The other day a leading partner at Deloitte was asked about attributes that have made him (& fellow leaders) successful. The answer was great (ask me for the details!) but the one that stood out to me:
Intensity
I have an intense number of intensity quotes in my “quotes to live by” iCloud album (that holds nearly 300 favourites). Only one topic likely shows up more. I’m going to share a few on intensity this week! Here is the first.
#intensity #leadership #wineshowsupmore
Another article on the hot topic of finance automation and where finance plays go-forward
#financeautomation #automation #businesspartnering
The balance of finding people who share your values, that you have fun with but yet still challenge and inspire you is not an easy one.
Be it at work where you seek to achieve results or in your personal life where you seek to learn and grow it is key to connect & be surrounded with diversity of thought. In my opinion connection comes from radical candor – caring deeply, being transparent and forthcoming and deeply working through concepts and ideas by challenging them.
(https://www.radicalcandor.com)
“To get to this transformative place, we need to not only become comfortable with the sort of conflict that differences might provoke — we need to seek it out, too.”
This article discusses this from a strategic business perspective. This quote is one you’ve seen from me before and you will see again.
#connection #collaboration #epicteam #wrapitupwithkaraoke
This article (https://hbr.org/2018/06/why-we-need-to-update-financial-reporting-for-the-digital-era) touches on many heartbreaking perceptions & on some interesting trends:
– Accounting getting further from value-added with examples noted of CFOs avoiding inviting company accountants to their strategy meetings, considering CPA certification (US) a disqualification for top finance positions, & looking at resources spent on audits and financial reporting to be a waste of shareholder money
– Investors are paying more attention to ideas and options than to earnings, traditional valuations are not sufficient for digital era and there is increasing reliance on non-GAAP measures.
– “CFOs realize the growing limitations of the current financial reporting model. They are, however, extremely pessimistic about whether the model can be fixed within the current regulatory regime.”
With the effort, time and professionalism that is put forward in the external reporting and accounting areas of Finance it is a shame that the results and disclosure are so far from meeting the mark. The pressures on those teams and those assisting with compliance is increasing which is making this gap even more concerning.
Add to all of this we have the new accounting standards that arguably bring accounting further away from investors’ perspective. We may not be helping our own case.
Much of my career had been in this area of focus. The opportunity to report key performance indicators and results was always invigorating to me. I hope that this cycle takes a turn and we can find a way for the reporting to be useful and the regulations to allow us to add value.
Business partnering, process efficiency, automation & other modernization can kick-start a Finance team on closing this gap.
Related reads:
https://www2.deloitte.com/ca/en/pages/audit/articles/corporate-reportings.html#
Here is the video that kicked off our day yesterday. It is a fun compilation of inspiring movie clips and songs voted on by the Deloitte West Advisory (Assurance) Partner and Senior Manager group.
Fun watch if you are looking for some motivation today!
#epicteam
Jamie L. Smith, CPA - Finance Leader | Business Advisor | Connector 