It’s easy to get despondent about your future job security and finances these days with doomsday predictions of the impact artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, machine-learning, robotics and nanotechnology will have on the world of work.
Back in 2013, two Oxford University researchers sounded the alarm for the future of work by predicting that 47% of US employment was in the high-risk category for being automated within two decades. That included jobs in transportation,
Santa Claus, now in his 1,747th year, reveals for the first time how his part-time Chief Financial Officer helped Christmas Inc. claw back from near-disaster.
“Last year we were hit by so many problems. Money problems. Health and safety issues. Capital funding problems. Bad PR. The lot.
Fake News
“Someone posted a story on Facebook last August that said I hated mince pies and was allergic to milk.
When your company is facing yet another cash flow crisis caused by late paying customers, it can be hard to believe there might be a solution.
But there are steps you can take to overcome the problems delinquent payments cause and to avoid them happening again.
Late payments are something that hundreds of thousands of SMEs experience. Of the 1.7 million SMEs in the UK 640,000 say they have to wait beyond the agreed terms for payments,
Leaving lucrative and secure C-suite positions mid-career to build a part-time portfolio might seem crazy but many of those who’ve done it say it is one of the sanest decisions they’ve made.
Take Michael Citroen, who at 58 years old is a 14-year veteran of the part-time portfolio job world. The former Group Finance Director (CFO) relishes the challenge and excitement of working with half a dozen SMEs in his role as a part-time CFO.
What do Sir James Dyson, the Mercedes F1 team, Pixar, Google and the airline industry have in common?
They’re hugely successful, yes. But the thing that links them is they never shy away from the ‘F’ word—Failure. Instead, they face and learn from their mistakes, errors and mishaps. So says Matthew Syed, award-winning Times journalist and best-selling author of ‘Black Box Thinking: Marginal Gains and the Secrets of High Performance’ (John Murray).
The story of how LEGO, the family-owned toy company went from teetering on the brink of disaster and hemorrhaging cash to delivering the highest revenues in its entire history and being voted the 2017 Most Powerful Brand in the World makes for a truly inspirational tale…
Fourteen years ago, LEGO’s Head of Strategic Development Jørgen Vig Knudstorp delivered the kind of assessment that most managers would gladly superglue their own ears shut to avoid hearing.
It might look innocent enough but your office shredding machine actually poses as much a threat to your business as the most virulent computer virus.
What?! How?
How could something that was bought to protect your business be as harmful as a computer Trojan?
It’s simple really: it’s not fit for purpose. Yes, it cuts your unwanted documents into thin strips. But—and this is the important bit—it leaves your company exposed to all kinds of trouble because those strips can be reassembled.
So, to be a highly effective CFO in your business, you have to be up to date on all the latest accounting standards, be really up to speed on the latest developments in tax legislation and spend long hours in your office reviewing reconciliations and signing off VAT returns. That’s right isn’t it?
NO.
With over 16 years experience, The CFO Centre suggests that highly effective CFO’s need a rather different set of skills to be effective and “make a difference” in the businesses they work for.
Check out CNBC’s interview with Sara Daw, Group CEO of The CFO Centre on the rise of the part-time CFO:
Rapid growth is the stuff most entrepreneurs dream about as they take their fledgling company through the early years but when it happens, it can quickly become the stuff of nightmares.
The bubbles in the celebratory champagne—“Here’s to our success!”—barely have time to go flat before the problems arise across the high-impact growth or Scale Up business.
Suddenly owners are beset by problems involving the people they’ve hired or not hired,
Book in for a free financial health check
Book Now
Rate your company finance function in nine minutes
Take The F Score
Do you have a burning finance question? Ask one of the country’s top CFOs now
Ask The CFO
Book yourself in for a complimentary 30 minute finance breakthrough session
Book Now
