{"id":11451,"date":"2021-08-24T15:40:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T13:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/satriun.com\/article\/mega-mergers-opportunity-spaces-and-leveraging-tech-at-discovery-inc\/"},"modified":"2021-10-04T15:47:21","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T13:47:21","slug":"mega-mergers-opportunity-spaces-and-leveraging-tech-at-discovery-inc","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/satriun.com\/nl\/article\/mega-mergers-opportunity-spaces-and-leveraging-tech-at-discovery-inc\/","title":{"rendered":"Mega mergers, opportunity spaces and leveraging tech at Discovery Inc."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mega mergers, opportunity spaces and leveraging tech at Discovery Inc.<\/h1>\n

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We spoke with Gunnar Wiedenfels, CFO of Discovery Inc. to ask him about his journey adopting digital management reporting solutions at the company.\u00a0 What followed was a master class in seeing and seizing opportunity spaces and challenging the status quo with some astonishing results.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When Wiedenfels took up his appointment as CFO at Discovery Inc. in 2017, CEO David Zaslav invited him to take four weeks to \u201ctake a good look at Discovery Inc.\u201d and report back his fresh outside-in perspective. Zaslav didn\u2019t have to ask twice.<\/p>\n

One of the early observations Wiedenfels made was that the external financial reporting and internal management reporting was focused on high level profit and loss metrics, leaving, \u201ca big gaping hole in the middle\u201d. He saw that the company was not set up to manage for cash as he believed it ought to be. As Wiedenfels stated in a June 2021 interview by the Hollywood Reporter, \u201ccash never lies\u201d.<\/p>\n

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1. Outside in perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This observation was a trigger for change. And then came the $14.6 Billion Scripps acquisition, just months after Wiedenfels arrived in New York. \u201cSo that obviously created another huge opportunity because now I could share an outside in perspective on not only one new company, but two new companies at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the acquisition, Discovery Inc. leadership took \u201ca good step back, to think about how we would do things if we were setting this company up from scratch today.\u201d An opening Gunnar described as, \u201can enormous opportunity space.\u201d<\/p>\n

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2. First things first: innovate management reporting<\/strong><\/p>\n

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One of the early improvements Gunnar and his team initiated was partnering up with Satriun to innovate management reporting at Discovery Inc., using the CXO cockpit, to deliver:<\/p>\n