Why CFOs & Leaders Fail: Hidden Human Patterns That Destroy Culture, Teams & Performance | Dr. Sylvia Lafair

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.

The voice you hear when you speak is not the one your team hears.

Most finance teams start closing the month before the month has even finished.

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