Finance for Non-Finance podcast is pleased and honored to have James Todd as a guest. In this article, we will be sharing a summary of the rich conversation.
If you want to watch or listen to the full episode, please follow the links in the comments.

Purpose-driven, diverse background and great leader:
We started the conversation on how James, with a Philosophy background, being a musician and Finance leader, came up with this mix. James highlighted that all these three words have many common things, but the most critical points are love and joy for all of them. James’s purpose is making the impossible out of the unexpected, which is linked directly with all the complex roles he played in his 30+ years of experience.

Discipline, painting pictures with numbers and the art of dealing with people:

A critical common word between Philosophy, music and Finance is the discipline where he explained the following. 
⦁ Philosophy without discipline is just talking. 
⦁ Music, unless you know the harmonic structure and without discipline, can be noisy.
⦁ Finance is all about structure and discipline.
James shared how Finance paints a picture with the number to explain situations, guide the business toward a common goal, and consider that Finance is the bloodstream of any company that ensures all business parties are connected.

One of the strengths that James shared is the art of dealing with people, which is a key asset for any business member, where he shared that his Philosophy supported him in that strength big time.

Finance made simple, A new definition of financial statements and Everyday ethics:


It was a spot-on point where James shared that many Finance transactions are about simple math and logic, such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication. For Non-Finance background, if they put the effort behind can quickly master it, and it’s not as complex as it seems. 
It was interesting that with the data and analytics, we need to build relations between different variables and re-define the shape of the financial statements that service the business purpose, such as P&L, where we can start with market share, customer service or stock level and build the right co-relation with the essential P&L elements that will make these statements more relevant to non-Finance colleges.
James also highlighted the importance of everyday ethics and how new generations need to be clear on how to run a business and ensure ethics in everyday matters. 

Digital Finance, Change management and Finance role in the organization:
James shared how digital Finance brings democratization to the whole structure where the analytical tool and anyone in the business can observe, examine and come up with vital insights regardless of seniority. Also, Digital Finance supports the business and Finance team to focus more on the more interesting analytical part of the business and less on the repetitive process. He also shared that non-Finance could benefit from digital finance through the discipline that digital Finance brings into the company and a no-touch process that helps everyone, such as payments.

Change management requires people with empathy and regular reflection to ensure you land change management smoothly. But it remains a challenge.

The finance role should be more strategic, steering the business and tapping all opportunities. The finance role should be clear on the gaps and opportunities and manage all the offline alignment with other business stakeholders to ensure the CEO is fully equipped with data-driven decisions.

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