This episode features highlights from our first ten episodes focusing on the importance of data. We hear from Ann Dennison, CFO of Nasdaq, Jaye Connolly-Labelle, Chairman and CEO of RippleNami, Hamza Benamar, CFO of Kyriba, and more. Together, they bring you the most relevant insights to help you unlock the power of data in your own organization’s finance department.
This episode features highlights from our first ten episodes focusing on the importance of data. We hear from Ann Dennison, CFO of Nasdaq, Jaye Connolly-Labelle, Chairman and CEO of RippleNami, Hamza Benamar, CFO of Kyriba, and more. Together, they bring you the most relevant insights to help you unlock the power of data in your own organization’s finance department.
Quotes
“Finance professionals need to spend less time collecting data. They're valued more for how they can act on data than simply their ability to play scorekeeper. The types of people who are becoming CFOs now are those with more of a strategic mindset and less of a score keeping mindset.” - Eric Ball, Co-Founder and General Partner of Impact Capital Ventures
“There’s a lot of power in sitting on tons of data at the corporate level. How can we harness that power to help provide information to the business?” - Ann Dennison, CFO of Nasdaq
“Data on a spreadsheet is meaningless. Data in a real-time dashboard is powerful. I can get an alert if there’s ever anything wrong so that I’m in the know. You have to have your finger on the pulse and that is data-driven.” - Jaye Connolly-Labelle, Chairman and CEO of RippleNami
Time Stamps
[2:12] Michael Dinkins, Dinkins Financial, on better data and decision making
[3:52] Jennifer Ceran, Smartsheet, on new fintech solutions
[4:22] Eric Ball, Impact Capital Ventures, on CFOs as a strategic player
[5:30] Jaye Connolly-Labelle, RippleNami, on the importance of real-time data
[7:11] Katherine Edenbach, Emburse, on driving strategy
[7:52] Niklas Bergentoft, Deloitte & Touche, on the liquidity ecosystem
[9:00] Wolfgang Koester, Kyriba, on being data-driven
[10:26] Hamza Benamar, Kyriba, on using algorithms to help with decision making
[12:14] Ann Dennison, Nasdaq, on harnessing data
[14:05] Ross Tennenbaum, Avalara, on leveraging modern tech
Sponsor
The Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.com
Links
Connect with:
Narrator: Hello and welcome to the Invisible Vault.
Nine months ago, The Invisible Vault set out to discover the secrets to unlock liquidity from some of the leading CFOs and finance leaders in the world. We heard from some of the top minds in treasury and finance--leaders at companies like Nasdaq, Deloitte, Avalara, Oracle, and Kyriba. One of the discoveries we've made is the importance of data as an invaluable tool in the toolbox of the modern CFO. We’ve found that some of the most innovative CFOs are obsessed with data. Data is the tool they use to shape and transform their organization. And, as more tools are available to improve data analysis, CFOs and treasury leaders are critically aware that they must widen their capacity to make sense out of massive amounts of data in real-time. Especially when it comes to cash and liquidity, these high-powered executives use data to allow them to unlock the lifeblood of their company.
Today we’re looking back at highlights from our first ten episodes and bringing you the most relevant insights to help you unlock the power of data in your own organization’s finance department.
But before we get into it, here’s a brief word from our sponsor…
So this week our Executive Producer, Daniel Shaffer, got together with the host, Bob Stark, to talk about the modern CFO’s vision of the importance of data.
Daniel Shaffer: The Invisible Vault started as a quest to understand the evolution of the modern CFO. What makes them tick, what keeps them up at night, how do they win?
Bob Stark: And, for large enterprises, what levers can they pull to support their teams.
Daniel Shaffer: Here’s Michael Dinkins, President and CEO of Dinkins Financial, and former CFO of international medical device company Integer, and a student of GE decision making.
Michael Dinkins: Who does the most best analytics doesn't necessarily mean they're going to make the best decision out of that data. So when I say that we're going to have better data and we're going to focus in on it, you still gotta make the right decision. I think the key is that one, you're gonna have better data because these systems are getting better and better and better. Kyriba and other companies are giving you better data, better information. But you still have to make good decisions out of it.
Bob Stark: That’s a lot of pressure - to get it right. The CFO is analyzing all the data and asking for a better approach to drive strategy.
Daniel Shaffer: So, a successful CFO is going beyond accounting and management of teams to get to the bottomline?
Bob Stark: Yes, but the bottom line is the starting point of what if. Multiple scenarios should be considered. According to Katherine Edenbach, CFO of Emburse, and Eric Ball, former Treasurer at Oracle and Venture Capital founder, the CFO is strategic in many ways.
Katherine Edenbach: The CFO is no longer just managing finance and accounting, you know, day-to-day accounting operations. Really, it's taking that next step up and understanding how the numbers pull together and how they, how you're going to drive strategy. If you had bad data coming in, you could have a bad decision coming out. So it's important to, you know, to understand the accounting and finance, but really the CFO needs to have that strategic mindset.
Eric Ball: We have Kyriba tools to manage and track liquidity. I think that a lot of finance professionals need to spend less time collecting data and they're valued more for how well, how they can act on data than simply their ability to play scorekeeper. And with that, I think that, um, the types of people who are becoming CFOs now are those with more of a strategic mindset and less of a score keeping mindset.
Daniel Shaffer: I like the way Eric summed up the mindset of the CFO - it’s not scorekeeping. There’s a decision and a strategy to execute - engaging with data.
Bob Stark: You’re right about that last part in particular. Senior leaders today more than ever demand ways to engage with the information they have at their fingertips. Jaye Connolly-Labelle, Chairman and CEO of RippleNami said it best.
Jaye Connolly-Labelle: I'm a believer in data. Our, our name Ripple NAMI it's, uh, a ripple of data. It turns to a tsunami of information. So data on a spreadsheet is meaningless. Data in a real-time dashboard is powerful. Right? If I have to go hunt and look for what I need, or if I can build an AI business, uh, uh, business intelligence tool that tells me here's what I need and oh, alert, alert. When there's ever anything wrong, I get a notification. So that I'm in the know. And you have to have your finger on the pulse and it is data-driven.
Daniel Shaffer: Ok. The modern CFO and senior leaders are making decisions faster and with larger amounts of information from across the enterprise. When you think about the various components of a financial strategy, what brings it all together?
Bob Stark: There’s a new wave of demands from the Board to make decisions with more validation, more comprehensive analyses across the company to demonstrate the way forward.
Daniel Shaffer: That’s the angle we get from Jennifer Ceran, former CFO of Smartsheet, and she brings up the key function of APIs. Similarly, Niklas Bergentoft, Principal at Deloitte & Touche seems this capacity to unify data and decisions.
Jennifer Ceran: It's been really exciting in the last 10 years how much software in the cloud has been built to help finance organizations and even companies in general have that visibility that they need. What's also pretty exciting now is with APIs and other integrations, you can use best of breed to get what you need so that you do have that holistic view. I think this whole technology evolution is so exciting and so needed. Because business is moving so fast and it's a competitive advantage if you have at your fingertips the data you need to, to make decisions and to know what's going on.
Niklas Bergentoft: I think there is a lot of opportunity here to really bring liquidity ecosystem together. And, uh, as, as the organization is communicating to the street about not just the results, but their targets and goals around free cash flow, uh, around how capital is going to get allocated in order to drive growth for the organization, ultimately how that, how to generate shareholder value so that that's going to continue to be important as you have that, that data. Being able to look at what levers you have, right. To increase liquidity when, when you need to increase liquidity, whether it's through funding on the treasury side or reducing working capital needs you know more broadly across finance and then working, you know, the working capital leverage to optimize cashflow on you're looking at what's the value of that.
Bob Stark: Wolfgang Koester, Chief Evangelist at Kyriba understands the importance of optimizing your processes to ensure you get the analysis right.
Wolfgang Koester: A lot of analysts are asking CEOs and extrapolating if they're not doing well in foreign exchange, what else aren't they managing very well? I think this is a really interesting point, but again, that's, that then is, well, they must not be as data-driven. And actually have certain things that you should have a fiduciary responsibility of saying we're going to have a process in place, and we're going to continue to repeat that process without mistakes.
Daniel Shaffer: Bob, I like what you said a minute ago, Wolfgang, Niklas and Jennifer have unique perspectives about managing data in real-time, optimizing data to create shareholder value and ensuring you’re not making unnecessary mistakes that create negative impacts. One of my favorite aspects of the new CFO is storytelling. The strategic mindset of a CFO is critical. The data is also important and having experience across multiple organizations gives you the ability to make the right call.
Bob Stark: Both Hamza Benamar, CFO of Kyriba and Ann Dennison, CFO of Nasdaq, have a unique take on using data to tell a story. Ultimately, the right story will help drive growth and unlock new strategy.
Hamza Benamar: Being data-driven uh, for me means, it's about this ability, uh, or developing over time within an organization and a culture, this ability to, um, have the numbers tell a story. And that story is about your business, about your challenges about your opportunities. So w we're seeing all these AI algorithms that are coming online and they can certainly crunch a lot of data. Um, and, and if I look at it as, as, as a math person, uh, I'm looking at AI as one tool in my toolbox that allows me to actually detect trends that as a human being, I'm unable to. So as, as a, as a decision maker, surrounded by other decision makers, where I think finance can play a major role, whether it is in, uh, investment working capital decisions or treasury cash, liquidity decisions, or what have you, I think it's actually leverage, uh, those mountains of data through the lens of algorithms and say, given these trends, what should be actually my, my decision? We spend most of our time in a linear, uh, um, uh, in a linear environment where we just don't have enough time to actually look at all the intricacies in existing trends that we just cannot actually see. So there is that bias confirmation in a lot of what we do, because we don't have that bandwidth to actually try a lot of different, uh, hypotheses and actually focus on a conclusion around the data.
Ann Dennison: Data has been a buzzword for a while now and with every part of my being believe um, we need to make data data-driven decisions, you know, all the time. Um, it's really easy, uh, to sort of talk qualitatively about things and, and, and make decisions and miss, you know, miss some important things, especially, you know, with the finance lens on. And I, and I, when I think about finance, you know, sitting on a ton of data at the corporate level, there's really a lot of power in that. And so how can we harness that power to help provide information to the business businesses, Many organizations sort of grow through acquisition and you have sort of all this different data sitting in different places, um, you know, coming in through different entry points and, and, you know, sort of living in different places. And sometimes, you know, if you can't harness that data, It's very hard to, you know, to optimize your, you know, your ability to cross sell, um, your products, that sort of thing.
Bob Stark: There’s a lot of complex tools CFOs use today to ensure M&A is successful. AI, ML, APIs all support the decision making, and help reduce the unstructured data into meaningful sets of decisions.
Daniel Shaffer: Yes. That is the running theme we’ve heard from all of our guests… the importance of making the right decisions and having the information and tools to optimize the outcomes of those decisions.
Bob Stark: Data is key. Ross Tennenbaum, CFO of Avalara sums it up best.
Ross Tennenbaum: Any company leveraging modern technology, like that's th that to me, that's data-driven. It may be automated and built in, but you've got to know how to tune those dials. And you've got to have the systems and processes built underneath the covers that can take in all of these signals, make sense of it and help you optimize the machine. I mean, that's literally the differentiator between the winners and the losers today, and increasingly going forward as everybody becomes an e-commerce company and all those cookie crumbs are out there to optimize and to capitalize off. I mean, it's literally the winner lose thing. So data-driven, don't think at CFOs, don't think about it as your FP&A, or, you know, producing financials and planning and all that's critically important. But you know, you gotta think about, you know, what are all the levers across the value chain that need to, that can be optimized to, to really drive the business and out-compete the competition.
Daniel Shaffer: That was fun. Thank you Bob.
Bob Stark: Thanks, Daniel. Great insights here. I look forward to our next interview.
Narrator: Thank you for listening to The Invisible Vault.
If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and review. And share it with someone who you think might enjoy it.
The Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, The global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.com
This podcast is brought to you by Kyriba. It was hosted by Bob Stark with guidance from Executive Producer Daniel Shaffer and the team at Caspian Studios.