THE CFOs .. the new challenge is the growth

From 2008 the world ( and mainly the developed countries ) started to suffer an  economic crisis. As a consequence, the  sales for most companies based in developed countries have decreased, the sales expectations done before 2010 for the period 2010-2015  did not meet the targets, mainly because China or India did not buy the expected product amounts and most companies have concentrated in cost reductions and not in growth. 

In these tough conditions, some CFOs have became CEOs because the cost reduction have become the priority for some companies and the profile of some new CFOs is reducing its accounting part and increasing  its cost reduction part. 

Today some books as "Winning CFOS" from David Parmentier or "The new CFOs: How finantial teams and their leaders can revolutionize modern business" from Liz Merlon are explaning very clearly why the new CFOs has to be more strategist today. In an exceptional prologue, Liz Merlon states that the three main qualities of a CFO are:

1) An  unquencheable curiosity to know and understand the company, the processes, the business and the people

2) An ability to relate to people.., not a friendly relationship, but a business relatioship. It is vital for the CFO to become a person that  all key pople in the company  trust and respect.

3) A strenght of character.. to say the unsayable and commmunicate the bad news. If the CFO has the ability to relate to people, people will listen and accept easier his / her statements.

The CFO has to put in place all controls to avoid all kind of risk. What does it mean?.. The company should have robust controls, a good risk management system and additionally he should consider the financial and accounting activities as processes, then the CFO should get dirty his / her hands in process redesign maintaining the quality but reducing the cost. 

 If we consider the company as a  car, the CFO has to install and maintain the brakes in order that the car can go to the highest speed without risk. And what is the speed?.. yes, the growth.

What have done the CFOs to increase or keep the growth?.. Probably nothing or very little. That surprises a little, because most lecturers says that the new CFOs have to be more strategists. 

This winter I went to a ski  resort and I saw that in a rope tow, the assistant had a recorded with a very loud music. The waiting queue was very long because that was the only tow or lift chair close. I realised the ambiance of fun that the music was giving and I thought that there a bar could increase the sales for the ski resort and the waiting time in the rope tow should be smaller.. but quickly  I thought as well that  probably the ski resort  had a CFO very orientated to cost reductions  and he  was not able to  see  this possibility of growth.  

Sometimes cost reductions can be incompatible with growth, then the new CFOs needs to have a right balance to identify which expenses  brings growth and which  expenses can be reduced or eliminated, because they do not bring growth.  That is the real value that  the CFOs could give their companies the nex decade. 

A BEAUTIFUL MIND - TWO LESSONS

In 2001, the film " A beatiful mind" about  the life of John Forbes Nash won the Oscar. And who is John Forbes Nash?. He  invented the games theory and he won the Nobel Prize of  Economy in 1994. His theories have   influenced the economy, the commercial negotiations, the biology and the psychology. 

I am writing this post to  comment  two propositions based  in his life and theories:

1) The cooperation always gets better results than the competence between people / teams / companies. 

In a film scene,  several friends watching a group of girls discuss about what to do to avoid sleeping alone. Some of them suggest, following the theories of Adam Smith, to compete between them to get the most beautiful girl in the group. John Nash says that if they do that, only one (or none) will get the most beautiful girl. 

What about the others?. The others will not get nothing, because the other girls will not be very happy to have been left as second option and they will leave. 

Maybe it is not a work academic example, but it is an  example that allow us to understand easily  that the cooperation always gets better results than the competence.

2) Understanding and improving how or our mind works  will make supernatural  our work performance and our personal developement

At the age of 30, John Nash spent  15 year in different hospitals with schizophrenia. He was convinced that spies  were following him and aliens were communicating with him using  encrypted messages in The New York Times. After these 15 years, he miraculously recovered one day starting to speak normally. And  after he started to   give classes again. His wife said that he did not recovered by any medicine or treatment, only a quiet life  recovered him. And why  he believed all these completely unreal thoughts?. He said that he believed them because they came in the same way that its usual thoughts.

John Nash believes deeeply, as well,  that in a stress situation, the schizophrenia thoughts can be a way that the mind escapes from the problem. At lower level level, we all know people that did not react or think in the same way after a divorce, a death of a close familiar, a cancer or other difficult situation. In some cases, the abnormal reactions did not last too much but in some cases, it  became a problem for all life... I honestly think that some problems at work considered attitude problems can be determined by  personal situations and a recipe based only in the symptoms will not produce any positive result. As example,  to impose more discipline to someone affected by the death of a close familiar that behaves strangely only  will become the problem bigger... 

I do not think that the work of our companies is to take care of our mental health, but it is in its interest that they  take care about our mind, because if not, the productivity loss can be very high.  I am  very convinced that some expertise in Pshycology  in Human Resources Departments (and in some managers) can make a real difference in much more less time...finding quickly the clue and the solution...... and  if not,  we have always the solution of a quiet life (as John Nash), but I am not sure that  we (and our companies, families and friends) would like to wait for us 15 years! 

FOUR SENTENCES AND A TALE ABOUT LEADERSHIP

Each year there are 50,000 books published about leadership   and more than 250,000 students enrolled in MBA programs. Why?. I think that everybody wants to be important, to be recognised  and find a sense in his life, and they think that these books or courses will give them what  they are  looking for. 

Honestly I am not a expert about leadership and I am not a leader, but for these two reasons, I think that I am more objective to give an opinion, because I can see the subject from far, far away. So I will tell four comments about leadership: 

1. The leadership is not the most important thing in life. The person with the most leadership skills that I met so far progressed very quickly professionally until he got a depression, because he could not bear his work and travel all days 80 kms to go to work leaving alone his family for all this time. 

2. When you start to work, you must be the best individually: the employee doing more tasks in less time, the employee working more hours, selling more..but there is a moment that this is not differential, it is more important to deal well with people, make that the others feeling happier become better. Why?. You multiplicate your effect. If you influence only one people, you duplicate the results globally. 

3. When your life goes very well, yo do not learn anything because you are enjoying your success..but there will be a great failure ("the crucible") that will change  your life , because it will take away all your ego, it make you become more humble and it will show you that you are stronger than you thought. You will lose your fears and you will be very conscious about your strong skills and your weak skills and then you will start to use your strong skills or make efforts to improve your weak skills .

4. The problems are coming from outside and the solutions come always from inside. People does not know you as much as you are able to know you. The leadership has to match with your personality, do not try to be other person, because it will not work because others will not believe you, because  you will sound fake and forced. 

There is a tale from a book called "The turn of the tide" from Arthur Gordon, where he explains that he went to the doctor because he though that his life had not sense. The doctor did not see any physical problem and he requested him to go to the place where he was happier when he was a child. He should not read, write, listen the radio or speak with anybody and he should open  four envelopes each three hours. 

The first envelope at 9 hours  was "Listen carefully". He started to listen all sounds from the sea, the birds.. he started to listen other slighter sounds... and then he  reminded what he learnt from the sea when he was a child. A great peace started inside him helping him to think.

The second envelope at 12 hours was "Try to come back to the past". . Coming back?.. Where?.. To his childhood?.. Then he reminded all its good times when he was a child, and he reminded its wishes, its hobbies  and its values when he was a child. And he reminded him as well being very happy.

The third  envelope at 15 hours was "Analyse your purpose and wishes". He wanted to be succesful, rich, recognised..but analysing deeply these wishes, he saw that they were not giving real satisfaction to him..and then he started to find purposes that were matching more with its internal wishes. For example, he realised that he was happier when he was helping others than when he was only thinking in himself.

The fourth enveloppe at 18 hours was "write what worries you". He wrote something in the sand and then he left the beach. The tide was coming. He had found his real inside purpose listening only to himself. 

SOME NOTES ABOUT COMPANY AND PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT

I had recently the rewarding opportunity to listen during 4 weeks  speeches from some managers in my company. I will detail the most interesting phrases that I heard.

Company improvement

"It is not needed to be perfect, we should be only better than the competitors"

"A person is unique and irreplaceable"

"Everything that is good for the society, it is as well good for the company"

"Vision, leadership and cooperation is needed to invent a better future"

"The employees - blue collar or factory workers -are not ressources, they are actors"

"The innovation will attract the  growth"

"The  brand creates value for the company.. And value is compulsory to create growth"

"All the company employees are our brand ambassadors"

"Start small, think big and move fast"

"Keep it simple and make it happen"

"A manager should have leadership, steer the performance and develop the people"

Personal improvement

"When a fact contradict the theory, we should opt for the fact"

"About your teams, let´s them speak and encourage their initiatives" 

"The habit does not do the monk"

" Do your best, keep discreet and maintain your sense of humour in any circumstance"

"It is not needed to know everything. The need to know can distract you to be focused"

"We should love what we do and with who we are doing it. To progress professionally, we should have fiability, humility and disponibility"

"Focus on agility, simplification and affordability"

"...and be always accountable"

WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE A BLOG

Why I started to write a blog?

After attending a training to improve the communication skills, the lecturer recommended us to write a blog, because it was an excellent  way to practice the communication, to express ourselves and learn to be more synthetic and give the right message... and I like to write, then it was perfect to make visible my writings and  share my views.. AND.. I wanted to write a blog from the first moment that   I saw this front page of the newspaper Time in 2007. 

Then my only will  writing this article today  is that you..., yes,.. YOU.... that are reading the article,  start  a blog as soon as possilbe. I will give you my three main reasons

Three main reasons to write a blog: 

1. It is very good for your brain.  You will learn to write better, to be more creative  finding new subjets, to be organised if you want to publish regularly...and so many self-improvements that is difficult to enumerate. You will take advantage of these improvements in your personal and professional life.

2. You really need to be in Internet. We are in the century that even the wars are won in Internet,.. you need to know all the existing tools,.. blogger, twitter, facebook, linkedin,.. really!!!, you need to know them!!!!.

3. You will be more happy. When people share with you that they liked an article, when you finish an article and   see the results of your efforts, when you realise how much you learnt and did....your levels of satisfaction increases....it is very similar to the effect of  the endorfines  after doing physical  exercise.

There are other reasons....be popular, improve your personal branding, earn money, be succesful, become a succesful blogger..but the probability that they happen is not so probable as these first three....then do not think in them...if they arrives, it is an extra prize.

 And of course, I know....you think that you  do not have anything to say, everything is already said,  what my friends, my boss, my colleagues or my enterprise are going to think,... ..all is only fears...and in the life, the only thing that you should fears is the fear itself... .because it avoids you to do everything that you want and it avoids you to become the person that you really want to become.

THERE IS AN AMAZING WORLD IN FRONT OF YOU.. OPEN THE DOOR

THE THREE SKILLS OF A GOOD PROFESSIONAL

I did one year ago a very interesting training  to develop my  communication skills in IESE and the lecturer (Conor Neill from Moving People to Action) gave us a talk about which skills Warren Buffet was looking for when recruiting people for his organisation.

Why is important the opinion of  Warren Buffet?. He is called "the Oracle of Omaha" because he is one of the world biggest investors in shares and he was born in Omaha in USA. He was in 2013 in the fourth position of richiest people in the world according the magazine Forbes after Bill Gates, Carlos Slim and Amancio Ortega. He is still living in the same house that he bought in the centre of Omaha in 1958 for  $ 31 500.

According to Warren Buffet, a  good professional should have these three qualities:

1) Energy. This skill is needed to do a lot of tasks, for example, if a person lacks energy, he will not be able to work too many time or do many tasks during the work time. This is the heart of a professional.

 

2) Adaptative intelligence. The intelligence is the ability to quickly relate facts and arrives to conclusions. There are different kind of intelligences, for example, if you have a high mathematical intelligence, you will arrive quickly to conclusions in maths calculations or if you have high emotional intelligence, you will arrive quickly to conclusions about emotions or human reactions. These two intelligences are important but the key intelligence is the  adaptative intelligence. This  is the ability to adapt quickly to changes when they arrive. For example, if an action is not more the priority and it is replaced by another one, it is key to  prioritise your time for the key action as quick as possible, and of course, guess the trends in your company / department.  This is the brain of a professional.

3) Integrity . This is that your actions, your speech and your life are harmonised and aligned. For example, if you say that  you are multi-tasks and very efficient, but when you have to do several tasks at the same time, you do not finish the tasks on time and in your personal life you always procastinate the tasks , there is not integrity. Then it is important that you know yourself and you know which are your main skills and then your speech is aligned. This is the body of a professional and it is key to obtain the trust of others. 

What is the relation between this tale and the work?..Probably Nothing or Probably All!

Once there was a tree....
and she loved a little boy.
And everyday the boy would come
and he would gather her leaves
and make them into crowns
and play king of the forest.
He would climb up her trunk
and swing from her branches
and eat apples.
And they would play hide-and-go-seek.
And when he was tired,
he would sleep in her shade.
And the boy loved the tree....
very much.
And the tree was happy.

But time went by.
And the boy grew older.
And the tree was often alone.
Then one day the boy came to the tree
and the tree said, "Come, Boy, come and
climb up my trunk and swing from my
branches and eat apples and play in my
shade and be happy."
"I am too big to climb and play" said
the boy.
"I want to buy things and have fun.
I want some money?"
"I'm sorry," said the tree, "but I
have no money.
I have only leaves and apples.
Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in
the city. Then you will have money and
you will be happy."
And so the boy climbed up the
tree and gathered her apples
and carried them away.
And the tree was happy.

But the boy stayed away for a long time....
and the tree was sad.
And then one day the boy came back
and the tree shook with joy
and she said, "Come, Boy, climb up my trunk
and swing from my branches and be happy."
"I am too busy to climb trees," said the boy.
"I want a house to keep me warm," he said.
"I want a wife and I want children,
and so I need a house.
Can you give me a house ?"
" I have no house," said the tree.
"The forest is my house,
but you may cut off
my branches and build a
house. Then you will be happy."
And so the boy cut off her branches
and carried them away
to build his house.
And the tree was happy.

But the boy stayed away for a long time.
And when he came back,
the tree was so happy
she could hardly speak.
"Come, Boy," she whispered,
"come and play."
"I am too old and sad to play,"
said the boy.
"I want a boat that will
take me far away from here.
Can you give me a boat?"
"Cut down my trunk
and make a boat," said the tree.
"Then you can sail away...
and be happy."
And so the boy cut down her trunk
and made a boat and sailed away.
And the tree was happy
... but not really.

And after a long time
the boy came back again.
"I am sorry, Boy,"
said the tree," but I have nothing
left to give you -
My apples are gone."
"My teeth are too weak
for apples," said the boy.
"My branches are gone,"
said the tree. " You
cannot swing on them - "
"I am too old to swing
on branches," said the boy.
"My trunk is gone, " said the tree.
"You cannot climb - "
"I am too tired to climb" said the boy.
"I am sorry," sighed the tree.
"I wish that I could give you something....
but I have nothing left.
I am just an old stump.
I am sorry...."
"I don't need very much now," said the boy.
"just a quiet place to sit and rest.
I am very tired."
"Well," said the tree, straightening
herself up as much as she could,
"well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting
Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest."
And the boy did.
And the tree was happy.

The giving tree. Shel Silverstein