strategic — Page 2

April 16, 2014 by fiscaldoctor

Best Practices for Getting Your First Board Seat as a CFO

ExecSense, Selects ERM/ORM Expert Gary W. Patterson to Lead Discussion

April 8, 2014 – San Francisco, CA and Atlanta, GA – Gary Patterson, FiscalDoctor®, international high growth and enterprise risk management (ERM) expert and speaker, was selected by the speaker board of ExecSense to lead a webinar titled “Positioning Yourself for Board Member Seats as a CFO.” The webinar is now available at http://www.execsense.com/positioning-yourself-for-board-member-seats-as-a-cfo.html?___store=default

Patterson’s webinar focused on these key points:

Hear the biggest benefits and risks from a fellow CFO and board member.
Better appreciate where your background adds value upon joining.
Learn the 10 biggest myths and misconceptions about the process.
Gain 100 hours of precious time.
Select from over a dozen strategic questions.
Exploit the board opportunity.
Surprises are career limiting.

Clients call him their FiscalDoctor® and just as every person needs a medical doctor; every business 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 improvement.

About Gary W. Patterson

Enabling growth through leverage you did not know you had, Gary W. Patterson, president & CEO of FiscalDoctor®, has been interviewed or presented internationally at over 100 of the leading and most prestigious publications and groups in the world and helped over than 200 companies during 30 years, spanning supply chain, technology, transportation, construction, and service industries.

His most recent book Million Dollar Blind Spots: 20/20 Vision for Financial Growth provides best practices cutting edge follow-up for blind spots: how to identify them, and exploit opportunities and mitigate risk related to million dollar blind spots. Visit his website at https://fiscaldoctor.com and “free” fiscal fitness test at https://fiscaldoctor.com/fiscal-quiz/ , or call 678-319-4739.

April 7, 2014 by fiscaldoctor

Avoid these 5 Biggest Mistakes in Growing Your Business

Many business leaders focus diligently on their company’s small, visible details only to be blindsided by the monumental and far more impactful events they didn’t see coming caused by one or more of those 5 biggest mistakes.

How might each blind spot affect your business?

1. Customer and product profitability Example, my business does not accurately know who its 10 most profitable customers are.

2. Change Example, my company does not know how changes at one of our top 10 customers would affect our own bottom line.

3. Overly optimistic balance sheet Example, my business occasionally capitalizes expenses that create assets with questionable recorded value.

4. Opportunity cost Example, my business has an asset it would be better off selling at a loss to free up cash to pursue a more promising opportunity.

5. Puffery Example, my business paints an overly optimistic picture of our company among customers, vendors, or financing sources.

File available as a download:

Avoid these 5 Biggest Mistakes in Growing Your Business

Other notes

January 30, 2014 by fiscaldoctor

What Atlanta Snowstorm 2014 Risk Is Lurking to Blindside You?

Ezine articles has allowed me to share my learning experience which you can benefit from.

You and I will have things go bump in the night. For someone from Boston, how big a deal can a projected 2 inches of snow be?

Well in Atlanta that was a 17 hour trip in the Atlanta blizzard of 2014, even though I left early when I learned about the snow.

What I did not know was that:

(1) the building manager where my car was parked would pre-emptively lock the normal exit gate and force us to go down 5 levels and out a slick 45 degree icy hillside on a side street with no traffic light access. Their decision to unilaterally limit their exposure for someone sliding on snow on their top deck became an unrecoverable event of a very long trip. And it looks like I was only 5 minutes late on getting out before they locked exits (will leave that decision for a customer orientation discussion).

(2) The Atlanta mayor decided to send everyone home at the same time, flooding the highways with a million people, rather than spreading out dismissals.

(3) Atlanta people do not fill their gas tanks on the weekends in snow season, in case, it really snows. That lead to hundreds of cars stalled in traffic UNTIL they run out of gas in the middle of the road to further clog roads.

Using hindsight, I should have either (1) left the luncheon earlier, (2) gotten a hotel nearby to wait out what was then a one inch snow, or (3) been lucky enough to have decided not to go to the meeting.

Having lived in New England for a decade, I knew how to drive in snow and ice, consistently refill my gas tank on the weekend, and had a loving wife call me saying that it actually snowed this time.

Where in your life or business should you (1) have some version of a contingency plan in place for WHEN, not IF something really strange yet foreseeable occurs, (2) proactively create a list of the top 3 foreseeable and reasonably likely to occur situations to avoid, and (3) have some financial or emotional reserves in place for your WHEN, not IF event?

Some organizations call this process contingency planning, risk assessment, operational risk management, enterprise risk management, or even a strategic orientation of your annual budget process. The fact is that if your organization does not regularly engage in at least one of those best practices, your version of the Atlanta snowstorm 2014 is lurking to blindside you and your business.

Failing to plan for any of your Million Dollar Blind Spots that are very foreseeable for someone to second guess your decision that might have been made on what you thought were the best facts available. And truthfully if you done minimal contingency planning on your unique foreseeable risks, you would have had a better frame of reference and insight.

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Atlanta-Snowstorm-2014-Risk-Is-Lurking-to-Blindside-You?&id=8284867

January 25, 2014 by fiscaldoctor

CEO Best Practices Board of Directors Webinar

Completed webinar on CEO Best Practices for Managing Expectations With Your Board of Directors for ExecSense.

http://www.execsense.com/ceo-best-practices-for-managing-expectations-with-your-board-of-directors.html?___store=default

January 14, 2014 by fiscaldoctor

Here’s How You Can Move Your Bottom Line From Just OK To Great!

Uncover Million $ Blind Spots to Assure Million $ Profits

January 8, 2014 – Atlanta, GA – Gary Patterson, FiscalDoctor^® and enterprise risk management (ERM) and operations risk management (ORM) expert and speaker, suggests how you can move your bottom line from just OK to Great!

Part of the beauty of this process is the low cost to get started. You can complete this process with minimal if any capital expenditure requirements. Here’s how it plays out… During my discussion with client BK, I replied, “It sounds like your business operating results and supporting systems are OK, but not as good as they would be if you made some basic changes.”

How familiar does this sound? Let’s talk about where you are now, what organizational bliss would mean to you, and how to get there. You know where you want to be this year, and may have a specific vision of your 3 and 5 year goals.

What I suggested to BK, and possibly suggest to you, is:

1. First, look at which parts of your organization can build on strengths or accelerate opportunities underway.

2. Second, decide which of those areas would benefit from a fiscal health checkup. Examples to review could include financial statements, operating reports, unit level reports, cash flow projections, budgets, strategic plans, and long term financial planning.

3. Third, pick at least one area in the second step and get started.

Now, consider targeting a 1% improvement in your gross margin for any acceleration or improvements undertaken.

It’s important to note that most of you would accept moving from “OK” (pretty unhappy place to be for most leaders) to “at least good enough.” But, you can do even better and be surprised when you invest a little time off-site with these questions in order to spotlight at least one action to take with a potentially lucrative ROI.

Call to clarify any of these points, or help you get started moving your bottom line from just OK to Great!

About Gary W. Patterson

Gary W. Patterson, president & CEO of FiscalDoctor®, has been interviewed or presented internationally at more than 100 of the leading and most prestigious publications and groups in the world and helped over than 200 companies during 30 years, spanning supply chain, high tech, transportation, construction, and service industries.

His Million Dollar Blind Spots: 20/20 Vision for Financial Growth book provides cutting edge follow-up to the theme of blind spots: how to identify them, exploit opportunities and mitigate risk related to million dollar blind spots. This builds upon his earlier book Stick Out Your Balance Sheet and Cough: Best Practices for Long-Term Business Health. Visit his website at https://fiscaldoctor.com and “free” fiscal fitness test at https://fiscaldoctor.com/fiscal-quiz. Mr. Patterson can also be reached directly at +1(678)319-4739.

December 29, 2013 by fiscaldoctor

Fiscal Management Videos: Improve Financing, Risk & Profitable Growth

December 27, 2013 – Houston, TX and Atlanta, GA – Gary Patterson, FiscalDoctor®, expert on profitable growth rapidly, becoming more bankable and staying bankable, was selected by Chron to lead a present a series of videos on Fiscal Management. This series is available at http://smallbusiness.chron.com/fiscal-management-78092.html

Do you know how even great leaders with a great company face the challenge of not meeting their dreams? Well what Gary Patterson helps leaders do is to help them reach their dreams with improved financing, less risk, and profitable growth.

Long-Range Strategic Plans for Nonprofits http://smallbusiness.chron.com/longrange-strategic-plans-nonprofits-78094.html

Cost Effective Procedures in Supply Chain Management http://smallbusiness.chron.com/cost-effective-procedures-supply-chain-management-78100.html

How to Manage the Global Business Plan http://smallbusiness.chron.com/manage-global-business-plan-78095.html

The Effects of Accounts Payable Terms on Cash Conversion Cycles & the Cost of Goods http://smallbusiness.chron.com/effects-accounts-payable-terms-cash-conversion-cycles-cost-goods-78099.html

What Is the Basic Purpose of Supply Chain Management? http://smallbusiness.chron.com/basic-purpose-supply-chain-management-78098.html

Accounting for Construction Contracts Under the Percentage of Completion Method http://smallbusiness.chron.com/accounting-construction-contracts-under-percentage-completion-method-78097.html

How to Identify a Top Priority http://smallbusiness.chron.com/identify-top-priority-78093.html

Impact on Internal Controls of a Business by Sarbanes Oxley Act http://smallbusiness.chron.com/impact-internal-controls-business-sarbanes-oxley-act-78096.html

About Gary W. Patterson

Gary W. Patterson, president & CEO of FiscalDoctor®, has worked internationally with over 200 companies spanning supply chain, technology, transportation, construction, and service industries and been interviewed or presented internationally at over 100 of the leading and most prestigious publications and groups in the world.

His 4 books include “Million Dollar Blind Spots: 20/20 Vision for Financial Growth” and “Find Your Million Dollar Blind Spots: 7 Thing You Need to Know.” For more information, visit http://www.fiscaldoctor.com and his “free” fiscal fitness test at https://fiscaldoctor.com/fiscal-quiz.