Information demands on accounting and finance departments have grown exponentially over the past decade. It is no longer good enough to close the books a few weeks after month-end. Today, the critical work in finance and accounting is done after the financial statements are prepared. An inability to keep up with these new demands can put professionals out of work and companies out of business.
Lynne Sampson, caught my attention in an article she published earlier this year, Top Challenges for CFOs*. In the article she lists the top 10 challenges currently facing CFOs.
It’s a good list. There is also an excellent chance you are wrestling with one or more of these challenges today.
With that in mind, below are resources to help you overcome any of the 10 challenges you are facing today. Share this liberally with your team to get over these hurdles faster and grow their capabilities. A Win-Win!
“With stocks, a long position means an investor has bought and owns shares of stock. On the flip side of the same equation, an investor with a short position owes stock to another person but has not actually bought them yet.”
I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a huge Ted Lasso fan. Humanity. Kindness. Hope. Humor. It’s what life is all about. Add to that the occasional wisdom that’s dispensed, and it’s always an hour well-spent. Take the episode when Ted and the coaching team introduced an audacious new strategy that was met with skepticism from the players. When they voiced their concerns, Ted’s response was, “Hush your butts.” Normally, I only misunderstand the characters speaking with an English accent. In this case, however, I misinterpreted even American English as I heard, “Hush your buts.” I thought that Ted – in his quirky way – was encouraging the team to suspend judgement, set aside reservations, and step out of their comfort zone.
The language of accounting and finance is the native language of business. In many ways our language is also the language for all economies, including; nations, states, corporations and households. It is the recognition of how critical our profession is to all our economies that inspired the Why behind CFO.University.
The senior financial role is defined differently at each individual company. Some include oversight of the human resource department, some the information technology team, others are in charge of legal, some responsible for all administrative functions.
