 |
Planning AcesAuthor: Brett Knowles & Jack Sweeney
The podcast for finance professionals tasked with taking their businesses to new heights. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Management Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Ep 50: Discipline at the Heart of Innovation
Monday, 17 November, 2025
In this episode of Planning Aces, we spotlight FP&A insights from three CFOs leading innovation with discipline: Chris Sands (InvoiceCloud), Steve Sutter (Celigo), and Niels Boon (Cint). Each shares how finance is shaping AI, go-to-market models, and data-driven transformation without losing rigor. From building an "AI Ops" function and embedding finance in sales strategy, to piloting AI tools in small, staged experiments, these leaders treat innovation as a managed process. Our resident thought leader joins to connect the dots, emphasizing structure, clear metrics, and portfolio thinking as the new essentials of FP&A. We're excited to welcome author and former CFO Glenn Hopper into the co-host seat. Glenn joins us as our resident thought leader, bringing a deep well of experience at the intersection of finance, technology, and AI. We're thrilled to have his voice and perspective guiding this next chapter of Planning Aces. Planning Aces: Chris Sands leans into organizational design, reallocating talent into a formal AI Ops team and emphasizing change champions. Steve Sutter focuses on commercial mechanics, tying FP&A to sales economics, talent mix, and scale-up guardrails. Niels Boon emphasizes risk-staged innovation, using small pilots for operational wins while ring-fencing bold synthetic-data bets as long-horizon R&D.
