The Secret to Transforming FP&A into Business Strategy with Ron Monteiro
Welcome to FP&A Tomorrow, where we discuss financial planning and analysis, examining its current state and future prospects, with your host Paul Barnhurst.
In this episode of FP&A Tomorrow, host Paul Barnhurst explores the evolving landscape of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) with expert insights from Ron Monteiro. The discussion centers on the crucial role of FP&A in shaping business strategies, driving financial performance, and fostering cross-functional collaboration within organizations.
Ron Monteiro is a seasoned FP&A professional with extensive experience in the consumer goods industry. Having worked with major brands like Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup, and Kruger Products, Ron brings a wealth of knowledge in financial analysis, business partnership, and strategic decision-making. He now runs his own training business, helping finance teams worldwide enhance their skills and impact.
Here is a summary of the key points from the discussion:
The essential attributes of great FP&A and how it contributes to business success.
Practical strategies for FP&A professionals to integrate themselves into business operations.
The importance of building trust and cross-functional relationships in FP&A roles.
Key operational metrics in the consumer goods industry and how to use them effectively.
Tips for transitioning from accounting to FP&A and developing strong presentation skills.
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In today's episode:
[01:36] - Paul Barnhurst introduces the podcast and welcomes Ron Monteiro to the show.
[02:17] -Ron shares some light-hearted and embarrassing stories about Paul.
[03:43] - Discussion on what makes FP&A great and its role in business involvement.
[04:35] -Ron talks about the importance of trust and getting involved with other business functions.
[05:26] - Ron shares his career journey from the University of Toronto to his current role in training.
[09:11] - Ron reflects on his time in the consumer goods industry and memorable product launches.
[11:38] - The critical operational metrics in consumer goods and their significance.
[14:40] - Challenges and advice for moving from accounting to an FP&A role.
[27:28] - Ron's journey from being terrified of presenting to becoming a confident presenter, with tips for others.
[33:23] - Why FP&A departments should invest in training and continuous learning.
[38:03] - Insight into Ron’s upcoming book and its focus on finding joy and passion in your career.
[41:01] - Quick answers on technical and soft skills, forecasting methods, and more.
[46:20] - Final tips on being better business partners and embracing a growth mindset.
[47:08] - Information on how listeners can reach out to Ron Monteiro.
Full Show Transcript:
[00:00:02] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Hello everyone. Welcome to FP&A Tomorrow, where we delve into the world of financial planning and analysis, examining its current state and future prospects. I'm your host, Paul Barnhurst, and I'll be guiding you through the evolving landscape of Fpna. Each week, we welcome thought leaders, industry experts, and practitioners to share their insights and experiences with us. This week I'm thrilled to have on the show Ron Monteiro with me. Ron, welcome to the show.
[00:00:33] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Thank you Paul, very excited to be here.
[00:00:36] Host: Paul Barnhurst: For anyone who doesn't know, Ron and I work together quite a bit. We're, uh, partners in a lot of the training we do, and so I thought I would start with a little fun. I'm going to give Ron a couple of minutes to tell 1 or 2 embarrassing stories about me, because very people don't get to do that very often on the show. So, Ron, nothing's off limits. Go ahead. What are you going to tell the audience?
[00:00:54] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, no. It's interesting. It's kind of fun doing this. So thank you for the opportunity. So one of the things that Paul and myself have is we have this, uh, with this code. Right. So Paul and myself will join a call and I'll ask him how many, how many peppers? Paul. Which means how spicy is. So we all know Paul is the friendly fire guy. I get to see Paul when he's spicy. So you know, that's one which is fun. But you know how many how.
[00:01:20] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Many peppers does it go? What's the scale for this?
[00:01:23] Guest: Ron Monteiro: I've got a five pepper scale. And interestingly enough, when it's five peppers, I try to get off that call really quickly. So you know that that's one. And then we were just talking before we did a trip together to Nashville, and we're walking together. And Paul literally just fell down in front of me. But he just literally rolled. And we call it the tuck and roll. So we've had some good times on the zoom call and on the zoom call, so to speak.
[00:01:48] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I figured tuck and roll would be in there. I didn't think of the spicy, but that doesn't surprise me. So there you go. There's a little bit about me that most of you don't know. I can be spicy from time to time. Just ask my wife. She'll be like, I'm avoiding you at the moment. You're grumpy, is what she calls it. Ron calls it spicy. All right, let's get to the meat of the interview. First question I want to ask you is what does great fpna look like in your mind? What is great Fpna.
[00:02:12] Guest: Ron Monteiro: It's a great Fpna is to me is very involved in the business. It's not sitting in the background, it's being I am at the table, so to speak, and I'm helping make future business decisions. You know, all the things we do in Fpna very, very important. But to me is are we shaping the business? Are we shaping future results? Are we looking forward or are we looking backwards? So to me, it's clear that super involved in the business, of course, taking care of all our financial obligations. But it's are we implementing things going forward and really impacting and challenging the business?
[00:02:46] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Agree with that. I think it is about being involved in the business. I've been in fpna roles where they don't really want fpna involved, and I'm sure you have, and they're not very fun. They're not really companies that I want to work with. But what would you say about that when you have that situation where they don't want you involved? Great. Fpna requires you to be involved. What do you do?
[00:03:05] Guest: Ron Monteiro: So I think you've got to find a way to wedge yourself into the business. And to me, it's all about starting by building trust. Like, you know, showing them that you truly care and then them being your cross-functional partners and getting out of your cube, getting out of your spreadsheet and going to the plant, going to a marketing event, going out with sales to see what it's like to be with them. So for me, you know, as I got later in my career, I started very intentionally saying the first few weeks of my role, I'm going to build trust, learn other sides of the business and ensure that my business partners know that I'm there for them, so to speak. So not necessarily looking for my own lens, but looking from their lens and saying, you know, the magic words, how can I help?
[00:03:50] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I love that the magic words, how can I help? We'll talk about the wedge a little later. I know you have a great example there, but before we get further into the podcast, tell our audience about yourself, your background, what you're doing today, why you got into Fpna?
[00:04:06] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, amazing. And so I started my career. I graduated from the University of Toronto, and frankly, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I got a Bachelor of Commerce, and I struggled to get my first job, and I ended up landing at Hitachi, uh, in an accounting capacity. I did a three year stint there, and I learned what it's like to work in business as opposed to school. And so it was a good learning, but it was a very methodical hey month and we're busy non month end. We're kind of twiddling our thumbs. And it was one of those environments where it's just very static. Right? I learned a lot. I got to say, look my manager was amazing, but it was a pretty static environment. And then I had the good fortune of landing at Kraft Foods, where I spent 15 years, and my first role was corporate, and it was, hey, an integration. And it was really, really good. But then I ended up moving to a cross-functional role in Fpna, and I had no idea what Fpna was at the time. And within the first week, I'm like presenting pricing to the president, and instead of being in the background doing a bunch of reporting and Excel work, I was at the forefront and thrown into the fire, so to speak. And, you know, I would say the the 15 years of craft were kind of like that. You're thrown into different fires and working with different people and learning the business and saying, how can I really get involved? And and I remember this funny story, this one guy was transitioning from me and he's like, can you give me the job manual? And I kind of laughed. I was like, there's no job manual. Every day is a little different, which makes it exciting.
[00:05:33] Guest: Ron Monteiro: And so accidentally I landed it up in Fpna and I absolutely loved it. Right. So I did, you know, a bunch of roles at Kraft. I actually did Fpna as an analyst, a manager, and a director at that company. So I was so fortunate to see so many different sides of it. And then from there, I had a stint at a private company as a VP of finance. Again, my experience came in such, you know, so handy. So instead of the finance controller just sending the information to the executives on the owner. I was like, hey, I want to be part of the meeting. I want to be involved. I want to help make decisions. Right. And that was a little bit of a shock to the system, like, hey, who is this guy? Is he a finance guy? Like, why is he trying to get involved? And then I worked at Campbell Soup. I worked at Kruger Products for one of my mentors, Dino Bianco, and at Kruger. I actually had training as part of my mandate. And what's interesting is I started loving that part of my job more than the other side. And that's what's, you know, kind of helped shape my current role, which is I started my own trading business three years ago, and I have the fortunate pleasure of partnering with you, Paul, on many, many different, uh, training gigs, so to speak, around the world. I mean, it's cool that we have, you know, you're in the US, I'm in Canada, but we've done sessions in Sweden and India and lots of places. So, you know, that's a bit of a synopsis, but it's just about finding areas I'm really passionate about and going all in.
[00:06:57] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. Agreed. What have we done? Probably almost 100 sessions together at this point.
[00:07:01] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah. And it just started with I remember, you know, one of my clients said, hey, do you know anyone who teaches Excel? Because I clearly can't teach Excel. And I'll vouch for that. And you and I had spoken at a webinar, you know, Fpna trends Trends webinar together. And I just reached out, I asked the question and you said yes. And that was your first of many training sessions, which has been pretty cool. And and so there's a big lesson there. You know, I call myself an ask hole. So I asked you said yes. And now we've done all kinds of sessions in Canada, the US and virtually and lots of different countries.
[00:07:36] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I call them an ass hole as well. I sometimes call him other things, but we won't talk about that on the show. All right. Question for you. You mentioned all the companies you worked with, almost all consumer goods there. Was that deliberate? Like was there something you really enjoyed about consumer goods, or did that just kind of naturally happen?
[00:07:53] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, it's another accidental benefit, right? It's, uh, it was really cool that I landed in a company, Kraft, which was, you know, work hard, play hard, and immediately I fell in love with the fact that, hey, look, I'm helping launch a product like, you know, Philadelphia cream cheese. What's the next flavor? Working on the financials and then seeing the product on shelf was just so fascinating to me. Right. As opposed to what I said, Hitachi doing the accounting. And it was very much the spreadsheet. Right. So for me, the tangible product was phenomenal. And then, you know, sitting there at the table and working on acquisitions, on new product launches, on Discontinuations, on such a dynamic business that pretty much changed every day was, you know, an accidental benefit. But it was one where, like, man, I love this industry.
[00:08:41] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. That's great. So an example, is there a particular time you remember going to the grocery store and maybe seeing a product you worked on that you're like, wow, I was part of that. Maybe share an example there?
[00:08:53] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah. And like, I got to the point, Paul, where I was so passionate about craft, like, was something about that culture that drew you in. I would go to people's fridge, refrigerators, open the fridge and say, is it craft or is it a competitor? It had to be like, if it's a competitor, let's throw this thing in the garbage.
[00:09:09] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And.
[00:09:10] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Do it. But back to your question. I like I remember I helped launch a Costco Philadelphia two by 400 gram cream cheese, and I had made a mistake on the financials. So every time I saw it as I like. But in all seriousness, like, you know, we launched flavors like blueberry cream cheese, raspberry cream cheese. I mean, that was a while ago so that those flavors are no longer in existence. But I was the lead on the financials for those and really rewarding to to tell my wife, hey, here's here's a product that I work on. And then my kids, you know, when they were little small, we worked on these little string cheese called Amooza. And they would love it. And like, hey, I worked on that and now I can get that for you, right? It's it's pretty rewarding to see how it tied into my personal life.
[00:09:51] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I can definitely see how the consumer goods, especially someone like Kraft, you can see that in your day to day life. I love the Costco example. We've all been there where every time you see something remind you of I messed that one up. That that's just part of the job. You just have to learn from those mistakes. So what are the kind of key operational metrics you like to look at in CPG? What are those top you know, two three things that you're like, I need to know how these are doing to understand the business.
[00:10:19] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah it's interesting. So I had this one leader I worked for and I still keep in touch with him. His name's Dan D'allesandro and he had the quad chart. He used to call it the quad chart. He actually had t shirts made up because his quad chart was all up and to the right, which is what you want. So on his quad chart, he had volume and revenue on the top left. So how's the top line doing on the right side of the page? What he had was what's my profit doing. Right. So a gross profit as well as EBITDA or whatever the metrics were On the bottom left he had where my investments, advertising and trade spend. Right. So what do we spend with our retailers. And on the bottom right he had his margin percent. So it was really interesting to say, like even a guy who's a classically trained marketer had realized, look, I need to look at all aspects of my business. So that was his very high level look, my top line, my profit, my investments and my margin percents. But then each one you could drill down and say, hey, let me go deeper, right? And so if he was kind of working with the plant, for example, there would be a maybe a quad chart for the plant to say, hey, what are the metrics there? And it was about being very deliberate and very simple to say, here's the metrics I'm going to look at. And he even had a page for all his brands Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kraft Singles, Velveeta, what am I doing? And let me look at it over the last six years, actually, right to say, hey, what's the six year trend in addition to the short term trend? And it really taught me a lot about how important it is to have a really good pulse, to say, let me look high level, then decide where to zoom in.
[00:11:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I like that. So it sounds like here you're talking kind of that, you know, not PNL, but bringing it back up at the high level and the revenue and the growth and the EBITDA, and then being able to drill down, depending on what you want to look at and see a mix of operational and financial metrics. So it might be what was the production output for these products, what was the, you know, cost of them? Whatever those different key metrics are that you need to understand understand why volume is down or why. Why all four quadrants are up into the right, as we always like to say, right?
[00:12:32] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:12:34] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Got it. I like that I can see where that's really helpful to just kind of start that high level and drill in, because sometimes finance, we have a tendency to throw everything out there as we, we like to call it the wall of numbers. And yes.
[00:12:47] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Exactly.
[00:12:47] Host: Paul Barnhurst: We know what our business walls.
[00:12:49] Guest: Ron Monteiro: I've seen many walls of numbers. And if you really pay attention to cross-functional stakeholders, they pretty much turn away when they see those walls of numbers. So to me, it's like, how do we simplify to make it engaging? Interesting to back to what, you know, your first question, you asked me to help shape the numbers, right? Not just report the numbers.
[00:13:08] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, exactly. So I want to kind of zoom back a little bit. You started your career in accounting. You spent a few years at Hitachi, you went over to Kraft, you ended up in Fpna. What was the hardest part of making that transition from accounting to Fpna?
[00:13:24] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah. It's interesting. So I'm I'm a little bit introverted. Like I'm not exactly sure where I'm on the scale now because I think I've developed a lot, you know, in terms of my ability to connect and present. But I was very comfortable in my accounting capacity. It was hard work during month end, really taxing. But then during the middle of the month, it was kind of like, okay, let me regroup, let me, you know, take some time off, so to speak, and, and recollect myself. And then, you know, you're thrown into the fire and it's just like day to day fires are you're working on. Right. And what I always say about one of the biggest, two of the biggest adjustments and one is it never seems to stop because you're either forecasting, reporting, doing something, but you've also got all this ad hoc work, which is very interesting work. Right? We talked about product launches, for example, but it's just never stops. Right. And you're kind of at the epicenter of the business. So you've got the corporate team coming to you. You got the cross-functional team coming to you. You got the maybe the US team maybe sitting in Canada. So that was a big adjustment to saying it's always like up here, whereas in accounting it's maybe here, then up and then down.
[00:14:30] Guest: Ron Monteiro: And then the second one was working with cross-functional stakeholders. Right right away you're instead of working with just kind of the finance function or accounting function, I'm like in cross-functional meetings all the time marketing, sales, supply chain. I'm in the plants, I'm working with marketing. They're asking me for opinions. And so that was a shock to the system. I was like, where am I? Like, how do I thrive in this environment? That's completely foreign to me? But then what's wonderful, as I started loving it, to say, look, I never looked at my watch in an fpna capacity in my accounting roles like, hey, it's only 2:00, how do I get to 5:00? Right? Like it's during the middle of the month again. And I would, you know, I do want to emphasize my accounting role was such a fundamental role that I always came back to. And there's many other people who worked at Kraft who didn't have accounting roles, who struggled right to say, how do I connect the balance sheet to cash flow to the the PNL? So I'm still I'm still saying very, very important. But those were the two big changes that I had to deal with.
[00:15:31] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And any advice for those who may be going through those changes? We get accountants that listen that want to get into fpna. What what did you do that helped you most make that transition from, you know, like you said this to kind of always being up here and all of a sudden having to be very involved and being asked a lot of questions about the business versus being in the background, so to speak.
[00:15:55] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah. The other the other thing I should say is it's being able to play in the Grays, what I call it. Right. So instead of, you know, my accounting role is pretty much black and white, like what's the rules. You know, what's, you know, what is the GAAP say when you get into Fpna? There's a lot more gray. Right. And you got to figure out, okay, how do I still walk the line of I am a business partner, but ensure we are following the rules and that becomes a big transition. So I think, you know, as I think about maybe somebody moving from accounting to fpna, it is about saying, okay, how do I adjust to what I call a different pace? And how do I become really curious about the business, right. And ask questions and just develop that muscle so well before moving into how I would start asking the questions, trying to attend other meetings, try to talk to fpna people, build relationships with them to say, is this something I want to do? Because, Paul, you know, I actually noticed there's certain people who'll be like, they'll go to a yes, it's a learning curve and they'll love it. There's others who are like, I got to stay away from this area. Mhm. Right. And it's and we're all built differently. So I, there's no issue with that. It's you know some people love the maybe the predictability of an accounting role compared to that. So I think it's being able to experience it before going into it. And then if you truly are, it's like, how do I get curious about it? How do I get involved early so you don't go through my drinking through the firehose learning curve that I had?
[00:17:23] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. And something you said reminded me of an experience I had. I had an accountant that I worked with was a fabulous accountant. I really enjoyed working with him, and he'd been promoted some and had an analyst role open. I remember asking him any interest in applying and he looked at me like no, none. I dealt with that funny money before all that great stuff. Yeah, numbers. He liked black and white and accounting was black and white. I'm like, okay, that's fine, you're good where you're at. But I knew he'd also make a good analyst just because I could tell he was analytical. But he's like, yeah, no, no, thank you. And that's where you have to know yourself and your personality. Yes. Because everybody thinks, oh, it would be more interesting, but are you really curious in nature? Are you comfortable in the gray? Like you said, if those aren't your traits, you might need to look somewhere else in the business. It doesn't mean that you have to be an accounting your whole career. There's plenty of areas that may fit your personality. It's just trying to match that. Yes, you can adjust. At the same time, you don't want to do something that's completely different from who you are. That's just going to be miserable. So it's finding that right balance.
[00:18:23] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah. And I think it's about being able to ask great questions. Because the other thing that came to mind, as you were saying, that is my role, my female role at Kraft, 100% different than Campbell's. When I went into Campbell's, it was more like, hey, we send the numbers, we report we it's a little bit more methodical and not as involved in the business. So it can mean a very different thing at every single company or even within departments or company.
[00:18:49] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Mhm. Fully agree. And you know what. What tasks do you have. Sometimes you see sales commissions sitting in fpna and calculating them and helping with plans. Other times you might do a cursory review and nothing more. And, and a lot of other things like that. Sometimes you're very much with the general manager every week. Sometimes you're more of a report background role. And again, it depends on the role. Are you in corporate fpna? Are you in the business unit. So knowing those type of things really help. And I know you know, someone who's working on a book to talk a lot about that OSF that we know, I just saw some of his, uh, pre pages for his book to do, uh, testimonial for him. And I think it's great we're seeing more and more people sharing information that can help people understand to make sure they're getting into the right. You're never going to 100% know. You have to experience something to really know it, but you can do your homework 100%. All right. So next question I want to ask you is obviously you progressed quite a bit in your career. You did the accountant the analyst manager. You know director VP I know you even were on the path to CFO before you started your own business. So why did you leave? What? What made you decide? You mentioned you love training. Let me talk a little bit more about that. What was the thinking that made you say, hey, maybe this isn't the right career path for me. When you had gone pretty high, right? You were close to that CFO level as maybe that next role. So why why training? What what did you find loved about it?
[00:20:17] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah. So it's interesting I always reflect on, you know, a lot of us what we do is we follow the path that is kind of normal, I should say, like, hey, let's just climb the ladder. Analyst to manager to director to VP to CFO, but whatever that is. Yep. And it's almost like you're just doing it on autopilot. And so I rose through craft, and I can tell you the story of how I had to go through some hurdles a little bit later, if you're interested. But when I got to a certain place, I, you know, actually it was Campbell's soup. I took this training course and the training course was, was led by these three wonderful coaches. And they asked a simple question, what was your best experience professionally and your best experience personally, and both of them connected back to teaching. I had led a cash course at Kraft, so I was like 15 years there, and that was the experience that really said it lit me up and it helped challenge me and helped me grow in different ways. And it was one of those light bulb moments that said, like, I'm more of a teacher in finance clothing as opposed to a finance guy who likes to volunteer for training sessions.
[00:21:18] Guest: Ron Monteiro: And it's just like, that was a light bulb moment. And it has like, okay, I'm not quite happy anymore doing the finance side. And I actually hired one of those people who led the training course to be my coach, who's still a guy who I'll call. His name's Wayne Stark, and he helped me bridge into starting my business, but it was more around. I was at a point in my life. Maybe it was a midlife crisis, I don't know, but I was like, hey, this is the time to go for it. And I mean, you see the joy that we both get from this new world that we're in. We were in Walmart Canada a couple of weeks ago when Paul visited Toronto, and you see 55 people watching us do this training session, and we did a case study. And it's just, you know, the feeling, right? It's it's a different feeling. And that's for me where I decided to deviate from that typical path.
[00:22:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. And I could understand at your age having a midlife crisis. So I understand that anyone who, uh, knows that that's an inside joke, because Ron's a couple of years. Not much. Well, 18 months older than me or something. So I always tease him that he's he's old, But, uh, anyway, uh, what I was going to say is I'm going to guess on the personal side, a lot of that is the coaching, the soccer. You do. Right. Talk a little bit about that, because I know you work with youth and training, maybe how that helped you in training and starting your own business, working a lot. I know it's a little different working with kids, but spending a lot of time teaching.
[00:22:42] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, exactly. No, it's it's fun. So yesterday I was coaching a bunch of 13 year olds playing soccer. And, you know, for me, it's all about learning, right? To say, how can I, you know, when you first start with kids, it's a lot of babysitting. But now it's like, how can I help shape them? How can I help them grow? And again, I think it's connecting back to your why. Right. And for me, Paul, and I think it's about how to how do I help people build confidence, whether it's on the soccer field, whether it's in my business team, whether it's in our training sessions. What's the one thing to help others, right, that that connects all the things that I'm passionate about is helping others, coaching, training, teaching, whether it's on the field or on a zoom call or on a podcast like this. It's about how can I share my experiences to help others because others have done that for me.
[00:23:29] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I love that when you mentioned youth helping shape them, you know, I did, uh, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts for years. And I love those moments when you got through to that youth and you knew you were helping them with something they were dealing with in life. Yeah, a lot of fun. We'd have humor. There'd be all those great moments. I'm sure winning is nice and soccer, but I'm going to guess if I ask you for your favorite moments in coaching soccer. It's not a it's not when you won.
[00:23:55] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, actually it was. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:23:58] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I have the.
[00:23:59] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Ice bucket thrown. No, it's very much about the moments of, you know, even when some one of the kids maybe will say something inappropriate, it's like, okay, that's a teaching moment to say, okay, let me be the example to say, that's not acceptable. We are a team. Let's support each other. Let's not call each other out. And so that becomes rewarding. And look, that's the reason I loved my finance career is because I had some big teams and I had the privilege of leading those teams. Right. And that's where the joy comes in.
[00:24:28] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, great. No, I love that. And I'm glad your favorite moments were winning. I knew where your priorities were.
[00:24:34] Guest: Ron Monteiro: I'm competitive as well. Right. Just like the Raptors. And they won the championship.
[00:24:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. Moving on past that. All right. So you tell the story in our trainings about how you went from being terrified of presenting to today. You're one of the better presenters. I know you're a fabulous presenter. I've seen you present hundreds of times. Can you walk our audience through that story? You know, maybe that first time you presented to, uh, getting to where you're at today. And if you want, I can tell the story and mock it, but I won't. I'll give you the opportunity to tell it.
[00:25:09] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, and that's one of the secrets that Paul just talked about is preparation and practice. Right. So he's heard the same story over and over, and I've heard his story over and over, and it gets better because of the refining. So where I started was I grew up in Kenya and, you know, over there, there's a heavy emphasis on learning math and science and things like that. And I was very advanced academically. But on the social side, I was not right, so there wasn't much emphasis on that. So I flew to Canada and my very first presentation, and Paul knows the story well, was a grade nine. And the topic was foreboding, which means something bad is going to happen. And it is one of the worst presentations in history. Right? I joke about it being in the Guinness Book of World Records. But anyway, so that's where I started being terrified. Sick days. I would avoid presentations at all costs. Fast forward, I get to my business career and I'm still very shy, but I'm still pretty good in Excel. Paul wouldn't believe that I was technically gifted. I would say not. I shouldn't say gifted. I was technically strong. And then I got the point where my managers basically said, if you did not develop your presence, you're not advancing.
[00:26:18] Guest: Ron Monteiro: It was very black and white. But more importantly, they said, look, we're going to help coach you. We're going to put you in situations to learn. And I slowly started building the skill set of becoming comfortable. One of the, you know, cool experiences was they said, we're going to have a finance off site, 200 people, plants, finance everybody, and you're co-leading it. And I was terrified and I got to lead it. And funny enough, I got to enjoy it. And so slowly over time I did that. And then on the business side, I was always in presentations. Right. And so, Paul, you know, back to your question. It's about okay, pushing yourself a little out of your comfort zone with the right support and coaching. Right. And even you and I, we always reflect and we say how can we get a little bit better? How can we get tighter with that story? Maybe that story is irrelevant. And so it is about a lot of practice and diving into it. And you know, again, what was my biggest fear is now something I truly enjoy. Right. And I think we both enjoy that piece.
[00:27:13] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So if you're an fpna and you want to get better at presenting and you're not, you're not doing it much. Maybe for whatever reason you're in a role that's not requiring it. Your manager isn't asking you to do it. What do you do? How do you find ways to practice? Because you need that repetition. So what advice could you offer?
[00:27:30] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, I would say take the initiative and force yourself into positions like that. So for example, let's say there's a monthly team meeting. Hey, I want to present the monthly results at that team meeting. Even just take five minutes to do it. Another one that's been brilliant for me over the over my career is, hey, do a competitor analysis and get yourself in there and say, hey, I want to present that. And so it is about being very intentional to create opportunities for yourself if they don't naturally exist. Because if you're going to wait for other people to call on you, it's not going to happen, right? Not not many people are going to call, hey, I would love to have a finance person present, right? But if you truly say what's going to be really interesting for them, what's going to help them? And I remember we did a, you know, one of my first roles at Kraft is we did a situational assessment from a finance perspective, and we presented it to cross-functional audience. We would find stuff like, hey, this one skew is taking all this time, but it's only 1% of our overall profit. Nobody had a clue about that because the business was moving so fast and it was like, wow, there's some real value that finance brings to the table. So if you can find situations like that, you put yourself in a completely different light.
[00:28:43] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Great. I love that finding those situations, those opportunities present. What if you're terrified of presenting? What do you do to get yourself in a state of mind where you can present any advice or tips there?
[00:28:54] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, so I would start small and start like, hey, let me join a Toastmasters club, let me find a partner, let me find, let me ask my manager if I can get some support on that. Right. And I know this one individual. He used to report to me, she used to be absolutely terrified of any type of public speaking, and she joined Toastmasters and she got over that fear. She still look, we all still get anxiety in certain situations that never fully goes away. But it's like, how do you start advancing towards the fear as opposed to retreating away from it? And I'll tell you, I had a development plan, Paul, where I was committing. To speaking at least once in every meeting, because I would my default would be just listen, don't talk. Even when I had a lot of stuff on my mind, I was like, it's probably value added. I was like, nah, I don't think that's about, you know, right, what if I'm wrong? All these questions. So even just a simple thing like that one speak once in every meeting and then once you do that, you're like, hey, it's not so bad. Let me just say it. And then before you know, it couldn't shut me up in the meetings. But I'm just kidding.
[00:29:58] Host: Paul Barnhurst: But, well, I could agree with that. There's times I haven't been, but I could start small.
[00:30:04] Guest: Ron Monteiro: And when you can get support, do it. And then, you know, Paul, you're a big AI guy. There's AI technology now. There's PowerPoint where you can record yourself and it will give you some tips so you can do a lot of practice on your own. With technology you can do with people. You can join Toastmasters, you can have rules like mine which says speak at least once. You can take initiative. But it all starts with that action, right? It has to be action towards the fear.
[00:30:30] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Taking that first step, you just you have to start somewhere and you build from there. I love that. Great point. So I want to talk a little bit about training. You do a ton of it. Why is it so important that Fpna departments invest in training? Why do they need to do that?
[00:30:49] Guest: Ron Monteiro: So I think, you know, back to your questions earlier, a lot of accounting people may get, you know, moved into fpna. A lot of people may have the same struggles as I have as being, you know, a little quieter, you know, not as comfortable presenting. So I always say, look, you know, one of the things and one of the books on my shelf is it's growth mindset. It's about how do I continue to learn. So whenever I found myself in situations where I love my job, there's always learning involved. There's always it wasn't static. It was like, what's the next thing? So I'm a huge believer.
[00:31:22] Host: Paul Barnhurst: That's why you like my Excel training so much, right? You're always learning.
[00:31:26] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Something. I mean, in all seriousness, I've sat through many of those and I've learned xlookup. I mean, and I've learned other things, right? So you've even kind of convinced me that it's not just the soft skills I need to keep developing as a senior person, even the technical skills. Right, because departments have less resources. So, you know, back to your question. I think to me, leaders who invest in training, whether they do that themselves or whether they bring external people like myself, whether they do a book club, whatever it is, it's the spirit of we can continue to learn and grow. That's really, really important to me.
[00:32:01] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Totally agree with you that that mindset of always growing. There's many different ways companies can implement training, and they don't have to spend a lot of money to do it. It's more about the commitment to that growth mindset and finding ways to help you and your staff develop whatever that may require.
[00:32:19] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, 100% like training in isolation is is not going to get you where you want to get to. It has to be the leaders who invest themselves. I mean, I think about a company like High Liner Foods, which we just worked with, Tammy and Deepak, the leaders are 100% invested in implementation of what we teach. And look at the growth we've seen in that team and the individuals. Right. So it's that's where I get a lot of joy when you have a combination of a leader who really wants to be involved, not just in the training session following the training session, that's where the magic happens, so to speak.
[00:32:53] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Agreed. I'm fully with you. It's that follow up and that continuing development to make sure it's implemented, because we've all been in training where you walk out of it, you say, oh, I'm going to do all these things and you throw the training in your drawer. Six months later when you're moving offices, you're like, oh, okay, I can throw that away now. Right. I guarantee you, 90% of the people listening on the call can relate to that in some way. Right? It's unfortunately what often happens. But I agree with you. It's all about that mindset. One more question on training. Then we'll ask you a little bit about the book you're writing. And then we're going to move to what I call a rapid fire section here. So the question I want to ask, favorite memory since you started your own business, you're a little over three years into this now. What's your favorite memory been so far.
[00:33:39] Guest: Ron Monteiro: By far meeting you, Paul.
[00:33:42] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Okay. Now what is it really? No, no.
[00:33:44] Guest: Ron Monteiro: In all seriousness, I mean, that was, uh, that's been pretty cool, but, uh, I mean, there's been lots of different memories. And, you know, when I first started, people told me, like, look, you'll never get into the big companies. You're only going to work with the small companies we've got. You know, there's a lot of people who had good intentions who said, essentially, you're not going to make it with the big companies. And so when I started getting into some of the big companies, like think about I mentioned earlier, you and I got into Walmart over the last couple of weeks. We've done sessions in different parts of the world. And you know me, I love doing sessions in different parts of the world. Right? We did this CFO training in India. We did this training in Sweden virtually. We did another one in Malta recently as well. Right. So for me, it's like I get so much joy out of like we get on these training sessions and we see people who want to be there, right? I did another one in Vietnam, uh, and it was just like people who want to grow and learn. So those are the moments to me, you know, me and you being in Goodlettsville working with Dollar General, like they're bringing us in to do a training session. And it just felt really special to say all the hard work that both you and I have done is now paying, you know, you know, paying fruits. Right. And so there's many moments that I could, I could just say and there's also been many hard moments, right. As you know, like there's a lot of ups and downs as a business owner. So yeah, a lot of lot of joy and a lot of hard work to get there.
[00:35:08] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Great. And I know you've done a ton of work. I see how hard you work and I know you're writing a book, so I want to close on that before we move on to kind of the standard sections we have here. I know the title of the book is called Love Mondays. You're getting close to finishing that. So a couple questions. One, why are you writing the book? And then two, what do you hope people get from the book? What are you hoping they take away?
[00:35:32] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, amazing. I actually had a meeting with, uh, my editor earlier today. Uh, her name is Adina, and it's pretty cool, and she always asked me that same question. And so the reason I'm writing this book is I've worked with so many people, and I've been there at times where they just kind of what I call sleepwalk.
[00:35:49] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Through.
[00:35:49] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Their week. Right? Think about five days per week is a lot of work. We should love what we do right and a lot of us will be including me. Hey, let's just get through the week and then enjoy Friday to Sunday. That's, to me, the wrong way to live, right? And so for me, it's all about saying it is possible to love what you're doing and then saying, okay, here's a path to get there as an individual and as a leader to say, how can you help your team love Mondays? And back to your question about teams, I really believe a leader has the opportunity to create a team where people love to come in, make a difference, win, get things done. So it's all about the passion for helping people who don't believe they can get there. Start to take those actions that you talked about, right? And look, it's a lifelong journey. So that's where I get a lot of energy. And I think you can could probably feel a lot of energy even just talking about to say I had the wonderful fortune of landing a craft, which helped me get there. And now I've had this wonderful experience with you of starting our own businesses where we truly look hard work, for sure, but we love what we do.
[00:36:55] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, we love the training.
[00:36:56] Guest: Ron Monteiro: And that's the spirit of it. It's like, how do we get imagine a world, Paul, where people wouldn't say, Happy Friday. They'd say, Happy Monday, right? I even hear people saying Happy Junior Friday, which is Thursday. And I'm just like.
[00:37:10] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You know.
[00:37:10] Guest: Ron Monteiro: I get it, I totally get it. But I don't want us to be there. So that's where I get a lot of passion.
[00:37:16] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And I know you have a lot of passion for that. And you reminded me of a funny story. I don't think I've shared this on the show before. I worked with the guy that, you know, he would always leave early on Friday, very happy. He drag in late every Monday and he would always comment every Monday. He would always say Friday. Tyler hates Monday. Tyler and I just always laughed. It was just so funny. But there's you know, it's kind of like, okay, you can tell who likes their weekend and who doesn't want to be here on Monday, right? It's kind of like that Juju Friday and all that. But that's what he always said. He's like Monday Tyler hates Friday. Tyler what do you realize how much he had to get done?
[00:37:51] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah yeah he.
[00:37:52] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Wanted to.
[00:37:52] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Shaping that. Imagine reshaping that where we still love our weekends, but we also love what we do.
[00:37:57] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I and I think that's what we want in life. Everyone who can find that balance is going to be happier. It doesn't mean you're not looking forward to the weekend, but it means you're enjoying what you're doing. You're living in the moment each day, not just dreading five days of the week and then enjoying two. It's not a way to live. I agree with you. So this next section, I call it kind of rapid fire because the idea is to get quick short answers. A couple couple seconds on them and we're going to start with this first one here. What is the number one technical skill Fpna professionals should master.
[00:38:33] Guest: Ron Monteiro: So I think for me it's about the technical skill I would say is simplifying. And it's you know, it's taking a PNL and being able to communicate it, taking a balance sheet, taking a cash flow statement and finding a way to communicate it in a very effective way.
[00:38:46] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Okay. So it's all about simplification.
[00:38:48] Guest: Ron Monteiro: It's all about simplification.
[00:38:50] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So what's the number one soft or human skill that we need.
[00:38:54] Guest: Ron Monteiro: So I think for me it is around storytelling and communication. And think about anyone who tells a story and how engaged people come in. So it's about storytelling okay.
[00:39:03] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So got it. We got simplification and storytelling I like it. The next two are just kind of going to be some fun where I'm going to force you to pick pick something. If you had to pick one method to use for all your forecasting and budgeting going forward, you could only do one. You're going to do top down, bottom up, zero based or something else. Which one would you use?
[00:39:21] Guest: Ron Monteiro: I would go top down. I mean, it's a flawed question because I think top down in isolation is not the right answer, but I would start there.
[00:39:28] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Okay. And I get it. It's a flawed question. I realize it's more to have a little bit of fun and just force you to pick something. If you could raise a if you could raise no. If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about fpna what you're changing.
[00:39:46] Guest: Ron Monteiro: I would do away with the long, drawn out budgets and forecasts and make them what I call sprint budgets and forecasts, which just gets much more tighter on let's get there. Let's work with the business. Let's forecast effectively rather than, you know, these long, drawn out, drawn out processes that maybe don't add as much value. So that's what I would do is make them much more value added. So go to a.
[00:40:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Sprint budget, reduce the time and focus on value add. I like it. And then how are you using generative AI today.
[00:40:15] Guest: Ron Monteiro: So my generative AI is Paul Barnhurst. No. So I use ChatGPT and I you know, it's funny, I go through these waves where I use it in times, you know, emails and, you know, even for us sometimes when we're a little stuck on course content, on course outlines and stuff like that, we use it. So I've used it a fair bit, but sometimes I'll need a reminder to say, hey, maybe I could do it in a different way because I'm not naturally wired to to take advantage. So I appreciate people like you who have helped me, you know, appreciate, embrace and start using it.
[00:40:47] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Great, great. Thank you for that. We're going to move on to the get to know you section. So I have four four questions I'm going to ask you here. First one what's your favorite hobby or passion.
[00:40:57] Guest: Ron Monteiro: So I would say my hobbies and passions are changing right. But I would say soccer is is a sport that I've loved right from. I grew up and I coach it, I play it, I'm my my circle of friends is connected to it. So that's my my biggest passion in Canada is doing much better. They actually outplay the US in the recent Copa America tournament, right?
[00:41:17] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I know you keep reminding me our. Alrighty. If you could recommend only one book I know you love to read, we could see it on your bookshelf, one book for our audience and for audience. What's that one book you're going to recommend?
[00:41:32] Guest: Ron Monteiro: That's a tough question. That's like asking you to recommend one Excel formula. I know it's.
[00:41:37] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Like asking you to pick between your kids. I get it, but go ahead. You got it.
[00:41:41] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Okay, I'll pick one of the ones I can see on my shelf. Uh, the Fred factor, which is about attitude. It's about saying no matter what the situation is, you can take it into your own hands, take initiative, bring your best self to the table. So it's a wonderful real life story about a mail carrier who just took his job to the next level. Fred Shea and you and I have interviewed Mark Sanborn. I think there's such a spirit about that book. Imagine if everyone in Fpna did that.
[00:42:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I know it's a great book and I can see it up on your shelf there. The Fred Factor, just the ride. I have it back here as well. You can't see it on mine, but I have it back there. It's a good, good book. All right. Favorite travel destination? If you could go anywhere in the world tomorrow, where are you going?
[00:42:23] Guest: Ron Monteiro: So I had the fortunate pleasure of going to Brazil. And again, my, my favorite thing in the world is soccer. So I got to go to the World Cup in Brazil in a little place called Natal, Brazil. I would say to me, that's been my favorite destination so far, but again, I could name so many others that have been amazing. Sure, now.
[00:42:42] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I know you love to travel. You're getting ready to go on a on a trip here again. So next question. If you could have dinner with one person who's alive in the world today, you know, other than me because I know I'm the first person you take to dinner. Who you picking and why?
[00:42:58] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah, that's another tough question, Paul. But I would say somebody who I love is Oprah and I would say Oprah is somebody who, you know, sometimes I'll sometimes I'll have like a little bit of a down morning and I'll be like, let me put on Oprah on YouTube to help me remember what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. And she has such a cool story about how she got into talk shows. She was on the news, she hated it, and she landed there and it just brought some joy. So I think there's so much wisdom, so much experience, uh, that I just love listening to people like that. And I'd love to to pick her brain for a three hour dinner.
[00:43:36] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I like a good, long dinner. You got it planned. Well, all right, we're going to go ahead and wrap up here. Just have two more questions for you. So if you could offer advice to our audience to be better business partners, something they could do today, what's the one thing they should make sure they're doing?
[00:43:53] Guest: Ron Monteiro: I'd say I first learned the business as much as possible. Right. Go well beyond just the spreadsheet. Go out to the plant, sales, marketing, supply chain, whatever your industry is, learn the business inside out. And then the second is be bold. Bring your ideas to the table and don't sit on them. You know, we have an amazing 360 degree view of the business. And the business is so much better with individuals. We're willing to provide recommendations and what they think will move the business forward, right. Not just report, but help shape the numbers, shape the business as we talked about. I love that.
[00:44:27] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Learn the business and then help shape it. That's great. All right. So if someone listened to this today and they want to get in touch with you, they'd love to connect or learn more about you. What should they do?
[00:44:39] Guest: Ron Monteiro: They should call my secretary, Paul Barnhurst. I'm just kidding.
[00:44:42] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. My number is no.
[00:44:43] Guest: Ron Monteiro: I you know, for me, on LinkedIn is probably the best way to to get in touch with me. And I, you know, I love connecting with people and, you know, getting to know them and learning about them and, you know, helping them and them helping me.
[00:44:55] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. Great. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Ron. It was a pleasure to interview you. A little change from what we normally do or we're both kind of training together. But thank you so much for being on the show and I'm confident the audience will enjoy it.
[00:45:08] Guest: Ron Monteiro: Yeah. My pleasure and continue doing the fantastic work you do. Paul. I think it's, uh, phenomenal to see you interviewing world leaders in fpna and random people like me to advance the profession. So well done, Paul. Keep it up.
[00:45:21] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Thank you Ron, and enjoy working with you. We'll chat soon.
