Where we find ways to be more efficient, to be more cost-effective, to really implement these tools. Identify the best use cases for these tools, kind of trust but verify. Make sure that you still got that adult supervision, with that AI tool. But really leaning into it and making it a tool that speeds up data for the C-suite.  The faster you can close your books, the faster you can update your model, the faster you can make adjustments. When you see something change with your pipeline, I think, more agile executive team can act. Adam:            So when you're coming in as a fractional executive, a lot of times the best place for that model is an organization in transition. And, so, that's what I've been reading when I've had other conversations. It seems like it's organizations that are in transition, and when you're in that transition, it seems like you would be looking at all your systems. But how do you come in and say, "Hey, I want to have this technology first and utilize these tools." But they have never used those before. How do you bridge that gap? Dan:                Yes, it's an incremental process. I mean, when we look at working with a company, they are often going through a transition. Maybe, they're looking to raise an additional round of capital. They've recently raised another round of capital. They've got a new board reporting requirements. They need better discipline when it comes to forecasting their cash flow.  So if they're a little behind the 8-ball, when it comes to technology, it's going to be incremental steps. You first have to get a really solid ERP, or accounting system in place that is trustworthy and fully GAAP. Whether they're audited or not, you want them to be fully on accrual GAAP basis.  Once you have that, then, you start to put in place those data visualization tools. That's something we've been leaning into really heavily the last year or two, is creating really robust dashboards and data visualization, that not only show your historical financials, but your forecast, and your HR, and your payroll, and your sales pipeline. And, so, those technologies first need to have really reliable actuals, before you can lean heavily into some of the other newer technologies, and more robust technologies. Adam:            That makes me think of how important it is to have good data. Because you don't want to have garbage in, then, it'll just be garbage out. So you have to really make sure your data is in a good spot. Dan:                You don't even want to start to forecast or implement those better tools until your historicals are accurate, for sure. And it's not just plain GAAP financials, it's also what your KPIs look like. What are the real drivers of your business? And that's one of the things we look at when we come into a new client, is really take the time to look at the true drivers of the business.  They may not be obvious at first, every company is a little bit different. What's driving their growth, and their revenue, and their cash flow. So we really lean into that. And, so, we'll often start with what we call an assessment phase. We'll spend 20 to 40 hours just really digging in deep, to understand every component of the business. Adam:            Do you think that all businesses would benefit from some a fractional executive coming in and relooking at things? A lot of times people bring in consultants to do that. But it's just like they look at everything, give you a PowerPoint, and head out the door. But that fractional seems to be like that person who partners with you for a period of time. Dan:                Yes, definitely, our model is based on long-term but part-time. So we're, generally, looking at companies in the SMB market. So, generally, we work with companies between 2 million and 100 million in revenue.  And, so, as that company scales, some companies are too quick to hire a full-time CFO. Where they might really just need a full-time controller, a really solid controller, and an accounting team. And, then, a fractional CFO for a couple of days a week, who's extremely well qualified and very experienced, could be a great fit for them. To bring in that true executive-level oversight, with decades of experience, to help them navigate, again, what those critical KPIs are. Where the holes are and the different strategies that are being considered and things like that.  So, yes, companies that are worth 75 or 100 million very likely to have a full-time CFO, a very qualified CFO. But companies under 75 million or depending upon the transaction complexity, and transaction volume, companies that are small and medium-sized businesses can really benefit from having a top-notch CFO on their team. But it may not need to be a 40-hour or 60-hour-a-week job. It can maybe be a 20-hour-a-week type of engagement. Adam:            So you get that full-time experience, that experienced person there. But you may not, necessarily, be able to afford the salary that would require to have that person on full-time. Dan:                Yes, and there may not be enough, truly strategic, CFO-level work for that person, that you need to have someone on a full-time basis. That's what our whole model is based on. As you grow and evolve, you get the resources you need on a fractional basis.  Our team is CFOs, and VPs of Finance, and controllers, accounting managers, financial analysts, senior accountants. So we've got a full stack of people with different levels of experience, who can come in and support a company during its growth phases, and you pay for what you need. As opposed to having a real heavy fixed cost on your G&A budget, G&A financials. Adam:            Yes, that seems like a really good benefit, especially, for the small to medium-sized businesses. Is it beneficial for a startup? If a startup is just getting going; as an entrepreneur, is it good to bring in fractional folks, or do you think full-time would be more beneficial? Dan:                Yes, fractional makes a lot of sense for an early-stage company. I look at as a step function. You start out maybe you just need a part-time accountant to make sure things are being coded properly. Once you have revenue and you're ready to raise around the capital, then, you probably want a strategic fractional CFO or VP of finance, who can help you with that capital fundraise, help you with a really robust financial model, and understanding what your KPIs and drivers are.  And, then, over time, you start to fill in some of those roles on a full-time basis, as you get a growth cycle. So it's not uncommon, maybe, you start with a fractional senior accountant and a little bit of oversight, from a fractional controller. And then that evolves into one or two full-time accountants and, then, a fractional CFO, and, then, eventually, you get a full-time controller, and it just builds as you go up the ladder in revenue, and fundraising. Adam:            So this does not have to do with fractional CFO. But I want to throw this question out there and you feel free to answer it or not. But do you think that the evolution of AI will help bridge the gap between US GAAP and IFRS, to make it a more international accounting standard? Dan:                I think it definitely has potential to. I think that there's logic in the way that things like RevRec and other things are being handled, between IFRS and US GAAP. So, I think, there's definitely some good potential there. Adam:            Yes, I don't know. Because I just feel like as we become a more global world and how we would do business and everything. It would make more sense to have a globally recognized accounting standard, so that everybody's doing the same, has the same standards that they live up to. Obviously different countries have different beliefs and stuff like that, but it would make sense for us to think globally. Dan:                Yes, I like that. I hadn't given that a lot of thought before, but that does make a lot of sense to me. Adam:            Mh-hmm, well, Dan, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's been great talking with you. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and expertise with our audience. Dan:                My pleasure Adam. Really it was fun to meet you and fun to discuss these emerging technologies with you. < Outro > Announcer:    This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast, providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders, from the accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting in finance education, visit IMA's website at www.imainet.org.  

In today's fast-paced marketplace, distinguishing what is important and impactful is a challenging task, and when a crisis unfolds rapidly, the stakes reach unprecedented heights. Steven Kelly, Associate Director of Research at the Yale Program on Financial Stability, joins us to discuss how navigating the choppy financial waters requires CFOs to possess a keen sense of judgment, as well as a sharp appetite for risk.Our conversation delves deep into financial stability, its critical tools for navigating fast-moving crises, its relationship with technology, and recent dynamics among banks, governments, and international markets.Listen in as we uncover valuable insights on how CFOs can better understand, mitigate, and effectively manage risk, offering a lifeline for those seeking to fortify their financial strategies and bridge the gaps in tomorrow's balance sheets. Show Links Connect with Steven Kelly on LinkedIn and on Twitter/X Connect with Andrew Seski on LinkedIn Learn more about Yale's program on Financial Stability Discover more with the program's knowledge base

In the studio today are Joan Phillips, Assistant Commissioner at the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and Michelle Banks, DIF Strategic Director for MRC.   Find out how MRC is turning VR on its head. What would they do differently in the first year, and what results would they see after year 2? Learn about the success of the job certification program, and how they are meeting the "NextGen-ers" where they are at.   Hear how  Joan and Michelle encourage others to take on a DIF Grant to help bring more innovation and creative ideas to VR.   Learn more about the NextGen Initiative.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music}   Joan: If you are committed to this field, please apply for a DIF grant. Bring your ideas forward so we can infuse the future of VR with new energy and achieve more outcomes for individuals with disabilities who come to us, really depending on us, to help them make life changing decisions.   Michelle: We're moving more and more young adults into trainings. We've developed training partnerships in technology, in health care. We're trying to forge our way into biotech.   Joan: I'm always challenging staff. What else? How else?   Intro Voice: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining me in the studio today are Joan Phillips, assistant commissioner at the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and Michelle Banks, DIF strategic director for MRC. So, Joan, how are things going at MRC?   Joan: Things are going really well. We are extremely busy working hard to ensure that the individuals who come to us seeking employment have every opportunity to get the training and to be upskilled and to gain employment. We are very, very busy but very happy.   Carol: Well, and of course, under Tony, she keeps you very busy because Tony's got a lot of great ideas. I love that.   Joan: She's got a lot of energy, more than all of us, that's for sure.   Carol: How about you, Michelle? How are things going for you?   Michelle: Good, busy is the word. Our project is well underway. Got a lot of participants. We've got a lot of interested folks and a lot of optimism for what we're about to achieve here. So it's going well.   Carol: I'm super excited to dig into this because I know our listeners have been really excited. And so this is the third podcast in a series focused on the Disability Innovation Fund career advancement projects. And I want to just do a little quick recap for our listeners about this particular round of the Disability Innovation Fund grants. So grant activities are geared to support innovative activities aimed at improving the outcomes of individuals with disabilities. And the Career Advancement Initiative model demonstrations funded back in 2021 were intended to identify and demonstrate practices that are supported by evidence to assist VR eligible individuals with disabilities, including previously served VR participants in employment who reenter the program to do the following. And it was to advance in high demand, high quality careers like science, technology, engineering, and math or those STEM careers, to enter career pathways in industry driven sectors through pre apprenticeships, registered apprenticeships and industry recognized apprenticeship programs to improve and maximize the competitive integrated outcomes, economic self-sufficiency, independence and inclusion in society and reduce reliance on public benefits like SSI, SSDI and or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and any state or local benefits. Also, when we think back, Congress made career pathways a necessary, if not foundational, part of WIOA's workforce reforms and states, for example, are required to include career pathways and workforce development systems. They're required to have them in their local plans that they have. So it's been really fun because each of the other agencies that we featured to date has taken a really uniquely Different approach, and I'm excited to unpack what's happening with you all. So, Joan, I'm going to start with you. Tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you got into VR.   Joan: I actually have a master's degree in rehabilitation, but spent a significant amount of my career working in the private sector. I feel that those experiences really informed my positions that I've held at MRC. I came in as a director of one of our local offices, and four years later I was promoted to Assistant Commissioner. So that's a little glimpse into my journey. I have significant experience in Workforce Development, disability determination to determine eligibility for disability benefits, working with young adults with disabilities, individuals with severe physical disabilities. And I'm very fortunate to be in this career.   Carol: Well, it's always fun to see how people make their way to VR. We all get here some way. It can be a long and winding road sometimes, or a very direct path in. So Michelle, how about you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?   Michelle: Sure, mine might reflect a long, winding part when it comes to Vocational Rehabilitation, but I've spent my career working with young adults. I started in the health care sector and then moved to juvenile justice. And then spent about 20 years in public child welfare, and I was the director of Adolescent and Young Adult Services for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, where I was helping the agency pursue transition related outcomes, one of them being employment with a group of young adults who were going to leave the public child welfare system without returning home or being adopted. So they had their lives, were calling for an enormous amount of independence, saw a lot of inequity when it came to economic stability, and could see a lot of pathways in things that could be done differently. I had worked with MRC a bit in that role and saw what they were doing, and when I realized that they got this funding to help young adults in particular, really try to have gratifying career pathways that were going to help them achieve economic stability in ways that many of their peers have the opportunity to do. I jumped right on it. So that's how I landed with MRC and have been excited to be working in this role ever since.   Carol: Very cool. So you're well positioned for the role you're in now. That is great. So, Joan, can you paint us a picture of MRC? Like how many staff do you have? How many people do you serve? A little bit more about what it's like in Massachusetts.   Joan: Yeah. So the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission provides services that break down barriers and empower people with disabilities to live life on their own terms. Our programs focus on career services, home and community life, and disability determination for federal benefit programs. We like to say that we're change agents and community builders, and we put the people we serve at the heart of everything we do. I'm the Assistant Commissioner of the Vocational Rehabilitation Division. That division serves over 15,000 individuals annually. We have over 300 staff, which includes directors of our local offices, regional managers, statewide managers, vocational rehabilitation counselors, placement and employment specialists, counselors for the deaf and hard of hearing, various clerical positions, supervisors. And hopefully I haven't missed anyone. The NextGen initiative, which you'll hear about, has some broad and some interesting staffing positions that we hope will inform VR moving forward in the future, and you'll hear more about that later.   Carol: So just a side note, I wondered, how are you guys faring kind of coming out of the pandemic? Are you seeing an upswing in the number of people that you're serving?   Joan: Absolutely. The numbers are increasing in terms of the numbers being served and also the numbers of individuals who are getting employment. We had a downswing during the pandemic, but now it's moving in the right direction and we're really excited to see that.   Carol: Good, that's good to hear. Been kind of hearing that trend across the country and I'm super happy about that. Well, I know your commissioner, Tony Wolf. I think she's amazing. She's done a lot of very cool things. She comes with a whole interesting background as well. And I know she's been super supportive and I feel like is always on the cutting edge of improving services. Talk about the support you've received from Tony and kind of throughout your agency for this project.   Joan: Her vision is really to modernize our organization, to modernize the Voc rehab divisions, to be relevant to this generation and future generations of individuals with disabilities. So we're all aligning ourselves. I said earlier, she's got much more energy than all of us combined. So we're trying to keep up with her and her ideas and moving forward.   Carol: Very cool. So, Michelle, big picture. Let's break down the grant. What do you propose to do with this grant? And what are you hoping to accomplish?   Michelle: So in this grant cycle we are looking to get 1000 NextGen-ers. So young adults 18 to 30 years old with disabilities into career pathways that are STEM related. We're going to do that in a few different ways, but our goal is to really open their minds to see how they can be successful in STEM careers, help them develop the tools that they're going to need to make the right career decision for them, understand how they can be successful and happy, and really achieve that economic stability that you were talking about and I was talking about earlier. It's an Innovation grant. So we're doing things differently than they've been done in the past. One of the things that we're doing is we have a learning experience that we provide to all of our NextGen-ers, and it's called Self CARES. Self CARES is an acronym, stands for Self-capacity self-advocacy, self-realization and Self Sufficiency. So it's really understanding. Ending who you are as a worker, what you want out of that, what your strengths and limitations are, what you're going to need to advocate for yourself once you become someone's employee and how you can work independently. And in NextGen, we don't see independence as being alone. We see it as accessing, first of all, having access to services, being able to access them, and harnessing the things that are available in your life to help you be successful at work. So that's our learning experience, Self CARES. And we also have these really creatively built teams looking at success in other sectors and within vocational rehabilitation itself that we've developed these roles within these teams. They include a peer mentor for every NextGener. The moment that they walk into our doors, we actually walk through their doors because we're community based, which is another innovative component. We have family partners, so the families of all of our NextGen-ers have a partner available to them on our team to ensure that their voice is NextGen-ers life and how they can contribute to a successful career. We also have employment success specialists, we have career counselors. We have specialty counselors for our NextGen-ers with sensory disabilities. We have a specialty counselor for blind low vision, NextGen-ers, and deaf hard of hearing NextGen-ers. And we have regional supervisors because we are based in these communities. We have three communities in the Commonwealth that we're serving right now as part of the grant. What's really different is these teams hold the NextGen-ers together, so it's not a 1 to 1 relationship. For example, with a counselor we're testing out, what is it like when you have these multi disciplines in they're all available to you. And we know that young adults like choice. So they choose who in this team is their team lead who they want to talk to, who they're going to return the text from. You know, who can get them where they want to be. But the rest of the team doesn't go away. They stay right there at the table to bring what they're disciplined forward and help move the young adult into work. Those are the main components of our program. I always look to Joan for a moment because she can fill in what I may have forgotten.   Joan: So NextGen is about quick wins. You know, we really want to help the young adults focus on those certificate programs and apprenticeships that are short term. They're not. We're not talking about putting people into a degree program, but a certificate program where there is a demand in the market sector for those skills and that they have a high probability of obtaining employment, making higher wages.   Carol: I love that you're doing that, that focus on, you know, everybody always was thinking, you have to have this four year degree or you got to get your master's, you got to get your doctorate. You know, all that. That is not for everyone. And there are so many good careers out there where you just need this little bit, like this certificate or you do the apprenticeship. Lots of people learn better, hands on. I remember my son, one of his friends in high school is an apprentice to be a plumber. I'm like, Chase, he's going to make more money than everybody because everybody needs plumbers. And that was his thing. He doesn't want to go to school and do the book learning. He learns so much better via hands on. So I like that approach because everybody doesn't want to go to college.   Joan: Yeah, you know what's really interesting is that right now, because of employers being unable to fill so many positions, everybody is looking at their entrance requirements to say, do we really need somebody with a degree? Is this something that somebody could learn on the job? Is this something if they got a certificate in this particular area, would that be sufficient? So I think we're on the cutting edge. We're on the cutting edge of preparing young adults to meet the demands of the labor market. And we're really excited about this. The good news is that if somebody completes a certificate program, gets a job and decides they want a degree, many employers are paying for those degrees. So the young person doesn't have these huge debts that they need to pay back. So that's one of the exciting things about NextGen. And that's one of the things that we inform the participants about that you can get a degree later if you decide that that's a path that you want to take.   Carol: Well, your timing couldn't be more perfect. I mean, I really feel like the pandemic sort of set all this up where people kind of flipped employment on its ear, and people are starting to see that not everybody needs to go to college, and there's lots of different ways to achieve that kind of ultimate career goal that you want to get to. There's a lot of ways to get there. So I think your timing is spot on. So let's talk about the first year. What kind of struggles did you guys encounter? Because I've heard it from the other DIF grantees. They're like, you know, that first year we had some problems, but what kind of struggles did you encounter in year one and what would you have done differently?   Michelle: I think that we used the analogy building the plane as you're flying it a lot. We are very optimistic about reaching our goals. Five years is a very short time to pursue some of these things. So Joan was the crafter of the implementation strategy really, and implementing, you know, building the program, opening the program, staffing the program, delivering the service at the same time is a very rapid pace. So I think that the biggest challenge would be the pace. At the same time, we're asking our NextGen-ers to work really hard in a short period of time to get a big outcome. So we've got to be doing the same thing.   Joan: You know, it's really funny when you write something on paper. It looks so beautiful and. And somewhat easy you know. But then reality hits that you have to, you know, this is a program that's serving people and you need to be strategic around implementation. And how are you going to deliver what it is that you've promised your funders that you're going to deliver? You know, if there was one thing that I could, we spent a lot of time drafting job descriptions, hiring staff, training staff, setting up infrastructure. If there was one thing that I could change as we rolled into year two and began to do outreach and recruitment, I looked back and said, I wish we had done outreach and recruitment in the first year, with a timeline set as to when the program would start. You know, took us a while to get the momentum going for recruitment. We're actually exceeding recruitment goals right now, but it was very stressful in the beginning thinking we weren't going to meet that number.   Carol: So that's a really good tip because I know folks have said the first year is sort of a drag because of the government processes. You have to write your position description and get it approved, and then you've got to post and then you're going to hire. And so you're waiting, waiting, waiting to kind of get going with the program. And then year two, It's like, holy cow, pedal to the metal really quickly, where I love that idea of ramping up and making people aware of what's going on as you're getting these things done. So it isn't quite that just huge forcefulness that needs to happen right away in year two. That makes really good sense. So since you're saying your outreach is going really well, I was going to ask you, I know you guys have a really I call it a groovy way of talking, so I may date myself, but I love how you guys talk about this program because it's exciting. You know, I love your NextGen-ers. I like when you were talking about employee success specialists. Like, I want to be one of those, you know, that kind of cool stuff that you're doing. So how are you connecting with your potential customers? And I'm going to shoot that to you, Michelle.   Michelle: Yeah, we have had a really dynamic and exciting outreach and marketing campaign. I have to talk first about our digital and print collateral, because when we were at CSAVR last year, it just flew off the shelf. They were so impressed with it. They wanted it to take it back to their state and see how they could replicate it. Marketing to young adults. Young adults get marketed to a lot, right? They are exposed to things that new ideas and people that want their presence, their money, their time. So you have a lot of competition out there, and you have to think about what's going to get their attention. So we had a digital and print media campaign in multiple languages. We want to ensure that we are serving young adults that have been under engaged in the past, and that includes specific racial and ethnic demographics. So we needed to make sure that the imagery on this collateral looked like them, look like the people we wanted to come into our program with. So diverse representation, they're young adults. Some had visual disabilities in the print collateral. They were living their lives, you know, so that folks could see that and really see themselves represented. And then also in their languages as well. We have multiple languages, and then everything from like the colors that we use to the background we used. We lifted that from other media campaigns that were for young adults specifically that we knew were successful. So real intentionality in a lot of time was put into that and a great partnership with our coms team. They were there before I got to the table and were so excited to do this work, and it really came through and what they were able to produce. We also went to social media. We launched social media campaigns. On Tik Tok reached close to 1500 views on that. We went to Facebook and Instagram, but we knew our demographic was really on Instagram and TikTok, so that was our area of focus. We did dynamic reels for them, and then we also just did what you would call like a flat still photograph, you know, using our digital media. So we're able to reach a lot of people that way. Then we went out every time we hired somebody and they were trained on the program, we put them out into the community to go find young adults, families and the systems that serve them. So we established partnerships with health and human service sister agencies serving our demographic as well as high schools were a great partner for us. We used some contracted services so that we could harness other relationships that were in the community. Cultural brokers, any type of neighborhood event, community event we were out at trying to we knew that the power wasn't speaking directly to young adults and directly to families, so that was always our focus. And multilingual capacity is really important there as well.   Carol: Yeah, I remember your materials flying off the table. People were like, holy cow, it is, it's like you've brought this whole fresh perspective into VR.   Michelle: Just one more thing. If anybody's listening that was of a huge assistance to us was a QR code on our print material. I just wanted to share that our potential NextGen-ers or their families could scan the QR code came directly to our landing page in a one page inquiry sheet.   Carol: You would now be proud of me because I saw that I was like, so we now have QR codes we're using on everything. So we do if we're doing evaluations, we go anywhere. We use a QR code instead of like, we're sending you this paper evaluation. We're just like we do the QR code. In fact, at our table coming up at the conference, I have QR codes that folks can just scan to get to our resources instead of like, dragging a bunch of paper along. So you're starting a revolution, you guys. It's awesome, I love it. So what kind of results are you seeing now that year two is completed? I think Michelle go to you first.   Michelle: We're moving more and more young adults into trainings. We've developed training partnerships in technology, in health care. We're trying to forge our way into biotech. So our NextGen-ers are coming in at the younger side around 22. So a lot of them do not have significant work history and have never heard of these fields before. They didn't get a lot of exposure to that in their high school experience. So we're doing a lot of career exploration and helping them into these trainings. We're doing some cohort trainings with some partners. So these are just NextGen-ers that we're able to hold together, serve as a group, give them peer support, give them support outside of the training or academics that are happening for them. And we're getting a lot of feedback on how to do that effectively with them. They don't like to meet in the morning. They don't want to meet after dinner. You've lost them permanently. But and they like individualized support. So as they're in these trainings, it's great and very helpful to them to meet as groups and peers. But they also want to be able to privately ask a question if they're struggling with any material, or maybe not quite sure this is a good fit for them. So needing to be really available to really understand what these trainings are, what is being asked of them, and then being able to provide that support. And if we can't provide it, connecting with the training provider to help them understand what the student experience is as well. And we've got some young adults moving into work as well. We again needed to open their minds to STEM careers. And sometimes when you've had no career or no job, you need to start somewhere. So we are looking a lot at some folks that are heading to work in. Our work is nowhere near done, right? They're getting their first job and they're learning what they like and what they don't like there. But the idea is to move more towards a career focused pathway.   Carol: Yeah. Very cool. That's the thing about demonstration projects you learn along the way, which I love, like you're learning little nuances, especially when you're working with that age group. Like, yeah, like after dinner you can and not too early in the morning. You're like all those different pieces, the ways you think you have it set up, and then you go, well, that didn't work so well. We're going to pivot. Joan, did you have some thoughts on that too?   Joan: Yeah, I was just going to say one exciting thing for me is employers engaging with us differently. For example, we have Red River who really stepped up and said we would love to offer an IT training for some of your participants who are interested in that field and their staff delivering the training for these young adults. And the hope is that, you know, many of them will get employment with Red River and other organizations. They brought Cisco and others to the table. And, you know, the opportunities. You know, if these individuals succeed in this area, it's wide. It's wide, wide open. Employer engagement. Also involves coming to talk to the young adults about different jobs in STEM, what it's like to work for their organizations, and etcetera. So it's beautiful to see the employers engaging at that level and who else to give relevant information but the employers.   Carol: Yeah, that's brilliant.   Joan: I walked into one of our conference rooms the other day, and there were 20 young people just focused on taking computers apart, and they didn't even notice me walking in the room. They were so engaged in the process. It was just, just beautiful. Just beautiful.   Carol: I think that's super smart, you know, because we can do it. You sit there and you go, well, you've got your counselors and they're talking about different jobs, but nothing better than people in that field. That particular company. And those companies are smart for hooking up with you guys too, because they have such a need for staff. And so that partnership, like the partnerships you're developing all the way through this, that's amazing. It's very cool. Joan, now I know you talk to me too, about your philosophy when it comes to VR. Can you share that with our listeners? You have some very cool perspective, and I know I can't, I can't say it like you say it.   Joan: Yeah, I've been in the field for a really, really long time, and my greatest desire is to see individuals with disabilities in high level, higher paying jobs. It's time for us to move out of retail flowers and filth. And I can't remember the other half, but, you know,   Carole: Food.   Joan:  and food services. Yes. It's time for us to move there. And I'm extremely excited to see where these NextGen-ers end up as we focus them on potentially jobs and careers that they've never heard of. You know, it's about exposing them to that. I'm always challenging staff. What else? How else? When I came to Mass Rehab, I was very surprised that our organization had been around for about 50 years and that the business community didn't know about us. I'm saying to myself, how are we getting people to work? And the types of jobs that people were getting really demonstrated that we were not connected to the business community. So it was my vision to drive that connection, to hire staff specifically focused on building relationships with the business community, nurturing those relationships, bringing information back to the counselors who are giving the advice around careers, and really developing a feeder system by having individuals who are managing business accounts, who speak their language, you know, who understand their culture and can help us to become much more innovative in preparing the individuals we serve and building the talent pipeline for the employers.   Carol: Good on you. I love that you speak to my heart. I know back when I was at State Services for the Blind in Minnesota and we were trying to expose our Pre-ETS students, that's why we started podcasts. Back then. We wanted to expose students to other kinds of work out there, because a lot of times our young folks who were blind or visually impaired, they just thought, I'm going to be a Walmart greeter. I can't do anything else. And it's like they had no idea I would cry, literally when we would do these student interviews and when people would kind of sell themselves short. It really hit my heart. And so the world is wide open. There's so many awesome opportunities that our folks can fill, you know, and you champion that I think is just brilliant.   Joan: Yeah, I mean, young adults with disabilities need to know that individuals with disabilities are CEOs. They are CFOs. They are IT professionals. You know, they're in the medical field. They're doctors, nurses, firemen. I mean, they're in every business sector. And I really believe that it is our job as VR professionals to expose those individuals to those careers and to really help them to think about their abilities. And, you know, what they have to bring to the table and how can we help them? Our job is to help them make informed decisions. Right? So we need to be informed about the labor market so that the information that we're transferring to these young adults is relevant to the current labor market. I think the NextGeneration of individuals with disabilities are not going to put up with working in a supermarket, bagging groceries. They want to be doing things that give them a great salary and offer them career ladder opportunities. And we're starting with NextGen.   Carol: They're going to be running that grocery store. They're not just bagging the groceries.   Joan: There you go.   Carol: They're going to own it. They're going to own that store. I love that. So, Joan, I know you also talked about the support you've had from RSA. Can you describe that for the listeners with this grant that there's been just really great support?   Joan: Doug Ziou has been an incredible supporter and a great cheerleader of MRC. I mean, everything we bring to the table, he's just. Yes. Do it. Yes. Do it. Very, very supportive, asking great questions, challenging us in ways that we need to be challenged but extremely, extremely supportive. And we're truly grateful that we have Doug on our side.   Carol: Yeah, I've heard that with all the project officers, I mean, like, they are super excited and really invested in these grants. It's almost like it's their babies or something. And they just love this so much. I'm really glad to hear that. Michelle, did you have anything you wanted to add to that?   Michelle: No, I was nodding. I realized this is a podcast, but I was just nodding furiously as Joan was talking. Working with Doug has just been such a pleasure, and you never get off a call with him without just feeling completely pumped about what you're about to go do and see all the possibility in it, because, you know, he does.   Carol: Yeah, I like that. They really cheerlead for that. So for those listeners that would like to apply for a DIF grant but have been afraid to do so, what advice would you give to others? Michelle. I'm going to hit you up with that first.   Michelle: I think that engaging potential employer partners, stakeholders, families are critical in not just the design and implementation phase, but hanging on to those partners, remembering what they told you in the beginning, revisiting that to give them a feedback loop on how you're incorporating their ideas to keep their partnership going, even when it's like, hey, remember you said that maybe you thought you could take on a few NextGen-ers in your organization? We're there now, keeping in contact, revisiting conversations. You know, I think that in a lot of grants, we bring our stakeholders to the table when we're applying for the funding and maybe even right when we first get it. And then we let them go away a little bit. So keep them there, keep them in the conversation. Update them on how things are progressing. Continue to ask questions. The world is different than it was two years ago, so our questions should be different as well. So that we're staying current in that partnership is staying current. And I can't stress family engagement enough and how powerful it is with young adults. Most family engagement models were born to serve children, and our young adults continue to have the bulk of their support come from their family members. I think everybody through the life course has the bulk of their support come through their family members. So why would you not have their voice at the table? Why would you not have their ideas? Why would you not consult with them on the course that you're setting with the NextGener, or because they have a lot of insight to share, they have a lot of resources to offer. So continuing that conversation in as well with that very unique set of stakeholders I would recommend.   Carol: Yeah, well said. Joan, any advice you have for our listeners?   Joan: Yeah. I mean, if you are nervous about applying for a grant, this is what I say. Are you an innovative thinker? Are you tired of VR the way it is and you would like to see change? Then I say go for it. VR needs some inspiration, some new strategies to move to the next level. If you are committed to this field, please apply for a DIF grant. Bring your ideas forward so we can infuse the future of VR with new energy and achieve more outcomes for individuals with disabilities who come to us, really depending on us, to help them make life changing decisions. I just want to share a story of a young adult who worked with MRC. He came to us, he was working in a pizza establishment, and he heard about our job driven training in cybersecurity. He applied even though he wasn't sure that that's an area that he could succeed in, graduated the top of the class, and is now earning over $80,000 a year. We want to replicate that 1000 times over with NextGen, and I would love for VR nationally to replicate that story. We want people to make wages that they can live on, that they can support a family on, that they can purchase a home or a car or, you know, live in a nice apartment. We want people to get off of Social Security disability benefits. That is buying into a lifetime of poverty. So we're depending on people with innovative and creative ideas to make that change. Don't be afraid of a DIF, grant. Jump in with both feet and let's make change happen for voc rehab.   Carol: Hear hear, you guys are going to turn VR on its head for sure, I love it. So Michelle, what would be the best way for our listeners to contact you if they wanted to follow up with any questions or like to see any information?   Michelle: Absolutely, we have a landing page. It's very impressive. I think it has this component where you can see videos of all of our NextGen staff. We did that for young adults to be able to check us out in the way that they like to check people out before they engage with them. It's https://www.mass.gov/nextgen-careers and anybody could email me any time MichelleBanks2, the number two, @mass.gov.   Carol: Excellent. You guys have been awesome. I'm so excited and I'm really hoping to check back in with you in a couple of years. As you get further along in the journey, maybe we can do a little repeat podcast and go like, hey, everybody is making they're not making 80,000 Joan. People are making 100 grand and these guys are living their best life. It is happening, I love it. Thank you both so much for participating in this podcast today. Appreciate it.   Joan: Thank you so much.   Michelle: Thank you.   {Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Mandy Xu, CBOE Global Markets VP & Head of Derivatives Market Intelligence, advises monitoring multiple asset classes going into the year-end. Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, says the airline remains committed to Boeing despite delays in aircraft deliveries. Amanda Lynam, BlackRock Head of Macro Credit Research, says there's an increased focus on selectively from credit investors. Julie Norman, UCL Centre on US Politics Co-Director, discusses the Israel-Hamas war and Antony Blinken's visits to several leaders in the Middle East. Ashley Allen, Franklin Templeton Corporate Credit Research Analyst, discusses resilient consumer spending. Get the Bloomberg Surveillance newsletter, delivered every weekday. 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This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Lisa Abramoids along with Tom Keen and Jonathan Ferrell. Join us each day for insight from the best in economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business App. I'm DeLine of joined us now at a macro credit research at black Line I and I don't worry. We're not going to be talking about that. I do want to talk about supply if we can start there. We've got forty eight billion dollars a three year notes this week, We've got forty billion dollars a ten year notes. We've got some thirty year bonds twenty four billion dollars worth. These are big, big numbers. That's treasury supply. What's happening with credit supply going into year rent, Good morning, Thank you both for having me so. As you know, credit supply had a bit of a flurry of activity in September. It calmed down in October. I do think with this tentative stability in the treasury market that corporates, CFOs and treasures may look to move ahead before the year end seasonal slow down. It will be an important test for the market how this treasury supply is digested. But as we know, the Treasury Secretary guided us towards the front end of the curve and not so much in duration in the refunding announcement last week. But I actually think, if nothing else, the past several months have shown corporates that this can be very episodic in terms of these windows opening, and so given that we know the maturity walls are coming up, I think for corporates it's better to issue early rather than late. We're expecting a big week in the IG market this week. I think expectations are a little lower in high yield, but I would not be surprised if we surprise to the upside in terms of those expectations, because I think it's just prudent for CFOs, which speaks to kind of the opportunism that one Sidi get desk told me about last week. He messaged me as soon as we saw this rally and he said, everyone's trying to come to market. I've gotten fifteen phone calls. Everyone's basically lined up. Is this going to be bad? With credit spreads widening in the sort of counterintuitive way because we've got more supply, I think the appetite is there, and I think we've had such light supply, especially in high yield year to date, and twenty two was a record a low level that I think the appetite for the market is there. I think where the real risk is is it that lowest quality cohort of the triple C market, that kind of lowest quality rung of high yield which are triple C issuers. There. I think we've seen some enhanced pressure where it's weak results coupled with refinancing needs have really pressured those capital structures. And even on this swift rally in high yield spreads that we've seen over the past few trading sessions, triple c's have rallied, but they've lagged on the way in. And I think it's the market telling you that there's an appetite for certain quality cohort in the credit market. Ig I think is there in most market conditions. Hig yield is a bit more tentative, but for that lowest quality rung, I think it's very case case specific and vary idiosyncratic. Are people kind of just pricing in perfection here? Well? With high old spreads below four hundred, it's hard to argue you that there's much risk premium added into the market at the moment. I think what we're seeing is a lot more focus on selectivity from our credit investors, so thinking about asset allocation between high yield and leverage loans, sector selection, issuer selection. I think where we're high old spreads are at the moment, the path of least resistance is probably a little bit wider in terms of choppiness, with some of the headline risk ahead of us. But again, as we've talked about before, where yields are, it's really difficult to see kind of highield spreads breaking out in this range of much wider from here, because when you every time, we tried to reach four forty last week and we kind of snapped back in, and so there is a bit of a tug of war between fundamentals and technicals, and even the most vulnerable fundamental pockets of the market have been the best performer, Like leverage loans. You mentioned the decision set between loans and say high yield help our audience understand what goes into making that kind of decision and whether that's changed in the last few weeks. So it has changed in the last few weeks because for a few reasons. One is, if you think we're at the end of the rate hiking cycle, if you think we've seen stability in long end rates, you might think that the bulk of the loan outperformance is behind us at this point. And indeed that yield pick up that leverage loans were offering over high old bonds has narrowed. So what we are seeing is a bit more interest, say even within capital structures, of investors saying Okay, well I'm in the loan, should I rotate into the high old bond or given the fundamental pressures of this higher for longer rate environment, that we're expecting our loans disproportionately impacted by that because they've been contending it with it for a longer time. Again, we don't view fixed rate bonds as immune from that in many instances, but I do think on the margin, given the strong performance of loans here to date, there is some refocusing on Okay, is the bulk of that loan performance behind us read some life into that just a little bit more. We sort of big equity move last week. If you're looking at a and I know it's unique and idiosyncratic, but ultimately just give us the thirty five thousand foot view. If you're looking down a capital structure right now, is the bias to be higher or lower in Actually, you know, I think the high end of the highield market has actually outperformed the low end of the IG market. So it's not as clear cut as saying be underweight high yield versus IG. There are a lot of nuances there. I do think for choice, I would prefer to be higher in quality within high yield in IG. I think moving down into that triple beat cohort is a relatively nice place to be. For the most part, the vast majority of those corporates are committed to maintaining investment grade ratings. You are picking up a bit of a spread pickup relative to the highest rate cohort. I think that's important in this current environment, especially if we don't get a severe downturn in growth. So I don't mean to be overly basic about this, but when you take a step back, I do wonder if we do get coalesce around this higher for longer kind of idea. Does it make sense that we're not going to get any kind of major default cycle, either in public credit or in private credit. If we're looking at benchmark rates that are five percentage points higher than when all of these companies were bar in bulk not so long ago, it's a great point, Lisa. So we are seeing a modest uptick in defaults. Were it just under five percent in the US when you combine high yield and leverage loans, that's well off the rock bottom levels of twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two. Do we break out to the levels that we saw in COVID eight and a half nine percent, I think, barring a severe downturn, I don't see it. Part of the reason is that corporates have entered this period in a really strong position. The other part is that the investor appetite, to your point, John, is there. And then third, I would say corporates are actually shifting to a more balance sheet friendly posture. So we haven't seen a lot of debt funded m and A, we haven't seen a lot of debt funded share buybacks. They're still investing in capex, still investing in debt repayment in terms of uses of cash. But I do think corporates do have some discipline. I think the real risk is that if there's a severe downturn in growth coupled with just a capital market's freezing such that these corporates don't have access at any price, I think it's I think it's difficult. As for the private credit point, historically we look at losses between the two markets, and private credit losses have held in better than public credit losses. Part of that is because the enhanced flexibility that those corporates have. We think that holds true. But I think the point remains, we're expecting an ongoing normalization higher and losses across all those asset classes not extremely given where we know where the maturity will is. Can you identify what would be the least optimal time to have any canoa down to and is that what's basically on the horizon now? So I think probably the biggest risk is that if corporates try and time this opportunistically, they let the year end play out, they think the environment will be better in the first half of twenty twenty four, and then we have some sort of shock, whether that's geopolitical unforeseen risk contraction. We're watching bank lending very closely. Although that has actually played out I think a bit more benign than we would have thought. That is the risk. I think that if corporates try to be almost too strategic about the timing and they cut it too close. We saw that in the financial crisis, where some corporates we're shut out. So that's why I think, if I'm a CFO or treasure, better to issue early rather than late. At a Lisa's point, maybe we get a lot more supply in the coming weeks and months based on what we've seen develop over the last few weeks. No matter, thank you always great. I'm out of line in there of black Rock. Michael I literally with this around the table to Ryan CEO. Michael, I wish people could see your face, as said Basting, wispeak it just to get some reaction. It's going to see you. Good morning, It's great to be here, John, Lisa, good talk to you again. Well, thank you, buddy. You've had earnings out this morning. We've been talking about this dividend of four hundred million euros. We've got to talk about this relationship with Boeing. I want to share a couple of quotes with you and then try and get some clarity. So you said in the last week, if anything, it's getting worse. I would have been reasonably confident up until about a month ago that we'd get fifty seven aircraft by the end of June. I'm not confident. We heard from your CFO this morning. So the worst case scenario is that we'll end up with growth of forty seven aircraft next summer instead of fifty seven. Help me understand where things are. What did you want and what do you think you're going to get? Yeah, I mean ourkis so we are contracted to deliver as fifty seven aircraft by the end of April twenty fourth, in other words, fifty seven additional aircraft for summer twenty four. At the moment that has slipped by the spirit production issues, in which it all Boy's own production issues in Seattle. I think now it looks like we'll get they'll leave us maybe ten short by about the end of June. We're hopefully we get forty five fifty aircraft by the end of June. We said the point we're not taking planes in July and August because frankly, we're too busy. But we're reasonably hopeful that we'll get forty five fifty aircraft front. They will leave us short. I think that's inevitable at this point in time, which means we'll have slightly slower growth next summer, but we'll still add forty five aircraft. It'll still be enough to enable us to grow traffic from one hundred and eighty three million passengers this year to just over two hundred million passengers. It's for a number you have in mind whereby you would have to cut capacity the next summer. There isn't. I mean, we haven't yet announced what the capacity will be next summer. As we said this morning, we have ninety percent of our summer twenty four capacity already on sale. Strongforward booking is good pricing, but we can't commit to the last ten percent until we get a better picture from Bowie. I speak weekly with Dave Calhoun. I think he's doing a good job in difficult circumstances. I have less faith in the management in Seattle, but I think you know, we're working closely with them. We have our own people in Seattle. We have our own people in spurting Wichita and anything we can do to expedite these deliveries will do because growth is so strong in Europe. What is it about the management in Seattle what they're getting wrong? I think there isn't enough focus there on a daily basis on how do we get in with these aircraft out? Everybody is kind of ringing their hands blaming Wichita. You know a lot of the issues are in Seattle as well. They need a more crisis I would like to see greater crisis management in Seattle and greater focus on quality control. You know, I don't understand how Wichita Spurt and Wichho We're able to have this succession amount of production problems if BOE's quality control was up to speed. Do you have options options in terms of what do you do if you don't want to work with Boeing anymore? I don't know. Let's say we want to work with Boeing. We're Boeing's biggest customer by a mine in Europe. We're a committed Boeing customer. Now I would buy Airbus aircraft if they were five percent cheaper per seat than Bowing. But Boeing continue to beat Airbus on pricing. The seventy three seven Max is a phenomenal aircraft, like we now this summer we've flown one hundred and twenty five of the Max eight aircraft. We're carrying four percent more pastures, we're burning sixteen percent less fuel. You know, they're transformative in terms of the engine and aircraft efficiency. We've ordered three hundred Max tens, which will allow us to carry two hundred and twenty eight passengers per fight and burn twenty percent less fuel. So they're making great aircraft. It's just they're not making them on time or delivering them in time. Is it fair to say, though, this is a relationship you're stuck with regardless of what it delivers next year. I mean yes, you know we're committed to Boeing. If you look around the world, the aircraft manufacturers, i mean Airbus are no better than Boeing at the moment. Airbus are way behind on their deliveries too. You have the and Whitney engine, which is going to be a real crisis next summer across the A three twenty fleet in Europe. You know, the part and Whitney engine is going to ground a significant number of airbus aircraft next summer. So all of the air craft manufacturers are challenged. We're a very proud Boeing customer. I think Boeing will get its act together. It's just taking a bit longer than we had originally hoped. In the meantime, how far can you jack up prices if capacity is constrained? I mean I think that the real issue for at least is not how much will we jack up prices? How much will Luftansa or France IAG or BA keep jacking of prices? And the answer is a lot. You know your control estimate this sumwhere Europe's operated about ninety four percent of pre COVID capacity, That includes US growing by twenty five percent. So take Ryan air away. Europe still at less than ninety percent of pre COVID capacity. That's not changing next year. The aircraft manufacturers are delivering aircraft late the part and whitneys will mean five ten percent of the airbus street will be grounded. And consolidation. Lufthanso will buy al Italians, somebody else will buy TAP and there'll be even less capacity on offer. Okay, so this is good news for you because you don't have to really have to try too hard to be the lowest cost aircraft while still raising prices. How much you're going to raise prices next year, we're price passive, load factor active. I think what's happening is how much if Lufthansa Air France Scalem will drive up fares I think by a double digit number next year. It will send even more people in the direction of Ryanair. People want to keep flying, Families want to go on holidays. They just don't want to pay off hands as outrageous prices. So I think fares that next year, I mean my operating assumptions fares will go by a low double digit percentage again through the summer twenty four to be the third year in a row, third summer in a row, we'll see double digit fare increases. In Europe. This is the first year in the first time that you're initiating a dividend YEP, it's a four hundred pounds dividend. It is the first time. Does this mean that you have nothing else to do with that money? Essentially? Yes, you know, I mean some of the first time we've done it. We've done special differdence in share buybacks, We've done about seven billion in share buybacks and special dividends. But you know, we're clearly generating a lot of cash at the moment. We've paid down about two billion in debt. We're down to our last two billion in bond that we'll pay that down over the next three years, and we're generating more cash that we know what to do with. We have specific requirements. Firstly was to do pay increases for our people who worked with us during COVID. Secondly was to pay down the bonds, and thirty is to fund aircraft deliveries. But we're running out of the existing order. We take the last aircraft in December twenty twenty four. The first of the Max tens doesn't rive toll January twenty seven, so we're looking into two or three years. So we have effectively very little uses for cash, and I think it's a commitment on our part. We'll return to shareholders. We won't squander it the way many other airlines do in m and A or buying hotels or whatever, or Delta or as Delta would do, giving monstrous pay increases to its pilots over the next four or five years. We need to keep our cost low keep our efficiency high and keep passing on on beatable air first to our customers. Do you think scheholders then can expect more of the same of an xt few years. I think so as long as trading continues. You know, who knows what's going to happen in Ukraine or in the Middle East. But as long as we get a reasonable wind on trading, then I think we will continue very cash generitive and we will return large amounts of cash to share. It's hard to know what is going to happen in Ukraine in the Middle East. I don't expect you to give us a projection. I do want to understand, though, Are you saying things slow down in any way, shype or form when you start to see these things escalate anything that's a no. I anyway, we saw the initial when Russia invade the Ukraine in February twenty twenty two, twenty two or three account Remember you know, there's a sudden downturn in all of our traffic into Poland, Romania those countries. It recovered after two or three weeks. We've had to suspend We're suspending all flights. We've about thirty flights a day into Tel Aviv. They've been suspended until Christmas, so we do want to see those scenarios resolve themselves. But the ultimate underlying trend across Europe we've locked up everybody for two years in COVID. They all want to go back. Traveling families want to go on holidays. We've just completed the October midterm break. We were still full, and I think what people want is to travel more. But there's only ninety percent of the pre COVID capacity. So in Europe you've constrained capacity enormous demand and that is resulting in very strong priceing, not just for right there, but for all of the airlines. Are you're noticing any trite down? I had to describe it as trite down from b to Ryan abbat United saying anything like that. Not at the moment, but you know, I think it's inevitable if the next year or two, if consumers are under pressure, I think you know, you'll see the little and all these are the supermarkets. Ikea will do very well and Rhine will do very well. So what about using some of the cash to make the experience nicer for people who might be frustrated with at least it'd be impossible to make the experience on Rhinier any nicer. You know, new aircraft on time flights, the fewest cancelations of any airline in Europe. But I don't understand why people pay such ridiculous air force for a horrendous experience on Lafanza. Who lose your bag, miss your connection? On Rhiner it's efficient, it's cheap, it's on time, and it is blow like a man four million people. Once upon a time, Did you live like I had to do on a road show a year ago. I had to fly from Frankfurt to Zurich, which is only about a one and a half hour flight, so they stung me for nine hundred euros one way in economy and I was sitting at the back, in the middle seat, in front of the toilet on an age Vice A three twenty. I mean seven hundred jews. I can fly all year round on Ryan here for seven hundred jurors. Michael, It's good to see it, Thanks John, Lisa, Thank fantastic. Got to see Michael Leary there the Ryan Air CEO. I'm at the line of joined us now at a macro credit research at a blackground and I don't worry. We're not going to be talking about that. I do want to talk about supply, if we can start there. We've got forty eight billion dollars of three year notes this week, We've got forty billion dollars a ten year notes. We've got some thirty year bonds twenty four billion dollars worth. These are big, big numbers. That's treasury supply. What's happening with credit supply going into year end? Good morning, Thank you both for having me so. As you know, credit supply had a bit of a flurry of activity in September, it calmed down in October. I do think with this tentative stability in the treasury market that corporate CFOs and treasures may look to move ahead before the year end seasonal slowed down. It will be an important test for the market how this treasury supply is digested. But as we know, the Treasury Secretary guided us towards the front end of the curve and not so much in duration in the refunding announcement last week. But I actually think, if nothing else, the past several months have shown corporates that this can be very episodic in terms of these windows opening, and so given that we know the maturity walls are coming up, I think for corporates it's better to issue early rather than late. We're expecting a big week in the IG market this week. I think expectations are a little lower in high yield, but I would not be surprised if we surprise to the upside in terms of those expectations, because I think it's just prudent for CFOs, which speaks to kind of the opportunism that one that he get Desk told me about last week. He messaged me as soon as we saw this rally and he said, everyone's trying to come to market. I've gotten fifteen phone calls. Everyone's basically lined up. Is this going to be bad with credit spreads widening in the sort of counterintuitive way because we've got more supply. Yeah, I think the appetite is there, and I think we've had such light supply as especially in high yield year to date, and twenty two was a record a low level that I think the appetite for the market is there. I think where the real risk is is it that lowest quality cohort of the triple C market, that kind of lowest quality rung of high yield, which are triple C issuers there. I think we've seen some enhanced pressure where it's weak results coupled with refinancing needs have really pressured those capital structures. And even on this swift rally in high yield spreads that we've seen over the past few trading sessions, triple c's have rallied, but they've lagged on the way in. And I think it's the market telling you that there's an appetite for certain quality cohort in the credit market. Ig I think is there in most market conditions. High yield is a bit more tentative, But for that lowest quality rung, I think it's very case case specific and very idiosyncratic. Are people kind of just pricing in perfection here? Well? With high old spreads below four hundred, it's hard to argue that there's much risk premium added into the market at the moment. I think what we're seeing is a lot more focus on selectivity from our credit investors, So thinking about acid allocation between high yield and leverage loans, sector selection, issuer selection. I think we're high old spreads are at the moment the path of least resistance is probably a little bit wider in terms of choppiness, with some of the headline risk ahead of us. But again, as we've talked about before, where yields are, it's really difficult to see kind of highield spreads breaking out in this range of much wider from here, because when you every time, we tried to reach four forty last week and we kind of snapped back in, and so there is a bit of a tug of war between fundamentals and technicals, and even the most vulnerable fundamental pockets of the market have been the best performer, Like leverage loans. You mentioned the decision set between loans and say high yield. Help our audience understand what goes into making that kind of decision and whether that's changed in the last few weeks. So it has changed in the last few weeks for a few reasons. One is, if you think we're at the end of the rate hiking cycle, if you i think we've seen stability in long end rates, you might think that the bulk of the loan outperformance is behind us at this point. And indeed, that yield pick up that leverage loans were offering over high old bonds has narrowed. So what we are seeing is a bit more interest, say, even within capital structures, of investors saying Okay, well I'm in the loan, should I rotate into the high old bond or given the fundamental pressures of this higher for longer rate environment, that we're expecting our loans disproportionately impacted by that because they've been contending it with it for a longer time. Again, we don't view fixed rate bonds as immune from that in many instances, but I do think on the margin, given the strong performance of loans here to date, there is some refocusing on okay, is the bulk of that loan performance behind us? We read some life into that just a little bit more. We sort of big equity move last week. If you're looking at AG and I know it's unique and it is syncratic, but ultimately just give us the thirty five thousand foot view. If you're looking down a capital structure right now, is the bias to be higher or lower in it? Actually? You know, I think the high end of the high old market has actually outperformed the low end of the IG market. So it's not as clear cut as saying be underweight high yield versus IG. There are a lot of nuances there. I do think for choice, I would prefer to be higher in quality within high yield in IG. I think moving down into that triple beat cohort is a relatively nice place to be. For the most part, the vast majority of those corporates are committed to maintaining investment grade ratings. You are picking up a bit of a spread pickup relative to the highest rate COHORT. I think that's important in this current environment, especially if we don't get a severe downturn in growth. So I don't mean to be overly basic about this, but when you take a step back, I do wonder if we do get coalesce around this higher for longer kind of idea, does it make sense that we're not going to get any kind of major default cycle, either in public credit or in private credit. If we're looking at benchmark rates that are five percentage points higher than when all of these companies were borrowing in bulk not so long ago, it's a great point, Lisa. So we are seeing a modest uptick in defaults were it just under five percent in the US. When you combine high yield and leverage loans that's well off the rock bottom levels of twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two. Do we break out to the levels that we saw in COVID eight and a half nine percent, I think, barring a severe downturn, I don't see it. Part of the reason is that corporates have entered this period in a really strong position. The other part is that the investor appetite, to your point, John is there. And then third, I would say corporates are actually shifting to a more balance sheet friendly posture. So we haven't seen a lot of debt funded M and A, we haven't seen a lot of debt funded share buybacks. They're still investing in capex, still investing in debt repayment in terms of uses of cash. But I do think corporates do have some discipline. I think the real risk is that if there's a severe downturn in growth coupled with just a capital market's freezing such that these corporates don't have access at any price, I think it's I think it's difficult. As for the private credit point, historically we look at losses between the two markets, and private credit losses have held in better than public credit losses. Part of that is because the enhanced flexibility that those corporates have. We think that holds true. But I think the point remains we're expecting an ongoing normalization higher and losses across all those asset classes, not extremely given where we know where the maturity will is. Can you identify what would be the least oportable time to have any economic down to and is that what's basically on the horizon now? So I think probably the biggest risk is that if corporates try and time this opportunistically, they let the year end play out, they think the environment will be better in the first half of twenty twenty four, and then we have some sort of shock, whether that's geopolitical, unforeseen risk contraction. We're watching bank lending very closely, although that has actually played out I think a bit more benign than we would have thought. That is the risk. I think that if corporates try to be almost too strategic about the timing and they cut it too close. We saw that in the financial crisis, where some corporates were shut out. So that's why I think if I'm a CFO or treasure better to is you early rather than late. At at least's point, maybe we get a lot more supply in the coming weeks and months based on what we've seen developed over the last few weeks. Matter, Thank you always great amount of line in there of black Rock joining us now is Judy Norman, the co director of the UCR Center on the US Politics. Judy, always wonderful to catch out with you. You've articulated this, the pressure to articulate and endgame given what's developed over the last couple of weeks. Do you see sense that that pressure is ramping up once again over the weekend? Well, I think it is John and very much from the US increasingly on Israel, mostly behind the closed doors, but starting a little bit more publicly as well. And this has really been an issue since you since the after October seventh, to trying to figure out what would be next for Gaza after an Israeli operation. There are many different options that are considered, but really none of them seem to be very good for either Israelis or for Palestinians. Israelis un Palestinians are not looking for a ReOC patient of Gaza. Some have floated the idea of the Palestinian authority, the West Bank governance having a role in Gaza, but they are very weak, very illegitimate, and also I think would not take on that role just yet. And the US is even exploring some options of saying having a multi national transition kind of group there, some kind of almost like a peacekeeping force. But again, all of these are very tentative options. And I think crucially right now is trying to identify what Gaza might look like after this in a way that is, you know, not just a continued downward spiral for both Gazans and Israelis. Judy. As we can all see at the moment, the administration domestically facing pressure from all corners, Judy, from your position, can you identify any kind of success this administration is having convincing the Israelis of having some kind of humanitarian pause, convincing it Israel of changing its approached somehow. Is there any kind of success you can identify? Yeah, John, So, I would say the US came out very strong and supportive Israel, and some in Israel have called this a sort of bear hog, a public embrace but also a private restraint and kind of some whispers in the ear. So this has started from the beginning, and I think most importantly Blincoln was pushing for a humanitarian pause over the weekend that does not look forthcoming at the moment. Some areas where they have had some success is starting to get a bit more aid into Gaza. There are currently about one hundred trucks now coming into the Gaza Strip per day. Before the invasion. That was about five hundred trucks a day, so still much less than is needed, but more than was coming in for several weeks. The other area that they had some temporary success was getting communications reinstated in Gaza, but I understand over the weekend there have been more blackout so that seems a bit inconsistent. So I think that pressure for humanitarian pauses will continue. For Israel, I think they see that as perhaps halting the offensive, and they're halting their overall aim of ousting Hamass. But for others that is just seen as absolutely necessary for both getting aid into the strip and getting people out, So I think Blncoln will keep focusing on that. And I would note now who suggested that if hostage isbury leased, that might open up some room for a humanitarian pause. So I think we'll see more focus there in the coming days, Julie, what I've found more interesting rather than Tony Blinken going to Israel was all of the other meetings he's had on this particular tour. Right now, he's in Anchora in Turkey. There's a question over Bill Burns and his relationship with Jordan, the head of CIA, and his tour in the region. What is our sense right now of some of the regional countries and their position, their involvement both in what's happening now negotiating with Hamas, but also some solution after this conflict is over sure. So I think there's a couple different facets to this. One is, again the short term, trying to get other Arab states to also back this idea of humanitarian pause. Most leaders are very forthright about calling for a full cease fire, so Lincoln was trying to get some space there as well as just keeping diplomatic channels open. The second was really in terms of trying to keep the conflict contained and trying to avoid flare ups in other Arab countries and in other areas, especially like Iraq, where US troops are stationed and where there are Runi and proxy groups operating, so trying to kind of quell any potential flare ups and just further dispersal of this conflict. And the third, as you mentioned Lisa, is again trying to look ahead to what that endgame might be and what the role of Arab states might be within that. Again, would Arab states be part of some kind of multinational you know, transitional authority or force or something like that. Again, right now, I think most Arab leaders are reading the room pretty clearly with their own populations, who are very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and are not going to stick out their neck too far for what the US is pushing for. But at the same time, you know, work quite closely with the US and some of these states with Israel as well, and so needing to kind of find that middle ground. So a lot of diplomacy happening that I think will be just continuing wholeheartedly over these next couple of days. As President Biden lost the room with his own party at this point, given his approach on this conflict, I would say it's very clear that the Democrats have a lot of internal divisions over this conflict, and this isn't new to Biden. And I think he knew with an issue as difficult as Israel Palestine, you are probably never going to please everyone, especially in a party like the Democrats, which are pretty split on this issue. Now he's getting a lot of very vocal criticism from many on the left, from many progressives, and from many on the pro Palestine side. But I think he's also getting a lot of support from more traditional liberal Democrats who appreciate the solidarity that he's shown towards Israel. So in some ways, again, you're not going to please everyone. And again, right now, the US is trying to find a very difficult middle road and kind of thread this needle between supporting Israel but also trying to minimize casualties and think ahead to what might be next and what might be best for the region. It's going to be incredibly difficult for the president going to get too next year, Jurney. Just to finish, net poll from the New York Times over the weekend, big lead to for the former president Donald Trump in Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan, Nevada, and lead in Pennsylvania as well. Judy, your thoughts on that as it came out over the weekend, Yeah, this is going to be a big wake up call for Democrats and for the Biden campaign. We've been seeing these neck and neck numbers for Biden and Trump for quite a while, but to really drill down to the six swing states and see that five out of the six Trump is leading with less than a year until the elections is quite notable. And again, this is a little bit different than past elections because both of these both of these men are known quantities everyone and someone like Trump, everything is out there already, So I don't see a lot of this necessarily changing. Obviously, polls a year out, our year out. But I think for Democrats who thought, you know, Trump was going to be an easy target or something like that, it's clear that Biden has a lot of work to do and that's you know, it's going to be challenging for him to keep his coalition together. So I think we'll see some different strategies emerging pretty soon. Hiy, Judy, Thank you, Judy Norman of the US Sales Center on US Politics. Thank you joining us now. I'm so glad to say. Is Ashley Allen, corporate research analyst at Franklin Templeton YU counuigh in maybe I'm Birkenstack, But more importantly, thank you so much for being here, because to me, the big question really is how resilient is a consumer? After people have been saying that they're running out of their savings month after year after month, have we reached a point where you actually are seeing evidence of that? Maybe? And I think it's been maybe for a few months, to be fair, but I think we find ourselves in a really interesting situation right now, especially following three Q earnings. We just heard from a handful of staples companies from restaurants. Consumers are still spending, especially on some things that they'll want to indulge in, whether it's coffee, sweet treats in the grocery store, so that the stata is backward looking, so we have to keep that in mind. But up until this point, again, resilience has been the word that economists are said over and over. They're still showing up to spend on the things that make them feel good. How much in some of the earning calls that you've been tracking and just some of the communication that you've had with corporate officers about what they see going forward, how much do they see this continuing in a durable fashion just based on how much wages are increasing and the fact that the label market is strong. I don't think it's durable, at least at the same level that we have sustained thus far. A lot of the resilience that we've seen on the top line has been driven by price volumes, let's call them flat plus or minus on either side, both in kind of the restaurant space, but also in staples. If you think about the CpG companies in the grocery store, volumes have kind of flat lined, so where they can consumers have technically been pulling back from a volume perspective. They're consuming less. Companies have just realized that they can still benefit from taking price that likely can't continue you forever going forward. Well, a lot of people will argue that a lot of the household balance youes look pretty good. So if people want to lever up to get a latte a double mocacino, they can do that. Is that what we're actually seeing that people are just continuing with indulgences, but levering up to do so. Potentially, I don't necessarily it's always a maybe, right, I don't necessarily think that they're leveraging up to buy their latte. But I think if you have to look at the bigger picture macro, if you think about millennials broadly speaking, who maybe are waiting to buy their first home, if you can't do that right now, I would argue that, you know, spending seven bucks on a coffee isn't going to impact your ability to buy a home the same way the Fed would in regards to their rate policy. So I think from a consumer perspective, it's less so about them leveraging up, but a bit more about the bigger macro picture, what they are spending on and how they're supported by jobs to be frank as well. So as an investor, sure do you recommend then consumer discretionaries that are the small luxuries in life that people seem pretty committed to. Yeah. So there is something called the lipstick effect, which we've seen before, specifically, you know, in regards to beauty, where women will still spend on small luxuries to make themselves filtered during times of economic stress. I think that same the pattern or thesis could easily be applied to sweet treats. To think about you know, oreoles or cookies that we like as well as well as just the occasional splurge in regards to dining out and whether that's at you know, full price restaurant. Maybe you're okay spending you know, twenty bucks on your fast food meal that at one time they will indulge, especially during times at economics spress. Do you buy the holozembic argument. Not yet, it's TBD. I do think, you know, these drugs are really powerful for the individuals that they were originally designed to help, maybe those with type two diabetes or who are severely overweight and obese. But consumer habits really die hard, and I think that it might take more than ozebic, at least in its current form, to change those patterns to zooming out. We were just speaking with Veronica Clark over at City Group and she was talking about how they expect a soft patch now and then a reacceleration and inflation because a lot of consumers just keep accepting prices where they are. Do you agree with that, just based on sort of a company specific kind of analysis, I think that if consumers, if the can keep their wage gains that we've seen recently, if they can, if those can be persistent there's a good chance that they will continue to accept the price gains. I think it's as a matter of who's going to blink first. Is it the consumers or is it going to be the corporations in regards to pulling back on price to drive volumes or consumers finally going to reach a point where they say, hey, you know what, I don't want to spend six bucks on a box of cereal anymore. I don't want to buy that seven dollars CLO fee. But as long as they're supported by jobs and some wage gains, I think you know they'll continue to spend. Which raises this question when you talk to corporate executives and they can pass along these costs, are they then hiring more people? No, because at the end of the day, corporates are also responding to markets. Broadly speaking, they're trying to recover the margin that they lost over the past eighteen months or so when inflation and input cost really got out of control. Margins became compressed. At that time, profitability was hammered. They've benefited these past few quarters from those price increases in conjunction with falling input costs. Now, to be fair, those costs haven't completely reverted, but profitability has been strong from them. And for the most part, this is very idiosyncratic, but companies have been rewarded when their bottom lines, of course have expanded or reverted to pre pandemic levels. So is it's just zooming out to wrat this. I guess there's this question of whether some of the legacy retail companies and whether the legacy service companies can continue to operate and thrive based on their capital structures, you know, borrowing costs that was a lot lower from another era that they were going to have to refinance at a higher rate, whether they are still incredible companies to invest in in a current environment. Are you basically saying that yes, because they're able to pass along those costs to consumers that have continued to really go for the products that they're selling. Yes, they've been able to pass along the cost But the maturity wall, broadbly speaking, has been pushed out for several corporates, including those in retail indiscretionary names. And so you know, they have balance sheets these days in the cash fload to support you know, the interest expense that they have now in three or four years when their maturity wall comes to do, we'll see where we are and we can address it at that time. But at the moment, balance sheets are strong, the cash is coming in, they can make their payments, and they're passing along those higher prices. What are the strongest segments of retail right now? It's a great question. Broadly speaking, beauty as a segment that's continuing to do well. Historically, pet has been a segment that's been strong, but we have seen some weakening there. It's probably a bit of a post pandemic trend that's reversing. But people are sick of spending their entire paycheck on Fido. Ashley Allen, thank you so much of Franklin Templeton. We really appreciate that. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always on the Bloomberg Terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Lisa Abramowitz, and this is BloombergSee 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In this podcast episode, Gary introduces Brooke Lively, a financial advisor and fractional CFO to law firms. Brooke shares her professional journey and how she helps law firms with their finances. She discusses the creation of Cathcap, a group of CFOs and profitability strategists, who demystify numbers and provide financial strategies to help law firms grow and scale. Brooke emphasizes the importance of key data points such as cash flow, work in progress, sales calls booked, and net new cases. She also shares valuable resources and tools for attorneys to improve their financial management. Gary and Brooke highlight the significance of proactive financial analysis and having a knowledgeable team to support attorneys. When entrepreneurs find themselves hitting a wall in their business, they come to Brooke Lively, Cathcap's Founder and CEO. Brooke has always been a catalyst for accelerated profits - her actionable advice has helped businesses thrive for years.   When Brooke does her job, it's like a light bulb goes off in a client's mind. They see a new identity for their organization, and they're empowered to make a change that makes their world better - whether that's in time, money, reputation, or all of the above. It's big thinking, and with Brooke's help, clients can achieve whatever version of "profit" they are seeking.  What's more, Brooke is an EOS Implementer® who educates leadership teams with effective tools and processes, making her a well-rounded force for business growth.  She is a highly regarded speaker and the author of several books including her International Best Seller, From Panic to Profit. Brooke has been featured in international media including CNBC, Forbes, US News and World Report, and on podcasts such as You Are Buzzworthy, Mission Matters, The American Bar Association Modern Law Library, and The Entrepreneur Way. You can access the Profit Finder here: https://cathcap.brilliantassessments.com/?external=ProfitFinderTFL Law firm partners often believe that success means being stressed and overworked, which can lead to mental health issues. The key to a successful, enjoyable legal career is taking control of your career and time by developing a book of business. My friend and colleague Jennifer Gillman will talk about law firm economics and how rainmakers can leverage their ability to generate business to create their perfect situation and avoid drowning in stress.  Save your seat for her talk on November 15 at 1PM Eastern by going to https://bit.ly/GSGR-11-15.  Jennifer Gillman's mission is to help unhappy law firm partners and solo practitioners get more from their careers. She helps them find their exact right perfect fit firm. This can involve moving to a different firm, merging their firm into another firm, or taking action to transform their current role into something better. Lawyers suffer from stress and overwork; job satisfaction relieves this stress and transforms their professional and personal lives. Jen's superpower is being able to tell in 15 minutes or less what steps a partner can take to improve their career. 

The volume of CFO priorities has increased for years. In the past 12 months, the intensity of these urgencies also spiked, forcing finance leaders to make higher-stakes decisions more quickly and implement major adjustments with far-reaching implications.Results from the latest Global Finance Trends Survey conducted by Protiviti show that CFOs recognize the volume and magnitude of the challenges bearing down on them and their finance groups as they prioritize ESG, generative AI, business planning and analysis, talent management, and much more.The results of this study are available in our new report, Accelerate: Assessing CFO and Finance Leader Perspectives and Priorities for the Coming Year. This is available at www.protiviti.com/financesurvey.In this podcast, Protiviti Managing Directors Kerry Buchar and Chris Wright share their insights on the results of this global study and what they tell us about the challenges finance organizations face today. Chris is the global leader of Protiviti's Business Performance Improvement group. Kerry is a leader in the BPI practice, with experience in accounting and finance transformation.Contact Chris here: www.protiviti.com/us-en/christopher-wright.Contact Kerry here: www.protiviti.com/us-en/kerry-buchar.

Eighty-eight percent of boards now consider cybersecurity a business issue, not a technology one. To treat cybersecurity as a business investment, CFOs need to know the business value of cybersecurity. Using outcome-driven metrics and the Gartner Cybersecurity Business Value Benchmark, CFOs can make informed investments that balance the need to protect with the need to run their business.

Joe Stimac is the founder and President of AccuHire Corporation, a company that specializes in selection, engagement, and retention. His clients include notable firmsincluding H&R Block, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, PeopleSoft, DoD commands, MIT, PWC, Marathon Oil, The White House, and others.He has trained over 12,000 hiring managers at global firms, elite military commands,universities, and fast-growing startups on how to hire high performers over his 20-yearcareer. He has been a speaker at SIOP, as well as, at national and internationalconferences.Joe's passion is research and teaching. According to the Harvard Business Review, twoout of five new CEOs fail in their first 18 months on the job. Joe has identified twenty-nine failure points that can derail C-class leaders. He advises corporate boards on howto target these failure points when selecting CEOs, CFOs, and senior executives. Joe holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kansas. His newest creation is Interview Ready, an online program created from his years of observing where job candidates fail during the job interview. The program helps job seekers understand the job search process from the employer's perspective, create position-specific interview questions, and practice their interviewing skills to gain the confidence needed to get job offers.Show notes:www.InterviewReady.comwww.accuhire.comConnect with Joe here: Joe@AccuHire.comFor more information about All Secure Foundation, visit https://allsecurefoundation.org/

 In a spooktacular Halloween episode of the Nonprofit Show, the hosts welcome Andrew Miller, Director of Your Part-Time Controller, to discuss the evolving role of CFOs in the nonprofit sector. Enjoy this fun and insightful discussion shedding light on the changing of nonprofit financial leadership. Julia and Jarrett set the stage with a warm welcome, acknowledging the Halloween spirit and introducing Andrew, who eagerly explores the topic of traditional versus modern CFO-CEO relationships in the nonprofit world. Andrew begins with discussing the traditional role of a CFO, which primarily focused on accounting accuracy, regulatory compliance, risk management, and historical financial reporting. Andrew then jumps into the transformation of the CFO role in the modern age, highlighting the shift towards forward-facing financial forecasting, leveraging technology for efficiency, and embracing change management. Andrew emphasizes the importance of the modern CFO's role in providing strategic analysis and fostering a partnership with the CEO, and he also stressed the importance of leadership, strategic planning, and change management skills for modern CFOs.  Learn more from YPTC.comWatch on video: https://bit.ly/46KesSZFollow us on the Twitter: @Nonprofit_ShowSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: HelpDesk@AmericanNonprofitAcademy.comVisit us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman interviews Nancy Mackay, founder of MacKay CEO Forums (MC ACO), a peer advisory group that provides confidential peer support groups for CEOs and business owners across Canada. The group aims to populate the world with inspiring leaders by offering confidential peer support groups to hundreds of members. Nancy states that, in today's challenging fast-paced business-world, and with a growing mental-health crisis, leaders need more peer support and trusted advisors. The Mackay community includes over 1200 CEOs, executives, and business owners from various industries across Canada, participating in over 114 person peer learning groups. Over 60 consultants have been trained and certified to offer peer learning support to members, and the leadership team is focused on supporting form Chairs who offer peer learning support. Nancy started her group over fifteen years ago and still Chairs the group. Her group has 14 CEOs from various industries, with revenue sizes ranging from 5 million to 5 billion plus. Most of the groups are for entrepreneurial, privately held individuals who want to grow their businesses. The meetings are confidential, non-competitive, and require six meetings a year for a day, and they hold a 2-day annual retreat. Each meeting features a one-hour speaker, followed by confidential updates where CEOs discuss their biggest issues, challenges, and opportunities related to business, family, and personal. They place issues they want help with on the table, and after the issues are discussed, the group encourages sharing experiences. A Forum that Helps CEOs One of the biggest objections to joining a peer group is the lack of time. However, the reality is that everyone can make time, and having a group of 14 CEOs with a growth mindset can save time and provide support for all issues, including business, family, and personal. All the forum Chairs at MacKay are modern, trusted advisors with extensive experience working with CEOs, executives, and business owners, playing a crucial role in Chairing meetings and retreats, creating a confidential space for CEOs and executives to be vulnerable and succeed in their careers without sacrificing their health and important personal and family relationships.   Nancy shares examples of how peer groups have helped individuals navigate their transitions, such as selling their business, scaling their business, finding talent, and recession and succession planning.  Nancy highlights the importance of segmenting peer groups, with specific groups catering to different types of CEOs, CFOs, HR Rows, and cross-functional executives. These groups ensure that each member's background experience is taken into account, ensuring that everyone is a best fit for the group. The group also address personal and family issues, allowing members to discuss their challenges and successes without sacrificing their health or family relationships. Members can build lifelong friendships and support networks to help them navigate their careers and personal lives. Three Tips to Being an Effective Chair of a Peer Learning Group To be an effective Chair of a peer learning group, Nancy shares three key tips: not being the "star in the room", it should be all about the members. The second tip is to ensure that you create a space of vulnerability where members can share their experiences and mistakes, and remembering that no-one is the "smartest person in the room." The leadership philosophy is about judgment-free and sharing experiences, helping CEOs and executives become masterful at telling stories and being vulnerable; the third tip is to remember that being a Chair is focused on helping people and not just being nice. It's more about challenging them and holding them accountable.  In conclusion, peer learning support provides valuable advice and mindset shifts for CEOs and executives, helping them navigate their transitions, find talent, and build successful cultures. By taking a step back and focusing on the members, Chair members can create a supportive environment for their peers and achieve success in their respective fields. Nancy explains who could apply to become a Chair with the organization. Chairs must have had their own independent consulting practice for at least three years and have over 18 years of experience working with CEOs, executives, and business owners from various industries. The most successful Chairs are partnering with the MacKay CEO Forums and signing up for their certification program to build world-class peer learning groups for CEOs and executives. The MacKay CEO Forums have launched over 100 groups and are constantly evolving and improving. The best fit Chairs have a proven roadmap to success on how to build these groups and achieve Chair mastery. The certification program is experiential learning, not a bootcamp approach, and includes one-on-one coaching, pure learning on a weekly basis, observation, co-Chairing, and they can move on to the Chair Mastery program.  Nancy explains the benefits to joining the MacKay CEO Forums, which provides access to current, relevant, and high-level information through access to a peer group, an annual summit, conferences, content, and expand their business network. In summary, it provides connectivity across forums. Being part of the broader network of the MacKay CEO Forums provides a proven roadmap to success. Forum Chairs are highly rated speakers with MacKay CEO Forums, making it a lucrative opportunity for members to expand their business network and engage with people in the community.  The Origin Story of MacKay CEO Forums Nancy shares the story behind founding the company. She was invited to speak at a CEO peer group meeting in Vancouver. She was the first female speaker invited into the CEO group, and after her presentation, the Chair asked her if she'd like to become the forum Chair. This was at a time when they didn't let women in. However, Nancy instigated the progression to allowing women into the forum. The organization has since grown to include multiple forums and an institution that supports successful consultants and business leaders.   MacKay CEO Forums is a beneficial corporation.  It takes a stand on diversity, equality, and inclusion. For the first five years, she ran the business together with her husband and business partner. She decided that the world needed more peer support and focused on building ten of these CEO groups across Canada. The goal is to populate the world with inspiring leaders, to find other like-minded consultants who have a passion for helping business leaders, and she wants to help them achieve success with their business. They are currently on the path to having 10,000 members across the world.  The MacKay peer learning group for business leaders is primarily based in Canada. They have a Chair capability assessment that allows individuals to self-assess their suitability for the role. The forum is currently looking to partner with consultants based in BC, Alberta, and Ontario as its primary areas for growth over the next year. Common Mistakes Consultants Make Nancy shares the common errors consultants make and emphasizes the importance of sharing experiences and stories, rather than giving advice or telling people what to do. This creates a space for a different approach to influencing and creates more inspiration for people to take action. The forum's leadership philosophy includes the Mackay Mastery Model for Inspired Leadership, which focuses on inspiring oneself every day. Chairs are trained in time mastery, Eagle mastery, passion, mastering innovation, mastery, social contribution, mastery, and Health Mastery. To keep meetings on track, Chairs should use the right language when a conversation feels meandering or getting off track. They should start and end on time, respect people's time, and be intentional about how they spend their time. Time mastery and goal setting are part of the organization's culture, and members expect the Chair to use a timer during peer group meetings. For those interested in learning more about the forum, contact Nancy directly at Mackay CEO forums.com or visit their website.  Timestamps: 01:11 CEO peer support groups in Canada 04:48 Leadership, business growth, and personal development for CEOs and executives 11:12 Running effective peer learning groups for executives 17:51 Building and leading peer learning groups for CEOs 23:41 Starting and scaling a peer learning group for CEOs 29:32 Leadership philosophy and effective meetings Links: Website: MackayCEOForums.com. CONTACT INFO: Email: Nancy@mackayceoforums.com Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.

Traditional media companies that also sell digital advertising have seen gross profit margins slip over the past decade. Could digital sales be a drag? Gordon & Corey offer preview the intriguing questions being asked of CFOs in an attempt to gauge just how profitable digital sales might be. They also turn to an expert on digital expenses, Todd Handy, the CRO of Sebpo, who identifies areas where margins can be improved.