Strength In The Numbers Show

“We have to know the market, not to a granular level, but in a big, good overview, which is linked to the second part. How those numbers translate into business value, because then that's how we can make a difference.” According to today’s guest mentor Jing Zhang, who also helps us deconstruct on the #sitn podcast: - How Jing started her finance career by moving from a US public accounting firm to a Chinese corporate and now as a leader of an Asian corporation. - How to best support business stakeholders in meeting the business objectives. - The importance of translating data to numbers, to stories and to business values. - The key habits and behaviours of finance professionals in career development. - Actions to take on ensuring a successful IPO. Check out https://sitnshow.com/ for detailed time stamped show notes, transcripts, links to resources and more guest mentor episodes and Monday Memos. #financementor #impact

Ask Your Developer! That’s what Finance teams should be doing. In this bite-sized episode I share some three thoughts on how Finance teams and professionals can harness the power of software developers to win in the 21st century. Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063018292 #FinanceMentor #SITN

“We have to think about ultimately taking what we do in person, which is creating connections, building the know, like, and trust and translating that online.” According to today’s guest mentor Katie Thomas, who also helps us deconstruct on the #sitn podcast: - How Katie started her career in marketing and now focuses on helping other professionals become online thought leaders. - The 4Cs process of creating connections. (Choose, Connect, Convert, Create) - How know, like and trust works in the digital era of marketing. - How to build and connect your online presence to other key influencers. Check out https://sitnshow.com/ for detailed time stamped show notes, transcripts, links to resources and more guest mentor episodes and Monday Memos. #financementor #awardwinningfinance

What’s the Year of the Ox have in Store for Finance Professionals? Given we’ve just moved from the Chinese Year of the Rat, and all the turbulence that we’ve just experienced during it, what might the Year of the Ox have for finance and accounting professionals? In this bite-sized episode our #SITN co-host Wei Chien & I come together to share some thoughts on what the year of the Ox might hold in store and look like for finance professionals as well as sound out some good areas for us to focus on before we go into the year of the Tiger in 11 months’ time. #FinanceMentor #SITN

“You’re only as good as the people gathered around you. And therefore if you put amazing people around you, how good do you look? So be confident in that and build the team around you that are absolutely amazing.” According to today’s guest mentor Stephen Sutcliffe, who also helps us deconstruct on the #sitn podcast: - his career strategies and how he finally became the head of the largest F&A Shared service in the world. - The importance of having a solid foundation in the technicals for successful financial career development. - The significance of teamwork, mentorship and leadership in reaching success in the organization. - How to bring value and skills to the benefit of the organization. - The influence and future impact of technology in finance Check out https://sitnshow.com/ for detailed time stamped show notes, transcripts, links to resources and more guest mentor episodes and Monday Memos. #financementor #awardwinningfinance

What’s a Cameraman & Helicopter Got To Do With Your Finance Career? During the week I had a conversation helping a fellow finance professional through their career bone diagram and we got onto the tricky question of how best to create value and develop skills around that to get from where he was to where he wanted to get to so he could deliver the outcomes and key success factors expected of him in his new role. It brought up an analogy of the cameraman and helicopter pilot. So in this bite-sized episode I share some thoughts on a framework that has served me well to help answer these questions enabling you to relentlessly focus on delivering the right value in your career. #FinanceMentor #SITN

“There's a lot of youth out there that need mentoring and help. And, if it is not up to us to support these individuals, who's going to bring talents up in the future?” According to today’s guest mentor Hiten Keshave, who also helps us deconstruct on the #sitn podcast: • How Hiten started his career in finance and entrepreneurship • How to ensure a good return of investment through marketing • The importance of mentorship as well as knowing your reasons for seeking it out. • How to steer people through cultural change. Check out https://sitnshow.com/ for detailed time stamped show notes, transcripts, links to resources and more guest mentor episodes and Monday Memos. #financementor #mentoring

How do you make sure that you’re implementing the right strategy you want to implement? You watch where your resources flow, what we call the resource allocation process. If this is not supporting the strategy you’ve decided upon and built goals around then you run the risk of hitting some serious problems. In this bite-sized episode I share some thoughts on 3 areas we can avoid mistakes in our own resource allocation process. #FinanceMentor #SITN

“Really ask the tough questions and see where the value can be created. And then often there are opportunities.” According to today’s guest mentor Tom Fencl, CFO of PriceFx, who also helps us deconstruct on the #sitn podcast: - Answering the question who is responsible for pricing and its 3 dimensions. - The Important qualities of good finance professionals and a great tip on learning quickly. - The important distinction value and cost, as well as how one helps you maximise/optimise and the other you tend to minimise. - How Finance can gain leverage by better adopting technology to streamline the business process. Check out https://sitnshow.com/ for detailed time stamped show notes, transcripts, links to resources and more guest mentor episodes and Monday Memos. #financementor #pricing

Can Finance Save the World? This was the title of a book that came to my attention by Bertrand Badré and which I read over the Holidays. As much as it was directed at the global financial system and was a nice refresher of some of the challenges we have to conquer as a society. It also got me thinking, can the #finance team save the world too? In this bite-sized episode I share some thoughts on 3 areas we can help. #FinanceMentor #SITN Put in comments: Link to book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finance-Save-World-Bertrand-Badre/dp/1523094214

“You have to have that passion … work very hard to build alliances around the organization and not just with senior people, but with the people in the middle who actually do most of the work.” According to today’s guest mentor Amy Radin, who also helps us deconstruct on the #sitn podcast: - How Amy convinced her colleagues to do a major jump into digital, far from the traditional ways of her organization. - How she gained the support of her colleagues in investing in uncertainty and the importance of senior-level sponsorship in making it happen. - How Amy’s expertise as a corporate innovator and startup advisor got her a leading role within the finance community. - The importance of resourcefulness in any endeavour. #financementor #innovation

What is it that finance professionals can do to become remarkable? When you’ve a product achieving at a remarkable level like the iPhone has, people tell their friends and colleagues about it, and those friends and colleagues tell their friends and colleagues and so on. You might also challenge that despite the everyday technological advances the newer iPhones aren’t radical evolutions of the last one, but they are generally still highly successful products, you could say remarkable. In fact, a lot of the successful things that have gone into the iPhone remarkable are also being done remarkable finance professionals. In this bite-sized episode I do my best to describe a number of things finance professionals can do to become remarkable. #FinancialMentor #SITN #ValueCreation #Finance #AccountingAndAccountants

“Saying hello doesn't have an ROI. It's about building relationships.” Gary Vaynerchuk I was reviewing the Finance Mentors’ Handbook this week and whilst going through the index I discovered one of the most frequently used words was relationships so I guess this must be quite important to be a successful modern finance professional. So we’ve pulled together a special on how to practically build relationships within modern finance today from all parts of our worlds, even virtual. We’ve included six short segments from guest mentors on #sitn to share with you on how they’ve developed relationships across all parts of the globe and various business functions. Enjoy! - The art of finance professionals building relationships. - Moving from the backseat to the front row - Finding the commonalities such as food to build connections across continents - How to engage with other departments. - Why LinkedIn is a great place to build relationships. - The value of being the gofer

How do we decide which opportunity or initiative is the right one to take? How do we do this at work? Or outside of work? Given the Gallup organisation estimate 69% of employees are not engaged in their work, is that because we are picking the wrong opportunities? Surely our work should excite us? In this Monday memo I share threes steps to focus on how to pick the right opportunity. #FinanceMentor #SITN #Opportunity

“We need to bring input and value to the business.” according to our guest mentor Stéphanie Didier who helps us deconstruct on todays’ episode: - Gaining experience of international roles whilst having a family and approaching her career progression. - Why technology helping finance transformation will help finance become more critical to the business. - 4 key components of how to practically become a better finance business partner. If you enjoyed this episode, check out our time-stamped show notes, key quotes, resources and ways to connect with our guest mentor and more at sitnshow.com/podcast/314. #FinancialMentor #SITN #Value

How can finance professionals help innovators? Innovation is vital in business and in our workplaces because it gives us an edge in penetrating markets faster and provides us faster feedback into what best adds value to our customer and stakeholders enabling a potential path forward as a going concern and towards sustained profitable growth. I came across an old story from the book, the Innovator’s Dilemma, and in this bite-sized episode I share this one big way that Finance can help Innovators make better decisions. #FinanceMentor #SITN #Innovation

"We shouldn't forget that the information is always there to persuade everything in life, including everything at work is to persuade someone.” according to our guest mentor Amrish Shah who helps us deconstruct on todays’ episode: - Three ways people can build up experience of better decision making. - The steps we can take as finance professionals and leaders of teams so we can all become more visible. - Establishing Credibility & having a continuous improvement mindset to create value in other functional processes. - The characteristics, or 8Cs, a modern finance professional (but especially for business finance roles) we should be aspiring to If you enjoyed this episode, check out our time-stamped show notes, key quotes, resources and ways to connect with our guest mentor and more at sitnshow.com/podcast/312. #FinancialMentor #SITN #modernfinance

Is there a need for more speed in Finance? I was recently sent an infographic that suggested 73% of Finance professionals faced pressure to speed up. On the one hand this is no surprise and on the other is speed really the most important thing to our stakeholders? In this bite-sized episode I share some thoughts on how we handle this question. #FinanceMentor #SITN #Speed

"The more informed I am the more business insights I have.” according to our guest mentor Ronald Huamán Hilario who helps us deconstruct on todays’ episode: - Why it’s important to eat frogs and focus on the critical matters. - Why improving soft skills is a bit like learning new music and why it’s important to blend hard and soft skills to be a keynote professional. - The importance of a growth mindset to remain relevant and ahead of technology. - Why we should be collaborating more and building connections with empathy even virtually If you enjoyed this episode, check out our time-stamped show notes, key quotes, resources and ways to connect with our guest mentor and more at sitnshow.com/podcast/310. #FinancialMentor #SITN #Softskills

Is stress at work a good thing? Successful Finance professionals have to be able to support effective decision making in stressful scenarios however when there are conditions of stress work most people do counterproductive things and are not at their best selves. In this bite-sized episode I share some findings from an expert on dealing with stress as well as three actions you can take to effectively dealing with stress at work. #FinanceMentor #SITN #Stress