How CFOs Can Turn AI Investment Into ROI | Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico
Diary of a CFO | Financial Strategies for Smart Business GrowthShow Notes
Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems How can CFOs and business leaders turn AI investment into measurable financial value? Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico, Founder and CEO of Fully Bossed, joins Ademola Odewade on Diary Of A CFO to explain why successful AI transformation requires more than purchasing technology. Organisations must change behaviours, strengthen leadership capabilities and connect AI adoption to measurable outcomes such as revenue growth, cost reduction, operational efficiency and return on investment. Oluchi spent nearly two decades advising CEOs, boards and major financial institutions. Her experience includes senior roles at Accenture and EY-Parthenon, more than 30 transformation and M&A programmes and transactions with a combined value exceeding $15 billion.
In this episode, you will learn: Why many organisations invest billions in AI without achieving the expected ROI How CFOs can measure the business value of AI adoption The difference between adopting AI and enabling behavioural change How AI can reduce costs, improve efficiency and create new revenue opportunities Why transformation programmes fail without effective leadership How to define the right KPIs before investing in business transformation Why human judgement, storytelling and executive presence remain essential How Oluchi evaluated the risk of leaving an EY partner role to build Fully Bossed What major M&A and organisational transformation programmes involve Why leadership is defined by impact rather than job title
Oluchi’s message to finance leaders is clear: AI can generate the report, but it cannot replace your ability to challenge the assumptions, defend the analysis and influence decisions in the boardroom. This conversation is essential listening for CFOs, finance directors, CEOs, founders, investors and transformation leaders seeking to generate measurable returns from AI. Watch the full video episode: https://youtu.be/ob5n15FUbaM Connect with Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oli-ikechi/ Discover Fully Bossed: https://fullybossed.com/
Explore the tools and resources I use to power my podcasts, business and content at: https://kingdemspodcast.com/tools Follow Diary Of A CFO for financial strategies, AI insights and practical leadership lessons for smarter business growth. What is the biggest barrier preventing organisations from achieving a return on their AI investments?
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Your customers are not lying in your surveys. They simply do not know why they do what they do. Cop a copy of my books NOW: https://mybook.to/TheAI-PoweredFuture https://mybook.to/HumanLedFinance Host live webinars and restream them to LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook: WebinarGeek (paid link): https://webinargeek.com/product?red=kdemsc Get paid to put your expert judgement to work training AI: Ethos (paid link): https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw Earn from your professional expertise on frontier AI projects: Mercor (paid link): https://t.mercor.com/neABb Turn customer insight into a boardroom-ready deck in minutes: Gamma (paid link): https://try.gamma.app/f2d4kygskm1h Automate the analytic grunt work so your team can focus on the human questions: Make (paid link): https://www.make.com/en/register?pc=kingdemspodcast Johanna Faigelman is a cultural anthropologist, speaker and the founder and CEO of Human Branding, the Toronto consultancy she launched in 2006 to apply anthropology to business strategy. She is the pioneer of Applied Anthropology Thinking (AAT)™, studied at York University and ran planning at a large advertising agency before going out on her own. Human Branding now has more than 40 people working across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, with clients including 11 of the world's top 20 pharmaceutical companies and brands such as Nestlé, Visa and Logitech. She is an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 Ontario finalist, an EY Winning Women 2025 honoree and a 100 Women to Know Winner 2026.
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Most transformation programmes fail because the organisation is quietly protecting the very thing you are trying to change. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: https://ademolaodewade.com Turn transformation experience into paid advisory work — Ethos (paid link): https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw AI labs pay highly-skilled experts — Mercor (paid link): https://t.mercor.com/neABb Build the culture diagnostic deck in minutes — Gamma (paid link): https://try.gamma.app/f2d4kygskm1h
Business valuation isn't a multiple of EBITDA. Cop a copy of my new book NOW: https://ademolaodewade.com Turn expertise into paid advisory work — Ethos (paid link): https://agent.askethos.com/refer/nd01w7e2eelw AI labs pay highly-skilled experts — Mercor (paid link): https://t.mercor.com/neABb Build the buyer deck in minutes — Gamma (paid link): https://try.gamma.app/f2d4kygskm1h Mark Mills OBE started Cardpoint plc from scratch in 2000. Two years later it floated on AIM at a £7 million valuation. By 2006 it was turning over £100 million a year on £19.8 million of EBITDA, and he exited in 2007 at £175 million. He now sells other people's businesses. One owner was told his company was worth £3 million. Mark sold it for just over £10 million. Nothing changed in the accounts — what changed was who the business was presented to, and why they needed it. In this episode: - Why bids from strategic buyers don't resemble a multiple of EBITDA - The £3m-to-£10m sale, and the buyer maths that produced it - Rule one of any business model: recurring income — learned from a payphone business that died in the 1991 recession - How Mark and his CFO reverse-engineered £100m of revenue onto a sheet of paper, then landed within 2% - Why "in three years" is a useless target and "by 31 August 2029" is not - Solving a working capital problem by finding a bank with too much physical cash - The one metric he never ignores when assessing a company for sale - FARM — why people work for Fun, Achievement, Recognition, then Money, in that order - Selling to strangers, and why referrals cannot scale a business - What AI actually changes about client acquisition and KPI monitoring - Realistic exit timelines: 12 to 30 months, not six Mark's book is Making Your Mark: How I Built a Fortune From £1.50 — and You Can Too. He offered listeners a free signed copy — email him at [email protected] with your address and he'll send one out. More from Mark: www.mark.co.uk · linkedin.com/in/markrichardmills Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting. The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts. Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts.This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #BusinessValuation #ExitStrategy #DiaryOfACFO #KingDemsPodcast