Category: Industry Insights

ARM, SaaS, and other sector-specific lessons and trends.

  • The AI Contact Center Thesis Meets Regulated Financial Reality

    I spend quite a bit of time thinking about Financial Foundations, particularly in the collections industry. I am also one of the biggest advocates for the very real operational gains AI tools are already introducing into our businesses. As efficient and cost effective as many of these tools have become, however, I increasingly find myself…

  • Start With the Objective, Not the Solution

    Why a Consulting Project Did Not Fit A CEO leading a turnaround in a purchased debt business reached out looking for advice on engaging third-party collection agencies. The immediate objective was straightforward enough: reduce fixed cost. The company had already shuttered offices and reduced portions of its internal collection infrastructure. Expanding agency relationships seemed like…

  • The market often struggles to define the difference between a CFO and a Controller – Let me offer Exhibit A

    We developed some genuinely effective outreach tools in the 3P collections world. The model was straightforward: collect more, generate more revenue, improve cash flow. Operationally and economically, everything aligned nicely. Even the revenue recognition under ASC 606 was intuitive enough that the executive team and Board immediately understood it: revenue was earned as a percentage…

  • The Hidden Politics Inside Dashboard Metrics

    One Board request sounded straightforward enough: explain monthly revenue variance. In the ARM world, we initially approached it using a standard three-factor decomposition: Simple in theory. Except variance attribution models are rarely as objective as they appear. The problem emerged almost immediately: sequence mattered. If volume variance is calculated using: …you get one answer. If…

  • Neither a Borrower nor a Lender Be — A Financial Foundations View

    Shakespeare, through Polonius, warns: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” It’s one of those lines that sounds outdated in a modern credit economy. Credit fuels growth. Borrowing accelerates opportunity. Lending creates return.All true. And yet, spend enough time in the back end of the system—the part where things break—and the line starts to sound…