Not all heroes wear capes, but some do.
NetSuite’s Superheroes of Finance celebrates both the cape-less and the caped crusaders who battle not only the forces of evil but also the everyday challenges that growing businesses face. This series is an homage to the near-heroic work that members of the finance team perform every day, bringing various business functions together to understand the past AND see into the future, readying the business to pounce on new opportunities for growth.
You’ve seen Captain Finance and The Silo, Intangible Girl and Certified Public Abomination. Now meet Forecastic Man.
Bryan D. Oppler always had a brilliant business mind with the gifts of foresight and impeccable timing. Success came quickly. So did a series of unforeseeable events.
Early in his career, Oppler built a business empire through a series of timely investments, from gluten-free flour to lithium mines. Even he marveled at his own success, jokingly crediting his dog Lucky as his muse.
But Oppler’s luck seemed to run out after a minor setback trying to digitise floral scents for boutiques selling flowers online. In successive years, Oppler’s many ventures started to go under, spurred by events no one could have predicted: he was too early in online grocery delivery and too late in person-to-person payment apps.
He thought up new ideas, like online marketplaces, but investors had long since turned away. He predicted a burgeoning market for luxury electric vehicles, but his workers had already left in droves. Soon, even Lucky turned, hiring the law firm of Buster, Bowser & Spot, citing irreconcilable differences.
Oppler was done. He began packing up his professional belongings at HQ and his personal effects at home, preparing to downsize his life entirely. He grabbed a box of extra crafts and costume jewelry to donate to the weekend’s local street fair, and while dropping them off, he noticed an old ring his grandmother had given him when he was a child.
When he placed the ring on his finger, something incredible happened: As he glanced at the beer tent, visions of craft breweries danced in his head. After a quick look at the fried dough stand, he was visited by visions of cronuts. A nearby couple asked a stranger to take their picture and Oppler immediately pondered inventing a stick you could attach to a camera for better selfies.
What’s more, the ring augmented Oppler’s expertise in probabilistic scenario planning with a mystical power to see financial projections with clarity. With enough data, the ring could even exert subtle force on objects already in motion.
Oppler recognised its potential immediately, and its dangers. He vowed to use the ring only for good. From now on, he would help entrepreneurs and financial planning and analysis teams avoid the mistaken decisions that were consistently being made based on inconsistent and incomplete data. No longer would they be at the mercy of colleagues in far-flung departments providing them with incomplete data, ad-hoc spreadsheets and hunches based on gut instinct.
Now they could tap into the power of Forecastic Man!
