CFO Bookshelf Blog

CFO Bookshelf loves The Soul of Enterprise Podcast hosted by Ed Kless and Ron Baker. In this episode, we take a look behind the scenes of this highly-popular radio show that airs live each Friday through the VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network. While the audience has a strong following from those working in accounting and other professional services firms, our visit with Ed Kless is geared for business leaders in any industry.

One of my favorite times of the year is skimming my booklist from top to bottom several times and trying to pick my favorite ten books. The task was so hard that I cheated a bit by selecting honorable mentions and creating two other categories. In this show, my friend Shaefer Schuetz leads the discussion. If you need some book ideas for 2022, numerous business genres are covered in this conversation.

My second-favorite accountant in the movies is Oscar Wallace in The Untouchables. While Tiffany Couch probably hasn’t ever had to deal with someone like Al Capone, she has something in common with Oscar – they both use the science of numbers accounting to detect fraudulent schemes. Tiffany is a long-time forensic account and the author of, The Thief In Your Company. Tiffany teaches us that thieves are not the only ones who rationalize. So do their victims.

While you may not recognize the name, Steve Bailey is one of three people I would enshrine immediately into a financial modeling hall of fame if one existed. Steve is a long-time financial modeling expert and he’s the founder of Model Metrix, a firm providing modeling-as-a-service and designing integrated business plans. This conversation is not just for financial modeling practitioners but for CEOs and other business managers too.

When you think of agile you probably think of software development. How about merger and acquisition activities? In 2012, Kison Patel happened on the idea of transforming the M&A process through an agile method supported by technology at DealRoom.net. Our guest is also the author of M&A Tactics and the M&A Tactics Handbook. Kison explains how the core four values of the Agile Manifesto apply to M&A.

Whether you love the Beatles or don’t, the first thought that probably pops from your mind when you hear this group’s name is a famous band and one where you know all the members – Paul, John, George, and Ringo. I’m assuming you never think of the terms economics, entrepreneurship, human capital, innovation, venture capital, and management. In this episode, we hear from Sam Staley as he talks about the big ideas from his book, The Beatles and Economics.

When you walk through the isles of a grocery store, are you curious about how every product made its way to the shelf? For instance, what’s the story behind the fisherman on boats for months at sea dragging nets for shrimps? What are the odds of a new product finding its way to a store shelf, and at what cost? Who are the women drivers getting our food from point to point? And can we trust the certifications stamped on labels?

I am a huge fan of narrative non-fiction. Such books generally inform, inspire, or entertain. When narrative non-fiction includes each of those three traits, then we’re reading something special that hard to put down. That’s precisely what I found with Mark Paul’s, The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told. Not only is the book fast-paced and entertaining, but I also enjoyed learning about an industry where I knew nothing.