Make worthwhile and lasting change in your business that inspires people, delivers results and improves systems.
All in Optimisation
Are you one of those people that asks a lot of questions – why are we doing this? What is this all about? And How are we going to deliver this? Simple words and questions but critical in all aspects of business. I have to admit it does annoy me when people ask too many questions, but it really is good engagement. It means they are engaged, they are listening and they want to understand the background.
One piece of advice my dad gave me, was to remember that life is a journey. It’s hard when you are 20 years old to really know what this means?
As I get older, a ripe old age of 42 I really consider this concept of journey. It’s an interesting one, very personal and something that evolves.
The plan is built, you have the budget, why can’t you deliver?
It’s the issue that is widely known, the easy part is building the plan and getting the money (well sometimes) but being able to deliver the plan is the hard thing. When the plan is unclear or money hard to get it’s a good excuse, when that’s done there are no excuses you need to be able to Execute.
At Whiteark this is where we see our clients need help and this is our sweet spot, being able to help deliver a program of work. There are 4 key steps that need to be taken to ensure the plan is successfully executed.
If it’s not part of your KPIs it’s probably not worth measuring.
Most of us have heard the phrase ‘what measures gets done’. Sounds simple right? But when it comes to measuring what matters, it gets a bit tricker
It’s a great opportunity to reflect. What have I achieved this year. What am I most proud of. What is my biggest learning. Who has supported me this year – make sure you say thank-you. I always encourage my teams to update their CV every year – what have they learnt, where have they developed it’s a good way to remember all your achievements as well.
Mark Easdown writes about complexity. In the mid 1980s, a school of thought emerged around “Complexity” and “Complex Adaptive Systems” with the formation of the Sante Fe Institute, formed in part by former members of Los Alamos National Laboratory. The institute drew from multi-disciplinary domains and insights of : economics, neural networks, physics, artificial intelligence, chaos theory, cybernetics, biology, ecology and archaeology. Theories on Complexity and Complex Adaptive systems sought to develop common frameworks and understandings of physical and social systems that was an alternate to more linear and reductionist modes of thinking.
The CFO role is not an easy one - there is a real struggle between short term financial objectives and long-term strategic outcomes. Both are very important but need to be balanced. Getting your priorities right will ensure you thrive and not just survive which ultimately is the goal for every organisation.
Return on investment is an overused phrase but an underused concept in business. What return are you going to make for that investment? What is the payback period and how confident are you on the return? Say a company can only afford to spend $20 million on investment each year how does it decide what to invest in?
Optimisation is an overused word that can mean a lot of things, so let me explain... can a business perform better than they currently are? Can they improve customer experience, their pricing strategy and financial outcomes to drive a better return? In most cases the answer is yes!
