Agile Bottom Line: The Spreadsheet Stories Episode #6

In this last episode of our conversation with Nevine White, she discusses her journey in transforming traditional yearly budgeting to adaptive agile financial planning frameworks in major telecom firms. Nevine shares insights into overcoming leadership resistance, empowering teams to challenge the status quo, and the importance of continuous planning and operational agility. She explains how these changes fostered organizational nimbleness, better decision-making, and a culture of innovation. The conversation explores the role of finance in driving change, overcoming bureaucracy, and enhancing organizational agility, offering practical advice on managing fear, facilitating change, and improving communication and engagement within teams.

• 00:00 Introduction to Agile Tales
• 00:44 Transforming Financial Planning
• 02:12 Challenges of Leadership Changes
• 02:50 Empowering Organizational Change
• 05:18 Finance Team's Reaction to Change
• 08:28 Improving Communication and Processes
• 10:04 Addressing Risk and Fear in Finance
• 12:06 Overcoming Traditional Finance Barriers
• 16:15 Leading Change from Within
• 20:08 Advice for Finance and Non-Finance Teams
• 26:09 Conclusion and Upcoming Episode Teaser

Nevine's insights highlight that there’s no one-size-fits-all playbook for financial agility. Instead, transformation requires experimentation, iteration, and courage to question the sacred cows of yearly budgets. Her experiences demonstrate how finance—often seen as the last function to change—can become a catalyst for business agility, resilience, and innovation. She is a Senior VP of Finance at Greater Technology Together and a member of the Beyond Budgeting Round Table. Nevine has spent nearly two decades guiding organizations through the shift from rigid annual budgets to adaptive, rolling financial frameworks that enable true business agility.

About Nevine White:
Beginning her 35-year career in telecom engineering, Nevine went on to lead the FP&A function at TW Telecom for 2 decades. There, she championed powerful changes in financial planning that enabled an agile and effective management structure by eliminating traditional budgets. After the company's sale, Nevine continued this work with Live Future Ready, leveraging her experience to support organizations in their financial transformation efforts across various industries. In 2019, Nevine joined Hargray Communications Group as the VP of Accounting, before taking on building the Finance and Administrative functions for a broadband start-up. She is currently the Senior Vice President of Finance at Greater Technology Together, a leading network and security-as-a-service firm. 

Recognized for her experience in finance, agility, and team building, she has been featured at conferences and on podcasts. She enjoys sharing her learnings and experiences with anyone seeking to change and enable their teams meaningfully. 

You can follow Nevine on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nevinewhite/

Podcast music courtesy of www.purple-planet.com

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