A finance function may not sound like the place to start, but changes in technology and working practices are transforming the plain old accounts department. These provide opportunities to create innovative solutions and services that transform the way that business finance is managed. Bellevue Partners’ mission is to help people in organisations run great finance functions. We like to do … Read More
Big Stuff for Finance Functions
As the senior manager of a finance function you know that new technology is transforming the financial management landscape. But you may not know which competencies you should be focusing on to keep up. If you want to find out the big stuff to concentrate on, this article is for you. The diagram above shows how the amount of effort … Read More
Are you keeping up?
If you’re running a growing business it’s hard to keep up with everything. Here’s 3 things to focus on with your financial management. 1. Control Cash and Profit With the emphasis in the order shown. 2. Get Good Information Spend time on: planning and designing the information so it’s what you need. finding the right tools for the job. There … Read More
12 Ways to Improve Your Finance Function
There has been a fair amount of comment in the press that UK firms have been poor at improving their productivity. If you are a CFO or FD what can you do to improve the productivity of your finance function? Here are 12 ideas: 1. Paint a picture of what good looks like If each member of your finance team … Read More
Financial Foresight
You may or may not be familiar with the teachings of Peter F. Drucker, something of a god amongst management gurus. I have spent some of my holiday picking through some of his classic writing. I love his requirements for the 3 early stages of a new venture: First, a focus on the market, not the product. Without this you … Read More
Flexible working is in fashion
Whether it is zero hours contracts for shop floor workers or part-time contracts for senior expertise, flexible working is an established and growing way that modern businesses engage staff. Why is this? Well there are a bunch of reasons: It is socially acceptable for people to work for an organisation part-time. The increase in numbers of working women made employers … Read More
10 reasons why annual budgeting is a waste of time
The more enlightened amongst you may have picked up murmurings that annual budgeting has become an increasingly discredited activity: rolling 12 or 15 month forecasting is the way to go. For those of you who have not woken up to this revelation, here are 10 reasons why annual budgeting is a waste of time. There is confusion about what a … Read More
the need for speed
In this newsletter: I return to the subject of speed in the finance function with 10 ways to speed up month-end. A reminder of what a growing business needs from its finance function. Great TEDtalk from Seth Godin on the future of education. And I loved these slightly disturbing images of Clownsville. Speeding up month-end Speed is so important … Read More
Businesses with sales of £10m or less: 3 Reasons You Need To Hire a Part-time FD
If you are a growing business with less than £10m turnover, the chances are that you do not have an FD or CFO. You may have various reasons for this. The most likely is that you think that you cannot afford one. In these days of flexible working, a part-time FD can be a canny and affordable hire. Here are … Read More
LASER: the 5 questions to pose your finance function
Further to last month’s blog, I have boiled the 5 principles for 21st Century Financial Management into an acronym for you to remember. To consider whether your finance function is up-to-scratch think “L.A.S.E.R.” standing for: Lean Access to information Speedy Engaged Robust. These principles can be applied to any business large or small. They lead into 5 questions that will … Read More