Lean Blog — 492: Nick Katko on the Role of the Lean CFO, Lean Accounting, and More

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Episode page with video, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #492 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Nick Katko, previously here in Episode 428 in 2021 with his co-author Mike DeLuca talking about their book Practicing Lean Accounting. 

Today, Nick is here to discuss his book, The Lean CFO: Architect of the Lean Management Accounting System — now in its second edition — released back in February.

Nick also did a webinar earlier this year as part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement webinar series.

For over 20 years, Nick has worked at BMA, assisting clients in Lean management implementation by working closely with them to resolve the real-world issues they face.

He holds a BS in accounting and an MBA in finance, both from the University of Kentucky, and is a certified public accountant.

Questions, Notes, and Highlights:

  • What makes a CFO a “Lean CFO”? Are there “degrees of Lean CFO”??
  • Are there some wrong things to measure? Things we should start measuring?
  • Viewing inventory as an asset? How does inventory reduction trip us up potentially?
  • What is “lean management accounting”??
  • Robbing Peter to pay Paul – ending that via Lean causes a problem then? Is there a way to ease your way out of that?
  • Reducing inventory is an outcome of better processes?
  • Is it better for Lean to be part of a growth strategy?
  • Chapter 3 – “Lean is the strategy” — are you hearing that more often? Are they walking the talk?? How common is this?
  • “Knowing what’s possible” when you have experience with Lean – and the emotions people feel, regret?
  • The virtuous cycle of using CI to drive CAPACITY (instead of cost reduction)?
  • The Lean CFO: Architect of the Lean Management Accounting System — What’s different in the 2nd edition?
  • Tell us about your new BMA Lean Accounting Certification Program… 

The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more.

This podcast was also brought to you by Arena, a PTC Business. Arena is the proven market leader in Cloud Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) with over 1,400 customers worldwide. Visit the link arenasolutions.com/lean to learn more about how Arena can help speed product releases with one connected system.

This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.