CFO Bookshelf Blog

I had never heard of Edmond Safra until I read Daniel Gross’s informative and inspiring biography, A Banker’s Journey. His banks never had to write off loans, and many of his early deals were on a handshake. He never needed a government bailout, nor did he ever head to DC complaining about regulations. Dan Gross gives us compelling reasons to revisit this banker’s remarkable life, whose business career started at fifteen in Milan.

Our special guest may not be a best-selling author on real estate yet, but we’re already predicting this former World Cup soccer player will soon be a household name in Dave Ramsey’s world in a few years. Vaughn Bethell is the founder of REI Junkies based in South Carolina. In this episode, we learn his unique process of providing real estate investors a different way to reduce stress and frustration in their investments.

Randy Wootton could be the most articulate and intelligent chief executive I’ve ever encountered. The three-time CEO now leading Maxio’s growth engine was the perfect candidate to discuss Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive, the best management book ever written. Is he still relevant? Should business readers prioritize his best writing? And what makes his earlier books stand out? Those questions are addressed when discussing time management, knowledge workers, and decision-making.

Consumers and anyone who studies business understand the subscription economy, but what about the usage economy? What is it? How does it differ from the subscription economy? Does it matter? Adam Howatson is the CEO of LogiSense and the author of The Usage Economy. In this conversation, Adam will give examples of companies that got it right with their usage-based pricing models and those that made serious mistakes, such as Wink.

Jeff Hooke’s book, The Myth of Private Equity, left asking the question, “What is going on?” far too often while being educated at the same time. During this conversation, we learned much about the myths of PE funds focused on leveraged buyouts. Some of the big ideas in this conversation include the enormous fees fund managers are collecting, the poor fund performance these funds generate, and the lack of transparency in their reporting to institutional investors.

Andy Kriebel is my favorite go-to person on all matters related to Tableau and Dataviz. Andy was the first to create a YouTube channel on Tableau. His subscriber base has surpassed 61,000, and his 750+ videos have 7.5 million views and counting. Andy and Eva Murray are the co-authors of the book #Makeover Monday. In this conversation, our topics range from writing to his five daily habits and why asking for a dashboard can be problematic.

I have my theories on why W. Edwards Deming is not a household name in all business circles. Many view him as the ‘quality’ guy who impacted Japanese manufacturing after the Second World War. That view is limiting, as Deming’s management mindset had four central tenets: pragmatism, the law of variation, human psychology, and systems thinking. These are Deming’s pillars of thought, explained so clearly in a new book by John Willis.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, technology activist, and journalist. He has written many books, most recently The Bezzle, a follow-up to Red Team Blues, which are the two books we’ll discuss in this episode. These titles begin a series featuring the fictional forensic accountant Martin Hench. Hench is self-employed, loves being on the red team, and rakes in 25% of the assets he can recover. While entertaining, Cory’s books are deeply thought-provoking.