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SWTCH by Pigment
Three days of predictions, insights, and advice from leaders in finance, sales, HR, supply chain and more
Register now here
By Randall Bolten, longtime Silicon Valley CFO, author of "Painting with Numbers: Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So People Will Understand You” and adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley Extension.
RANDALL BOLTEN grew up in Washington, D.C., the son of a CIA intelligence officer and a history professor. He is passionate about the importance of presenting financials and other numerical information in a cogent and effective way, and in his current life is the author of Painting with Numbers: Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So People Will Understand You (John Wiley & Sons, 2012).
He is a seasoned financial executive, with many years directing the financial and other operations of high-technology companies. His experience includes nearly twenty years as a chief financial officer of software companies.
He has held the CFO position at public companies BroadVision and Phoenix Technologies, and at private companies including Arcot Systems, BioCAD, and Teknekron. Before his CFO positions, he held senior financial management positions at Oracle and Tandem Computers.
He received his AB from Princeton University, headed west to earn an MBA at Stanford University, and ended up staying in Silicon Valley.
In addition to writing Painting with Numbers, he currently operates Lucidity, a consulting and executive coaching practice focused on organizing and presenting complex financial information. He divides his work time between Glenbrook, NV and Washington, DC, and maintains an office in Menlo Park, CA.
Data visualization – or graphing, to use a more plebeian synonym – is one of the hottest buzzwords in FP&A today… right up there with “big data” and “predictive analytics”. It can certainly be an immensely powerful tool for helping your audience grasp your most important points. And it’s getting more powerful – in addition to good old Excel’s already-lengthy list of graphing capabilities, there’s an increasing number of excellent data visualization software products.
But data viz is also one of today’s most overused and overhyped information presentation techniques. In reviewing management reports – and even in reading reputable, widely-read publications – I often find myself appalled by visual presentations that look pretty at first glance, but turn out to be difficult and time-consuming to understand, don’t support the points that the written (or spoken) words are trying to make, and can even end up causing me to question the presenter’s candor.
Avoiding these unfortunate consequences requires careful thought and an honest, practical assessment of what you’re trying to say with your numbers. As you think about your presentation alternatives, I strongly suggest that you ask yourself these questions, in the following order:
Each of these questions is critical to clear, effective visual presentations; we’ll address each one in an upcoming blog. Each question is complex: regarding Question 1, for example, note that graphs, when compared to tables, generally…
When working with FP&A professionals, I often characterize graphs as “the cartoons of numbers.” Why? Because “cartoon” is a description that cuts both ways. Some cartoons – hard-hitting political cartoons, for example – create powerful visual impressions on a single image. Others, such as some of the more primitive animated children’s cartoons, are just silly and repetitive.
As an FP&A professional, you always want your reports and presentations to showcase of your critical thinking skills. So as you think about using data visualization to present your most important information and to make your most important points, ask yourself: What kind of a cartoon am I creating?
The article was first published in prevero Blog
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