The FP&A Guy

View Original

Episode 86: How CFOs build a Goldilocks “just-right” budget – Jeff Epstein ex-CFO of Oracle

Paul Barnhurst
See this content in the original post

Show Notes

Jeff Epstein is an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners leading its CFO Council where he helps CEOs and CFOs at their 200-portfolio companies share best practices. Epstein, one of the most famous names in finance, is former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Oracle, with a market value of over $200 billion.

Prior to joining Oracle, Jeff served as CFO at public and private companies, including DoubleClick (acquired by Google), King World Productions (acquired by CBS), and Nielsen’s Media Measurement and Information Group. Earlier in his career, he was an investment banker at The First Boston Corporation.

In this episode:

  • From Wall Street to first-time CFO

  • Running finance at Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and Oprah-TV hitmaker King World

  • The skills needed to be a top CFO

  • The 3 routes to CFO: Auditors, Wall Street or FP&A

  • What Andy Gove OKR setting can teach us about budget setting

  • What is the right percentage of time to hit budget goals?

  • Balancing between Elon Musk (Papa Bear) and Charlie Munger (Mama Bear) in setting targets

  • Giving people the opportunity to overachieve

  • Best case/worst case/base case at Oracle

  • The delicate balancing act of Wall Street guidance

  • Using a stagger chart

  • Why FP&A is so critical; how  the biggest strategic decisions involve FP&A adviceRevisiting the  processes as Oracle bought Sun Microsystems

  • Merger integration strategy worked on our sales compensation

  • Truck drivers and sales commission – a must-listen-to story

  • How in 1983, at the Washington Post, I learned from Warren Buffet and ended up scrambling to buy 4 shares of Berkshire Hathaway. Guess how much it’s worth now?

YouTube Video

Read the Transcript

Links from the show

Follow Jeff Epstein on LinkedIn

Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn

Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

Follow FP&A Today

The #1 FP&A Community (Slack) Join here - A global community and resource hub for modern FP&A leaders like you.

FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.

Earn CPE credit through Earmark for listening to this episode.