Episodes

Great communication is a vital part of the CFO’s brief. Using the right language is often the difference between good and great communication. On this episode of the GrowCFO Show Kevin Appleby discusses the power of language with Susana Serrano-Davey. Susana tells us about the many ways the right language can make a difference. The right language is vital to communicate to a team or individual effectively. Susana expands on the ways we can adapt our language and how this adaptation can lead to ...

Hugh Watchorn is the latest member of GrowCFO’s mentoring team. Hugh brings with him a wealth of experience, and he’s passionate about passing it on to the next generation of finance leaders. Kevin Appleby catches up with Hugh on this week’s GrowCFO show and finds that its a combination of business and people that keeps him motivated. Listen to the audio recording and find out more. About Hugh Watchorn Hugh spent 15 years as CFO of Bonhams. Bonhams is a privately owned British auction house. I...

GrowCFO mentor Catherine Clark often finds assertiveness to be an issue when she is helping aspiring and new CFOs. She tells Kevin Appleby why that is and what you can do to be more assertive. Catherine and Susana Serrano-Davey recently covered assertiveness in the GrowCFO Women Finance Leaders group and on this episode of the GrowCFO Show she shares the key messages from that session Why do some CFOs find it difficult to be assertive? Catherine believes that the rout cause of a lack of assert...

Mike Whitmire is CEO and founder of FloQast. He’s based in Los Angeles and is a CPA turned Entrepreneur. Mike loves building software that helps accountants go home early. Mike and Kevin catch up to find out how you can use technology to improve the culture in your finance function. About Mike Whitmire Mike founded FloQast in 2015, but it isn’t the first venture he’s been part of. He was previously senior accountant at Cornerstone OnDemand during their successful IPO. His earlier background is...

Do you feel that you are delivering your full potential within your finance leader role? During this week’s episode of The GrowCFO Show, I talk to GrowCFO’s Founder and CEO Dan Wells. Dan explains how your CFO Programme will help you to maximise your performance within your finance leader role. What is the CFO Programme? The CFO programme is a blend of workshops, self assessment, and online learning. This programme will take you from being a back office function leader to becoming the co-pilot...

Iain Nairn is an experienced insolvency practitioner. In this episode of the GrowCFO Show I chatted to Iain about the role of the insolvency practitioner. Why and when and why a company should call on his services? We also took a look at the state of the economy following Covid-19. We discussed how great the negative impact on business actually is. Listen to the podcast to find out more. About Iain Nairn Iain Nairn started his career in corporate recovery and insolvency. He has also been a fin...

Catherine Clark leads GrowCFO’s mentoring team. One thing Catherine discusses regularly with her CFO mentees is how to create more thinking time. Finding the space to think is so important in so many areas. In particular thinking time impacts the quality of the decisions you make. So in this episode of the GrowCFO Show we’re going to talk about decision making and lack of thinking time: Why is thinking time important for you as a CFO what can you do to increase your perspective and enhance yo...

Susana Serrano-Davey is an experienced finance leader, mentor and coach. She even ran her own business for a while. Susana is joining the mentoring team we have here at GrowCFO. On this podcast I catch up with Susana to find out more about her. I also asked her “What makes a good finance leader?” About Susana Serrano-Davey Susana is a Spanish national, and currently lives in Marbella on the Costa Del Sol. She is a Chartered Accountant and a PwC alumni. Her experience includes roles in financia...

Abu Ali is a partner in a Newcastle based corporate finance boutique, WilliamsAli. He provides strategic M&A and funding advice to business owners and investors. Abu joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show to explain the role of a corporate finance advisor, and the value that working with an external specialist can bring to your business. About Abu Ali Abu Ali qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Teeside based Clive Owen & Co. He soon left the world of audit to pursue a career in corporat...

We’re back after a short break with season 2 of The GrowCFO Show. Ajmal Mian and Kevin Appleby discuss the future of the high street and the impact this will have on the CFO in the first podcast of the new season. About Ajmal Mian Ajmal Mian is currently Director of Finance at SURREY SKYLINE LTD. Until recently he was CFO of Blacksheep. Blacksheep is an independent and award-winning design agency, specialising in interior design, strategy, branding and graphics. Ajmal had overall responsibilit...

Paul McKoen is a very experienced CFO. His career has given him experience in a number of industries and includes just about every aspect of the CFO role. We talk through Paul’s career, and highlight a some interesting experiences of the CFO needing to make an impact very quickly in a new CFO role. Paul talks about the times where a fresh pair of eyes and some cross-industry experience made a real difference to his new employer. It’s quite a journey! Paul McKoen qualified at the Ford Motor Com...

GrowCFO has created a CFO Competency Framework that covers the key skills required to become an effective finance leader. This is rapidly becoming the global toolkit to help finance leaders benchmark their skills and competencies against their peer group. It also acts as a CFO Readiness Toolkit to help the next generation of aspiring CFOs. During this podcast episode, Dan Wells and Kevin Appleby discuss the purpose of the CFO Competency Framework. In addition, we discuss how it is helping so ma...

Tanbir Jasimuddin shares his experience with digital finance. Tanbir and his team at family law firm Vardags have recently won an award. Transformer of the year at the Generation CFO Digital Finance Function Awards. He is also an author of white papers for the FP&A trends group. About Tanbir Jasimuddin Tanbir graduated with a chemistry degree and qualified as an accountant, then moved into management consulting (Capgemini, KPMG and then McKinsey). He’s now back on the coal face. Tanbir is curre...

Many businesses have struggled during the past 12 months and need to adapt to ever-changing circumstances. This may require significant adjustments to their business model and operations to help them survive. A business turnaround strategy can help with this. During this week’s podcast episode, I asked experienced CFO Baz Bedrossian to share his thoughts. Baz has strong experience of supporting business turnarounds throughout his various finance leader roles. What is a business turnaround? A bu...

GrowCFO are launching our 2021 finance systems survey to share technology insights from your community. This will help finance leaders to embed technology solutions into your business operations. In addition, this will help you to act as a catalyst for change across your wider firm. Technology offers more opportunities to streamline business processes and to evolve finance functions. This is driving the automation of most routine manual activities. During this podcast episode, I asked Chris Tred...

Research shows that soft skills contribute towards 80% of your career achievements. Despite this, most people prioritise developing hard skills and do not have an action plan to improve your soft skills. This is particularly true of the finance leader community, who spend much of their career learning technical accounting skills. The CFO role has evolved significantly during recent years. You will need to master a significant number of soft skills to successfully deliver your role. I asked exper...

Mark Lee has been described as the most networked accountant in the UK. Who better to talk to about building your professional network?! Networking on LinkedIn is a key part of this. Particularly at the moment when meeting up in person is so difficult. Mark is a man of many talents. He runs his own business mentoring accountants and tax advisors. Mark is Chairman of the Tax Advice Network. He is also Treasurer to The Magic Circle and a former Chair of the Tax Faculty at the ICAEW. There are mil...

Surviving lockdown was an issue raised in the last GrowCFO Situation Room networking group. I asked resilience specialist Russell Thackeray for some advice. Our finance leader community is affected by lockdown in a number of ways. Some are working solo, home alone. Others are struggling to do a high-pressure role alongside home schooling and childcare. Yet others might be finding themselves in between jobs. It’s lockdown number 3, its starting to feel like Groundhog Day, and the weather isn’t gr...

We publish the GrowCFO Show podcast every week, but its only a small part of GrowCFO. In this week’s show we take a look at how you, the finance leader, can benefit from the wider CFO community. Grow CFO is where Finance Leaders Grow Together. Join thousands of like-minded professionals using GrowCFO to access the combined knowledge and experience of the finance leader community Being a successful CFO isn’t easy Becoming a successful CFO requires commitment and dedication towards delivering yo...

If you are a GrowCFO member you will most likely have come across Patrick Dunne already. When is comes to boards, and how they work, Patrick is pretty much the leading authority. Inside GrowCFO, Patrick frequently talks about the dynamics between the CEO, the CFO and the board. But today we find out about Patrick Dunne the person. He tells me about his career, and why he wrote the book “Boards: A Practical Perspective” Who is Patrick Dunne? Patrick has very humble roots. He hails from Toxteth ...

Tony Talbot is an experienced headhunter turned podcaster. He’s the host of the Career Move Secrets podcast and he joins me on The GrowCFO Show to talk about the hidden job market. He gives us the inside track on how most senior roles are filled and exactly how a headhunter will draw up a shortlist of candidates. Tony specialises in helping the owners and leaders of consulting companies hire senior, hard to find, and niche talent. From time to time he also handles c-suite roles. The advertised...

Is 2021 the year you aim to take on the top finance job? If so the Future CFO Programme can help you get there. Dan Wells, founder of GrowCFO explains how We have upgraded the GrowCFO Future CFO programme and moved to a new platform for 2021. We’ve made the material and workshops easier to access and more flexible to use. The changes will give you an enhanced learning experience thats easier to tailor to your needs. The Future CFO Programme equips you with the different skills you need to step...

We’re all back at work after the festive break, refreshed and ready for whatever challenges 2021 will bring. Did you set yourself any new goals for 2021, or perhaps some new year resolutions? I caught up with Mark Channon for some help on turning those goals and resolutions into reality. Mark has some great advice to help you achieve your objectives. About Mark Channon Mark originally trained as an actor, before becoming one of the first 8 people in the world to become a Grand Master of Memory...

Goal setting is something that should be very personal. As you move to senior finance roles you need to take charge of your own destiny. You set your own goals, independently. We believe that goal setting starts with understanding your why? Only once you understand your why can you move to the what? The specific goals you want to achieve. Setting the goal is all very well, but you also need to address the how? How exactly will you achieve your intention? Do you plan for a whole year? Both Kevi...