business growth

January 24, 2017 by fiscaldoctor

TOP 10 LIST FOR GREATER SUCCESS IN 2017

CEO Confidential Memo: Middle Market, Board, President, C-Suite

TOP 10 LIST FOR GREATER SUCCESS IN 2017: Reveals Sustainable Growth expert and Speaker Gary W Patterson, the FiscalDoctor®

January 20, 2017 – Birmingham, United Kingdom and Atlanta, Georgia – International enterprise risk management (ERM) expert and speaker Gary W. Patterson’s article “CEO CONFIDENTIAL MEMO: TOP 10 LIST FOR GREATER SUCCESS IN 2017” is published by Risk & Compliance, a member of Financier Worldwide. https://riskandcompliancemagazine.com/ceo-confidential-memo-top-10-list-for-greater-success-in-2017

Through careful consideration of these issues and adapting these priorities to fit your organization, you will be positioned to overcome challenges to achieve greater growth and prosperity in the coming year. The executive summary of the top five issues in reverse order is:

(5) Cyber security remains a top issue. Most of us still cannot identify what we do not know about our level of almost-invisible, but ever-present risk.

(4) Board accountability, especially as it relates to NACD’s current Blue Ribbon Commission Report, ‘Building the Strategic-Asset Board’, is another top issues.

(3) Enterprise risk management (ERM) remains a top issue, since in many cases, this area still requires more support throughout all levels of the organization, rather than being limited to internal audit, the chief risk officer or external auditors.

(2) Because people are needed to execute your strategy or vision, people continue to be a top priority. The adage of getting the right people on the bus still holds true, however, in addition, leaders need to focus on the new destination of that bus and choose the people accordingly.

(1) Strategy remains the master point from which all other concerns emanate.

• The first nine issues above serve as checkpoints for the validity of a company’s strategy.

• What are ambiguous, soft or fluffy areas of your current or longer-term strategy?

• How sure are you that your people are engaged, understand the current strategy and the role they each play to support and implement it?

To discuss the full list, your situation, or how your votes differ, call Gary Patterson at 1-678-319-4739. Clients call him their FiscalDoctor® and just as every person needs a medical doctor; every organization needs a FiscalDoctor and periodic fiscal checkups. He also supports special projects for risk assessments, enterprise risk management (ERM), operational risk management (ORM), fiscal checkups, corporate governance, strategic planning updates, and strategic growth diagnostics.

Favorable variances arise when the business executes well.

How strong is your balance shhet? — How strong is your balance sheet?

October 27, 2016 by fiscaldoctor

Puffery as a crucial business mistake (796 words)

Fifth of 5 of the Most Common Mistakes to Avoid When Growing Your Business

Heart and core of opportunity and risk are your people, how they perform and how easily miscommunication occurs. Add to that the fact that addressing people problems is so distasteful that resolution always goes long past when everyone knows there is an issue.

Survey results about the percentage of people or companies painting an overly optimistic picture to a customer, vendor, or financing source are depressing. The latest version of the surveys talks about the lack of faith people have in various basic institutions or even pillars of society, much less corporations. Now add in your exposure when some of your people push to the edge of grey or even into the black side of an issue, particularly as evaluated by someone using hindsight.

Once you open your planning to the fact that recognizing the extent to which puffery in your organization is leading to suboptimal decisions, you can identify and then resolve some 800-pound gorilla issues or sacred cows which have been left to graze far too long.

Start with asking yourself to answer true or false on this statement. Where does your Business Paint an Overly Optimistic Picture to a Customer, Vendor or Financing Source? Once you expand this thought process to consider the impact of that puffery, it is almost impossible not to see this issue as a point to regularly revisit. Make sure you consider the extent to which you and your people are kidding yourself on crucial underlying facts as part of your cost of puffery analysis.

Almost regardless of size, leaders confidentially admit to me that their business have at least one glaring exposure area. Where might someone in your business have crossed the line with puffery gone astray? An individual hired with a dramatically over-embellished resume; financial projections requiring almost flawless execution to achieve; or vaporware sales discussions exist for a reason.

As part of this open kimono process, leaders like to practice on me for a story or out of the box example I have helped someone address. You may like me to go first also.

Let’s think inside a different box I have seen helping clients with their capital expenditures program (CAPEX) justification process. For those who may need a better CAPEX process, what happens more often than it should is that people game the system as follows. These processes include the requirement that investment proposals meet threshold rates, with a follow-up to ensure that those rates are met, exceeded or an explanation is provided. This sounds reasonable, appropriate and hard to game. That is, until people see that (1) there is no follow-up on results, (2) the follow-up is so halfhearted and non-confrontational that really glib answers skate by, or (3) worst of all, the entire CAPEX process is short-circuited with a flashy PowerPoint presentation to the board of directors. In a case like this, puffery and kidding yourself just cost your organization a lot of money, people or critical time.

As more people become increasingly disillusioned about corporations, the government, our education system and even social institutions, where might some of your high flying salespeople cut it even closer to the edge on a sale, presentation or representation. After all, the best performers are normally cut a lot of slack as long as they produce big results.

Instead of accepting smiling nonspecific answers, statements that everything is great with a rosy blind-eye approach, or a culture where going along is strongly encouraged, get an outsider like myself to periodically uncover financial and subjective blind spots within your company. Regardless of corporate culture, it is much safer this way. Understanding the truth about your businesses real risk and equity can open doors to a whole new world of possibilities. This will allow you to fix areas you didn’t know were in trouble and point things in a different direction that will work.

You may be very surprised at what your intuition will lead you to consider, if you truthfully answer this related people question. If you knew now what you did not know then, which employee(s) would you not hire? If you answered “yes’ to the question about your organization painting overly optimistic pictures, an inanimate object which is what an organization is, did not commit puffery or skate too close to — or across reasonable guidelines. One or more people are doing this. Some CEOs I have helped have reluctantly faced up to major risk when they walked through this basic exercise with me.

How long will it take for one of these actions to help your business make more bottom line profits by better managing limited resources available to create sustainable growth and profitability with more accurate financial information?

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Known as the Fiscal Doctor, Gary W. Patterson has helped 2 INC 500 companies and over 200 companies in manufacturing, technology, service, construction and distribution in companies from start-ups to Inc. 500 to Fortune 500. Gary Patterson helps you grow top line revenues, keep more of the bottom line and make life more fun. Author of Find Your Blind Spot – Before It Finds You, and Million Dollar Blind Spots. Contact Gary when you need a speaker or consultant on strategic profitable growth while removing risk at www.FiscalDoctor.com or 678-319-4739.

Downloadable word document

Puffery (796 words)

October 25, 2016 by fiscaldoctor

Opportunity Cost (250 words)

It’s extremely difficult to let go of anything in your business in which you have invested time, energy and money. That is why you have to think logically, and make decisions about your assets based on the company’s overall well-being.

Start with asking yourself to answer true or false on this statement. My business has an asset it would be better off selling even at a loss to free up cash and pursue a more promising opportunity.

Once you expand this question to suggest periodically reviewing assets, procedures and even your people, it is almost impossible not to see this issue as a point to regularly revisit.

Consider logically reviewing your organizations assets and related liabilities regularly. Many companies have one or more assets that can be associated to a band-aid solution, or assets that should be sold (even at a loss) and re-invested in another opportunity. This can be particularly true when the executive bonuses are mainly a function of the absolute dollar level of profitability, with limited influence from return on equity or similar measurements.

On a positive note, businesses that sell stagnating assets, and invest in new creative lucrative assets can build opportunities like a never-ending plush rainforest. Why not implement thorough asset performance measures, and embrace the change that may lead to your company moving forward.

If you realized a substantial one-time opportunity this quarter, what existing financial balance, staff member, or problem would you change or solve?

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Downloadable word file

opportunity cost -250 words

October 17, 2016 by fiscaldoctor

Change: Opportunity or Nightmare (820 words)

Second of 5 of the Most Common Mistakes to Avoid When Growing Your Business

After you understand and increase your vigilance about customer and product profitability, as featured in the theme of How Well You Accurately Know your Best ten customers, it’s time to consider how your business appreciates the impact of relentless change.

Simply put, let’s look at the aspect of avoiding mistakes when changes occur to your customers, specifically your top 10. Being aware how your product affects your top clients along with the changing dynamic of their company is pivotal to keep updated in today’s competitive business world. If your top clients are losing profits or innovating the state of their product—you need to know. Your services and products could substantially decrease if you are not catering to their changing business needs or unaware they are steadily losing profits. Or out-of-the blue, they could be acquired by someone who changes out your value based relationship despite your best efforts.

Once you open your planning to the fact that your business is going to lose some of its best customers, you can create contingency planning options. Start with asking yourself to answer True or False on this statement. Your company knows how changes to one of your top 10 customers may affect your bottom line.

The results on this question are harder to evaluate by size. Although most middle market company (normally 50 million dollars and up) are comfortable with their basic customer and product profitability, most are NOT comfortable about understanding how changes to their best customers will impact them. Understandably, smaller companies often struggling with an accurate grasp on customer and product profitability are not much happier with their capabilities in this area.

Whatever the size of your business or client forecasting monitoring capability, let’s go deeper on the topic of change in your customers’ business and planning for its impact on you.

How Changes to Your Top 10 Clients Can Affect Your Business.

How will your profitability on your top customer accounts be impacted when those customers’ profitability decreases? There will always be a time when one of your top ten customers will drop off your A list. Consider this over-the-top example. Buggy whip manufacturers were profitable customers for some businesses until automobiles became the standard. Rather than laugh at that comparison, review how the product or service your company provides might become the buggy whip of tomorrow, for one or more of your current best customers.

Another more relatable example is Kodak. Kodak did not change their business model, innovate and failed to create the digital camera. Trying to maintain steady top clients that are innovative may be something to consider. Also, if there is a huge change in management with your top 10 customers, make sure you are the first to know. Then you can be ready for possible changes and find ways to update relationships with new management. Welcome new management of your top clients aboard with a positive attitude. You don’t know if they may suddenly want to go in a new direction with someone else’s services or products.

Time to return to the leaders whose business answers “no” regarding the ability to monitor change at your best ten customers. A company that does not know who its most profitable customers are, probably will have major difficulty estimating how their customers’ profitability could damage your business. There is a value to recognizing this blind spot. Just imagine how that lack of knowledge or visibility increases risk? The moral of the story is that your top ten customers will change over time, so it’s up to management to continuously analyze their data. Moreover, ensure you are serving the current ten best customers and recognize changes that need to be taken on these customers that have fallen off the A list.

Whether you are in the yes or no answer group relating this second common mistake to avoid in growing your business, always be on the lookout for new clients, because your A-list customers may suddenly go out of business. That may be out of your control, but easier to manage when you have other customers in the queue.

Resolve to puts time on your side to be better prepared for when, not if, you lose all or a large part of one of today’s 10 best customers.
What can you start doing now to grow or acquire a comparable valuable to your bottom line replacement customer?
This could be as simple as looking to see which customers would provide you more money if you created a product extension or service to offer even more value to them.

How long will it take for one of these options to help your business make more bottom line profits by better managing limited resources available to improve customer and product profitability, even if you lose one of today’s ten best customers?

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Downloadable article file

change 820 words

October 4, 2016 by fiscaldoctor

Interesting Franchise Expo Atlanta weekend

Just back from speaking on Avoid the Five Biggest Mistakes in Growing Your Franchise Business for The Franchise Expo organization. http://www.franchiseshowinfo.com/atlanta/

Finding Your “Million Dollar Blind Spot” Is One of the Most Powerful Ways to Grow Your Sustainable, Wealthier Bottom Line. Glad to help you or a colleague find your Million Dollar Blind Spot opportunity or risk before it finds you.

Pictures of my flier and coupon are inserted below. I was unprepared for the opportunity and did not take a picture with my smiling, happy audience. Even the FiscalDoctor sometimes misses fleeting opportunities.

Free coupon to attend this years expo in Atlanta.

Finding Your “Million Dollar Blind Spot” Is One of the Most Powerful Ways to Grow Your Sustainable, Wealthier Bottom Line — Finding Your “Million Dollar Blind Spot” Is One of the Most Powerful
Ways to Grow Your Sustainable, Wealthier Bottom Line

Please share the flier I prepared to supplement their coupon with your organization. I passionately love helping people avoid their major or Million Dollar Mistake. Sometimes a $5,000 mistake feels like a million dollars.

If you are unprepared when the opportunity shows up, you may not see it or be unable to seize the opportunity. If you are unprepared and the risk shows up, it can be very painful even deadly.

August 23, 2016 by fiscaldoctor

Can it really be true that 86% of people do not trust you or me?

That REALLY struck home for me. You and I are the good people. We really are.

However, you may have read the same scary stories that I am seeing. The trickle of surveys and stories about rampant loss of trust toward all institutions is turning into a tsunami.

One of the latest and maybe the scariest article is a July 25^th Forbes article The Death Of Brand Loyalty: Cultural Shifts Mean It’s Gone Forever. You can easily Google it. One of many of the author’s eye-opening statements is that “Millennials particularly tend to distrust the government (82%), the press (88%), and financial institutions and corporations (86%).”

Most of you reading this are in, work with or are probably viewed as corporate.

For another data point, last month I attended an only slightly less scary version of that article at the Phoenix annual National Speakers Association (NSA) conference. The speaker pointed out the real impact of his statement on each of us attending. What makes us think our customers will believe that we are in the 14% they can trust?

How do our customers, participants, and really nice people friends know they can trust us?
How do we know we can trust them?
Why should millennials trust us?

The first step to solve a major blind spot, which this maybe for many of us is just to acknowledge the perception exists. Normal definitions of a scotoma or blind spot suggest that often people are too close to an issue to see its magnitude. However, an outsider sometimes relatively easily sees the issue, which can become a major issue, or as I call it a Million Dollar Blind Spot©.

I trust that for most of you are in the 14% and this is not an issue.

A primary way I can offer to help is discussing something briefly off-line about possible confidence levels on financial, operational and strategic major blind spots. Such as how your people could better perceive, use or get value from the business’s internal financials, metrics, flash reports etc. Sort of what you would expect from a FiscalDoctor.

Gladly offer that for any of you or a colleague. Or if you just want to say hello, call me at 678-319-4739.

Respectfully, Gary