CFO Leadership

Dan Crumb didn’t start his career in professional sports. Just like all of the best rookie players, he got some experience first. While he’s currently CFO of the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs, Dan got his first glimpse of finance when he was just seven or eight years old, reading the stock quotes in the newspaper with his dad. While that was his foundation, and he eventually pursued a degree in finance and then an MBA, he didn’t enter the world of professional sports until later. Or so he told Vena CFO Darrell Cox in our recent livestream, CFO Confidential: The Rise of Strategic Finance (now available on demand to members of Vena’s Plan to Grow platform). “I worked in a number of different industries, small- to medium-sized companies mostly. I started my career at KPMG and then went into private industry,” he said during the panel. “Then I’ve been blessed for the past 15 years to work in the sports industry. I worked at the New Orleans Hornets, which are the New Orleans Pelicans right now in the NBA. I was CFO there and then became CFO here at the Kansas City Chiefs. I’ve been here for 12 seasons now and responsible for the finance department strategy and analytics and IT and we've seen a lot of growth in our business over the past decade since.”   Watch the video to hear Dan talk about his first exposure to finance.   To watch the full episode of CFO Confidential: The Rise of Strategic Finance on demand, become a Plan To Grow member and join the community.   Dan, in other words, was already a finance leader before he even entered the world of professional sports, with a wealth of experience and best practices to bring to his new role. What he might not have had at the time is what many finance experts don't have when they enter a new industry: a playbook that helps them better understand the specific needs and lingo of their new niche. Thankfully, though, if you’re entering the business of professional sports, we’ve got you covered. Keep reading for an overview of the revenue drivers, data sources and processes integral to financial planning for sports teams. First Up: Do You Know Your Leagues? MLS: Major League Soccer NBA: National Basketball Association NFL: National Football Association MLB: Major League Baseball NHL: National Hockey League What Drives Revenue? The professional sports industry has unique financial planning and analysis needs, challenges and best practices. Which means that if you want to talk inside baseball (or football, soccer, hockey, whatever the case may be) there’s a few things you should know. Starting with how professional sports teams make their money. So let’s look at the main revenue sources sports teams rely on—both on game day and beyond. Game Revenue Game revenue includes all of the game-day-related earnings of a professional sports team. And while attendance is a key revenue driver—indicating how many fans show up for games and other special events—it isn’t the only revenue source. As well as ticket sales, concession purchases, sponsorship deals and even stadium parking all contribute to your bottom line. And different types of games will contribute in different ways, depending on the number of people they draw and the excitement they generate. Here are a few terms you might see thrown around when it comes to game revenue: Game Revenue at a Glance Ticketing: Sales of stadium seats to watch the game. Concessions: Sales of food and drinks at the stadium. Merchandise: Sales of apparel and other items that feature the team’s official logo, mascot or other trademark, including T-shirts, hats, balls, mugs and more. Parking: Revenue from pay parking at the stadium. Sponsorships: Sales of corporate sponsorships that give companies exposure to the team’s onsite audience. Suites: Revenue from reservations of luxury boxes and private seating sections within the stadium. Per-Cap Revenue: Dollar spend per game attendee. Game Revenue at a Glance Pre-Season: Before the start of a new season, athletes will warm up with exhibition games that do not affect the team’s official ranking for the season. Regular Season: The series of regulated games where wins and losses contribute to a team’s overall ranking in the league. Post-Season: After the regular season ends, the highest-ranking teams compete in playoffs or championships. Special Events: Stadiums are used throughout the year for events such as concerts or all-star games for charity. Non-Game Revenue But games aren’t the only source of revenue for teams. Non-game revenue includes all of the revenue a team can generate outside of the stadium, such as broadcasting deals, some sponsorship types and online merchandise sales. Non-game revenue became increasingly important during the early days of the pandemic, as in-person events came to a halt and sports teams looked for new sources of income.  Here’s a primer of what non-game revenue might entail: Non-Game Revenue at a Glance National Revenue: Professional sports teams share national revenue with the league, with each team getting a share of the league’s TV and radio broadcasting deals as well as nationwide league sponsorship and other shared business ventures. Local Revenue: Professional sports teams bring in earnings from their own local media deals and team-specific sponsorships. Sponsorships: There are a variety of sponsorship types with reach outside of the stadium, from broadcast and digital media sponsorships to technical sponsorships of products and services, such as sports apparel. Online Merchandise: This includes e-commerce sales of apparel and other items that feature the team’s official logo, mascot or other trademarks. Learn how the Kansas City Chiefs made their NFL franchise more profitable—and their reporting 95% faster—with the help of Vena for Professional Sports Teams. What Data Sources Do Teams Draw On? With such a variety of revenue channels and cost centers, professional sports teams have financial data streaming in from multiple source systems (and need a way to connect it all). Some of those systems will be familiar no matter what type of business you come from, but some are unique to the business of sports. A Fixed Asset Register lists every piece of physical property and equipment the business owns to produce its goods and services. A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) keeps track of human capital, including employee information, applicant tracking, payroll, benefits administration and so on. An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system integrates data from a wide range of business processes to improve cross-functional collaboration between departments, including planning, purchasing, marketing, customer service and human resources. Ticketing Systems, such as Archtics (Ticketmaster’s ticketing system) and SeatGeek, include ticketing capabilities along with customer relationship management features that track prospect and customer information. Sponsorship and Fan Engagement Software, such as Kore, brings together CRM and ticketing systems to help sports teams manage the outbound sales pipeline with sponsors and fans. Find out the Arizona Cardinals’ winning strategy for financial planning—and how Vena helped them deliver faster results. What Planning and Reporting Processes Are Standard? Planning templates, reports and dashboards help the executive leadership, financial teams and department heads of professional sports teams make strategic financial decisions and back up business plans with data.  The following are the processes teams traditionally draw on. Some are unique to professional sports while others draw from unique data sources. Driver-Based Budgeting Driver-based budgeting shows how investing resources in different activities contributes to achieving KPI targets. It looks at the unique drivers of your professional sports team revenue to help you determine what’s affecting financial performance, good or bad, so that you can budget accordingly. Your team’s past and current performance in regular season and post-season play, for instance, can be a key driver that affects ticket sales and merchandise purchases—investing in marquee players that help build performance (and excitement with fans), then, can drive future financial results. Game Settlement Reporting Game settlement reporting allows you to reconcile your ticket and suite data in Archtics/SeatGeek with your Ticket Manifest to ensure accuracy when reporting both to leadership and the league. Detailed Game Revenue Planning Detailed game revenue planning includes forecasts for all the different game revenue types, including ticketing, concessions, merchandise, etc. League Reporting League reporting rules require teams to submit a uniform financial report, with the exclusion of non-sports-related revenue and expenses. Long-Term Planning Long-term planning involves setting financial goals for the business based on future periods, such as a five-year outlook. Departmental Budget-to-Actual Reporting Departmental budget-to-actual reporting summarizes department head performance by measuring the variance between their planned budgets and the actual recorded results. Box Office Reporting Box office reporting combines all ticket sales figures, including tickets sold online and at the gate. Executive Reporting Executive reporting summarizes key figures across the business to give all stakeholders an at-a-glance view of the financial health of the business. Conclusion Ready to get into the game now? Hopefully, this quick primer will get you up to speed as you enter your new workplace and join the world of professional sports. Now go on and help move your team to a successful season with a winning strategy behind the scenes. We’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines. Put your team on track to financial and operational planning success with Vena for Professional Sports Teams.

This year during Black History Month, Vena’s newly formed Black employee resource group (what we call a Vena resource group or VRG) hosted our second annual Microaggressions Roundtable. Siobhan Mondesire, Senior Director, Digital Strategy at Vena and Co-Chair of Vena’s Black VRG, was back to moderate the panel along with Thanusan Chelva, Customer Success Manager, Mid-Market, at Vena. The theme of this open forum, Creating Space, did just that. It created space for Vena employees to discuss microaggressions—how they show up in personal and work settings—and allyship—how to be a stronger ally in the workplace. Here are some key takeaways from the roundtable which we hope you’ll use to help you become a stronger ally in the workplace.    Read more about Vena’s new Black Employee Resource Group.  What Are Microaggressions? Siobhan kicked off the discussion with a look at the term “microaggressions,” based on the definition by Derald Wing Sue, Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University. Defined as “the brief everyday slights, insults, indignities and denigrating messages sent to people of color (members of LGBTQ2A+ communities, people with disabilities, immigrants, etc.) by well-intentioned people who are unaware of the hidden messages being communicated.” The term microaggression was originally coined in the 1970s by Chester M. Pierce, a Harvard psychiatrist. However, the definition of microaggressions that is widely used today can be credited to Sue. He wrote several books on microaggressions, including Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation. ​​It’s important to note that microaggressions are often discussed in a racial context, but they can also be used in reference to one’s gender, sexual orientation, mental health, ability, age, pregnancy or marital status. Disarming Microaggressions It’s not always easy knowing when and how to respond to microaggressions, especially in the workplace. But that doesn’t mean we should let them passively slip by and let them continue happening to us or in front of us.  The best thing you can do is process your emotions, discern the situation and decide how invested you want to be in addressing the microaggression. There are ways to push back and show not only the perpetrator(s), but also onlookers, that the microaggression is unacceptable behavior.  Your responses to microaggressions will vary by situation, context or working relationship. Should you choose to address the microaggression, here are some tips based on Diane Goodman’s list of prepared statements to help you disarm and dismantle the microaggression: 1. Ask for More Clarification When microaggressions are ignored, hidden or excused, it makes them easier to remain invisible. That’s why it’s important to acknowledge that a microaggression happened, to make the “invisible” visible. Asking for clarification is a great way to address the microaggression. Here are a few examples: “Could you say more about what you mean by that?” “How have you come to think that?” 2. Separate Intent From Impact Microaggressions can be tricky due to the disconnect between intent and impact. As Thanusan explained, he has been guilty of saying some of the microaggression examples mentioned above, but at the time, his intent was to be funny or to give a compliment, not to be racist. We judge ourselves based on our intent, that is, our purpose, design, intention—the act or fact of intending to do something. But we are judged by our impact, the impression made by an idea or action—the influence, impact or effect on something or someone. Here’s how you could go about separating intent from impact: “I know you didn’t realize this, but when you ______ (comment/behavior), it was hurtful/offensive because ______ . Instead, you could (different language or behavior).” 3. Share Your Own Process Addressing a microaggression is an opportunity for you to share your own process of dealing with a microaggression. You can do this by providing information, describing your experiences and offering an alternative perspective. Sharing your own process can sound something like this: “I noticed that you ______ (comment/behavior). I used to do/say that too, but then I learned.” Understanding Microaggressions and Their Effects Imagine going to work every day as a Black person and having to face jokes or inappropriate comments about you from your non-Black colleagues? Over time, microaggressions can take a toll on your mental health and well-being as well as stand in the way of your professional advancements and opportunities in the workplace. Microaggressions are a contributing factor of racial/ethnic stress, a specific form of general stress which manifests as psychological discomfort when an individual appraises a racial/ethnic situation or event as troubling. The effects of microaggressions on your mental health can include: Depression Anxiety Substance Abuse Suicidal Ideation The impacts of microaggressions on your professional life include feelings of being undervalued, preventing you from: Applying for jobs Negotiating salaries Striving for promotions Now imagine you came to work and someone made an inappropriate comment, but an ally jumped in to defend you. Not only can allies—your collaborators, accomplices and co-conspirators who help you fight injustice and promote equity in the workplace—make the workplace feel safer and better for you, you’ll also be more energized to go to work and do your best knowing that someone always has your back. How To Be a Stronger Ally in the Workplace Recognizing, understanding and acting on microaggressions is a crucial part of allyship, but there are other ways to support people who experience systemic inequities and other barriers to opportunity in the workplace. Here are some ways to be a stronger ally in the workplace: Say Black when you mean Black, capitalize the B in “Black people.” Talk about Black history and culture with everyone. Talk about it in your own circles, too. And when you see something that you think others could learn from, share it. Understand that BlPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) communities face struggles that may be different than your own and that experiences vary especially with other intersections of identity. Be intolerant of intolerance. Confront your racism and don’t be fragile/fall back on guilt. Do the work to be inclusive. Be proactive about inclusion in your daily life. Join employee resource groups within your organization and look out for more opportunities to learn and engage with them through events and activities they plan throughout the year.  Learn more on how to build a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion in your workplace.

Is your organization focused on building and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace? Then this February, why not celebrate Black History Month (BHM) by pushing for more diversity and inclusion in your workplace? While many organizations are taking steps toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, recent survey findings suggest that there’s still more work to do to eradicate discrimination—conscious and unconscious—in work environments and to make the workplace more inclusive. The 2021 survey released by Society of Human Resource Management found that racism is still prevalent in the workplace. According to the survey, 19% of American workers felt they were treated unfairly in the workplace due to race or ethnicity in the last five years. Last year, that number dropped to 14%, however, more than a third of Black workers reported being treated unfairly in the workplace because of their race or ethnicity.  As lockdowns ease up and more people head back to in-office work, this article on workplace racism suggested that “workplace racism could make Black, racialized Canadians dread returning to the office.” The article quoted findings from a York University study that revealed: “around 96% of Black Canadians say racism is a concern at work, with 78% saying that the workplace racism they have noticed is severe.” With the realities of racism still prevalent in our post-pandemic workplace, this Black History Month, let’s explore ways to make Black History Month more impactful in your organization and more importantly, how to sustain that impact beyond February. 1. Support and Participation From Leadership Black History Month, amplifying Black voices and highlighting Black excellence is not just for Black employees. That message should come loud and clear from your leadership team who should set the tone across the organization. Authenticity, transparency and communication are key when it comes to supporting Black-centered initiatives. How is your organization increasing diversity at the leadership level? Are leaders communicating the importance of these initiatives, encouraging participation, showing up and building trust by displaying their own vulnerability? When leaders champion diversity, they show it in the implementation of equitable goals, policies, practices and behaviors at every level of the organization. They actively tell employees that it’s important to have tough conversations in the workplace—ones that address implicit biases and microaggressions, for example—and that you’re all on the path toward progress together.  Leaders addressing systemic racism and driving cultural change in the workplace also recognize the importance of employee resource groups—the organization’s true ambassadors for facilitating action and accountability when it comes to the organization’s DEI initiatives.  By providing a safe and open space for these groups to engage in important conversations in the workplace, not only around important holidays or remembrances, but all year long, they’re increasing the sense of belonging for all employees. This February, Vena is celebrating Black History Month as well as the formation of our new Black Employee Resource Group. 2. Building Community Relationships If your organization is reaching out to Black communities during Black History Month, that’s a good thing. But on the outside, imagine what it’s like for Black communities to be called on or to only feel supported during this month. How is your organization showing support to these communities before and after BHM? Supporting Black communities entails amplifying their voices and building relationships with them all year long so they can be seen and heard. Bring experts and consultants in for panels or webinars. Are there opportunities to showcase their resources in your organization? Can you promote events that raise money for special causes supporting Black communities?  By sharing stories and hearing different perspectives—from inside and outside of the organization—your organization is bringing teams together, encouraging exploration and collaboration, and fostering greater representation and change for Black communities. How can you authentically build a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion in your workplace? 3. Forming Meaningful Partnerships Looking for more effective strategies to infuse diversity and inclusion in your organization? Partnering with Black businesses and organizations that can support your journey is a great way to sustain impact beyond February. Once you’ve established what’s important for your organization in terms of diversity and inclusion and how it pertains to Black employees, aligning with organizations that support your values, missions and goals can lead to more opportunities to advance your DEI efforts. For instance, is your organization looking to attract and grow Black talent in the tech space? Then partnering with an organization such as Black Professionals in Tech Network (BPTN) can help you achieve that goal. BPTN, a network of 20,000+ Black professionals, is a trusted leader in the Black tech community that connects Black tech talent with companies and supports them to not only attract and hire Black talent, but also to retain and promote Black professionals.  They offer mentorships, master classes, recruitment services, career-building events and more. A partnership with BPTN tells your current and future employees that you are invested in creating pathways for their careers. 4. Showing More Diversity and Inclusion Everywhere How are your organization, business and brand showing an ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion? Diverse and inclusive content and representation—the kind that resonates with your customers, audiences, prospects, current and future employees—requires much more than imagery or checking boxes. Showing more diversity and inclusion in your brand story requires a deep understanding of the  audiences or employees you are trying to reach. Sure, they want to see themselves in your content, but they also want to ensure that you’ve done your market research and have a clear picture of their needs and pain points. This includes using data-backed insights to understand your inclusion strengths and to identify any gaps and areas that need changing.   A 2019 survey by Google and The Female Quotient revealed that inclusive ads are affecting consumer behavior. Researchers learned that people were more likely to consider or purchase a product after viewing an ad they thought was diverse or inclusive. In fact, 64% took some sort of action after seeing an ad they considered diverse or inclusive. That percentage was even higher among specific groups, including Black (79%), LGBTQ (85%), millennial (77%) consumers. Showing diversity also means challenging narratives. Are you showing diversity in a range of roles? Are your content creators, designers, product developers and HR teams instilling DEI approaches in your brand stories, tone, style guides and training materials? The best way to make DEI a priority across your organization is to make sure everyone has a seat at the table. Watch our panel discussion on how diversity and inclusion create high-performing teams. Black History Month and Beyond Looking for more ways to celebrate Black history and culture at work year round? How about shining a spotlight on influential Black business and tech pioneers or clicking here for more ideas. In the words of the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The time is always right to do what is right.”

What does a strategic CFO look like? Just take a look in the mirror. If you’re a CFO today, chances are you’re already thinking and acting strategically. Over the past decade, the role of CFO has moved from one that was once primarily accounting focused to one leading organization-wide decision making. As a strategic partner to the rest of the business, modern CFOs provide data-fueled insights and analysis that drive results through every aspect of the organization. But the best strategic CFOs aren’t just satisfied with a seat at the table—they want to be a voice that’s constantly pushing their business forward. And to achieve that, you can’t act alone. To better help their business thrive, strategic CFOs need the support of a strategic-focused finance team. So how do you go about building the right one to meet the needs of your organization? Building a Strategic Finance Team What’s the difference between a strategic finance team and a non-strategic finance team? That’s a question Vena CFO Darrell Cox posed in our recent livestream, CFO Confidential: The Rise of Strategic Finance—now available on demand to members of Vena’s Plan To Grow platform. In the session, Darrell invited Kansas City Chiefs CFO Dan Crumb, Climate Pros CFO Patricia Burkland and Vena Vice President of FP&A Tom Seegmiller to discuss the finance team’s rising role as a strategic business partner.  More efficient processes and technology advancements have helped the strategic CFO reach a point where they’re able to devote more of their time to analysis and insight, the panelists pointed out. “[That] makes the finance team a much more important member at the table than just the one who's keeping score,” Patricia added. If you want your entire team to do more than just keep score, though, you need to build one that offers that extra value—or add new skills to enhance the team you already have. Here are five things to consider as you do: 1. Look for People Who Aren’t Satisfied With the Status Quo What sets a leading strategic-focused CFO apart? According to Dan and Patricia, it’s a belief that nothing’s ever good enough. By always striving for what’s next, they’re constantly searching out new ways to improve the business. “There’s almost an element of being unsatisfied,” Patricia said in the CFO Confidential panel. And it’s because Patricia has that mindset herself that she says she’s always asking “Is this working? Is it not working?” and trying to find better ways to achieve growth—then continuing that search even after her business reaches its current goals.  So if those are attributes the best strategic CFOs draw on to help move their business forward, shouldn’t the team helping you do so have the same qualities as well? A team that constantly asks questions—looking for ways to improve your processes and make your systems better—is always going to have an eye on building company growth and improving on your current goals. They won’t be satisfied with riding whatever momentum you’ve already built—not when they can start building further momentum towards a new objective. That’s a team member that won’t just get you where you want to go—they’ll help you move beyond it. Which definitely makes it a must-have quality on your strategic finance team. 2. Look for Storytellers These days, your team needs to do more than “speak finance”—they have to act as translators, sharing the data-driven insights you’ve uncovered in a way the rest of the business can get behind. That means learning the needs of other departments, understanding their points of view and developing a wider understanding of the business as a whole.  “It's really about being storytellers, distilling that information,” Kansas City Chiefs CFO panelist Dan Crumb said in the CFO Confidential panel. “We take tons and tons of data, data points and information, and we carve out what are the most important things that each department needs to know.”  At Vena, we understand the value data storytellers bring to the finance function. Building a team of storytellers to support you—and arming them with the technology that will let them better tell those stories—will help you expand the value you offer the rest of the business and put the entire organization on the same page. All of which is key to establishing the buy-in and support you need to drive company-wide change. Learn how the Kansas City Chiefs use Vena to speed up reporting times by 95% and add more strategic value to their team. 3. Look for Data-Driven Mindsets But storytelling is just the start. To know the right story to tell your team needs to be able to dig into the data and understand exactly what metrics to follow to help meet your business goals. All of which takes a data-driven point of view.   “I think that our skills are changing,” Dan told the CFO Confidential panel. “We need to be really proficient with data, we need to be able to look at data and [understand] what data is important.” Since data is central to the new strategy-focused finance team, your team has to know how to extract everything they can from it and use it to plan ahead. That starts with capturing the right data—including data that goes beyond the financial numbers that are familiar to a more non-strategic finance team. It also means asking the right questions of that data, knowing how to put it to work and understanding which levers you can pull to stay agile to change.  While doing so involves a knowledge of the technology and processes that can help, it starts with a mindset, Dan explains. Your team needs to embrace data and everything it offers—always looking for new ways to apply it to the decision making at hand. Achieving that, in fact, sometimes means adding new skill sets to your team... 4. Look For New Skill Sets That Will Add Value Sometimes, the traditional roles of finance may not be enough in this new strategic world. Dan, for one, has three data scientists reporting to him, building out his team’s strategic and analytic value.  At Climate Pros, meanwhile, Patricia has a programmer working predominantly for the finance team as they look for ways to further accelerate and automate their financial close—freeing up even more time for finance to contribute strategic value in the process. “We actually hired somebody that is working primarily in finance right now, until we get to the point where all those steps are automated,” she explained in the panel. “So we are doing coding to automate some of those functions.” In other words, by understanding where the gaps are in your current team, looking at where there’s room for improvement and thinking outside of the box to fill your existing needs, you can add depth to your strategic capacity and stay ready for whatever comes next. 5. Look for People Who Want To Keep Learning The role of finance continues to change—and that’s probably not going to stop anytime soon. As technology adds new efficiencies to their day-to-day role, teams are able to spend more time on strategy and analysis—and on exploring new tools and processes that will let them build on that added value.  With that kind of change underway, a strategic team can’t be stagnant. Finance professionals need to be constantly ready to develop their skills and add to what they bring to the table.  For a strategic finance professional, in other words, learning shouldn’t be an obstacle—it should be an opportunity. Which means you need to look for team members who are constantly excited to grow. “When it comes to the people side, making sure people are always elevating themselves [is key],” Patricia says. “It makes the job more interesting for them as well.” Adding Continued Strategic Value A strategic CFO can’t act alone. Not if they want the kind of results that help your entire business thrive, keeping it agile to new changes on the horizon. For that, you need a team that’s focused on the same things you are—and one that uses data to propel decision making forward, getting the whole organization behind you.  Putting that team together means adding to the traditional accounting skills that are a mainstay of a finance team—to embrace data storytellers, translators of business and data experts. Then it means always continuing to develop your team’s skills to keep up with finance’s continuously changing role. “My number one challenge and [number one] opportunity is always around the depth of the team and the strength of the team,” Patricia said in the CFO Confidential session. “I think it really does always come down to the team, and making sure that we are developing the team and that we're giving them experiences [to learn from].”  To watch the entire CFO Confidential: The Rise of Strategic Finance livestream on demand, become a member of Vena’s Plan to Grow platform today.

According to our CFO Darrell Cox, in order to be a great CFO, you need to be action oriented and growth minded—proactively looking for insights and leading the change by driving forward-looking business motions. In this blog, we highlight Darrell’s Evolution of the Strategic CFO and his five key principles on being an agile CFO for your business.  Being an Agile and Strategic CFO According to Darrell, being an agile CFO means maximizing your organization's success by mitigating risk during down times. As most organizations experienced during the pandemic, it’s important to have a plan, but as Darrell highlights, the ability to move quickly and make a change if the plan doesn’t benefit the business is important. “Your plan is going to be wrong one way or another as you introduce risk. Agile planning is operationalized across the business to achieve short-term goals and longer-term outcomes. It's not just a budget, it's a process. It enables the company to move and maneuver to make changes around them.” In case you missed Darrell’s talk at Vena Nation week, he highlights his 5 principles of the agile CFO, which takes a lot of influence from his original 7 Principles of the Agile CFO. His 5 principles represent a shorter methodology for agility. The principles leverage the term “agile” as an acronym that describes the different steps of becoming an agile CFO, which are reflected below: The 5 Principles of the Agile CFO: 1. Act and drive action. The “a” in agility represents acting quickly and driving action. It means having a positive impact as a leader and always thinking about how and when you say or do something with your team so that you achieve your desired result. 2. Grow and think big. The “g” represents growing and thinking big. Darrell highlights that when you think about setting something up or analyzing something, ask yourself, are you learning from it?  3. Iterate and plan forward. The “i” represents continuous iteration and planning ahead. As Darrell points out, a CFO does not focus on one single budget, but many small connected plans that lead to an ultimate objective. 4. Leverage technology. The “l” represents leveraging technologies that assist in the day to day. Technology can really enable leaders to amplify their impact. 5. Engage, align and enable. The “e” represents engaging, aligning and enabling teams. Darrell points out that it’s important to engage your audience so that they become aligned and are enabled to achieve and be the best that they can be. It’s also important to be approachable and human in our role. It means being a great storyteller in order to get your team working together and moving forward as one team. Be the Best Agile Leader That You Can Be As Darrell put’s it, being the best agile leader that you can be means thinking big and not just focusing on the details. A strategic and agile leader needs to be finding clues in the details about how to drive a great business. As business and operations professionals it’s important to be agile and proactively looking for insights and changes, so that you can continue to drive your business forward. Be A Better Agile Leader Learn More on Plan To Grow Learn the 5 Principles of The Agile CFO by watching Darrell’s talk The Evolution of the Strategic CFO.

As part of Vena's birthday we created a timeline for you to enjoy, check it out: A Decade of Planning To Grow: Milestones and Highlights from Vena’s First 10 Years As we celebrate Vena’s 10th birthday, it’s time to look back and reflect on the growth we’ve accomplished so far. This is how Vena evolved from a three-founder startup in 2011 into a cloud FP&A leader with 900+ customers in 2021. April 2011: Longtime friends Rishi Grover and George Papayiannis launch the company. They begin building the software out of George’s parents’ basement.  August 2011: Don Mal joins as the CEO and third co-founder. Vena is officially born! December 2011: After building the original product, refining the go-to-market strategy and hiring some early employees, Vena brings on First Wind Energy as its first customer. June 2012: George and the Product and Technology team launch the first version of Vena’s OLAP financial database, ultimately laying the foundation for long-term growth and innovation. October 2012: Vena moves its office to Islington and Bloor in Toronto after raising $3 million in funding from close friends and family. This also included an angel investment from a PE firm, Klass Capital.  2013 - 2015: The sales team continues to shatter its revenue and customer acquisition targets. Vena signs some huge clients including Nando’s, McDonald’s Canada, Santander and Kobo.  July 2014: The Product and Technology team successfully transform Vena from an on-premise application into a cloud-based SaaS solution. July 2016: Vena secures its first major funding round, a $30 million Series A investment from Centana Growth Partners. May 2017: Hundreds of customers and prospects gather in New Orleans for VenaNOLA, the company’s first-ever user conference. September 2017: More customers + more employees = the need for more space! Vena moves offices again to its current global headquarters at 2 Fraser Ave. in Toronto’s Liberty Village.  December 2018: Vena caps off yet another record-breaking year with enhancements to the modeling, workflow, integration and data mapping features. January 2019: JMI Equity leads a $115 million funding round as Vena continues to attract top-tier talent and grow its market share.  August 2019: Don steps down as Vena’s CEO as the company begins to adopt a more targeted product-led growth strategy. SaaS veteran Hunter Madeley takes the helm as CEO as Vena begins to prepare for a period of aggressive expansion. May 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic sparks the birth of Vena Nation week, a fully-virtual conference for the entire finance and operations community. Vena unveils Plan To Grow™ shortly after, an innovative online learning hub and CPE-accredited content platform. November 2020: Vena launches the Vena Preview—its first product-led growth initiative—and begins work on additional enhancements to drive demand for the business. February 2021: Vena forms a partnership with the Kansas City Chiefs in order to champion digital transformation in the sports and live entertainment industry. Vena also launches pre-configured solutions for SaaS, banking, education and other key market segments. April 2021: Vista Equity Partners leads another $300 million funding round, giving Vena the momentum it needs to continue thriving for the next decade and beyond. May 2021: Vena’s Product and Technology team prepare for major releases including Vena 365 Connect and embedded dashboarding with PowerBI. Happy birthday vena Looking Back (and Forward) After Vena’s First 10 Years Learn more about Vena's growth journey over the last 10 years.

We just wrapped up our last day of Vena Nation week and what a great week we had! We want to thank everyone for their hard work and amazing contributions to make Vena Nation week such a great experience. Today we had Mark Donovan, President of Kansas City Chiefs, sit down with Vena CEO Hunter Madeley to talk about building winning teams. We also had the The Beyond FP&A Panel, which was CPE/CPD accredited for all those in attendance. That panel focused on how Capstone Infrastructure, the Arizona Cardinals and Vena’s finance pros standardized processes, systems and reporting to serve as strategic business partners. Last but certainly not least, we had Liam Bastick (of SumProduct) walk us through Effective Data Storytelling in Excel. Sadly this is our last day, but if you missed it (or anything else during the week), be sure to check out Plan To Grow in the coming weeks for any missed sessions. Here are  our highlights from day four. Top Talks of the Day #1 How To Build Winning Teams With the Kansas City Chiefs “I look for someone who understands how to be a really good teammate. Someone who understands the importance of hard work across the board.” - Mark Donovan, President of the Kansas City Chiefs #2 The Beyond FP&A Panel “With Vena, our budget managers embraced the change of returning to an Excel based platform because that’s where they were comfortable.” #3 Effective Data Storytelling in Excel With SumProduct “If you are telling a story you can’t assume that everybody knows everything right from the get-go, so you’ve got to give them some sort of recollection.” Hot off the Vena Nation Press Finding Balance: Career and Motherhood Tips From a Modern CFO 3 Reasons Why You and Your Organization Should Be Using Power BI 3 Offseason Planning Tips for Finance Teams in Professional Sports Highlights From Vena Nation Week 2021: Day One Highlights From Vena Nation Week 2021: Day Two Highlights From Vena Nation Week 2021: Day Three Don’t Forget To Join Us on Plan To Grow Stay tuned to check out and enjoy Vena Nation week on Plan To Grow in case you missed it!

We just wrapped up day three of Vena Nation week and it was jam-packed  with some amazing talks and experiences. Our Chief Solutions Architect Rishi Grover gave a talk about the future of data transformation. We got to learn about The Ultimate Excel Shortcuts With Chandoo. This is just a taste of the day we had today, so if you missed it, be sure to check out our highlights: Top Talks of the Day #1 The Future of Data Transformation With Rishi Grover “We’re living in a world where we can bring cross-functional data together and extract real, tangible insights from it with powerful technology solutions.” #2 The Ultimate Excel Shortcuts With Chandoo “If you want to leave with all of this data, you can use a shortcut to select everything you want on your spreadsheet.” #3 A New Era of Storytelling With Jeanne Lam “One of the most interesting challenges is, ‘how do I convince the 200 other people at this company that this is the way to go?’ This is where finance teams and storytelling help everyone understand business decisions.” Hot off the Vena Nation Press 10 Reasons To Attend Vena Nation Week 2021 Get Ready To Be Inspired by Our Vena Nation Week Speakers Excel Nerds Unite in the Ultimate Community Finding Balance: Career and Motherhood Tips From a Modern CFO 3 Reasons Why You and Your Organization Should Be Using Power BI 3 Offseason Planning Tips for Finance Teams in Professional Sports  Don’t Forget To Join Us for Day Four!  We still have one day left to enjoy Vena Nation week and that includes: 20+ talks still to watch live and on demand 2 live and interactive sessions  Don’t forget our influencer sessions with SumProduct on June 18 Plus, Vena customers get access to additional exclusive roundtables and training sessions at Vena Nation week

Today was the second day of Vena Nation week and we had some great talks that we wanted to highlight. Our COO Tina Goulbourne and our Vice President of Revenue Operations & Strategy, Burzin Contractor talk about the ultimate business planning playbook. We had our finance-led collaboration exchange and our influencers SumProduct (Liam Bastick) and Finance Femme take the lead as part of the top talks of the day. We still have two days left to enjoy Vena Nation week. Check out our highlights of the day below: Top Talks of the Day #1 The Ultimate Business Planning Playbook With Tina Goulbourne and Burzin Contractor “The best business planning in the world isn’t going to do you any good unless you execute.” —Tina Goulborne, Vena COO #2 Creating Effective Spreadsheets in Excel With SumProduct “How often have you taken a block of calculations in Excel and copied it somewhere else and something has gone wrong?” #3 Life and Business Hacks With Finance Femme “There is nothing more logical than numbers in finance, because one plus one will almost certainly always equal two.” Hot off the Vena Nation Press 10 Reasons To Attend Vena Nation Week 2021 Get Ready To Be Inspired by Our Vena Nation Week Speakers Excel Nerds Unite in the Ultimate Community Finding Balance: Career and Motherhood Tips From a Modern CFO 3 Reasons Why You and Your Organization Should Be Using Power BI 3 Offseason Planning Tips for Finance Teams in Professional Sports  Don’t Forget To Join Us for Day Three! We still have two days left to enjoy Vena Nation week and that includes: 20+ talks to watch live and on demand 4 live and interactive sessions  Don’t forget our influencer sessions with Chandoo and Jeanne Lam on June 17 Plus, Vena customers get access to additional exclusive roundtables and training sessions at Vena Nation week