91成人海角社区

Please note: The 鈥淧ower of Change鈥� podcast is designed for audio consumption. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may听contain听errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.

MICHAEL PRAEGER听

Welcome to The Power of Change, the podcast that delves into the intersection of leadership and technology in the finance world. I鈥檓 your host, Michael Praeger, the CEO and co-founder of 91成人海角社区. In each episode, I dive into the leadership topics and industry trends with business leaders, partners, and customers who embrace the power of change.听

So welcome to the power of change with Michael Prager and super excited. Our guest in this episode is Brian Tarble, Vice President of Product at 91成人海角社区. And Brian is has just a phenomenal background, super accomplished results, orientated leader and technology leader with almost two decades of experience in product strategy, product management, team building, go-to-market revenue growth and innovation in the SAS or software as a service space, as we call it.听听

But very specific domain knowledge also in data and analytics, Brian spent a significant amount of his career at SAP and SAP Concur. He had various positions range from senior director of business intelligence and consulting the vice president of product management.听

Graduate from the esteemed University of Arizona, the Wildcats. You鈥檝e had all kinds of variety of different roles throughout your career, but it seems like there鈥檚 a theme around the product in each of your roles. I can tell you鈥檙e super passionate about the product aspect of it, but what about product management that really excites you?听

1:26听听
BRAIN TARBLE听

Yeah. So first, thanks for having me. It鈥檚 exciting to be a part of this. I think product management early in my career when I came maybe from the buyer side to the other side of the table, I had some roles that led implementations and customer support and some of those things. And what clicked to me there is that everybody has needs. How do you make somebody want something? Right.听听

And that鈥檚 what really stuck in my head is that implementations and different parts of my career, people would come and they鈥檇 be like, 鈥淗ey, help me implement this because my boss said, I need this. My boss said, we need this reporting. We need this insights.鈥�听

And I was like, 鈥淥kay, well, how do I make you want this?鈥� Right. 鈥淗ow do I make you want,鈥� – we all have a need. You have a need for that shirt. What made you want that shirt, right? So that鈥檚 really why I want to jump into product management, you know, starting into the Concur days was like, I want to get people to be excited about what we鈥檙e putting on the table for them. Not just because, 鈥淗ey, I need something to automate my systems. I need something to see data and analytics.鈥� But like, 鈥淚 want to use that because it makes it better for me,鈥� which in turn makes it better for their customers, whoever they are, internal, external, what have you.听听

2:33听听
MICHAEL PRAEGER听

So maybe let鈥檚, uh, you know, stick with that theme and dive a little bit into, you know, you hit on product, but – data analytics. I know that鈥檚 another passion of yours. Tell me a little bit more about both your kind of experience and expertise in the analytics area.听听

2:48听听
BRIAN TARBLE听

Yeah, so I started basically in like the travel expense reporting space. So a company I started early on with was an industry leader in providing insights around their global travel program, basically. It was a unique change because early, early years of managed corporate travel, you know, it was really about getting a person to A to B safely, but they really weren鈥檛 optimizing the way that they made decisions, you know – supplier management, supplier footprint, policy compliance, adherence to contracts. So it was really, how do we get better visibility to make decisions versus what was retroactively what happened last month, right?听

I think early on, even when I was a buyer in the travel and expense space, like we would have our suppliers come in, we鈥檇 have a conversation, they鈥檇 hold up a piece of paper with some bar chart to say, here鈥檚 what your spend was, and it was like, 鈥淕reat, let鈥檚 go to dinner.鈥� Right? But now really trying to bring that visibility to make improved decisions, forecasting, predictive analysis, what if scenario modeling. Like being able to bring people data to make decisions is – it鈥檚 necessary. It鈥檚 to help make better decisions that drive savings to the bottom line.听听

3:58听听
MICHAEL PRAEGER 听

What trends are you seeing across kind of the finance professionals that you鈥檙e interacting with?听听

4:01听听
BRIAN TARBLE听

Yeah, so one of the things in 91成人海角社区鈥檚 2025 trends survey showed that nearly half of finance leaders are being asked to own data and analytics, which is a new domain for these leaders that they haven鈥檛 had before. It鈥檚 not just managing commodities anymore. It鈥檚 not just 鈥淗ey, tell me how many expense reports, how many invoices I process, how many payments I made with these suppliers.鈥� It鈥檚 really, 鈥淲hat can I do to maximize the value of my supplier footprint? How can I get engaged with more suppliers that provide similar items, similar things, maybe in different ways. 鈥淐an I take advantage of different payment modalities? Can I infuse some of that data with AI and smart insights to the workflow to, you know, improve my operational efficiency, to help make folks more efficient to work towards more strategic initiatives.鈥� Now, 迟丑别测鈥檙别 looking for guidance on how to do that in a lot of ways.听

And I think 迟丑别测鈥檙别 looking for folks, like 91成人海角社区, who has a vast understanding of the industry and the data to help guide them on their journey, to make sure that their use of data is as impactful as possible.听听

5:07听听
MICHAEL PRAEGER听

Yeah, that was super well articulated. I鈥檓 going to take the data theme probably in a different direction now. And that鈥檚 like, let鈥檚 think about data in terms of leadership. Maybe talk about your leadership approach and how you look at data and analytics to help you be a better leader.听听

5:24听
BRIAN TARBLE 听

It鈥檚 a good question. To me, it comes down to facts. You know, there鈥檚 a lot of people in our day jobs that have a lot of emotions. We have a lot of feelings. We have a lot of experiences and those things help us make good decisions. That鈥檚 an input piece. I like to have the facts on the table, right? So whether that鈥檚 where we鈥檙e deciding trade-offs in the roadmap. Whether we鈥檙e trying to figure out what backlog item goes first, whether we鈥檙e trying to figure out what company initiative we want to support.听

If you lay out the facts on the table, it鈥檚 really easy to have open, honest, unemotional conversations about what鈥檚 the right thing to do versus, you know, being very heavily emotion driven. So I try to use that in the decision making. I try to help my teams get better visibility to data so that they can make informed decisions versus the squeaky wheel kind of getting the grease kind of thing.听

6:16听听
MICHAEL PRAEGER听

I love the whole product discussion when somebody says, 鈥淲ell, customers will love it.鈥� And you鈥檙e like, 鈥淥kay, well, what鈥檚 the data that supports love.鈥� Right? And so it鈥檚 always an interesting decision. All effective leaders have rhythms about what they do either daily, weekly, monthly, in terms of how you execute your role, how you manage your teams, how you just, you know, lead your teams. What are some of those rhythms that you use that you鈥檝e developed over the years?听听

6:42听听
BRIAN TARBLE 听

Yeah. So I鈥檝e been working remote as a leader since 2010. So even here, most, most of my team is, is here in Charlotte. I鈥檓 on the West coast in California. So I try to adapt my routine to maximize the value with the team. So my days typically start at 5 AM West coast time. So I can meet folks where 迟丑别测鈥檙别 at. I want to be a part of the right meetings. I want to make sure 迟丑别测鈥檙别 getting supported in the time that they need versus asking people to adjust to my time. I also think it鈥檚 important to really get FaceTime with them as well. So I come out as much as I can. And I really try to understand the team as people first and then as employees second, right?听

If you can have empathy about where people are coming from, if I can check in with how 迟丑别测鈥檙别 feeling, how their families are, how 迟丑别测鈥檙别 doing, I think it just creates more of that relationship to really understand how do you work together? How do you support them in the right ways they need to be supported?听听

7:36听
MICHAEL PRAEGER 听

Besides being an Arizona Wildcat, one of the things I鈥檝e learned about you is your passion for coaching, specifically youth coaching – football, baseball. Maybe share how, you know, kind of coaching at a youth sport level has also helped you become a better leader.听

7:50听
BRIAN TARBLE听

Yeah. So I鈥檝e been coaching youth sports since my sophomore year in college. So even before I had kids and I鈥檝e coached all my kids, I鈥檇 say the one word that stands out is patience. Yeah. You know, I have the pleasure now of coaching high level, uh, competitive travel teams, but coaching rec, coaching youth at different ages, you got to realize that you have different people in different spots. You鈥檝e got the great athletes, you鈥檝e got the ones that are working really hard, but don鈥檛 have the skillsets.听听

You have those that are only there because their, their parents don鈥檛 have anything else to do with them during that time period. Right? So you, you get to have patience and you get to understand what鈥檚 the motivation for each of these kids being here. How do you help them enjoy what 迟丑别测鈥檙别 doing every day?听

And, you know, my main goal in youth sports was making sure that the kids came back the next season, right? If you could have a positive experience, if you could, if you could support them in what they needed to be successful, some of those are going to be top performers. Some of those are going to be, you know, high school varsity players.听

Some of those might play in college. And I think it鈥檚 the same way. You know, when you, when you鈥檙e building a team or you鈥檙e inheriting team or working with the team, you鈥檙e going to have different levels of performers. And how do you work with those to try to get them all to be a successful team, you know, and win the championship if you will?听

9:01听听
MICHAEL PRAEGER 听
听
Well, just a funny story on that regard. So, I grew up in Wisconsin. In my senior year, we won the Wisconsin state basketball championship. And there was an article, one of the sports writers wrote in the Milwaukee Sentinel at the time saying, 鈥淭his may be the least talented championship team the state of Wisconsin has ever seen.鈥� And the moral is our coach had a saying, you know, you鈥檙e born with the talent level that you鈥檙e at so you can鈥檛 control your talent. But the one thing you can control is how hard you work. So we were just known as the least talented team that just outworked everybody.听

9:37听听
BRIAN TARBLE 听

I make stickers for our helmets every year for every level. The only two words we put on our helmets are football, we put family, but attitude and effort. Those are the only things you can control. You can control your attitude. You can control your effort. The rest is going to play out as it does.听

9:51听
MICHAEL PRAEGER 听

Bingo. Well, uh, it鈥檚 been awesome having you on today鈥檚 episode. Uh, the Power of Change with Brian Tarble. Brian, thanks for being part of the episode today.听听

9:59听
BRIAN TARBLE听

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. It鈥檚 been fun.听听

10:05听
MICHAEL PRAEGER听

Thanks for listening to The Power of Change presented by 91成人海角社区. If you like what you鈥檝e heard, subscribe to our channel and leave a five-star review. While you鈥檙e waiting for the next episode, head on over to avidxchange.com for our latest research reports and business insights. And if you鈥檙e interested in learning more about accounts payable automation from 91成人海角社区, click the link in our show notes to connect with our experts. Thanks again for listening to The Power of Change. We鈥檒l see you next time.听