Podcasts about game changers radio

This week on LEXCHAT, I sit down with Maximillion of Game Changers Radio to chat about internet radio and artist promotion! Submit your music for consideration on Game Changers Radio stations. Send to the following email: gamechangersradio.maxwellent@gmail.com #InternetRadio #GameChanger #IndieRadio Email questions to lexcsolo@gmail.com CashApp: $LexCATL PayPal: lexcsolo@gmail.com Venmo: @lexcatl Zelle: 404-552-5514 LexC eBook: http://bit.ly/lexcebook MUSIC Amazon - http://bit.ly/lexconamazon Apple Music - http://bit.ly/lexconapple CD Baby - http://bit.ly/lexconcdbaby Spotify - http://bit.ly/lexconspotify Tidal - http://bit.ly/lexcontidal _________________________________________________________________ Follow me: https://www.lexcatl.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lexcatl/ https://twitter.com/thisislexc https://www.facebook.com/lexcatl https://www.patreon.com/lexcatl --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lexcatl/support

The Buzz 1: In his 2007 book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”, author and former options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb focuses on the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable outlier events—and the human tendency to find simplistic explanations for these events, retrospectively. He calls this the Black Swan theory. The Buzz 2: “If you ever do have to heed a forecast, keep in mind that its accuracy degrades rapidly as you extend it through time.” The Buzz 3: “We see the obvious and visible consequences, not the invisible and less obvious ones. Yet those unseen consequences…generally are more meaningful.” Gone are the days when, as a whole, Planning & Analysis for the office of the CFO and the enterprise could be ‘just OK.' With black swan events becoming the norm, requiring guidance and scenario modeling, FP&A can no longer wait on gathering data from convoluted spreadsheets and uncollaborative business units. Yes, the pressure is on the CFO to deliver highly credible plans and ever better analysis. But how? The answer: Modern planning processes and tools – adopting extended planning and analysis, analytics and visualization, and machine learning – will help you transform your company's Finance function from good to great. We'll ask Jon Essig at SimpleFi Solutions, Chris Ortega at Fresh FP&A, and Floyd Conrad at SAP for their take on The Black Swan vs Transforming Your FP&A from Good to Great!

The Buzz 1: In his 2007 book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”, author and former options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb focuses on the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable outlier events—and the human tendency to find simplistic explanations for these events, retrospectively. He calls this the Black Swan theory. The Buzz 2: “If you ever do have to heed a forecast, keep in mind that its accuracy degrades rapidly as you extend it through time.” The Buzz 3: “We see the obvious and visible consequences, not the invisible and less obvious ones. Yet those unseen consequences…generally are more meaningful.” Gone are the days when, as a whole, Planning & Analysis for the office of the CFO and the enterprise could be ‘just OK.' With black swan events becoming the norm, requiring guidance and scenario modeling, FP&A can no longer wait on gathering data from convoluted spreadsheets and uncollaborative business units. Yes, the pressure is on the CFO to deliver highly credible plans and ever better analysis. But how? The answer: Modern planning processes and tools – adopting extended planning and analysis, analytics and visualization, and machine learning – will help you transform your company's Finance function from good to great. We'll ask Jon Essig at SimpleFi Solutions, Chris Ortega at Fresh FP&A, and Floyd Conrad at SAP for their take on The Black Swan vs Transforming Your FP&A from Good to Great!

The Buzz 1: In his 2007 book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”, author and former options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb focuses on the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable outlier events—and the human tendency to find simplistic explanations for these events, retrospectively. He calls this the Black Swan theory. The Buzz 2: “If you ever do have to heed a forecast, keep in mind that its accuracy degrades rapidly as you extend it through time.” The Buzz 3: “We see the obvious and visible consequences, not the invisible and less obvious ones. Yet those unseen consequences…generally are more meaningful.” Gone are the days when, as a whole, Planning & Analysis for the office of the CFO and the enterprise could be ‘just OK.' With black swan events becoming the norm, requiring guidance and scenario modeling, FP&A can no longer wait on gathering data from convoluted spreadsheets and uncollaborative business units. Yes, the pressure is on the CFO to deliver highly credible plans and ever better analysis. But how? The answer: Modern planning processes and tools – adopting extended planning and analysis, analytics and visualization, and machine learning – will help you transform your company's Finance function from good to great. We'll ask Jon Essig at SimpleFi Solutions, Chris Ortega at Fresh FP&A, and Floyd Conrad at SAP for their take on The Black Swan vs Transforming Your FP&A from Good to Great!

The Buzz 1: CFOs often perceive cybersecurity to be the responsibility of IT, but as more finance processes run remotely, CFOs need to develop security measures specifically for the finance function and not rely solely on the organization's blanket security protocols to safeguard financial data. (www.gartner.com) The Buzz 2: Finance leaders in the midst of leading or co-leading a broader transformation initiative (42% of CFOs, per Deloitte's CFO Signals™ survey for Q2-2021), may want to make modernizing their security model part of that effort. (deloitte.wsj.com) The Buzz 3: CFOs and their teams are the gatekeepers for the critical data required to generate forecasts and support senior leaders' strategic plans and decisions…At the top of the four areas of technology that show the most promise for use in finance: automation and robotics to improve processes in finance.” (www.mckinsey.com) Yes, organizations must find ways to thrive in today's disruptive business environment, with its shifting geo-political and financial landscapes, the momentum to digitize and automate, and increasing cybersecurity threats. How? Focus more on internal controls over most business processes as well as corporate resilience in financial and cybersecurity domains. Cybersecurity attacks not only affect normal business operations but add ambiguity to the reliability of financial statements. Stakeholders are under pressure from due diligence requirements to gain more reliable views of organizational risk, resilience, accountability and transparency. To ensure quarterly and annual reports accurately reflect financial status and to bolster cybersecurity protection, they are automating process controls as part of a financial transformation. We'll ask Dr. Neil Patrick at SAP, Mithilesh Kotwal at Protiviti and Tony Robey at Wipro for their insights on Cyber Resilience and Control Automation for Finance.

The Buzz 1: We've all heard these 'old saws' and know they're true: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” “Plan your work and work your plan.” The Buzz 2: “We don't hand aircraft pilots 50 pages of Excel reports after they've landed the plane, telling them they went to the wrong airport or they ran out of fuel. They have real-time insight into the external environment and the aircraft operations.…It's essential for FP&A and performance management to be viewed holistically like that…We should be helping to successfully land the aircraft.” (Jack Alexander, author: Financial Planning and Analysis and Business Performance Management) The Buzz 3: “Gartner coined the term 'xP&A' in 2020, but…Expanding FP&A beyond finance has been a best practice for several years – referred to by many names: connected planning, collaborative enterprise planning, integrated business planning, and company-wide planning….” (https://insights.sap.com/what-is-xpa) Better planning leads to better results, especially for the CFO's Finance team. But is “better” good enough in our era of perpetual business change and turmoil? Finance experts agree that more is needed to optimize Finance's performance and value to the organization. How? The Financial P&A profession needs to evolve to Extended Planning and Analysis 'xP&A' to strengthen cross-business collaboration, create aligned plans, and rapidly transition from gaining enterprise-wide insights to taking action. This requires not just the latest technology, but an overhaul of processes to align operational and financial planning with strategic goals. We'll ask Pras Chatterjee at SAP, Bryan Lapidus at the Association for Financial Professionals, and Jeff Hattendorf at Macrospect for their insights on the Extended P&A Mindset: Time to Align on Strategic Goals.

The Buzz 1: We've all heard these 'old saws' and know they're true: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” “Plan your work and work your plan.” The Buzz 2: “We don't hand aircraft pilots 50 pages of Excel reports after they've landed the plane, telling them they went to the wrong airport or they ran out of fuel. They have real-time insight into the external environment and the aircraft operations.…It's essential for FP&A and performance management to be viewed holistically like that…We should be helping to successfully land the aircraft.” (Jack Alexander, author: Financial Planning and Analysis and Business Performance Management) The Buzz 3: “Gartner coined the term 'xP&A' in 2020, but…Expanding FP&A beyond finance has been a best practice for several years – referred to by many names: connected planning, collaborative enterprise planning, integrated business planning, and company-wide planning….” (https://insights.sap.com/what-is-xpa) Better planning leads to better results, especially for the CFO's Finance team. But is “better” good enough in our era of perpetual business change and turmoil? Finance experts agree that more is needed to optimize Finance's performance and value to the organization. How? The Financial P&A profession needs to evolve to Extended Planning and Analysis 'xP&A' to strengthen cross-business collaboration, create aligned plans, and rapidly transition from gaining enterprise-wide insights to taking action. This requires not just the latest technology, but an overhaul of processes to align operational and financial planning with strategic goals. We'll ask Pras Chatterjee at SAP, Bryan Lapidus at the Association for Financial Professionals, and Jeff Hattendorf at Macrospect for their insights on the Extended P&A Mindset: Time to Align on Strategic Goals.

The Buzz: Michael E. Porter at Harvard Business School introduced the concept of a value chain in his book, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance [2008]. Competitive advantage cannot be understood by looking at a firm as a whole. It stems from the many discrete activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product.” He adds that it's important to maximize value at each specific point in a firm's processes. Finance organizations have increasingly evolved from backward-looking reporting to analyzing information in real-time, both from a financial accounting standpoint as well as management accounting. Taking this a step further, finance is actively engaging in advising other parts of the business based on predictive modeling. Logistical processes – ranging from procurement, supply chain, sales and customer experience, to even human resources – are all reflected in finance, providing a holistic view of an organization. Finance then has the opportunity to leverage this information to evaluate the financial impact of strategic decisions and advise their counterparts in all lines of business across an organization. We'll ask SAP's Birgit Starmanns, Accenture's Rob Campanile and Ventana Research's Robert Kugel for their take on Finance and Its Focus on Integration into the Value Chain.

The Buzz: “Data is now more valuable than oil” a popular business sentiment. * In 2006, British mathematician and Tesco marketing mastermind Clive Humby shouted from the rooftops, “Data is the new oil.” * Now “Data Isn't The New Oil — Time Is”. (Michael Kershner, founder of ILC) * Oil has reigned for centuries as one of society's most valuable resources…But in today's 'data economy,' it can be argued that data, due to the insight and knowledge that can be extracted from it, is potentially more valuable. (Therese Fauerbach, CEO, The Northridge Group) While this metaphor can be further debated, the power and abundance of data in its various forms hold a special place within the enterprise and especially within the Office of Finance. But how the Financial Planning and Analysis [FP&A] function leverages operational and financial data in their day-to-day activities often remains a mystery. With systems that connect data in a meaningful manner, what can Finance to do change processes and make impactful decisions to become a much more data driven function that better helps their business constituents and ultimately increases shareholder value? We'll ask Brian Kalish at Kalish Consulting, Jeff Hattendorf at Macrospect, and Pras Chatterjee at SAP for their take on The Road to Finance Prosperity: Powered by Data.

The Buzz: Michael E. Porter at Harvard Business School introduced the concept of a value chain in his book, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance [2008]. Competitive advantage cannot be understood by looking at a firm as a whole. It stems from the many discrete activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product.” He adds that it's important to maximize value at each specific point in a firm's processes. Finance organizations have increasingly evolved from backward-looking reporting to analyzing information in real-time, both from a financial accounting standpoint as well as management accounting. Taking this a step further, finance is actively engaging in advising other parts of the business based on predictive modeling. Logistical processes – ranging from procurement, supply chain, sales and customer experience, to even human resources – are all reflected in finance, providing a holistic view of an organization. Finance then has the opportunity to leverage this information to evaluate the financial impact of strategic decisions and advise their counterparts in all lines of business across an organization. We'll ask SAP's Birgit Starmanns, Accenture's Rob Campanile and Ventana Research's Robert Kugel for their take on Finance and Its Focus on Integration into the Value Chain.

The Buzz: The CFO role has expanded beyond financial duties to encompass strategic responsibilities across the company. After closing the books 12 months ago on the extraordinary year that was 2020, which threw unprecedented challenges across mostly unprepared industries and businesses worldwide, we began 2021 with high hopes for the start of a recovery, with the office of Finance having a central role. Reality check: This optimism was tempered, with CFOs facing some of their toughest tests this year. Today, with just 17 days before the dawning of 2022, we look in our rearview mirror at how 2021 has highlighted areas of concern in the agility and responsiveness of Finance systems. For many organizations, investments in systems that offered greater flexibility, agility and the resilience to cope with future challenges became paramount. Along with this, the pressing need to combat cyberattack threats and address information privacy concerns led to an increasing focus on risk management and the prevention and mitigation of breaches. Today, three Finance experts share their POV on the Finance and Risk news headlines that illustrate the key themes and events that shaped business in 2021 – and the implications for the pandemic recovery and the future of Finance. We'll ask Nilly Essaide at NeuGroup, Pras Chatterjee at SAP, and Grant Small at Legion Star for their take on Finance Ripped from the Headlines: A 2021 Finance and Risk Retrospective.

The Buzz 1: “Change management is a critical skill in today's c-suite… Change management is a challenge for every organization.” (Dave Sutton, toprightpartners.com) The Buzz 2: “Slowness to change usually means fear of the new.” (Philip Crosby, 1926–2001, aka “The Fun Uncle of the Quality Revolution”, author: Quality Without Tears and Quality is Free) The Buzz 3: “Change before you have to.” (Jack Welch, former GE CEO, named “Manager of the Century” by Fortune magazine) The Buzz 4: “People don't resist change. They resist being changed!” (Peter Senge, organizational learning expert, author: The Fifth Discipline) As finance and risk teams embrace technology more quickly than they did in the past, change management has never been more crucial to facilitate efficient adoption and effective implementation. With more organizations moving towards modern technologies for Finance – including automation and artificial intelligence (AI) – there is often resistance to change as well as fear of being “replaced” by computers. As business conditions and business models change, finance and risk teams need to transform their own organizations to take advantage of technology advancements – while ensuring the human element remains at the center of their strategic decisions. For these reasons and more, change management needs to focus on best practices and comprehensive organizational planning for change, from executive buy-in on changes in technology and business processes, to the communication of the what, the when, and the why of a change. We'll ask Birgit Starmanns at SAP, Jason Roling at Delaware Consulting and Ross Wilson at Accenture for their take on Enabling Intelligent Finance Transformation with Change Management.

The Buzz 1: “Recruiting great marketers should be your number one priority.” (Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot CMO) The Buzz 2: “Marketing's job is never done. It's about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.” (Beth Comstock, former GE CMO & Vice Chair) The Buzz 3: “Just because you are the loudest, doesn't make you right.” (Brian Halligan, HubSpot CEO & Co-Founder) The Buzz 4: “The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing.” (Tom Fishburne, Marketoonist Founder & CEO) Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, technology was accelerating society's rate of change, especially impacting the skills needed in the workforce. And Marketing has not been spared. “The rapid rise of digitization and remote work has placed new demands on employees who, in many instances, now require different skills to support significant changes to how work gets done and to the business priorities their companies are setting.” (www.mckinsey.com) Today's marketers need to equip themselves to meet the challenges ahead in the next decade. What skills are imperative today? Will those same skills be relevant and needed in 2030? We'll ask Kirsten Boileau, Anna Millman, Jeremy Kestler, and Emily L. Phelps for their take on Winter is Coming: Arming Marketers with Skills for Today and The Decade Ahead.

The Buzz 1: The early development of accounting was closely related to developments in writing, counting, and money.…Accounting records dating back more than 7,000 years have been found in Mesopotamia, and documents from ancient Mesopotamia show lists of expenditures, and goods received and traded…all emerged in the context of controlling goods, stocks and transactions in the temple economy of Mesopotamia.” (en.wikipedia.org) The Buzz 2: “When I talk to other CFOs about process improvement, they often tell me that their top priority is closing the books faster…Poor-quality data can't be trusted, and it takes a lot of labor to scrub bad data.” (Perry D. Wiggins, CPA) The Buzz 3: Of the 2,300 organizations that answered APQC's General Accounting Open Standards Benchmarking survey, the bottom 25% said they need 10 or more calendar days to perform the monthly close process. … the top 25% can wrap up a monthly close in just 4.8 days or less—about half the time of the bottom 25%. … at the median are the organizations that need 6.4 calendar days to close out a month's books.” (www.cfo.com) Since the 13th century, accountants have been “closing the books” to give company owners a status on their business performance. And since this happens at all companies at every period-end, you'd think that by 2021, everyone has a perfect, optimized process. But period-end closing still has a reputation of being a burden – causing headaches and overtime. We'll ask experts Marc Six, Katharina Reichert and David Dixon to share their insights about closing acceleration and business trends affecting Finance teams each and every period-end on Fast, Faster, Fastest: What's Next for the Close?

The Buzz 1: “Social media allows big companies to act small again.” (Jay Baer @convince Marketing) The Buzz 2: “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” (Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO) The Buzz 3: “We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.” (Erik Qualman, author, The Focus Project @equalman) Social media has dramatically affected how we navigate every aspect of life. Its impact on marketing is no exception, as in how it catalyzed the transition from push- to pull-centric marketing. According to MIT Sloan Professor Sinan Aral, “Social media is rewiring the central nervous system of humanity in real time. We're now at a crossroads between its promise and its peril.” This crossroads is forcing marketers to sail a boat they're still building while battling the stormy seas of short attention spans, political correctness, new social channels and other powerful waves. Argh! What impact will all of this have on the future of social media marketing? We'll ask social media agency owner Janet E Johnson, Mike Grehan at SEMPO and Anna Millman at SAP for tips to help your social media marketing stand out amid the high seas noise and find friendly trade winds. Tune in for Social Media Marketing aka Building Your Boat While Sailing.

The Buzz: “Data! data! data …I can't make bricks without clay” (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, #12). Intelligent Enterprises know how to use their data assets to achieve desired outcomes faster and with less risk. How? Especially in times of uncertainty like the COVID-19 pandemic, intelligent enterprises anticipate and pro-actively respond in real time to put their employees and customers first. And they create personalized, unique digital experiences from disparate data sources while leveraging AI, chatbots and voice technologies. Most importantly, they build digital ecosystems leveraging orchestrated data to create new business models and revenue streams to monetize data-driven capabilities and apply core business competencies in innovative ways. We'll ask Mike Price at Capgemini, Ritesh Menon at Incture and Scott Harrison at SAP for their expert insights on how your organization can get on board. Join us for The Intelligent Enterprise: Data Assets and Your Digital Ecosystem.

The Buzz: “FP&A [financial planning and analysis] used to hold all the cards; they had all the data at their fingertips. Nowadays, valuable data resides across the business. It's a battle to find out who has the best data, much less what this data is. Otherwise, a vacuum will develop that smart executives will fill up with their own data. The CFO has to be on top of information flow at all times.” (Mark Partin, CFO of BlackLine) The recent FP&A Trends 2021 Survey highlights that many FP&A practitioners struggle to create time to work on value added activities. From the most senior to the novice FP&A practitioners, there is still (too) much time spent on non-value-added tasks such as gathering data, excess time providing meaningful insights and having trust in the data. How does FP&A overcome these challenges? Tune in to hear FP&A experts' insights on how easily the available, yet disruptive technologies – such as AI/ML, Integration tools and an xP&A (extended planning and analysis) process – can help bring the FP&A practice to the top of the ladder when it comes to driving organizational-wide decisions. We'll ask Jeff Hattendorf at Macrospect, Hans Gobin at Plan2Plan Consulting, and Floyd Conrad for their take on Data: The Road to Value Add for FP&A.

The Buzz 1: “Automated emails, triggered emails, drip email marketing…phrases often used by people considering a marketing automation system…where there's email, unfortunately there's spam… plenty of marketers are willing to cross the line to try to generate more leads … They rent lists full of bad addresses and unqualified prospects…too aggressive with frequency and offers…a desire for a quick and easy return. Acting on that desire however can bite you squarely in the arse.” [www.net-results.com/blog] Today there's a solution to over-complicated processes, underqualified leads, too little use of customer data and personalization – Marketing Automation. What is it? Marketing automation utilizes technology to streamline and improve the efficacy of marketing efforts (Salesforce). It allows you to target audiences better and provide them with relevant content, all at the exact right time of their buyer's journey. But some people say Marketing Automation is almost too good at its job because as soon as a customer or prospect shows a bit of interest in your product or service, a slew of uninvited spammy promotional content begins appearing. Do they get annoyed, click off and abandon their journey with you? Question on the table: Has Marketing Automation transformed the industry in the right ways? Does automated marketing do its job too well? How will the inevitable cookies-less web impact the benefits of Marketing Automation? We'll ask Neal Schaffer at PDCA Social, Kirill Kniazev at Motili, and Alisha Seegmiller at SAP for their take on Out with the Old and In with Marketing Automation – Beneficial or Spammy?

The Buzz 1: “The subscription economy is not new. In fact, the membership-based business model has been around since the 17th century…Recently, the membership-based business model has been gaining a foothold…Experts believe that the membership-based business model is the revenue model of the future.” (boldbusiness.com) The Buzz 2: “Building long-term relationships with customers is the route to value in the Subscription Economy®. Yet the Quote-to-Cash (QTC) process at most B2B companies—even those with subscription businesses—is optimized for linear transactions, not relationships. This results in complexity and cost to the provider and a poor experience for the subscriber.” (subscribed.com) The ‘new normal' has challenged businesses worldwide during the COVID pandemic. Instead of focusing on revenue growth, most companies were just trying to find new ways to serve their customers and survive, including pivoting their business model to offer product-related services and subscriptions. Some have developed partnerships to facilitate product delivery and installation during pandemic lockdowns – and plan to expand these services. To facilitate this business expansion, flexibility of how companies bill – and how customers pay – is paramount. Some customers may use multiple payment types for the same transaction, even with the option to pay a residual over time. There may be revenue-sharing with the partners that took on delivery and other services, long-term subscriptions or pay-as-you-go usage-based billing – and a developing trend of outcome-based billing. We'll ask Manoj Harbhajanka at Acuitilabs and Richard Chan at SAP for their insights on how different business models are evolving and how billing systems need to keep pace, on “Pivoting from a Product to a Service and Subscription Economy.”

The Buzz 1: “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is -- it is what consumers tell each other it is.” (Scott Cook, Intuit co-founder) The Buzz 2: “Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business.” (Steve Forbes, Forbes magazine editor-in-chief) The Buzz 3: “A great brand is a story that is never completely told.” (Scott Bedbury, Brandstream CEO) The Buzz 4: “Whether B2B or B2C…We all are emotional beings looking for relevance, context and connection.” (Beth Comstock, Imagine It Forward author) The American Marketing Association [www.ama.org] describes “brand” as “...a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller's goods or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic where volatility, complexity, and uncertainty have been at an all-time high, a brand's ability to get attention, be remembered, and be an educational resource has become more imperative than ever. That, in conjunction with consumers wanting their buying power to reflect their personal values, has placed extreme pressure on brands to get it right. Given all of this, what role does branding play in the buyer's journey and has that changed since the pandemic began? What could or should companies do to be better at reflecting the social climate or should they not engage in that conversation? What other impacts will the pandemic have on the future of branding? We'll ask Alicia Tillman, Mike Grehan and Dennis Thomas for their take on Brand Marketing in a Post-Pandemic World.

The Buzz 1: “AI will optimize or transform ‘nearly every activity in finance.'” (Craig Wilton, Gartner, quoted at www.cfodive.com/news/artificial-intelligence-gartner-finance-trends-2020/573233/) The Buzz 2: “Tech is in everything… 2021's CFOs need to be more tech-savvy than ever. Indeed, with so much big data, A.I., and robotics technology available for CFOs to utilize, learning and incorporating tech into the traditional finance role is key.” (fortune.com/2021/06/21/cfo-technology-big-data-ai-robotics/) As we begin to come out of the pandemic, the ways of doing business have inevitably changed. Companies have discovered ways to be more flexible, respond faster to changing economic conditions, better serve customers, redefine supplier relationships, and create more efficient internal processes. CFOs at mid-market companies in particular are more invested in going beyond the status quo. By embracing automation and artificial intelligence (AI), they are optimizing their own processes to then provide valued advice at the executive table, armed with real-time insights and AI-driven predictions of the financial outcomes of strategic decisions. And with their time freed-up by automation, Finance can collaborate better with other lines of business, including leveraging AI to investigate the financial impact of strategies from core finance processes on HR, manufacturing, and sales. We'll ask Birgit Starmanns at SAP, Dan Cupersmith at Analysis Prime and Bryan Pruner at Delaware Consulting for their take on Automation and AI: Helping Mid-Market CFOs Guide and Collaborate with the Business.

The Buzz 1: “Today it's not about 'get the traffic' — it's about 'get the targeted and relevant traffic.” (Adam Audette, Chief Knowledge Officer, RKG) The Buzz 2: “Optimizing your website for real people helps you gain your visitors' trust, starts building a relationship, and lets you sell products without having to jump on a sales call.” (vwo.com/website-optimization) A bit of history (Wikipedia.org): Webmasters and content providers began optimizing websites for search engines in the mid-1990s, as the first search engines were cataloging the early Web. Initially, webmasters only needed to submit the address or URL of a page to the engines, which would send a web crawler to crawl that page, extract links to other pages from it, and return information found on the page to be indexed.” Are you a marketer who still assumes web optimization and search engine optimization (SEO) are the same? Reality check: Not! Web optimization is much more than SEO. It's the critical first step for an effective digital marketing program, incorporating both on-page and off-page enhancements to ensure your pages are found and visitors to your website take the actions you desire. We'll ask Aaron Zitzer at Aventi Group, Tom Shapiro at Stratabeat and Diego Pineda at Vengreso for their expert insights on Web Optimization: Make Your Customers' Digital Journey Suck Less!

The Buzz: “I'm not paid or evaluated on the accuracy of my crystal-ball predictions. I'm paid to enumerate every possible outcome and do something about every possible outcome well in advance, when it's still possible to do something, because once it's happened it's too late.” (Marty Chavez, Former CFO, Goldman Sachs) Is your organization struggling with finance transformation and future steering? How differently should you approach long-term thinking and planning, to be better prepared for future events and disruptions? It's time for answers! A comprehensive enterprise-wide planning strategy goes beyond visualization and reporting. It entails enabling extended planning and analysis across the various lines of business, leveraging real-time insights and predictive capabilities for effective decision-making to bring everyone together. Innovating and empowering your business users through modern cloud-based solutions and models accompanied by AI-driven insights will help your organization stay agile and gain fast time-to-value to make the best business decisions, given our “new normal“ dynamic market changes. We'll ask Pras Chatterjee at SAP and Jumen Rest and Neil Morton at PwC for their take on Extended Planning and Analysis for Resilient and Sustainable Organizations.

The Buzz: “'That thing out there…that is no dinosaur,' says Owen in the 2015 action/sci-fi film Jurassic World. Can the same be said about your email marketing strategy?” (mashable.com) Fifty years ago, in 1971, pioneering American computer programmer Ray Tomlinson implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet. It was the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts connected to ARPANET. The first business marketing email blast was sent in 1978 – and companies are still using this method of communication with customers and prospects today. Given the digital transformation every business is undergoing now as a result of the global pandemic, we're wondering if this form of communication is antiquated or truly the backbone of how we entice, engage, and convert customers. Or is it something in between? Does email fit into the modern buyer's journey? What's working and what's not? What might the future of email marketing look like? We'll ask Neal Schaffer at PDCA Social, Lindsay Miles at Emory University and Ashley Melendez at SAP for their take on eMail Marketing: Digital Dinosaur or Business Backbone?

The Buzz 1: “Indirect attacks against weak links in the supply chain now account for 40 percent of security breaches.” (Accenture Security / Third State of Cyber Resilience Report, www.ironnet.com) The Buzz 2: Cybersecurity in the supply chain cannot be viewed as an IT problem only. Cyber supply chain risks touch sourcing, vendor management, supply chain continuity and quality, transportation security and many other functions across the enterprise and require a coordinated effort to address.” (csrc.nist.gov) In a renewed focus on supply chain risk management and protection, and to vet their suppliers’ cybersecurity maturity, the US Department of Defense and federal government have established the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). Direct suppliers and others will be required to reach a prescribed level of maturity and be certified by a third party just to qualify to do business with state and federal agencies. Industry observers expect these requirements will be adopted in the commercial space to mitigate supply chain risk there, as well. Heads-up to all CFOs: Not attaining CMMC certification for your supply chain cybersecurity may impact your ability to drive revenue and to do business. We’ll discuss why CFOs needs to focus on supply chain management impact on cash flow, working capital and shareholder value; best practices for supply chain risk management; the importance of these federal and state guidelines; and how to identify, define, and automate the essential data handling and security controls for sensitive data within the supply chain. We’ll ask Keyaan J. Williams at CLASS-LLC, Keng Lim at NextLabs and Anne Marie Colombo at SAP for their take on CFOs: Get Ready for Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification!

The buzz 1: “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” (Tom Fishburne, Founder, Marketoonist). The buzz 2: “Marketers need to build digital relationships and reputation before closing a sale.” (Chris Brogan, CEO, Owner Media Group) The buzz 3: “Companies that speak in the language of the pitch are no longer speaking to anyone.” (The Cluetrain Manifesto, 95 business theses, 1999 – 2000) For years, sales organizations have understood the need for a new way to engage prospects and customers – particularly since traditional rolodex-dependent cold-calling was producing dismal results. Why? Buyers are demanding a personalized, customized, and integrated experience along the total customer journey. Yet at the same time, Marketers have been reluctant to embrace a new way of engaging customers – always throwing out the “volume” argument. Who is right? If sales teams are having real success with the “digital engagement” model, why are Marketers so resistant? What information / data / knowledge will help Marketers embrace this new paradigm? How can Marketers support their sales team counterparts for their collective success? We’ll ask Steve Watt at Seismic, Sarah Goodall at Tribal Impact and Charrele Robinson-Brown at SAP for their insights on what it will take for Marketers to change their mindset, skillset and potentially, their toolset, on Marketers’ Reality Check: Your Digital Presence Quotient *DPQ*.

The Buzz: “A majority of executives and investment professionals agreeing that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs enhance shareholder value…Finance leaders can help spur companies to develop sustainability goals by articulating the financial benefits of sustainability projects and establishing criteria for funding the company’s ESG investments that account for their full range of benefits.” www.cfo.com Sustainability isn’t just a global agenda. It’s a corporate agenda and a topic driving fervent discussion in board meetings around the world. Not surprisingly, the Office of the CFO is key and central to these discussions. Regulations and standards are still emerging and differ across geographies. One thing is clear: organizations will need to be accountable, responsible and in compliance with sustainability requirements, or face significant consequences. But many forward-looking organizations see sustainability as an opportunity to create something better, to become leaders in building sustainable profitable businesses. And sustainability will be a new way of doing business, meeting compliance, ethical and moral obligations while carving new competitive advantages. To achieve this, technology will play a big part in their change process. How can your organization prepare for the business and systems transformations needed for this brave new sustainable world? We’ll ask Simon Meitz and Jon Scott at EY, and Michel Haesendonckx at SAP for their take on Sustainability: A 21st Century Challenge for the CFO.

The buzz 1: “Once a niche aspect of the event industry, virtual events have become an integral part of daily life in the time of COVID-19 — and it looks like these events are here to stay.” www.eventbrite.com/blog/11-virtual-event-ideas The buzz 2: “Audience engagement is absolutely key to virtual events…it’s very easy for your audience to get distracted when attending your events online.…provide interactive elements so that your audience feels incredibly involved.” www.markletic.com/blog/virtual-event-engagement Over the past year of the global pandemic, our world has shifted to be almost completely digital. This phenomenon isn’t limited to your day-to-day interactions with peers and colleagues. It has also impacted the way you engage with customers, particularly when it comes to events. Is the transition from in-person to digital events as simple as just putting an on-site meeting agenda online? Not! Delivering an engaging customer experience in a digital event requires a different set of skills, ways of engaging your target audience’s attention, and most importantly, strategies for creating a memorable experience. Which platform/s and visual tools are best for engagement and an immersive experience? How to ensure quality content? How to promote your event on social media and position your call to action? We’ll ask experts Kathy Lopez at SAP, Lauren Stefano at Seismic, and Mark Della Valle at Encore Global / Canada, to share insights and insider tips on building engagement into their own and their customer’s events, what’s working, what’s not, and the biggest pitfalls to avoid. Join us for How to Build Engaging Virtual Events: Insider Success Tips.

The Buzz: “As companies craft their responses to the COVID-19 crisis, CFOs are in the thick of the action. They need to make sure that their organizations weather the immediate business shocks while preparing them to emerge from the crisis in the best possible shape.” (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/cfo-leadership-in-the-covid-19-crisis) As we move to what is hopefully the beginning of the end of the global pandemic, companies are gearing up to regain strength as we expect the economy to rebound. More than ever, the role of the CFO continues to expand, as resources in finance and risk teams must stay in lock step with the business to anticipate and guide strategy to help companies during the economic recovery. Cash management is a key aspect of ensuring a company has the financial resources to thrive, through optimization of working capital, cash flow, and the close with real-time insight. We’ll ask Anthony Coletta at SAP, Molly Boyle at Blackline and Luke Carlson at Carlson Cash for their take on Quick Wins to Drive Value for CFOs in the Post-Pandemic Business World.

The buzz: “If there was one winner in 2020, it was probably video. With everyone online all the time, video became more crucial than ever for marketing and communication.” [biteable.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics] According to Biteable’s video stats for 2021, 60 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 14 precent of Marketers create videos every day. That’s a lot of video! Indeed, video has been the “king” of media types over the last 12 months. Its popularity brings up important questions about how customers engage with video, the psychology behind its success, and key features today’s marketers should build into their videos to ensure engagement success. We’ll ask Karl Yeh at Benevity, Mischa McInerney at Digital Marketing Institute and Ryan Sonnenberg at SAP about the most engaging video content they’ve experienced and how technology needs to evolve to increase customer interaction in video. Join us for The Psychology of Video Engagement: New King of Marketing Tactics!

The buzz: “CEOs are looking ahead to their post-Covid challenges. Nowhere is this challenge more daunting than figuring out if the global pandemic and its far-reaching impacts have created a temporary shock to their markets or a permanent shift in them.” (Bob Zukis, Contributor, www.forbes.com/sites/bobzukis/2021/02/15/shock-or-shift-the-post-pandemic-strategic-challenge-for-boards-and-ceos/?sh=48623f2e1870) As the world gradually emerges from the global pandemic, we expect 2020’s business and digital transformation trends to accelerate in the second half of 2021. While these complex and disruptive business shifts differ by industry, line of business, and region, all acknowledge that adapting to the new reality requires change across all functions. As business and technology experts last year planned for re-opening and transformation acceleration, strong central themes emerged. The pandemic’s impact on the business demand and supply equation. How a business’s ecosystem will adjust and how technology will help accelerate it. The changing workforce – contract, remote, part-time, gig – coming back virtually or physically with new expectations. Keeping workers motivated and loyal while attracting the best talent for new business demands. We’ll ask SAP’s Ryad Semichi and Craig Stasila about this perfect storm that will require us to adapt to multi-dimensional shifts in industry, technology, and work.

The Buzz: “The original inspiration behind the title 'Ripped from the Headlines' was the Warner Brothers film studio’s stock tagline, 'Torn from today's headlines!', used often beginning in the 1930s to promote the gritty realism of their 'social problem' films. The Evil Twin of this trope is “Could This Happen to You?” [tvtropes.org] What’s the latest news on the street that impacts FP&A? Or perhaps the better question is, “What’s the latest news in your home office, study, spare bedroom or kitchen table?”, depending on the distance of your home-working commute! It's time to take a look at topical content from current news headlines to learn how today’s hot topics will affect FP&A professionals today, tomorrow and farther into the future. We may be locked in, but that’s no reason to be out of touch. We’ll ask Jeff Hattendorf at Macrospect, Thiagu Bala at Deloitte and David Williams at SAP for their perspectives on Ripped from the Headlines: Financial Planning and Analysis.

The buzz: “Great customer experience is a major competitive advantage that drives new sales—and it’s predicted to overtake price and product as the primary brand differentiator for B2B sales by 2020… 33% of customers will consider switching brands after just one poor experience.” (getfeedback.com) The customer journey – mostly online without a salesperson – has become a major puzzle for marketers to analyze. From brand awareness to customer advocacy, each customer’s experience is unique, compounding the challenges. You need to build each step of your touchpoints – whatever the route – toward the goal of a sale. The big questions: Who is responsible for the customer experience – Marketing, Sales or Customer Success – or all? In 2021, how is the customer journey map evolving and impacting customer experience? We’ll ask Tribal Impact’s Vanessa Baker, eConsultancy’s Stefan Tornquist, SAP’s Nicky Elsner for their take on Era of Your Customer: Who’s Minding Their Journey and Experience?

The Buzz: “CFOs have recognized that surviving is not enough…2021 promises to be an epic year for CFOs and the companies they lead…the struggles of 2020 have taught us all many hard lessons, and these lessons will be used by elite CFOs to create a faster, more flexible, more competitive, and ultimately more profitable organization.” (forbes.com) Our first Financial Excellence Radio show of 2020 – January 28 – focused on a bright future for Finance and Finance professionals, with systems and processes underpinned by new and ever-improving technologies. Boom! Little did we know the impact COVID-19 would have on our lives or the unprecedented challenges it would pose to Finance, Financial Management and business survival. We’ll ask Kalish Consulting’s Brian Kalish, Deloitte’s Swapna Satwik and SAP’s Martin Naraschewski to debate the opportunity for Finance to reflect and reset priorities for transformation. Join us for Finance 2021 – Where Do We Go from Here?

The Buzz: “CFOs have recognized that surviving is not enough…2021 promises to be an epic year for CFOs and the companies they lead…the struggles of 2020 have taught us all many hard lessons, and these lessons will be used by elite CFOs to create a faster, more flexible, more competitive, and ultimately more profitable organization.” (forbes.com) Our first Financial Excellence Radio show of 2020 – January 28 – focused on a bright future for Finance and Finance professionals, with systems and processes underpinned by new and ever-improving technologies. Boom! Little did we know the impact COVID-19 would have on our lives or the unprecedented challenges it would pose to Finance, Financial Management and business survival. We’ll ask Kalish Consulting’s Brian Kalish, Deloitte’s Swapna Satwik and SAP’s Martin Naraschewski to debate the opportunity for Finance to reflect and reset priorities for transformation. Join us for Finance 2021 – Where Do We Go from Here?

The buzz: “Today, data is hidden all around us, and this begs the question: Is storytelling still important during a time when analytics reign supreme? Great analytics inform your storytelling; they point it in the right direction. But the data won’t do the storytelling for you.” (medium.com/the-mission/the-power-of-storytelling-in-sales-7ac8877475fa) Storytelling has been around since the start of civilization. It is how people shared experiences, informed family and friends, entertained each other. Good storytelling hooks us in from the beginning, and stimulates an emotional response to the characters, situation and outcome. Is storytelling critical to sales and marketing tactics today? If yes, how does it fit into the buyer’s journey? If no, why not? And what are the elements of a good story? We’ll ask SAP’s Kirsten Boileau, Citrix’s Lindsey Boggs and The Zahnd Team’s Georgia Huntley for their take on Storytelling for Marketing and Sales Success: Fact or Fiction?

The buzz: “Many organisations are looking to make significant investments in data assets, but without the appropriate strategy, they run the risk of putting the cart before the horse and making poor and regressive investment decisions.” (pwc.com) Becoming a data driven intelligent enterprise helps to build resilience and succeed in times of crisis and beyond. The intelligent use and smart discovery of data determine whether an organization and specific roles – CDO, Head of Data and Analytics, Chief Information Security Officer, Head of IT, Head of Architecture – can survive in the market. Companies lacking an outcome-driven data strategy will fail to generate value from data. But with Big Data proliferating, AI/ML is introducing new ways of creating business value that will fundamentally impact and change the data value chain. We’ll ask SAP’s Wolfgang Epting at SAP, PWC’s Wolfgang Sock and SAP’s Maria Villar for their take on Generating Value from Data: From Pious Wish to Reality.

The buzz: “Artificial intelligence is making waves…When marketers use AI with marketing automation, they create a superpower…drawing on everything they know about their consumers to tailor experiences with speed and precision…on a massive scale.” [blog.marketo.com] Marketers are constantly on the lookout for the next big thing when it comes to the future of the marketing industry. Many are focusing on buzzwords 'Automation' and 'AI', which have the potential to dramatically change how the industry works. It has to do with enhancing the effectiveness of critical components of a business such as the target clients your sales team has to concentrate on, the use of personnel time and required repetitive assignments. How will the future marketer work with AI? Will it be a battle between humans and machines? We’ll ask Alan McLaren at Infinitycomm, Rajat Kapur at &Marketing and Sylvia Lachkar at SAP for their insights on Rise of the Machines: How AI Is Disrupting Modern Marketing.

The Buzz: “CFOs are focused on the battle to survive and maintain cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis. But…finance leaders are learning valuable new ways to manage risk in the future.” (fm-magazine.com) In the past when we predicted the future, “2020” was far enough out that possibilities seemed endless, near-term enough that predictions could be extrapolated from historical trends. But no one saw “this 2020” coming, and now we almost have 2020 hindsight. We’ve experienced change that could not be planned for, with financial markets reacting daily to lockdowns, shelter-in-place rules, business restrictions. What were the financial implications of this turbulent year? How will CFOs respond to external forces and plan for continued disruption? What new business models can help them innovate? We’ll ask Birgit Starmanns and Kevin McCollom at SAP and Rizal Ahmed at SAPInsider for their insights on 2020 Hindsight to 2021 Foresight: Finance Implications for Turbulent Times.

The buzz: “Artificial intelligence is making waves…When marketers use AI with marketing automation, they create a superpower…drawing on everything they know about their consumers to tailor experiences with speed and precision…on a massive scale.” [blog.marketo.com] Marketers are constantly on the lookout for the next big thing when it comes to the future of the marketing industry. Many are focusing on buzzwords 'Automation' and 'AI', which have the potential to dramatically change how the industry works. It has to do with enhancing the effectiveness of critical components of a business such as the target clients your sales team has to concentrate on, the use of personnel time and required repetitive assignments. How will the future marketer work with AI? Will it be a battle between humans and machines? We’ll ask Alan McLaren at Infinitycomm, Rajat Kapur at &Marketing and Sylvia Lachkar at SAP for their insights on Rise of the Machines: How AI Is Disrupting Modern Marketing.

The buzz: “Artificial intelligence is making waves…When marketers use AI with marketing automation, they create a superpower…drawing on everything they know about their consumers to tailor experiences with speed and precision…on a massive scale.” [blog.marketo.com] Marketers are constantly on the lookout for the next big thing when it comes to the future of the marketing industry. Many are focusing on buzzwords 'Automation' and 'AI', which have the potential to dramatically change how the industry works. It has to do with enhancing the effectiveness of critical components of a business such as the target clients your sales team has to concentrate on, the use of personnel time and required repetitive assignments. How will the future marketer work with AI? Will it be a battle between humans and machines? We’ll ask Alan McLaren at Infinitycomm, Rajat Kapur at &Marketing and Sylvia Lachkar at SAP for their insights on Rise of the Machines: How AI Is Disrupting Modern Marketing.

Ollie Wards talks to Craig Bruce at the Australian Audio Summit. Recorded live 27 November 2020.  Follow Craig on Twitter - @cb_bruce  Join us on Instagram - radio_game_changers  Game Changers: Radio - Insights and Lessons from the World's Best Broadcasters and Programmers is available now. Find the book here.  Game Changers: Radio is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network.  Support the show: https://www.amazon.com.au/Game-Changers-Insights-broadcasters-programmers-ebook/dp/B07YSDKCDX See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bree Tomasel talks to Craig Bruce and Kate Meade at the Australian Audio Summit. Recorded live 27 November 2020.  Follow Craig on Twitter - @cb_bruce  Join us on Instagram - radio_game_changers  Game Changers: Radio - Insights and Lessons from the World's Best Broadcasters and Programmers is available now. Find the book here.  Game Changers: Radio is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network.  Support the show: https://www.amazon.com.au/Game-Changers-Insights-broadcasters-programmers-ebook/dp/B07YSDKCDX See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The buzz: “From a business standpoint, human-centered AI solutions leverage human science and qualitatively thick data to understand the deeper needs, aspirations and drivers that underlie customer behaviors…to tap into user behavior and subconscious patterns to construct products and services that follow more satisfying, informed, enriching…user experiences.” cognizant.com We’re living and working in the era of game-changing technologies including IoT, AI, ML, and Predictive Analytics. Beyond disrupting business models and creating new business processes, these technologies have a huge impact on us, the people who are part of the processes. But what good are these technologies if they don’t work well for us humans? Unless innovators take a user-centric approach, they run the risk of creating a set of technical prototypes without delivering real business value. We’ll ask Naeem Zafar at Telesense and Bert Laws and Adam Mardini at SAP for their take on AI Is For Humans – Part 3.

The Buzz: “CFOs are focused on the battle to survive and maintain cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis. But…finance leaders are learning valuable new ways to manage risk in the future.” (fm-magazine.com) In the past when we predicted the future, “2020” was far enough out that possibilities seemed endless, near-term enough that predictions could be extrapolated from historical trends. But no one saw “this 2020” coming, and now we almost have 2020 hindsight. We’ve experienced change that could not be planned for, with financial markets reacting daily to lockdowns, shelter-in-place rules, business restrictions. What were the financial implications of this turbulent year? How will CFOs respond to external forces and plan for continued disruption? What new business models can help them innovate? We’ll ask Birgit Starmanns and Kevin McCollom at SAP and Rizal Ahmed at SAPInsider for their insights on 2020 Hindsight to 2021 Foresight: Finance Implications for Turbulent Times.

The Buzz: “CFOs are focused on the battle to survive and maintain cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis. But…finance leaders are learning valuable new ways to manage risk in the future.” (fm-magazine.com) In the past when we predicted the future, “2020” was far enough out that possibilities seemed endless, near-term enough that predictions could be extrapolated from historical trends. But no one saw “this 2020” coming, and now we almost have 2020 hindsight. We’ve experienced change that could not be planned for, with financial markets reacting daily to lockdowns, shelter-in-place rules, business restrictions. What were the financial implications of this turbulent year? How will CFOs respond to external forces and plan for continued disruption? What new business models can help them innovate? We’ll ask Birgit Starmanns and Kevin McCollom at SAP and Rizal Ahmed at SAPInsider for their insights on 2020 Hindsight to 2021 Foresight: Finance Implications for Turbulent Times.

The buzz: “B2B sellers have tremendous success when integrating social into their process…Modern buyers are digital-first buyers…B2B social sellers outperform peers who don’t use social by 72%.” go.forrester.com How can your sales team drive brand awareness and accelerate your account-based marketing (ABM) strategy to convert top prospects into customers? Leverage their social presence. Digital selling has become increasingly important in building long-term customer relationships and repeat business. If your sales team isn't including it in ABM, they’re missing out. We’ll ask Steve Watt at Grapevine6, Kristina Jaramillo at Personal ABM, and Paroma Sen at SAP for their insights on how to get your marketing and sales teams to collaborate on ABM strategy, identify target accounts and key influencers, reach the right decision-makers with targeted content, and measure the impact of your ABM campaign. Join us for Accelerating Account-Based Marketing: Integrate Digital Selling.

The buzz: “AI is developing at whirlwind rates. While nobody can say for certain how it will impact our work and personal lives, we can make a good few educated guesses…with COVID-19 limiting human interaction in the built environment, advancements in AI and automation are on course to accelerate.” (axenter.com/ai-future-work-171663.html) AI and related disruptive technologies are impacting how we work more today than in recent years – with collaboration technologies (Slack), video meetings (Zoom), and intentions/task assigning (Cortana). The bottom line: AI is the engine transforming the workforce landscape – spawning new tech jobs, eliminating repetitive busywork assignments, automating hazardous jobs, reducing human error, evaluating job applicants, and even rating sales leads via sentiment analysis. We’ll ask Naeem Zafar at Telesense, Sena Zorlu at Kubera Venture Capital and Peter Woo at Course Hero for their take on Get To Work! How AI Is Transforming the Labor Market.

The Buzz: “Treasury is still a very young and new function. In sociology, we would speak of generation X…New regulations, new technologies, an interconnection and correlation between markets, economies and continents – will force the treasury function to evolve.” [linkedin.com] The economic downturn caused by COVID-19 has forced treasurers to re-evaluate their cash management and working capital strategies. While trying to keep up with the crisis, they are also looking to strengthen their operations to wither away future crises. There are a few key areas of focus that will become foundation for the future of treasury – accelerated digitalization, efficient management of working capital, and process automation and control. We’ll ask Haresh Chhaya at SAP and Erik Smolders and Abhinav Sethi at Deloitte to discuss these focus areas and the possibilities for corporate treasuries as they embark on their re-envisioned journeys on Rethinking Your Treasury Operations in Uncertain Times.