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You are here: Home / 2014 / Archives for October 2014

Archives for October 2014

October 28, 2014 By Samuel Dergel 1 Comment

Do CFOs Listen to Podcasts?

As someone who creates content aimed at the CFO and other senior finance executives, understanding what Senior Financial Officers like to consume as content is important. There is a lot of different types of content out there. Traditional content creators like TV, newspapers and magazines are no longer the only providers of professionally oriented content. Professional services firms, associations and groups, software providers and anyone that wants to get the attention of a Chief Financial Officer is creating content to catch the attention of this Very Important Decision Maker.

When preparing to write my book, Guide to CFO Success, I created a CFO Advisor group to seek the opinions of senior finance executives and learn from their actual experiences. As part of my ongoing quest in providing fresh and relevant Finance oriented content, I reconstituted my CFO Advisor group so that we can all learn and grow.

I recently polled my CFO Advisors on their content habits, and will be sharing some of their insights over the coming weeks.

To begin with, I thought it would be interesting to understand whether CFOs listen to podcasts. Most of the content I have created over the years have been in text, whether on my blogs, in other media articles, as well as my recent book. I have never created my own podcasts, but I have been interviewed for a few podcasts over the past while.Do CFOs Listen to Podcasts

As you can see from the graph, about half of my CFOs do listen to podcasts, while 12% of them tune in to podcasts on a regular basis.

It is interesting to see that CFOs are beginning to take a shine to the podcast as a form of content delivery. To get a better understanding of the value CFOs are getting from podcasts, as well as the future of podcasting focusing on senior finance executives, I spoke with Jack Sweeney, host of CFO Thought Leader, a series of podcasts sharing firsthand lessons from leading Chief Financial Officers. I had the opportunity to be interviewed twice by Jack for his CFO Thought Leader podcasts, and appreciated his insights and questions, which led to the creation of valuable content of interest to the CFO.

“Like many people, my “content consuming” behavior has entered a period of great change. I find I’m adopting the ways of my teenagers (early adopters). We depend almost exclusively on our TV’,s DVR and we take an iPad on family trips so we can access Netflix anytime and anywhere. Meanwhile, I’ve begun to listen to the NPR podcast on weekends simply because I added the app to my iPhone.

I find that there is a noticeable shift in my behavior and meanwhile, from everything I’ve read I’m not alone.  Why would the behavior of CFOs be any different? Clearly, it’s not, and while CFOs may be laggards when it comes to behavioral changes, they are without question changing their behaviors with the rest of us.  Also, I’ll mention once again the car industry’s adoption of in-dash apps over the next few years will also quickly grow the podcast listening audience (CFOs included).” – Jack Sweeney

Sweeney also pointed me to this quote from Tom Webster, VP of Strategy at Edison Research.

“The continued penetration of smartphones in America is changing behavior significantly. We are now seeing activities that were dominated by desktop usage in 2013, flip dramatically to become mobile behaviors. For millions of Americans, the smartphone has become ‘the first screen.’”

Podcasting is just one more distribution channel for content of interest to finance executives. Will CFOs choose podcasting as one of the major ways for them to consume relevant and interesting content as time goes on? Is podcasting a great way to get the attention of the busy CFO?

Stay tuned.

Filed Under: Books, books for CFOs, CFO Coaching, CFO Consulting, CFO Research, VP Finance

October 23, 2014 By Samuel Dergel Leave a Comment

The One Perk Every Executive Needs

Any executive who has negotiated their own compensation appreciates that it can be stressful to make the case to be appropriately compensated. Whether they are being offered a new career opportunity or they are taking steps to ensure they continue to be paid fairly for the value they are delivering, knowing what to ask for (and accept) is a challenge.

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Base salary, bonus, equity based compensation, vacation, medical benefits and the other standard executive compensation issues, while very important, are not what will be discussed here.

‎Your career is more than just about your ability to get the job done. You have grown throughout your career because you have continued to invest in improving yourself. Think about all the opportunities you had for growth throughout your career – conferences, training and others. All these things allowed you to not only improve yourself, but deliver significantly improved value to your employer.

Ask most executives, and they will admit that they have been beneficiaries of professional development expenses paid for by their current and previous employers. ‎However, in 4 out of 5 times when I ask executives to go to their employer and ask them to pay for executive coaching, they balk. Why?

The reasons I am given, at first, is about budget. They almost always say “I don’t know if I can get that approved.”‎ This response continues to concern me. Why would a strong, valuable executive be reluctant to ask for an investment in improving the value to their employer?

The real reasons I see are consistent across all types and sizes of companies. Asking for something can be stressful. Getting to yes, even with people you work for, can be a challenge, especially if it is not only about the company, but about you as well.

Fears of rejection, being looked at as being inadequate or not knowing what you should already know, as well as other fears, founded and unfounded, play into the difficulty of asking for approval of a professional development expense.

The answer to this challenge, which progressive companies are providing up front for their executives, is a Professional Development Spending Account (PDSA). The additional cost for such a program is usually negligible, since almost all companies, in theory, budget for training and development costs as a percentage of salaries.

A Professional Development Spending Account (PDSA) gives the choice to the executive. This allows them to choose the most appropriate professional development activities for their needs without having to ask for approval for each activity. Even better, companies can incorporate an assessment of the use of the PDSA in executive performance reviews. This process can assess how effective and relevant the executives were in spending these allocated dollars.

Retaining executives continues to be a challenge for a number of companies. Those organizations that invest smartly in the continued development of their executives will benefit greatly.

A PDSA (Professional Development Spending Account) is one perk that no executive should be without. If you don’t have one, ask for it. Let me know how it works out for you.

Samuel

This blog originally appeared in LinkedIn Pulse 

Filed Under: Blog, Blog, CEO, CFO Compensation, Executive Coaching, Executive Coaching, Guide to CFO Success, Guide to CFO Success, HR, HR, Human Resources, LinkedIn, PDSA, Professional Development Spending Account, Wiley, Wiley

October 1, 2014 By Samuel Dergel 2 Comments

Thoughts About Successful CFO Hiring

I was recently interviewed by Jack Sweeney for his podcast series called CFO Thought Leader. This was the second time I was interviewed by Sweeney, and I enjoyed the conversation. I believe you may find the conversation interesting and relevant.

Here are some of the things that were discussed. (You can find the listen to, download or find the iTunes link below)

  • Helping companies hire their next CFO with the correct chemistry for the company.
  • Key reasons a company needs to work with an executive search firm to hire their next CFO.
  • The courtship process in hiring a new CFO.
  • Voice clip of Brad Dickerson, CFO at Under Armour, previously interviewed Jack Sweeney, discussing what he wished he knew at the beginning of his CFO career.
  • Young CFOs who are “Jumping the curve”.

“Patience is a virtue, and CFOs need to be virtuous.”

“Today’s CFO is all encompassing. CFOs have to be involved and responsible for everything. As CFO, you need to know what you can and cannot do. The importance of the complete finance team allows you to be as successful as possible.”

  • Private Equity firms and the influence they have over the placement of CFOs in mid-size market.

“The CFO is a significant part of the valuation of a company.”

  • The CFO career path – jumping to larger ship vs. niching down.
  • CFO Hiring – from within the same industry or outside the industry?

If any of these topics are of interest to you, you will find this podcast to be worth listening to. (23 minutes)

Which comments resonate most with you? Let me know what you think below, or privately by email.

Download | Subscribe to CFO Thought Leader Podcast series on iTunes | Link to the CFO Thought Leader web page with more details about this podcast

 

Filed Under: All of Samuel's Blogs, All of Samuel's Blogs, All of Samuel's Blogs, Assessment, Board, Build your Finance Team, CEO, CFO, CFO, CFO, CFO Moves, CFO Relationships, CFO Search, CFO Search, CFOThoughtLeader, CFOThoughtLeader, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Confidential Search, Executive Search, Finance Team, Financial Executive Coaching, Financial Executive Coaching, Financial Executive Coaching, Hire your Next CFO, How Samuel Helps, How Samuel Helps, How Samuel Helps, Jack Sweeney, Jack Sweeney, Leadership, Media, Media, On the Road to CFO, Personal Branding, Podcast, Podcast, Social Media, Social Media, Social Media, Speaking and Training, Speaking and Training, Speaking and Training, Successful CFO, Talent Management, Talent Management, Team Structuring, Training and Development, Training and Development, Training and Development

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