FP&A Keynote
Stacey Vanek Smith
Sponsored by Anaplan
Correspondent, NPR’s Planet Money; Author, Machiavelli for Women
Numbers and Narratives: Seeking a Story Among the Indicators
Are your business partners numbed by numbers? Without setting the right context, the innumerable measures, metrics, KPIs, dashboards and scorecards floating around us challenge our ability to discern their meaning and focus on those that demand attention. Stacey Vanek Smith, author, correspondent, and podcast host has made a career turning facts, figures, and the arcane minutia of the economy into meaningful narratives. “I am a story seeker,” says Smith, and so is FP&A in the way we interpret and deliver meaning to our analyses. In this keynote, Smith reflects on the use and limit of quantitative indicators, discusses how she breaks down a number to create and communicate a good story, and researches a few indicators for AFP!
Bio
Stacey Vanek Smith is a longtime public radio reporter and host, highly regarded for her insight and journalism on work, business, and economics. Vanek Smith serves as a correspondent and host for NPR’s Planet Money and Marketplace. Her work has appeared in Time Magazine, The New York Times, and People Magazine. Vanek Smith is also the author of Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace. A native of Idaho, Vanek Smith is a graduate of Princeton University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and creative writing. She also holds a master’s in broadcast journalism from Columbia University.
Attendance at the FP&A Keynote is limited to corporate practitioners and FPACs only.
Listen to Vanek Smith on a recent episode of AFP Conversations podcast.