Podcasts classical CFO THOUGHT LEADER 958: Entering the Home Fitness Connection Lane | Aina Konold, CFO, BowFlex

958: Entering the Home Fitness Connection Lane | Aina Konold, CFO, BowFlex

Published: Dec. 10, 2023, 7 p.m.

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Among the industries on which the pandemic was most known to have afflicted an extra helping of earnings chaos, most business analysts agree that the home fitness market is perhaps most deserving of special mention.

Indeed, few sectors logged steeper gains and more precipitous losses during COVID\\u2019s comings and goings than home fitness\\u2014and perhaps few demanded more reflexive, in-the-moment, decision-making inside the management cockpit.

At BowFlex (formerly Nautilus), that cockpit has been \\u201cmanned\\u201d by CEO Jim Barr and CFO Aina Konold, both of whom entered the C-suite during the latter half of 2019\\u2014only to have COVID immediately upend their ensuing 2020 flight plan.

Over the past 4 years, Barr and Konold have remained buckled in together as they have educated investors in anticipation of completing a long-awaited turnaround that they predict will arrive in the near future.

Along the way, CEO Barr has demonstrated a willingness to address tough questions\\u2014just as has Konold, whose facility for disarming unwelcome news is perhaps worthy of envy among her CFO peers.

Says Konold: \\u201cA lot of finance people unfortunately stop after sharing the bad news\\u2014and then the CEO, the board, and the rest of the executive team, are left thinking: \\u2018Okay, so what do we do now?\\u2019 It\\u2019s important to have those answers.\\u201d\\xa0\\u2013Jack Sweeney

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