{"id":290,"date":"2012-06-01T21:02:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T01:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sdaconseil.com\/blog\/?p=290"},"modified":"2012-06-30T08:15:56","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T12:15:56","slug":"8-serial-mistakes-that-cost-young-finance-directors-dearly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/?p=290","title":{"rendered":"8 SERIAL MISTAKES THAT COST YOUNG FINANCE DIRECTORS DEARLY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal, 01 June 2012<\/p>\n

Finance directors are so task loaded that they may overlook practices that are costing them dearly, in the short run, and career wise.\u00a0 Our coaching and consulting experience has led us to identify 8 areas which all finance directors must inevitably address in order to escape the straight jacket of overheads.\u00a0 You either do them right, or wrong. \u00a0None is individually critical, but bunched together they make a difference over time.\u00a0 \u00a0In any event, they are food for thought, and in some instances, a call for change before it is too late.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. NOT DEFINING A CLEAR VISION ABOUT YOUR NEXT FUTURE JOB<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Career planning is essential, and so is a vision about where you want to be in 5 or 10 years.\u00a0 Having a vision clarifies the roadmap to acquire the necessary toolset and skills. \u00a0\u00a0A lack of vision makes it difficult to recognize whether a new proposal\/offer is a good opportunity or a pitfall, whether it makes sense or not in terms of career progression.\u00a0\u00a0 All too often finance professionals make a bad jump for the wrong reason, in the wrong place, because of opportunism as opposed to smart planning.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2.\u00a0 \u00a0MISUNDERSTANDING THE EXPECTATIONS FROM YOUR CEO AND\/OR THE BOARD<\/p>\n

    All CEOs have expectations beyond the production of financial statements.\u00a0 If it is not crystal clear what is your expected value added role to create a wow performance, you are likely to be confined to a shrinking overhead function.\u00a0 This is the first stage to set yourself up for failure as a fledging finance director.\u00a0 Getting rid of the \u2018overhead\u2019 tag takes heroic effort.\u00a0 Prepare and organize for higher tasks.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3.\u00a0\u00a0 TOLERATE AN AVERAGE TEAM<\/p>\n

    An average team makes you indispensable, to them.\u00a0\u00a0 Fine, but this is unlikely to last. \u00a0\u00a0You might not be indispensable to your boss if you can’t deliver. If you find yourself unable to delegate, you are sure to limit your performance and remain stuck in the \u2018overhead\u2019 function:\u00a0 long hours, overtime, unclear procedures and manifest frustrations. \u00a0\u00a0As the saying goes, you are just as good as your subordinates.\u00a0 Make sure you build a high performance team, train it, and reward it.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4.\u00a0\u00a0 OVERINDULGE IN YOUR OFFICE SPACE<\/p>\n

    You like your office and your staff.\u00a0 You hardly spend time on the shop floor or in marketing meetings.\u00a0 And you might actually not have met a customer for years?!\u00a0 If this is the case, you are missing out on a lot of things that would help you out craft a strategic role for the company:\u00a0 business intelligence, in-depth company knowledge, opportunities to develop interpersonal skills, catching out problems early,\u00a0 etc.\u00a0\u00a0 It might be time to spend a day with a salesman and position yourself to win the special projects.\u00a0 Obviously you need to delegate to venture out of your office.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 5.\u00a0\u00a0 DISMISS \u201c IT\u201d AS A POWERFUL LEVERAGE IN YOUR FUNCTION<\/p>\n

    Your company is growing and is thinking about implementing an ERP?\u00a0 A dreadful word when the average success rate in ERP implementation is way below 50%.\u00a0 So far, simple financial accounting systems and multiple excel tables have served you well.\u00a0 You manage to get the financial statements out, under a reasonable delay.\u00a0 In today\u2019s world, accounting and reporting are meant to be automated and cleared early after closing.\u00a0 Actually, a jump to the ERP world is just the spring board for you to create the business intelligence the company needs.\u00a0 It will fall into your hands first.\u00a0\u00a0 Make the system work for you and get out of the \u201coverhead\u201d prison.\u00a0\u00a0 If you are unsure about managing an ERP project, jump to point 8.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6.\u00a0\u00a0 YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITHOUT A GOOD CASH FLOW FORECAST OF 12 MONTHS<\/p>\n

    You actually earn your first wings as Finance Director when you can produce a decent financing strategy for the company.\u00a0\u00a0 There can\u2019t be any such strategy without a good cash flow forecast.\u00a0 And you won\u2019t convince the board, or your banker without one.\u00a0\u00a0 Mastery of cash flow puts you in charge of investment and asset allocation.\u00a0 But I wish you good luck if a financial crisis hits you in the face, unprepared.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 7. \u00a0ATTENDING JUST ONE ANNUAL ECONOMIC CONFERENCE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS HAPPENING<\/p>\n

    This was all right 10 years ago.\u00a0 The rise of China has shuffled the economic models.\u00a0 Countries are stretched to make the necessary adjustments.\u00a0 We are now in a continuous period of turbulence and economic instability.\u00a0 Financial risks abound and the board and your CEO will rely upon you to spot them ahead.\u00a0 When a crisis hits the financial markets, you ought to be ready in terms of interest rates, exchange rates, impacts on investments, changes in competitiveness, etc.\u00a0 Under financial clouds, you will soon find out that availability trumps pricing.\u00a0 Macroeconomic reading should be a daily task.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8. YOU ARE PUT IN CHARGE OF A SPECIAL PROJECT, AND YOU DON\u2019T BUY YOURSELF A FLASHLIGHT<\/p>\n

    You have been doing rather well lately and you are given responsibility for an important special project.\u00a0 Your reputation and credibility is on the line.\u00a0 You do well, and you move up.\u00a0 You screw up, and you will remain in your office.\u00a0\u00a0 Now you are also most likely a tight budget manager and you know how to control your expenses.\u00a0 And sure enough you don\u2019t buy yourself the flashlight that could make the difference between success and failure.\u00a0 The flashlight is the consultant with the expertise that quickly tells you whether you are on track or not.\u00a0 The flashlight is not expensive.\u00a0 The lack of it, is. Learn to work and use consultants.<\/p>\n

    Experienced CFOs know that these eight practices do make a difference.\u00a0 Escaping the overhead straitjacket requires that you master the tools and mindset to put you on the fast track to CFO status.\u00a0 If you recognized those eight\u00a0points, you are on the right track.\u00a0 If you would like to work on some of them, give us a call.\u00a0 If this article really\u00a0surprised you, you might read it again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Andr\u00e9 Du Sault<\/p>\n

    MBA (LBS), MPA (Harvard)<\/p>\n

    adusault@dusaulthaddad.com<\/a><\/p>\n

    514 777-1538<\/p>\n

    ADS directs the CFO Leadership Program, aiming at building outstanding CFOs.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00a0\u00a0provide individual coaching and programs to improve the value added performance in F&A departments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Montreal, 01 June 2012 Finance directors are so task loaded that they may overlook practices that are costing them dearly, in the short run, and career wise.\u00a0 Our coaching and consulting experience has led us to identify 8 areas which all finance directors must inevitably address in order to escape the straight jacket of overheads.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,6],"tags":[37,73,72,74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}