The FP&A Life at GE, Microsoft–and Now Google
The FP&A Life at GE, Microsoft–and Now Google
Antonio Reza is the Head of Finance for Google Cloud Consulting in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In this episode he reveals the FP&A life and lessons he has learned over the past 14 years working in finance and strategy at Google, Microsoft, and GE. He brings experiences across 10 different countries leading teams across the globe spanning different industries (he also speaks four languages). In this episode he reveals:
- How Getting into GE’s finance and FP&A training was life-changing
- Why so many tech people like himself are inspired to get into finance
- Country specific differences in finance that he has learnt over his career
- Google in the midst of AI revolution and how we used AI at Microsoft for our commercial forecasting
- How AI in finance is still about automation – with insights the next frontier for FP&A
- How FP&A at Google and Microsoft FP&A teams are set up
- Why “Walking the Shop” remains core to his career in finance
- How the biggest companies in the world manage real-time data
- Despite the technological avalanche storytelling and persuasion is fundamental at the top tech companies
- Why FP&A needs to focus on snapshots vs “real-time” dashboards
- FP&A Need to Ask Why x5 Times: The Secret of great storytelling
- Why I am focused on grasping and applying the economic picture in my work
- My biggest challenges in moving from individual contributor to manager early in my career
- How a “failure” led to my team and I staying in the office for 56 hours trying to close an audit – and the people skills I learnt along the way
- Why Despite working at Google, Excel still bosses Google Sheets for finance teams
- Using your 20s to hustle and have a successful career
Follow Antonio at X (Formerly Twitter) 48k Followers https://twitter.com/theantonioreza
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/theantonioreza/
Subscribe to Antoniio’s Newsletter Money & Robots https://www.theantonioreza.com/
Further Reading
WSJ: Google Finance Head: Anything That Can Be Automated, We Strive to Automate
The Pyramid Principle:Logic in Writing and Thinking by Barbara Minto
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It; Chris Voss
Formula for FP&A success at high-growth companies: Greg Lopez
Formula for FP&A success at high-growth companies: Greg Lopez
Greg Lopez has served as the CFO and VP of operations at companies including Futurism, a digital media company, Wirecutter (acquired by the New York Times) and Gawker Media (acquired by Univision). Now Greg is a consultant at high-growth companies working with clients ranging from a “family owned business doing $20 million”, “SaaS businesses doing $10 million a year” to private equity-backed business doing $500 million a year.”
In this episode he provides his formula for success in FP&A and finance:
- How a career in finance suited my character traits and passions
- Learning the full aspects of finance, FP&A and business partnering
- Building to a commercial mindset as CFO
- Acting as an investigative journalist for the business
- Why finance needs to lead in defining metrics in a startup
- Moving from a bigger company to a startup - what you need to know
- Increasing the feedback loop in finance teams
- Expectations of CFO in a startup
- Favorite KPIs - from contribution margin and profit to Sales cycle velocity
- Variables and determining drivers for the business
- One of the biggest finance challenges - developing talent and cyber attacks
- Lightning round: pickup basketball and lessons for finance
- Best Excel feature: introducing Scenario planning and modeling using Watch Window
Contact Greg
@glopeztweets on X
glopez@eventusag.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-lopez-4b248b88/
Show Notes:
Recommended reading:
How A Hulk Hogan Lawsuit Launched A Career in M&A | Greg Lopez
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-a-hulk-hogan-lawsuit-launched-a-career-in-m-a-greg-lopez/id1642784919?i=1000606411968
Financial Intelligence, Revised Edition: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean: Berman, Karen, Knight, Joe, Case, John: 9781422144114: Amazon.com: Books
Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's Critical Functions and Teams (Techstars): Blumberg, Matt, Birkeland, Peter M., Dorsey, Scott: 9781119772576: Amazon.com: Books
The Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed.: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Skills Taught In America's Top Business Schools: Silbiger, Steven A: 9780062199577: Amazon.com: Books
Amazon.com: Financial Planning & Analysis and Performance Managem
Data analytics and AI for FP&A teams – with Nathan Bell
Data analytics and AI for FP&A teams – with Nathan Bell
Getting FP&A teams to harness their data to reach their goals is the holy grail. Nathan Bell, Managing Partner, VAi Consulting, is among the most in-demand experts. Bell has unique experience– having started in computer science, before leading finance teams at Native American Bank, Digital Media Trends and Gartner– where he advised hundreds of FP&A teams facing chaotic data situations). In this masterclass, he shares a practical framework looking at the expectations, fear and hype surrounding data, analytics and AI for FP&A teams.
In this episode:
- From a computer degree to leading finance teams
- How Nathan discovered the power of telling stories as Chief Credit Officer at Native American Bank
- Overcoming the challenge of presenting to non- financially literate CEOs
- The challenge when finance is “last in line”
- When companies don’t have good data and what FP&A teams can do
- “Federated data governance” and avoiding turf battles
- why setting up self-service data as CFO came back to bite me
- Using a “metrics cascade” clarifying data and metrics
- Critical thinking as the new superpower for finance teams in the AI age
- Key to setting up pilot AI programs
- Dinner time when your wife is also a CFO
Key quotes: Remember PPDAC. Problem Plan, Data, Conclusion.
Your Plan, what Data you need to capture against that plan, analysis, and Conclusion.
“If you can master that in that order, I think from a skillset, you’re, you’re ready” – Nathan Bell.
Critical Thinking as the new Superpower for FP&A
“Critical thinking is gonna be more powerful than ever. I don’t think there’ll ever be a situation where we’re going to let AI make the decision without going through a human to look at the data. We need to ask what do we do? What’s the action? What’s the decision?”
Connect with Nathan Bell on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-bell-1038662/
https://vai-consulting.com/
How to Light up FP&A Telecoms - Tory Bauman, VP FP&A Zayo
How to Light up FP&A Telecoms - Tory Bauman, VP FP&A Zayo
Tory Bauman, Vice President, FP&A at Zayo Group joins new host Glenn Hopper. In this fascinating episode they go deep on FP&A metrics and processes at one of the most exciting companies in telecoms. Tory leads an FP&A team underpinning business decisions at Zayo whose network stretches over 16.8 million fiber miles and spans 141,000 route miles. With telecoms long at the forefront of technology, Tory explains her cutting edge philosophy around FP&A realizing “ leadership’s strategy and their goals” “closing gaps” and making necessary “pivots”.
In this episode Tory reveals:
- Her move from accountant to finance and why she made the switch
- How FP&A at Zayo is set up and the main metrics tracked including the importance of being good stewards of billions of dollars in capital investments
- Measures for forecasting churn
- Alignment as crucial to business partnering
- Early warning signs and predictive analytics
- FP&A and cost per event on telecoms network
- Using external data and macro side on the pricing decisions
- How Zayo is profiting by providing connectivity and bandwidth in the AI revolution
- How I am trying to develop my experience in capital markets and mentorship
- Why I am not shy about letting people know I want to be a CFO
- Her golf career and the impact it has made on her finance goals