FP&A Today Paul Barnhurst

Aviv Canaani, VP Marketing, Datarails, and Christian Wattig, Head of Training at Datarails and founder of FP&A Prep,  join Paul Barnhurst for a conversation about marketing vs finance in a business. 
In the world of business it sometimes feels like finance and marketing are talking a different language. Christian Wattig has been the FP&A leader at some of the highest profile marketing teams on the planet at P&G and Unilever where campaigns for brands such as Dove, Skippy and Hellman’s saw marketing spend hundreds of millions of dollars.  In this episode he talks about some of the biggest challenges, misconceptions, and opportunities between FP&A and marketing and actionable insights when partnering with creatives in a business. 
Joining Paul and Christian is Aviv Canaani, VP Marketing, Datarails. 
Giving the marketing take on the finance-advertising relationship, Canaani has led multi-million dollar marketing campaigns at companies including IBM. Since then he has led marketing at hyper growth startups, Workiz and Datarails. In this frank discussion Canaani talks about the conflicts with marketing: “We are not always sure that the finance people have our best interests at heart.”
Also in this episode
How can FP&A teams work with marketing on long-term marketing investment 
How to build trust between finance and marketing
The best way to make a finance case for marketing investment 
How to best market to an FP&A audience
How FP&A can help measure direct response marketing
Making yourself aware of the wildly different incentives for finance teams vs marketing teams 
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Connect with Christian Wattig on LinkedIn
Connect with Aviv Canaani on LinkedIn
Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn
Follow Datarails on LinkedIn
Links from the episode
FP&A Prep
https://www.fpaprep.com/
FP&A Prep is a one-stop shop for content, training, and mentoring on Financial Planning & Analysis topics.
The #1 FP&A Community (Slack) Join here 
https://www.datarails.com/the-global-community-for-fpa-leaders/
A global community and resource hub for modern FP&A leaders like you

A slightly different episode this week, featuring not a finance chief, but a CEO talking about the power and impact of FP&A on business strategy. Jeanette Dorazio, CEO of Leadpages, joins Paul to discuss the daily impact FP&A is having for her company, a leading SaaS no-code website and landing page builder.
In this episode Jeanette Dorazio discusses with Paul:
How FP&A teams can actually get that coveted seat at the table by “seeing the patterns” in a business
How FP&A works with her in monitoring key metrics for growth 
The CEOs playbook for FP&A during a downturn 
The best and worst FP&A work she has seen in her career 
Why FP&A should be a “very close first” for hiring into the finance team after the CFO
Why the visibility of FP&A needs to improve 
The power of Excel in shaping her journey through product management to CEO
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Jeanette Dorazio on LinkedIn
Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn
Follow Datarails on LinkedIn
 
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
 
Get in touch at www.datarails.com

Casey Woo is a serial high Tech CFO turned investor. The Harvard educated financier “escaped” a life as an Investment Banking Analyst, at Morgan Stanley to take a big pay cut and join a 10-person startup (“If you wanna do tech, you gotta go to the Bay Area”).
Since then, he has held finance at CFO roles including at WeWork and property tech company Landing before founding an “operators community” turned investment fund FOG ventures.
 In this episode Casey talks to Paul Barnhurst about his journey: 
How finance was seen as a “second class” citizen when he entered Silicon Valley and how he had to “learn a new language”
How he built up the Operators Guild “a club of number twos” ( finance, ops, HR, talent, legal, IT) into an exec community of 700 leaders who now run the FOG VC
What good FP&A looks like at an early stage company
When early stage companies are making $200,000 $300,000 total is when FP&A can be a powerful addition
Why FP&A leaders need to focus on business first rather than finance first 
The CFO’s future as the Office of Business Intelligence that will separate the The Ancien Régime CFOs with those who can adapt
If CFOs are not “pounding their fists on the table” asking to own data they will not survive
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Casey Woo on LinkedIn
Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn
Follow Datarails on LinkedIn
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com

This episode is all about financial modeling from one of the world’s experts. Ian Schnoor is  
Executive Director at the Financial Modeling Institute (FMI) & President and Founder at The Marquee Group. In this episode he provides frank assessment of why most financial models fail and how you can take instant actions to instantly transform your financial modeling.
This is absolutely essential listening for anyone considering taking the Financial Modeling Institute’s world-respected accreditation program. The program is recognized by companies like Goldman Sachs, Moody’s KPM and Morgan Stanley as the most rigorous validation of financial modeling skills and ranges from foundational, to advanced, to Chartered Financial Modeler and Master Financial Modeler. 
In this episode:
From investment banking to creating the world’s only accredited financial modeling training
The skills you will need to pass the robust accreditation by the Financial Modeling Institute
Why employees are increasingly requiring proof of financial modeling skills
The multi-disciplinary skills required to excel in modeling including design, data flow, communication and storytelling
How the integrated 3 statement model is the table stakes for being considered a good financial modeler
How you can get your financial model humming smoothly - you should not have to pop your car hood to show the engine
The power of a committee approach to modeling and design in a company
Nixing our favorite function question: There should be no favorites in Excel, but pick the tools that will help you to get the job done you have in front of you
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Ian Schoor on LinkedIn
Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn
Follow Datarails on LinkedIn
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com

In this special jam-packed episode Paul Barnhurst looks back on 2022 (and with special guests) reveals the biggest predictions for FP&A in 2023.
 
This episode looks back at one year of FP&A Today and how our dedicated audience helped us reach more than  40,000 downloads in our first 35 episodes across 100 countries.
 
In between we hear Paul’s favorite FP&A guest insights from the first 35 episodes interspersed with new hot takes on everything you need to know in FP&A for 2023 from FP&A leaders, Soufyan Hamid, Hector Rubalcava, and Mario Vasquez.
 
In this episode:
The winner of the yearly question of FP&A Favorite Excel function revealed 🥇
The best Excel jokes you need to know 
The favorite Excel functions of Jordan Goldmeier, Lance Rubin, Kathy Svetina, Francesca Valli, Jon Laudi, Chris Reilly and Paul Barnhurst 
The #1 advice to make your FP&A journey better in 2023  from Jack Alexander, Zoe Cooke, Stéphanie Herbots, Chris Reilly, Carl Seidman, and Paul Barnhurst
Predictions for FP&A in 2023 from Soufyan Hamid, Hector Rubalcava, and Mario Vasquez 
How to move from accounting to FP&A with Cameron Janke
The revolution with Gen Z FP&A with interns at Credit Suisse and American Express entering the finance workforce for the first time
 
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn
Follow Datarails on LinkedIn
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com

Glenn Snyder, builds high performing FP&A teams from scratch. 
Now VP of FP&A at Mobileum, a telecom analytics leader, Glenn continues to enhance a reputation for transforming FP&A into an engine for Silicon Valley growth earned over nearly two decades. 
Previously he has built finance partnership teams At Charles Schwab, followed by  revamping annual budgeting, forecasting and financial reporting at $4B global Real Estate company Digital Realty, restructuring  a15-person FP&A team at Global Growth Holdings,  and leveling up the FP&A and Data Analytics teams at online design marketplace Zazzle before his latest FP&A adventure at Mobileum .
In this episode Glenn reveals the secrets to building high performance FP&A teams. Glenn discusses:
His reason for sticking with FP&A over 18 years (not least the ability to strategically interact with every aspect of a company)
The power of quarterly forecasts to secure alignment in a business and transform a business direction
Why building a new FP&A team will see you work 80 hours a week and considerable “mental awareness”
The power of creating a three-year FP&A Strategy in your first 90 Days which sees 95% of goals hit
The power of eliminating manual work in FP&A
How to powerfully speak up in FP&A (even as an introvert)
How to differentiate a leader’s role in FP&A vs those you manage 
The secrets to hiring  someone for an FP&A role and how to find the things that can be taught vs those that can’t 
Why FP&A and data analytics need to work better together 
The real way to approach build a successful finance business partnership that lasts
His most valuable lessons after achieving several finance software implementations 
The failure that forced Glenn to work on his soft skills and transformed his career
His secret life as a lifelong baseball fan and published  author 
 
Watch the full show on YouTube.
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Glenn Snyder on LinkedIn 
Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn
Follow Datarails on LinkedIn
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
Get in touch at www.datarails.com