Readers recommend the best books to raise your CFO leadership skills

Leadership is a continual journey of developing yourself professionally and personally.

When I spoke with Ajit Kambil, global research director for Deloitte’s CFO program, he said this about the job of a leader: “You’re not hired to deliver the status quo. You’re really hired to deliver some transformation.” Kambil writes about how to do this in his recently released book, The Leadership Accelerator: The Playbook for Transitioning into Your New Executive Role. 

After publishing CFO Daily’s Guide to Becoming a CFO, I received some messages from readers asking for leadership book recommendations. So I asked CFO Daily readers, and many of you took the time to respond.

Mark Partin, CFO at BlackLine, an enterprise software company, recommends The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen.

“Clay was my professor during graduate school and a mentor to me,” Partin explained. “This book was groundbreaking and allowed me to think about the great paradox of our strengths becoming our weakness over time. This is true in so many aspects of life, especially in the technology industry that had seen decades of great companies unwilling and unable to change and did not make it. Yet there are great examples of how companies can constantly innovate and change and prepare themselves for the inevitable. It is important to me as a financial leader as it gave me insight into how rapid growth companies need to drive and sustain growth over the long term.”

Tom Hood, EVP of business engagement and growth for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants recommends three books:

– BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company by Jim Collins and Bill Lazier. “Full of great examples, frameworks, and well-researched best practices now updated with the latest critical business concepts.”

– Unleash Your Leader: How to Win in Business by Emmanuel Gobillot and Katherine Thomas. “This is a practical read and I love their three circles concept for shifting perspective as a business executive.”

– Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism by Tom Peters. “I have been a fan of Tom Peters (a fellow Baltimorean) for my entire career from his start with In Search of Excellence (1982) with Bob Waterman. This book written in 2021 has been updated for the current business environment with a major people-first message.”

James Stark, a consultant for financial officers at Egon Zehnder, has four recommendations:

“From a pure finance perspective, I think these two are highly relevant: Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance by McKinsey & Company Inc., and The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William N. Thorndike.

And given the demands of the role, I’d also encourage anyone to consider books on living a balanced life. Two that come to mind are: How Will You Measure Your Life? By Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon. And, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.”

Here are more recommendations:

– The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell —Tim Russell, managing partner, The Tolan Group

– The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner. And any book by Patrick Lencioni or by Brene Brown. —Dorothy Thulen 

– Good to Great by Jim Collins —Frank DiBernardino 

– Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Joseph Grenny and Kerry Patterson. Learn how to respectfully talk through conflict. —Kristi R. 

– Choose Possibility by Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO of Xero. (From the submitter: “It talks a lot about calculated risk-taking.”)

– Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (From the submitter: “I believe every woman who is serious about her career and how it impacts her life should read it.”)

– The Bible

– It’s Your Ship by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff (From the submitter: “It had a huge influence on me.”)

– Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World by John Chambers and Diane Brady (From the submitter: “John Chambers, a former CEO of Cisco, worked constantly to involve all stakeholders including governmental leaders. My favorite? Chambers asked almost everyone in the Cisco ecosystem ‘Tell me three things Cisco could be doing better.’ He always followed up with answers including plans and progress in resolving the issues via a meeting or a call.”

Happy reading!

Quick note: In observance of President’s Day, the next CFO Daily will be in your inbox on Tuesday. Have a great weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]

Big deal

UHY Advisors released a new report that looks into the key trends and challenges for businesses throughout 2023. Although digital transformation will continue to gain momentum and become integrated into the way of doing business, companies are experiencing roadblocks. The top three challenges are: assessing the technology needs of the organization (26.2%), selecting a competent technology vendor (23.8%), and no significant progress in digital transformation (18.3%). The findings are based on a survey of over 250 executives across the public and private middle markets.

Going deeper

Here are a few Coins2Day weekend reads:

How private equity whiz Weijian Shan went from penniless in the Gobi desert to orchestrating a takeover of one of China’s biggest banks by Shawn Tully

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says his 2-hour all-hands meeting about layoffs was a bad idea: ‘We were trying to explain the unexplainable’ by Prarthana Prakash

‘We’re in a frenzy to be more agile’: How Kraft Heinz’s CEO is reviving Jell-O, Kool-Aid, and other famous longtime brands by Geoff Colvin

Your stress is killing your body and brain and taking years off your life by Alexa Mikhail

Leaderboard

Here's a list of some notable moves this week:

Vasant Prabhu, vice chair and CFO at Visa (NYSE: V) will retire from the company on Sept. 30. Prabhu, who joined Visa as CFO in 2015, will assist the company with the search for and onboarding of his replacement. "As I retire, I know that the company is well positioned to continue to grow and take full advantage of the revolution in payments around the globe," Prabhu said in a statement. Visa chief executive officer Ryan McInerney said in a statement: “Vasant has played an integral role in shaping Visa’s strategic transformation as we evolved our business to a network of networks, introduced new revenue growth drivers including new flows and value added services and executed acquisitions to advance our strategy."

Jessica (Jessi) Betjemann was promoted to EVP and CFO at Gogo Inc. (Nasdaq: GOGO), a provider of broadband connectivity services, effective March 11. Current CFO Barry Rowan will retire on March 10. Betjemann previously served as Gogo's SVP of finance, chief accounting officer, and treasurer since 2021, after joining the company as VP of financial planning and analysis in 2016. Before Gogo, Betjemann served as VP of strategic business planning at Nokia.

Kelyn Brannon was named CFO at DigitalReef, a technology company. Brannon was the first chief accounting officer, VP of finance, and International CFO at Amazon.com. As part of DigitalReef's executive team, Brannon will play a leadership role in developing and implementing the company’s corporate vision. She will also be responsible for all DigitalReef’s financial, compliance, audit, and investor relations teams.

Sarah O’Connor was named SVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Rocky Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCKY), a designer and manufacturer of footwear and apparel. Before joining Rocky Brands, O’Connor served as director, and later as VP of financial planning and analysis and treasurer at MedVet. Before MedVet, O’Connor held the role of treasury lead at Columbia Pipeline Group ahead of its acquisition in 2016.

Hagit Ynon was named CFO at WalkMe Ltd. (Nasdaq: WKME), a provider of digital adoption solutions. Ynon assumes the role after serving as WalkMe’s interim CFO for the past six months and EVP of finance and operations during the three years prior. Before WalkMe, she spent nearly two decades at NICE, a publicly traded tech company, in various finance leadership roles, including corporate VP of finance.

Angela C. Drake was promoted to VP and CFO at The Toro Company (NYSE: TTC), a provider of solutions for the outdoor environment, effective March 10. She will succeed Renee J. Peterson, who announced plans to retire in July 2023. Drake was appointed VP of finance in 2022 after previously serving as VP of construction from 2020 with responsibility for the Ditch Witch, American Augers, Trencor, Hammerhead Trenchless, Subsite Electronics, and Radius HDD businesses. She joined TTC as senior managing director and integration co-lead through the Charles Machine Works acquisition in April 2019. 

Christopher (“Criss”) Harms was named CFO at Amplitude, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMPL), a digital analytics platform. Current CFO Hoang Vuong plans to transition from the company. Before Amplitude, Harms spent seven years as CFO of Silicon Valley-based security company Forescout Technologies. He has also held financial roles at Socialware, IBM, British Telecom, and HP.

Overheard

"Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about."

—Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, announced in a note to employees on Thursday that she is stepping down from her role of nine years, Coins2Day reported. Wojcicki joined Google (owner of YouTube) in 1999.