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FP&A Data Viz Question #4: Are You an Ethical Presenter? Are You Sure?

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.

Of the four essential questions every effective FP&A professional should ask before presenting graphical information, the first three focused on making the information understood. The fourth, and last, question you should ask yourself is different: 

FP&A Data Visualisation: Does Your Graph Actually WORK?

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.

When the graph is the right way to present your FP&A information, several important questions should be asked.

7 Reasons Why Good Financial Business Partnering Starts with Cash Flow

By Michael J. Huthwaite, Director of Product Management at Walmart

As Finance leaders, we can’t expect the business to view Finance as value-added partners if we can’t put a stop to this often-inaccurate stereotype in advance. So where should we start? The answer lies in better communication along with greater transparent and objective measurements that can be easily understood and used by all.  
 

A New Era for FP&A

The FP&A Trends Group and Ducascopy TV are happy to announce the launch of the FP&A Trends TV Series. The main goal of the project is to share and promote better practices in Financial Planning and Analysis.

These educational series will involve many global thought leaders and passionate FP&A professionals. This unprecedented project will share the latest trends, case studies, and insights with our expanding FP&A community.

The past 5 years have seen significant transformations in the FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) world.

FP&A in Banking - Evolving Trends

In this episode of the FP&A Trends Series, Ramkumar Balasubramaniam, Head of FP&A  and MI at Barclays Bank in the UAE and a member of Dubai FP&A Board, shares his thoughts on the latest FP&A trends in the banking industry. 

Forces Creating Modern FP&A

In this episode of the FP&A Trends Series Gary Cokins, recognised business analytics expert, author-president of Analytics-Based Performance Management LLC, shares his insights on forces that create modern FP&A. Learn about the key success factors that modern FP&A should take into consideration when embracing the analytical transformation journey.

What is Beyond Budgeting?

In this episode of the FP&A Trends TV Series, Dr Steve Morlidge, CPM Thought Leader and Author of ‘The Little Book of Beyond Budgeting’ and ‘Future Ready’, outlines the ideas behind Beyond Budgeting and the benefits it can bring to organisations. ​​

FP&A Business Partner

Interview with Gemma Davie, Senior FP&A Director at CA Technologies, a member of London FP&A Board.  We only need to look at the evolution of the mobile phone to understand why the role of the FP&A business partner has changed. As technology has continued to evolve at an increasing speed and the business environment has become so complex and volatile, decisions have to be made quickly and the demand for timely, flexible, forward-looking analysis has transformed the role of the FP&A business partner.

The Launch of New York FP&A Board on 6th April 2017

We are happy to share that the International FP&A Board has successfully expanded into the United States. It was launched in New York on 6th April 2017. 

Presenting Numbers Effectively

In this episode of the FP&A Trends Video Series, Randall Bolten, author of "Painting with Numbers" talks about how to effectively present numbers for FP&A professionals. Presenting numbers is communicating, and therefore there are certain tips to make sure it is done correctly.

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