Episode 199

In the third in our series on finance business partnering we are joined by David Manela, who has had the role of CRO and CMO at Fiverr, Ideei, and Vivre. As managing partner and co-founder of Violet Growth he is in high-demand at some of the hottest scaling companies, designing a  growth operating system that “speaks the CFO’s language from day one”. It is tailored to companies spending more than $10m annually on marketing and sales - with digital as the main growth channel.
“Spending a dollar in marketing is no different than spending a dollar in infrastructure, on say a forklift that you might need for your warehouse. You need a return on a specific schedule, and you need a percentage of returns on that schedule. Don't start with a campaign, start with a financial goal.”

In this episode on the highlights and lowlights of the FP&A relationship with marketing, David talks:

• His background from audit to marketing and P&L responsibility at companies 
• Marketing as an “investment” not a “cost”
• The power of getting a marketing forecast  based on cohort behavior 
• Payback period and capital constraints at Fiverr
• Disconnected and expensive mistakes in business partnering 
• The power of AI in marketing and finance 

Swati Bagri, head of FP&A for a major global FMCG company was told early in her career: “Either you are sales or you are helping sales”. In this second in our series of finance business partnership Swati, representing finance, is joined by Stephanie Troy, VP of Sales at Datarails, for a candid conversation with host Glenn Hopper about what sales leaders actually need from FP&A, and what great revenue-producing partnerships look like.

In this special episode: 

• The dynamics of sales vs finance needs 
• Pipeline communication challenges 
• The problems with forecasting
• Where lack of communication hurts sales and finance
• What finance needs from sales leaders in budget season
• Dealing with the Office of No 

Today on the show, we're launching a special series on finance business partnering - exploring different facets of modern finance business partnering. Today’s special guest is Tunc Tezel VP group FP&A, Ontax, bringing 30-years of lessons from Ontex, Pladis, British American Tobacco, Procter & Gamble, and Gillette - business partnering with marketing, sales, and operations to reach common goals and bringing some of the most popular CPG products to market. 

• From “spy” to “strategist” in business partnering   
• Secrets to storytelling 
• Embedded vs. centralised FP&A business partnering 
• Working capital as a partnering tool
• Breaking bad news in business partnering 
• When business partnering breaks down