2020, 2021, and Season Preview - Scott Geller

Scott Geller – The CFO Perspective

Episode: 2020, 2021, and Season Preview
Date: January 4, 2020

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INTRODUCTION

Show Objectives - The Why
The year started bittersweet for me personally but also exciting before being dragged down by a once-a-century pandemic. Personally, I kicked off the year walking away from a mid-January ladder fall followed up with shutting down a company after 10 great years of employment. 

During this time, I also remained really excited about hanging my own shingle as fractional CFO and financial consultant. I had always been with a corporation previously, so stepping out on my own was a completely new journey. I was ready and willing to go when COVID decided to shut down the world in mid-March and forced me to immediately transition along with everyone else. 

I still met, learned from, and/or worked with so many amazing individuals throughout the year that I wouldn't ask for anything different ... well, maybe a little different. I prefer to look at the world in the same light that despite immense setbacks and in too many cases unfortunate loss of life, the world found or was forced to innovate and alter the norm that resulted in direct or indirect positive outcomes. 

I don't want to forget 2020, but rather learn from what we experienced and recognize that we are climbing toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Per Simon Sinek ... I would rather walk with my head looking forward than with my head looking down. And instead of worrying about what I don't know or how to take the next step to be confident that if I stumble that I have people with me to pick me up because I promised to do the same for them. I don't believe you can reach the light alone. And that doesn't mean I don't sometimes feel down because of the state of where we are or feel bad ... just tired, exhausted, and my knees are hurting and the thing that solves all of that is someone that says I got your back."  Simon Sinek ... July 27, 2020 Podcast, Courage with Guy Raz 


What You Need to Know - The What

1. Recap of 2020 
   1. First worldwide shutdown since maybe the Spanish flu from once-in-a-century pandemic
      1. Miraculous display of scientific and medical prowess - Pfizer, Moderna, & other pharmaceutical companies created vaccines 
   2. Stock market crashed and suspended trading 
      1. Government opened the taps injecting about $20 trillion of stimulus into the economy or a 1/4 of the global GDP
   3. Protests with some turning into riots across the US
      1. Sparked a global conversation around police brutality and racial injustice
   4. Economy slowed dramatically and stopped sustainable development with first time in 20 years, the number of people in extreme poverty rose; hundreds of millions of jobs lost or reduced; 
      1. Reduced emission by about 7% ... need that every year to avoid worst outcomes of changing climates
      2. Business Innovated to cope - PPP shortages and global supply chains found new paths
      3. Companies tried to really help people and for the most part succeeded - Shifting jobs, furlough, WFH, CEO's taking cuts
      4. Investors paid more attention to ESG (environment, social and governance) needs 
   5. Awareness of racial injustice took a leap forward in 2020. In many ways, Covid played a role: highlighting the injustice around Black, Latino, and Native American people in the U.S. and worldwide 
   6. Corporate responsibility expanded - treatment of stakeholders (communities and employees) is more core to C-suite thinking, judgement, impact on society
   7. Blue skies - Los Angeles, Beijing - provided a glimpse of a cleaner world
   8. The Great Pivot - innovation, digital world, reorganizing supply chains in days, MVP (minimum viable product)​
   
   
2. 2021  
   1. Time to recap on what we learned in 2020
   2. What worked, what didn't work
   3. What changes do we want to keep? 
   4. Compare business in 2019 to 2020 and think about what could happen this year ... scenario planning?
   5. Personally grown and endured 

What You Need to Do - The How

• 1/4/2021 2020, 2021, and Season Preview
• 1/11/2021 When do I hire a CFO and what is a Fractional CFO?
• 1/18/2021 How do I plan for 2021?
• 1/25/2021 Do I really need a financial model?
• 2/1/2021 How do I increase revenue “financially”? 
• 2/8/2021 How do I know I am generating as much profit as possible?
• 2/15/2021 Should my CFO be involved in my tech and innovation efforts?
• 2/22/2021 How does finance impact my strategic goals?
• 3/1/2021 Do I have options to price my services and/or goods?
• 3/8/2021 How do I optimize my cash? 
• 3/15/2021 How and where do I access funding? 
• 3/22/2021 What if I want to sell my business?
• 3/29/2021 Summary of What We Achieved

(SAMPLE) Shows 

• Previous: Episode 13 – Season Overview 
• Next: Episode 2 -  When do I hire a CFO and what is a Fractional CFO? - Explains purpose of CFO; Different than Accountant/Controller; When to hire a CFO; Value of a Fractional CFO

Resources (optional):
You can connect with Scott via his website or LinkedIn
Connect on LinkedIn
See Scott’s Website

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