Welcome to “Financial Business Analysis Done Right: For Professionals Trying to Get the Job Done” -
Why write this blog?
There are several reasons that someone could have for writing a blog, and I could get very creative and eloquent in describing one or more of them, perhaps made up for your enjoyment. I could talk about bettering the world, developing a personal brand, helping the hungry masses or any number of other overly creative ones.
But the truth is very simple.
I want to write about something that was really difficult to find when I needed it most, something that has been of the utmost importance to my career, and something that continues to escape most Business Schools, Professors, Companies, Managers, Consultants, Bloggers and other potential sources “out there.” This blog is about how to do Financial Business Analysis right. It is for Professionals trying to get the job done, not academics teaching theories or consultants looking for billable hours or for any other purpose.
How to read this blog?
I will endeavor to guide you, whether you are a “cover to cover reader,” “skimmer,” or “cherry picker,” to get what you are looking for. I will use a few key ways to do this:
Section titles – look for bolded, larger font titles for each section – scan them for a quick outline of each blog post
Bold and/or Underlined – look for key highlights to be emphasized
Summary – I will sum up the key take-aways of each blog post at the end
How will I develop the topics of the blog and what will you get from it?
I will start with some of the basics and then try to systematically articulate what I consider to be the most important tools, techniques and tricks of the trade to being good at “Finance.” You will learn how to be a great Finance Person, Finance Peer and Finance Leader. You will learn some techniques that typically are not taught (or are not taught well or from a real-world point of view) in B-Schools or by companies.
How do I define “Finance?”
To me, “Finance” is an all-encompassing term that describes the profession of engaging businesses on the broadest range of possible topics through a lens that is shaded by several different financial and accounting disciplines and “the numbers” in general, but is critically strategic and generalist in nature.
“Finance” requires knowledge of all of the departments of a business, from sales & marketing to operations and logistics to the various “back office” disciplines. It requires knowledge of a wide range of business/IT systems. It relies on solid quantitative skills. And it relies on excellent soft skills.
What are some general traits of a “Great Finance Person?”
I will cover this topic in much more detail in future posts, but for now, I will say that a great Finance Person will know something about just about everything and be a specialist on very few things – particularly as they become more senior. Perhaps more than in other business areas, Finance People are rarely able to rely solely on what made them successful in the last job to make them successful in the next job after a promotion due to the inherently generalist nature of the job. To be clear, this is not to say that Finance People are not experts or do not have expertise - it simply emphasizes that their ability to work across the business is usually more important to total success than their ability to do one thing really well (even if doing that one thing is pretty important).
Finance people must be excellent communicators and translators – they have to be able to relate the same information to a veteran sales person, entry level IT programmer, accounts payable supervisor, creative marketing specialist, CEO and Board Member – in differing levels of detail, using different terminology, anecdotes and stories, and in different amounts of time via a range of potential modes/methods of verbal, written or digital communication.
Summary:
Welcome to “Financial Business Analysis Done Right: For Professionals Trying to Get the Job Done.”
I’m writing this blog because I found it difficult to find solid information about how to do this well and it has been crucial to my career.
I’ll use a few different ways to help guide you, including section titles, bold/underlined font and the Summary.
If you read the whole blog series you will learn how to be a great Finance Person, Finance Peer and Finance Leader.
I define “Finance” as the term that describes the profession of engaging businesses on the broadest range of possible topics through a lens that is shaded by several different financial and accounting disciplines and “the numbers” in general, but is critically strategic and generalist in nature.
I defined a “Great Finance Person” as someone who knows something about nearly everything and is a specialist on few things (especially as they become more senior), who often has to “re-invent” themselves as they move into more senior roles to be successful, and who must be excellent communicators and translators.