Jon Spiesman

One Percent Better Leader

Just like other skills, leadership is something that improves through willingness and consistent practice.  No one becomes a true leader overnight, but working at it consistently and targeting small improvements over time leads to great results!  Are you willing to put the effort in to get 1% better today?  OPBL is dedicated to helping leaders achieve their goals 1% at a time.

Founder and CEO

Tala Peak Leadership, LLC

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast" - Peter Drucker.  I help leaders intentionally build the culture of their organizations and exceed their goals.  Tala Peak Leadership works with leaders to analyze their situation and create a specific plan to shift the culture of the organization and create measurable results.

Managing Owner

Center for Executive Coaching

Certified Executive Coach 

Bayer

Business lead for Integration of Bayer and Monsanto entities, business processes, and ERP systems.  Set up enterprise project governance and project management systems for $200M integration effort.  Identified and recruited talented leadership team.  Drove collaborative teamwork across teams of Monsanto and Bayer experts, senior executive stakeholders, and complex business teams.  Maintained highly engaged teams throughout grueling and intense 2 year project schedule through visible and authentic leadership, fun and engaging team activities, and regular newsletters and town hall style communications.  Project stakeholder management and communications was considered best-in-class internally and was implemented on other enterprise critical projects.  Creatively addressed the challenges that COVID placed on a global project team to achieve an on-time implementation with fully remote teams.

VP, Business Lead US/CA Integration Project

Continuation of Monsanto role through transition to Bayer ownership.  Responsible for customer support and account management, logistics and delivery, and business process support for $8B revenue business.  Lead team of ~500 with $50M direct budget managing ~$200M of Logistics spend.  Leader of cross functional team, each leader with diverse and independent functions and sometimes diverging interests.  This role required a CEO mindset to elevate vision of team success and foster collaborative teamwork.  Consistently maintained highest levels of engagement scores within function/division/region by prioritizing communication, clear goals, employee trust, and celebrating wins.  Success required effective team building, stakeholder management, authentic leadership presence, and high personal accountability and credibility.
Notable Accomplishments in Team Performance and Innovation Leadership:
•	Defined and implemented new business model pilot for outcome-based pricing and direct to farm delivery
•	Implemented Monsanto’s first Digital Transformation of customer experience encompassing B2B strategy, customer portal strategy, digital finance tools, and market funding tools.
•	Implemented TMS system for transportation optimization and shipment visibility – project won global recognition from JDA for customer value creation, completed on-time, and achieved savings goals.
•	Implemented perfect order metric to drive improved customer experience and streamline processes
•	First implementation of Robotic Process Automation – automating ~10,000 process steps in first year.
•	Implemented hub support model across select support functions to enable standardization and efficiency gains of 20% in cost and resourcing

Director, North America Customer Care

Monsanto Company

Responsible for customer support and account management, logistics and delivery, and business process support for $8B revenue business.  Lead team of ~500 with $50M direct budget managing $200M of Logistics spend.  Responsible for customer support and account management, logistics and delivery, and business process support for $8B revenue business.  Lead team of ~500 with $50M direct budget managing ~$200M of Logistics spend.  Leader of cross functional team, each leader with diverse and independent functions and sometimes diverging interests.  This role required a CEO mindset to elevate vision of team success and foster collaborative teamwork.  Consistently maintained highest levels of engagement scores within function/division/region by prioritizing communication, clear goals, employee trust, and celebrating wins.  Success required effective team building, stakeholder management, authentic leadership presence, and high personal accountability and credibility.
Notable Accomplishments in Team Performance and Innovation Leadership:
•	Defined and implemented new business model pilot for outcome-based pricing and direct to farm delivery
•	Implemented Monsanto’s first Digital Transformation of customer experience encompassing B2B strategy, customer portal strategy, digital finance tools, and market funding tools.
•	Implemented TMS system for transportation optimization and shipment visibility – project won global recognition from JDA for customer value creation, completed on-time, and achieved savings goals.
•	Implemented perfect order metric to drive improved customer experience and streamline processes
•	First implementation of Robotic Process Automation – automating ~10,000 process steps in first year.
•	Implemented hub support model across select support functions to enable standardization and efficiency gains of 20% in cost and resourcing

Promoted to Lead cross functional team including Customer support and account management, logistics, demand and distribution planning, and business process support for $6.5B revenue business.  Success in this role required strong partnering and negotiation with sales and marketing functions and functional global leadership.
Notable Accomplishment Areas in Operational Excellence and Innovation Leadership:
•	Led first Monsanto implementation of SFDC – over 1M cases, 36% increased NPS, 49% reduction in resolution time, and 32% improvement in customer effort score.
•	Implemented Monsanto first mobile track and trace and delivery feedback process, enabling real-time feedback on 19,000 deliveries with a satisfaction rating of 99%.
•	Implemented new OTC system to enable movement of $800M brand to agency model.
•	Established dashboards, metrics, and governance processes to drive consistent operational excellence across business lines.  The improved target setting and harmonization between functions delivered $10M in logistics savings, improved OTD, and a 90% variance reduction against quarterly targets.

Director, US Supply Chain

Notable Accomplishments
•	Influenced key decisions makers to change the strategic plan for the 5 year soy crop LRP through creation of a model to help bring visibility to hidden costs and risk associated with the ramping up of new product volumes.
•	Created and implemented novel contingency plans to replace 20% of total supply plan impacted by historic 2012 drought conditions.

Director, North America Soybean Seed Mfg

Notable Accomplishments:
•	Led first Monsanto implementation of new SC model integrating Procurement, Planning, Logistics, and Customer operations into one organization.  
•	Post-centralization of Customer Service function led a full re-evaluation of the function and the OTC processes which led to several impactful initiatives including:  Implementation of a new distribution model in Italy reducing product returns by 50% with an increase in sales, implementation of a front/back office split in Customer Service enabling 50% improvement in efficiency and labor arbitrage of $2.5M USD to East Europe.
•	Designed and implemented a new Procurement model for EMEA, increasing staff H/C from 1 to 45 but reaching breakeven savings 7 months into first year and 2X committed financial contribution over 3 years ($70M USD).
•	Led definition and implementation of first measure of NPS and OTD in EMEA and drove a 10% improvement against baseline in the first year.
•	Oversight of hosted site shutdown and demolition in Antwerp, Belgium including negotiated settlement with asset owners, labor unions, and works councils.

EMEA Supply Chain Director

Manufacturing Business Unit Leader

Monsanto

Production Planning

Area Leader

Site Manager

Freeing Execs to work ON their business instead of IN their business.

You finally have time set for that romantic dinner date with your spouse.  Her favorite location, the smell of butter, garlic, and wine wafting from the kitchen as you imagine a plate of Veal Parmigiano.  The maitre’d seats you and you open the menu as you feel a familiar buzz from your jacket pocket….
Your phone ringing.  It's work…again.

You missed another of your son’s soccer games.  His dejected gaze at his shoes when you explain, it carves at your soul.  That look from your wife….all too familiar.  

You can see that your strategy is outdated, opportunities laying lonely on the table like those magazines articles you keep meaning to read.  

You just need time…you need to get ahead of a few things.  You need freedom to work on your business, not stuck feeling trapped in your business.

You sacrificed much to build your business.  You deserve success….you also deserve to live your life and enjoy what you have built, not be a slave to it.  You can regain your treasured personal time, you can pursue those business opportunities and catalyze the next level of growth.

If you recognize yourself here….there is hope.  You grew your business career one block at a time…the way out of this situation is the same….to grow out of it. 

I use proven coaching frameworks to target measurable improvement areas for your leadership.  True organizational change starts through courageous change with senior leaders like you.  I’m so confident in this process that I offer a results guarantee.  You will see measurable improvement or you don't pay.  What do you have to lose?

Want a leadership master-class? The Johari window is a pretty good candidate.

Leadership is relationship…when relationships and trust are strong, you have a good chance as a leader.

The Johari window is a framework to expand trust and achieve potential.

The “arena” is where you can openly lead….leveraging your strengths and those of others to achieve results.

In the arena - you build trust through competence and leading with humility.

You also build trust through vulnerability - sharing some of the hidden things in the ‘facade’.

What are the things that you lose sleep over? What are you working on to be a better leader?

Vulnerability requires a lot of courage but it brings humanity into the leadership equation.

When you have gained enough trust, you may start to learn about “blindspots”.

In my last post, we talked about blindspots….negative or positive, they represent opportunity.

A workplace with trusted relationships allows for exploration into the “unknown”.

When you are consistently expanding the arena by shrinking the other three quadrants….I would wager your results will be strong.

It may seem oversimplified to think about this with a 2x2 matrix.

But if you really think about it….does leadership need to be more complicated than this?

What is missing for you?

Have you seen or used the Johari window before?

💡Leadership Tips that make you think
🔔 Follow me or connect if you are cheeky

Best sketchnote by Tanmay Vora ✍️ — make sure to give him a follow!

#EncouragingLeaders #JohariWindow #Leadership #Trust #GreatPlaceToWork #LeadershipDevelopment

Accountful Advising

Accounting operations can be confusing and time-consuming for a new business owner, but don’t let an opaque view of your finances stall your business growth. You need an experienced accountant on your side to take the stress out of accounting.

Founder, Financial Accountant

NeuroLeadership Institute

Senior Accountant

Analyze and report on $30M+ annual revenue. Clearly communicate advice on revenue treatment to
streamline financial operations resulting in 3x reduction in reporting turnaround and greater cross-department alignment.

• Forecast $30M+ in annual revenue with keen accuracy by persistently staying  in clear communication with project management team leads.
• Prepare end of month reconciliations of profit and loss and balance sheet accounts including journal preparations; ruthlessly prioritize to lessen EOM closing times by the following business days:
           - Total EOM closing: from 15 to 7
           - Accrual: from 3 to 1.5
           - Deferred: from 1.5 to .5
• Prepare and analyze weekly cash flow reports to ensure healthy cash flow.
• Create new processes and procedures resulting in quicker reconciliations and  more efficient communication across teams.
• Perform complex analysis of financial data with extreme care and detail orientation to quickly produce accurate revenue forecasts for leadership.
• Complete routine calculations to produce analyses and reports as requested.
• Plan for new infrastructure investment and build new procedures within it to simplify and optimize processes.

Staff Accountant

Business Relationship Management Institute

Directly support strategic planning efforts by providing accurate reports, budget projections, cash flow statements, and financial analysis for executive leadership.

• Perform cash flow and variance analysis to determine data-driven decisions and implement new processes for solutions to deter further anomalies compared to plan
• Compose monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements resulting in timely, accurate reports
• Create and manage $1.5M in company budgets regularly keeping sheets up to date
• Balance and monitor five company bank and credit card accounts reconciling on a monthly basis
• Maintain and audit accounts receivable and payable on a continuous basis
• Assist in preparing and filing of appropriate tax forms by being the first point of contact with the outsourced tax team by researching and providing all necessary information for the forms
• Research lead for all things related to finance, researching and troubleshooting to find solutions in budget planning, on boarding, maintenance, reporting, taxes and any other accounting issues

Financial Accountant

Lake City Bank

Served as the first point of contact for bank customers seeking assistance with account transactions, loan payments, cash advances and other bank service questions in order to ensure a pleasant banking experience for the customer.

• Consistently delivered quality client experience by completing customer requests quickly, accurately and while always protecting the security of the customer
• Maintained very strong business relationships focusing on deepening client relationships and cross-selling of products and services
• Responsible for running a teller drawer, processing financial transactions and actively managed the on boarding of new clients
• Stayed informed and up to date on all bank products, processes and procedures; especially those that were most complex and maintained all operational and risk management standards

North-Central Regional Teller

I make it easy to understand your business' financial health // Accounting for B2B service businesses // Founder @ Accountful Advising

👋 Hi, I'm Kayla.

If I know one thing about business it's this: good decisions are backed by data.

I learned this lesson early in my career when I watched a promising business nearly self-destruct when an event drained their finances and they scrambled to make payroll. That experience burned into my memory the power of financial reporting & forecasting — and the cost of neglecting it. 

The truth is, financial headwinds are inevitable for growing businesses. But with clear, accurate financial data, those headwinds become manageable challenges, not insurmountable obstacles.

That's why I founded 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠. I'm passionate about giving small and medium-sized business owners the same financial clarity that Fortune 500 CEOs rely on to steer massive enterprises with confidence.

𝐖𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬. We're your financial co-pilots, providing:

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: Crystal-clear reports that cut through the noise and show you what matters most.
𝐑𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐝 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: Real-time insights into your financial future, so you can plan proactively and make informed decisions.
𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: We don't just give you numbers; we give you strategies to improve your bottom line and fuel your growth.

Our mission is to empower consulting business owners to make smarter decisions, scale faster, and achieve their ambitions. 𝐋𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐭.

Kayla Peña

Hiring is one of the biggest (and riskiest) decisions for service-based businesses.

But it doesn’t have to feel like a gamble.

A client of mine recently came to me while in growth mode—they were considering a new sales hire and wanted to understand the impact on their financials.

Here’s what we did:

✅ Opened their existing 12-month forecast which is updated monthly
✅ Refreshed it with the most recent revenue and expense data
✅ Layered in the projected cost of the new hire
✅ Compared profit and cash runway with and without the hire 

The result?

A crystal-clear picture of how this hire would affect their cash flow and profitability over time.

And when we spoke, they said:

“That forecasting helped a lot to be able to make that decision.
It was like, oh, great—we’ve got these four extra clients onboarding, here’s the rate…
it should outpace the cost for the new hire pretty easily.”

They made the hire.
Quickly. Confidently. Strategically.

That’s the power of finance ops that support growth.

📊 The bookkeeping gives you accuracy
📈 The forecasting gives you insight
💡 The combo gives you clarity to make smart moves

If you're thinking about a big hire—or already feeling the pressure of growth—this is how smart businesses grow with confidence.


#accounting #finance #smallbusiness

Need accounting? I deliver crystal-clear financial insights for service businesses & nonprofits ➡️ Make decisions with confidence

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Kayla Peña

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taplio

The Battle

Jon Spiesman

Kayla Peña

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jon Spiesman's LinkedIn Performance

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