CFO Bookshelf
327 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago -The CFO Bookshelf monthly podcast is geared toward global financial leaders who are serious about lifelong learning.
The show's 200-plus podcast catalog features well-known authors who are experts in finance, pricing, marketing, sales, operations, organizational health, and leadership.
Episodes are released on or about the 15th of every month, and the producer and host responds to every message he gets about the shows on LinkedIn.
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Episodes
The Best Book On Deming I've Ever Read
April 20, 2024 14:00 - 1 hour - 43.2 MBI have my theories on why W. Edwards Deming is not a household name in 'all' business circles. Many view him as the 'quality' guy who had an impact on Japanese manufacturing after the Second World War. That view is limiting as Deming's management mindset was complete with four central tenets: Pragmatism The Law of Variation Human psychology Systems Thinking I used to recommend Mary Walton's book to start learning about Deming. That book gave way to a new title by Edward Martin Baker. A...
Martin Hench, Not Your Typical Forensic Accountant
April 12, 2024 23:00 - 56 minutes - 39 MBCory Doctorow is a science fiction author, technology activist, and journalist. He has written many books, most recently The Bezzle, a follow-up to Red Team Blues, which are the two books we'll discuss in this episode. These two books are the beginning of a series featuring the fictional forensic accountant Martin Hench. Hench is self-employed, loves being on the red team, and rakes in 25% of the assets he can recover. Cory's books are fast-paced and entertaining but also deeply thought-pr...
The Harvey Firestone Story
April 06, 2024 16:00 - 56 minutes - 39 MBAlfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors was an immediate success and is considered one of the best management books written by CEOs of his era. Before his book, we'd probably have to go back to Henry Ford's autobiography to find a management book of this popularity. And then there's Harvey Firestone's book, which CFO Bookshelf considers a gem. Originally published in 1926, the great people behind the Farnam Street blog have republished Men and Rubber, and the author's message is as rele...
The Trading Game
March 29, 2024 21:00 - 52 minutes - 36.3 MBGary Stevenson grew up in an impoverished area of East London where he could hold his life's belongings in two arms. About three years after graduating from the London School of Economics, Citibank made him a millionaire at a very young age. Gary was 'all in' on winning the trading game. But did overnight success bring him happiness? And why did he want to leave the Citibank trading floor? Gary tells his story in his new book, The Trading Game, which I believe is this era's Liar's Poker, b...
Wiring the Winning Organization
March 23, 2024 01:00 - 1 hour - 42.9 MBAgile, DevOps, TPS, TOC, Deming's System of Profound Knowledge. Is there a mental construct or latticework that connects these robust systems? In Wiring the Winning Organization, Gene Kim and Steve Spear introduce the concepts of the three layers of work and social circuitry. The book also explains the author's three biggest learning pillars: Simplification, Slowification, and Amplification.
A Novel Approach to In-house Lawyers
March 16, 2024 01:00 - 53 minutes - 37.1 MBReaders of Corporate Counsel do not need to be legal professionals to enjoy this short book writen as a business fable. Anna is leaving a prestigious law firm to become the first in-house lawyer at a regional real estate firm in the Midwest. The book includes drama, conflict, and a grey beard, Anna's guide throughout the story. Our guest is the author, Peter Carayiannis, and some of the topics we address include: Anna's first 100 days The wrong reason to hire an in-house lawyer The con...
The Greatest Warren Buffett Story Ever Told
March 09, 2024 00:00 - 50 minutes - 34.5 MBOf all the books written about Warren Buffett, I am unaware of any authors who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and went to school with his children. Todd Finkle is the author of Warren Buffett: Investor and Entrepreneur, a book that was fourteen years in the making. If you are a Buffett student, perhaps you will have heard several of Todd's stories, but are you aware of Buffett's numerous investing mistakes throughout the years or several of Charlie Munger's thoughts on behavioral investing? I...
Big Bet Leadership
March 02, 2024 16:00 - 42 minutes - 29.1 MBJohn Rossman is making his second appearance on CFO Bookshelf. We interviewed him two years ago for one of our top 10 books of 2022, The Amazon Way, Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles. John's newest book which he co-authored with Kevin McCaffrey is Big Bet Leadership. Highlights from the conversation include: What is and what is not a big bet A topic for low- and high-tech companies, both Big bets are generally found in Day 1 organizations Small teams vs. R&D labs Thinking, environment,...
Leadership That Bets Big
March 02, 2024 16:00 - 43 minutes - 29.9 MBJohn Rossman is making his second appearance on CFO Bookshelf. We interviewed him two years ago for one of our top 10 books of 2022, The Amazon Way, Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles. John's newest book which he co-authored with Kevin McCaffrey is Big Bet Leadership. Highlights from the conversation include: What is and what is not a big bet A topic for low- and high-tech companies, both Big bets are generally found in Day 1 organizations Small teams vs. R&D labs Thinking, environment,...
Built to Beat Chaos
January 27, 2024 17:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBGary Harpst co-founded the ERP solution Solomon Software, which was ultimately sold to Great Plains. The CFO Bookshelf enjoys Gary's work and past books, including Six Disciplines for Excellence and Six Disciplines Revolution. Gary's newest book has been 40 years in the making. The title is Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others. A few of the themes we cover in this conversation include: addressing the elephant in the room, the integration of faith in the work...
Beautiful Constraints
January 20, 2024 18:00 - 45 minutes - 31.6 MBA Beautiful Constraint by Morgan and Barden: is it a marketing, branding, psychology, or management book? Or is it all four? In this episode, Willy Donaldson (Simple_Complexity and Estimated Time of Departure) and I discuss five of the biggest ideas in the thought-provoking book A Beautiful Constraint. The authors state the goal is not to eliminate a constraint but to leverage it. Their book explains how. Below are some of the topics we addressed: the definition of a constraint Goldratt'...
What is a Beautiful Constraint?
January 20, 2024 18:00 - 47 minutes - 32.5 MBA Beautiful Constraint by Morgan and Barden: is it a marketing, branding, psychology, or management book? Or is it all four? In this episode, Willy Donaldson (Simple_Complexity and Estimated Time of Departure) and I discuss five of the biggest ideas in the thought-provoking book A Beautiful Constraint. The authors state the goal is not to eliminate a constraint but to leverage it. Their book explains how. Below are some of the topics we addressed: the definition of a constraint Goldratt'...
Our Favorite Books in 2023
January 13, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 47.2 MBSince starting the CFO Bookshelf podcast, I have released a ‘favorite books’ show each January. I’ve always been reluctant to do so because my reading tastes may differ from yours. However, these episodes are some of the most downloaded in our podcast catalog. In this discussion, I list my Top 10 books, honorable mentions, fiction, and even books that I did not like. Other insights include what and how much to read and if fiction matters. Access the List
Pricing Strategy vs. Pricing Tactics
January 07, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 44.2 MBMany pricing books are heavy in ideas, abstractions, and behavioral science mind-shifting. Others are focused merely on simple tactics. Jean-Manual Izaret's (JMI) book, Game Changer, fills a void by showing readers and pricing practitioners how to approach pricing strategically through cleverly designed frameworks and thought-provoking questions. This conversation starts with who should read this book and why a cover-to-cover reading is unnecessary. Other topics include: Ford's greatest i...
What is the Wisdom of Finance?
December 16, 2023 05:00 - 51 minutes - 35.6 MBCFO Bookshelf considers The Wisdom of Finance one of its favorite 25 business books. Mihir Desai combines abstract and obtuse finance concepts with literature, history, movies, and poems in his book, which was released in 2017. In this bookclub-style episode, we cover several of the themes Mihir highlighted in his educational and entertaining book: Bankruptcy (the history of Robert Morris) Options and Diversification (Pride and Prejudice) Value Creation (The Parable of the Talents) Cor...
The Wisdom of Finance
December 16, 2023 05:00 - 50 minutes - 34.7 MBCFO Bookshelf considers The Wisdom of Finance one of its favorite 25 business books. Mihir Desai combines abstract and obtuse finance concepts with literature, history, movies, and poems in his book, which was released in 2017. In this bookclub-style episode, we cover several of the themes Mihir highlighted in his educational and entertaining book: Bankruptcy (the history of Robert Morris) Options and Diversification (Pride and Prejudice) Value Creation (The Parable of the Talents) Cor...
Empire Builder
December 08, 2023 23:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBOne of the best books we've read on private equity is by Adam Coffey. The title is The Private Equity Playbook. Adam's newest book is based on a two-day presentation he gave on how to roll up an industry purposely and effectively. He turned his 300-plus page slide deck into the book Empire Builder: The Road to a Billion. Some of the topics we cover include: investing in what you know a simple example using a mowing company and its unit economics the industry traits for empire building ...
The CEO Empire Builder
December 08, 2023 23:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBOne of the best books we've read on private equity is by Adam Coffey. The title is The Private Equity Playbook. Adam's newest book is based on a two-day presentation he gave on how to roll up an industry purposely and effectively. He turned his 300-plus page slide deck into the book Empire Builder: The Road to a Billion. Some of the topics we cover include: investing in what you know a simple example using a mowing company and its unit economics the industry traits for empire building ...
Empire Builder Basics
December 08, 2023 23:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBOne of the best books we've read on private equity is by Adam Coffey. The title is The Private Equity Playbook. Adam's newest book is based on a two-day presentation he gave on how to roll up an industry purposely and effectively. He turned his 300-plus page slide deck into the book Empire Builder: The Road to a Billion. Some of the topics we cover include: investing in what you know a simple example using a mowing company and its unit economics the industry traits for empire building ...
The Growth Story of Dunkin' Donuts
December 02, 2023 00:00 - 39 minutes - 27.5 MBSince I am not a customer of Dunkin' Donuts, I know very little about their origin story. When Around the Corner, Around the World hit my reading radar, I was intrigued and was compelled to read it. I was pleasantly surprised because the book was a mini MBA on how to grow a small business into an international brand. Bruce Reed joins the host to uncover some of the big ideas in this book, including: working for a father after graduation knowing when and how to turn down a $7.5 million off...
The Dunkin' Donuts Growth Story
December 02, 2023 00:00 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MBSince I am not a customer of Dunkin' Donuts, I know very little about their origin story. When Around the Corner, Around the World hit my reading radar, I was intrigued and was compelled to read it. I was pleasantly surprised because the book was a mini MBA on how to grow a small business into an international brand. Bruce Reed joins the host to uncover some of the big ideas in this book, including: working for a father after graduation knowing when and how to turn down a $7.5 million off...
The Entrepreneurship of Pirating
November 25, 2023 14:00 - 56 minutes - 39.1 MBI had never considered the business aspects of pirating until I read Katherine Howe's newest book, A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself. Every ship's captain had a vision, as did the crew. A mission steered each voyage. The crew was kept in line with its bylaws or code of conduct. Loot was allocated based on a profit-sharing plan. In this conversation, Katherine reveals why moviegoers romanticize the golden era of pirating. Not only do we get a sn...
The Business of Pirating
November 25, 2023 14:00 - 56 minutes - 39.1 MBI had never considered the business aspects of pirating until I read Katherine Howe's newest book, A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself. Every ship's captain had a vision, as did the crew. A mission steered each voyage. The crew was kept in line with its bylaws or code of conduct. Loot was allocated based on a profit-sharing plan. In this conversation, Katherine reveals why moviegoers romanticize the golden era of pirating. Not only do we get a sn...
The Phoenix Project
November 18, 2023 16:00 - 57 minutes - 39.3 MBI'd recommend The Phoenix Project if I could only recommend one book to a CEO, CFO, or COO about the essentials or the heart of IT in a heartbeat. The Phoenix Project is the IT version of The Goal, as both are written as a novel with a protagonist with doubts, worries, and fears. Like The Goal, the main character in The Phoenix project encounters a sage who helps him glean insights from the manufacturing plant floor and apply them in a DevOps environment. Gene Kim is one of the co-authors ...
Quick Value
November 04, 2023 19:00 - 58 minutes - 40.2 MBI cannot begin to count the number of times I've heard the following question or something similar, "Mark, I've heard my industry EBITDA multiple is 5x. What do you think?" As much as I want to scream at that question, this type of thinking on business value is prevalent amongst many CEOs of both big and small companies. When the book Quick Value by Reed Phillips hit my radar, I bought it immediately and couldn't put it down as I started reading it. Reed's process for valuing a private co...
Throughput Accounting and Economics
October 28, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBAs much as I enjoy reading the Goldratt books and his theory of constraints (TOC), I never considered his early book, The Race, a solid and readable primer on throughput for financial minds. Several books have been published on throughput accounting since The Race was released in the early 1990s. In 2019, three TOC experts finished what I believe is now the best work on throughput accounting that even CEOs should read. The title is Throughput Economics. In this conversation, we address sim...
The Psychology of Pricing
October 21, 2023 15:00 - 52 minutes - 36.1 MBIf you have read any books on pricing, the title that stands above the rest is Hermann Simon's Confessions of The Pricing Man. However, suppose you are looking for a book that includes nearly every pricing tactic ever used in business. In that case, I'd start with Handbook on the Psychology of Pricing by Dr. Markus Husemann-Kopetzky. The subtitle is 100+ effects on persuasion and influence every entrepreneur, marketer and pricing manager needs to know. While this book is for the hardcore m...
100 Baggers
October 14, 2023 17:00 - 46 minutes - 31.9 MBOne of my favorite books in the value investing niche is 100 Baggers by Chris Mayer, a title that is also worth reading for CEOs, CFOs, and all other business managers. During this conversation, Chris explains how small acorn businesses become large and strong oak trees. Other topics we hit include: the coffee can portfolio the reluctant seller owner-operators John Kelly's formula SQGLP - a power framework for finding 100 Baggers You can learn and read more about Chris Mayer on his bl...
The 2-Hour Cocktail Party
October 07, 2023 17:00 - 38 minutes - 26.3 MBWhen I finished Nick Gray's The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, I immediately thought that this was the perfect follow-up book to start applying all of the teachings of Dale Carnegie in his classic, How to Win Friends and Influence Others. Beyond Nick's practical advice in teaching readers how to host a party for friends and casual acquaintances, one of my favorite insights is the power of loose connections. Nick provides the perfect device on how to make the most of those loose connections that can...
The Rise and Fall of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty
September 30, 2023 15:00 - 56 minutes - 38.6 MBAs a child growing up in rural Missouri who listened to countless baseball games on the radio of my favorite baseball team, I heard the names Budweiser and Busch repeatedly over the course of many years. Because of the rise in popularity of TV shows like Riches, Succession, and Yellowstone, I was curious about the Busch family--the Kennedys of St. Louis. What became of that dynasty? How did it get started? How did it grow in fame and fortune? What caused its downfall? To find the answers t...
True Profit
September 23, 2023 00:00 - 54 minutes - 37.6 MBConfessions of a Pricing Man is easily the best book ever written on this topic. The author is Hermann Simon, the Chairman of Simon-Kucher. He's also one of this generation's most prolific business thinkers, whose writing parallels Peter Drucker's. In this conversation, our topic is Hermann's 2021 book, True Profit. Topics include profit maximization, the reason why pricing as a profit lever trumps volume increases or cost reductions, and the differences between profit and free cash flow.
The Stories Beyond FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried
September 15, 2023 19:00 - 54 minutes - 37.5 MBI predict that Number Go Up will be considered the most fascinating and entertaining book in narrative non-fiction for 2023. Our guest is Zeke Faux, an investigative reporter. Several years ago, he was asked to check out Tether and the money supporting that cryptocurrency. Zeke had no idea that story would take him across the globe, logging many air miles along the way. If you are challenged or intimidated by the vocabulary surrounding cryptocurrencies, we attack about ten terms to lay the...
The BI Cantos
September 08, 2023 21:00 - 53 minutes - 36.5 MBDan Murray is the author of Tableau Your Data, and he recently published a blog series called The BI Cantos. The 21-post series is about how to successfully deploy a business intelligence system. Dan is the Director of Strategic Innovations at Interworks, where he has spoken across the country with audiences, including many in the Fortune 500. What exactly is business intelligence? What are the best tools to use? How do we separate fact from fiction in these implementations? And what is th...
The BI Cantros
September 08, 2023 21:00 - 53 minutes - 36.5 MBDan Murray is the author of Tableau Your Data, and he recently published a blog series called The BI Cantros. The 21-post series is about how to successfully deploy a business intelligence system. Dan is the Director of Strategic Innovations at Interworks, where he has spoken across the country with audiences, including many in the Fortune 500. What exactly is business intelligence? What are the best tools to use? How do we separate fact from fiction in these implementations? And what is t...
Farming, Food, and Finances With Joel Salatin
September 02, 2023 14:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBJoel Salatin is more than a gifted farm entrepreneur in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Joel is the author of twelve books and speaks around the globe on not just farming but simultaneously protecting and replenishing the land. The book we focused on was Folks, This Ain't Normal, which includes plenty of satire and humor. Our topics included open-book farming, the difference between buying natural vs. processed food, and several fascinating concepts revolving around money. If you want t...
What is The Halo Effect?
August 25, 2023 17:00 - 49 minutes - 33.9 MBOne of my favorite 25 business books is The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig. During this conversation, Phil explains the halo effect, along with several other delusions business leaders are bombarded with daily from the press, business authors, and consulting gurus. Other highlights include: remedies for overcoming the halo effect heuristic research flaws in Good to Great backward causalities business culture and financial performance "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." ...
Rasputin for Hire
August 18, 2023 22:00 - 23 minutes - 16.3 MBAs I search for books to highlight on the show, I'm looking for unique and interesting content and an author who has probably slipped under other podcasters' radars. Take, for instance, the title Rasputin for Hire by Michael Goodman. Michael is a marketing expert who has been consulting since 1979. In this conversation, we hear about the story behind this fascinating title and: the difference between his book and Dan Pink's first title, Free Agent Nation why new consultants have to love s...
Good to Great Boards
August 11, 2023 19:00 - 48 minutes - 33.3 MBI never knew there was a consulting niche for advising directors for public company boards of directors until I met Denise Kuprionis. She founded The Governance Solutions Group (GSG) based in Cincinnati, where she helps boards apply effective governance practices and achieve their most pressing objectives. In this conversation, some of our topics include: The way Denise finds clients to work with The biggest difference between her board work today and ten years ago - there are not many B...
The Accidental Business Nomad
August 04, 2023 18:00 - 47 minutes - 32.9 MBAfter reading a book by a successful commercial developer who moved his family to France for two years, I wanted to learn more about setting up shop in a foreign country. That's because the real estate developer faced obstacle after obstacle because he wasn't used to the vast cultural divide between his home country and France. Accordingly, I felt I struck oil when I found the book, The Business Accidental Nomad by Kyle Hegarty. Kyle shares his experiences in building a marketing and sales ...
Own Your Work Journey With Ed Hess
August 01, 2023 13:00 - 50 minutes - 34.5 MBOne of my favorite business authors has just released his 15th book. The title is Own Your Work Journey by Ed Hess. Fans of Ed Hess will be treated to a mini-memoir in the introduction of the book, and we spend the first ten minutes of this conversation talking about some of the mentors in Ed's life during his upbringing as a youth. Other key points we hit are: the quiet ego and the wild stallion that's brought under control emergent thinking inner peace while having an open mind the k...
The Myth of Wall Street Growth
July 29, 2023 17:00 - 34 minutes - 24 MBThe best book I've ever read on the topic of growth is by Ed Hess, and it's aptly named Smart Growth. It's not an anti-growth book, but through research, it dismantles the mental model of what I call Wall Street Growth which is: 1. Businesses have to continually grow or die 2. All growth is good 3. Growth has to be continuous and smooth 4. Quarterly growth is the primary measure of success In this conversation with Ed Hess, we discuss some of his favorite case studies in the book, the op...
Experiential Intelligence
July 21, 2023 19:00 - 51 minutes - 35.4 MBAccording to cognitive psychologist Gary Klien, people with a seemingly high sixth sense become experts at pattern recognition through years of experience in their respective fields. But where does that experience come from? How does that person achieve such experience? Soren Kaplan is the author of the 2023 book Experiential Intelligence. Soren explains the differences between experiential intelligence (XQ) and IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence). In this show, we also hit topics such as: ...
Work With Minimal Rules
July 14, 2023 20:00 - 56 minutes - 39 MBOne of the most intriguing and thought-provoking management books I've ever read is the 1993 book, Maverick by Ricardo Semler. Ricardo took over his father's business Semco not too long after he graduated from college. He knew he didn't want to run the business as his father had, so he started in small steps by getting his staff involved in all decisions of the business, not just small ones. The results were phenomenal. In less than ten years, Semco grew 6x in spite of inflation, recession...
No-Code Development Tools with Gareth Pronovost
July 08, 2023 02:00 - 55 minutes - 37.9 MBGareth Pronovost is my go-to expert on his YouTube channel, GAP Consulting, where he teaches his subscribers about Airtable, SmartSuite, automation techniques, and other great insights on no-code solutions. In this conversation, Gareth discusses how to break spreadsheet addiction. Other topics include: Gareth's interesting entry point to no-code apps the best definition for no-code applications what no-code is not the best starting point for no-code applications combining no-code apps ...
A Pragmatic Playbook for Digital and AI Implementations
June 30, 2023 18:00 - 55 minutes - 37.9 MBTechnology with the advancement of generative AI is seemingly moving at a pace we've never seen with other innovations. How does any organization step back and figure out how to adopt digital and AI technologies to support its strategic objectives? That's where Rewired comes in. The subtitle for this new book is The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI. Our guest is Eric Lamarre, one of the co-authors of this practical playbook. In this conversation, we address: th...
The Playbook for Digital and AI Implementations
June 30, 2023 18:00 - 55 minutes - 37.9 MBTechnology with the advancement of generative AI is seemingly moving at a pace we've never seen with other innovations. How does any organization step back and figure out how to adopt digital and AI technologies to support its strategic objectives? That's where Rewired comes in. The subtitle for this new book is The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI. Our guest is Eric Lamarre, one of the co-authors of this practical playbook. In this conversation, we address: th...
A Brief History of Accounting
June 24, 2023 15:00 - 40 minutes - 28.2 MBMore Than a Numbers Game is rich in business and accounting history. We learn about the Merchants of Venice and why they had a strategic advantage. We also learn about the many flaws and imperfections of financial reporting, where completeness and consistencies are impossible. This conversation is geared toward non-accounting students and professionals where additional topics include the one-page report by the early railroads, what was included in the first modern financial report in 1903, ...
Technology for the Next Generation of Retail and Beyond
June 16, 2023 16:00 - 47 minutes - 32.4 MBWhen I finished reading Next Generation Retail by Deborah Weinswig and Renee Hartmann, my first thought was that the great ideas in this book apply to direct-to-consumer manufacturers and professional services firms. In this conversation, co-author Renee Hartmann helps us to understand better the following technologies that are not just for big companies: metaverse blockchain live streaming social commerce data and the CORE framework retail media quick commerce supply chain Headles...
The Entrepreneurs
June 10, 2023 03:00 - 56 minutes - 39 MBDerek Lidow is a former business founder of a major global semiconductor company that he ultimately sold. Today, he's a professor at Princeton, where he teaches entrepreneurship, the topic of his newest book, The Entrepreneurs. This book is rich with historical stories of entrepreneurs doing the same things in the past as they are doing today. In this deeply insightful conversation with Derek Lidow, we learn the three major traits of entrepreneurs, the origin of the term creative destructi...
The Birth of a Building
June 02, 2023 22:00 - 55 minutes - 38.2 MBWhen Walter Chrysler built his New York skyscraper in the early 1930s, his critics stated the building was a monument created for himself. The same comment could have been applied to John Jakob Raskob's justification for building The Empire State Building. In this book club-style conversation, John Coe and I dissect the book, The Birth of a Building. The author's book addresses how a book is conceived, financed, designed, and constructed. Unlike Chrysler and Raskob, this book starts with a ...