SMALL STEPS MATTER – I HAVE DONE THIS AND REAPED HUGE BENEFITS. Ready to now give back to society.

SMALL STEPS MATTER – I HAVE DONE THIS AND REAPED HUGE BENEFITS. Ready to now give back to society.

With this write-up, I have an offer to make. I wish to contribute to society and hence am looking for 2 -4 people (mentees) who have great and exciting financial goals, however need help from someone who has been there and done it all in the areas I have storied below! In case you feel that you wish to be mentored, please feel free to connect with me ASAP.

My mission is to provide pro bono mentorship to atleast 4 people over the next one year!

We think, success of any business will depend on the how good your business model is and how well you are executing it. It is a very myopic way of looking at the business. Most of the CEO’s fail to focus on other softer aspects of the business machinery without which this machinery cannot function for long. The journey from CFO/ CXO/COO to CEO requires us to continuously evaluate and nurture these areas within the organization. While we all work very hard to “meet the numbers”, we tend to overlook some other critical areas that are extremely important to build a profitable business.

There are many moving parts that work together to help a business succeed. One has to keep on ensuring that these parts are well looked after to ensure that the business machinery continuous to operate as desired.

1.     Partnership and Relationship: A Partnership approach with stakeholders works like magic in building long term relationships. Treat your vendors, lenders, rating agencies etc. as your partners with the aim of building sustained relationships. Be true and upfront with them with open lines of communication. The ultimate idea is to think win-win. Then these relationships will go a long way and will help you reap benefits when you desperately need them, especially during tough economic situations. I have known of people, who not only work seamlessly with partners, but sometimes vocally and voluntarily contribute to their KPIs too. Can you believe that? I can, as I have done it and I have seen it work magic.

2.     Transparency: Don’t we sometimes feel important and superior when we know something that others don’t? Wrong way to go friends!! Don’t hold information to yourself. Share it with your shareholders, bankers, auditors, rating agencies etc transparently. As a professional you are doing right things in the best interest of the organization, and transparency of information is the best way to prove it. It adds to the confidence and belief of the stakeholders that the business is in safe hands. Transparency brings trust and openness of dialog which are key for problem solving. So next time, you get that itchy feeling to hide something under the rug, go trash the rug instead! One day you may even call me to thank me!!. Even though I work for a private company, we still close our books on a monthly basis and share a detailed around 80 pages monthly management report containing multiple financial and non-financial information. This information is followed by a monthly call with our shareholders, very similar to listed company. This has resulted in no unpleasant discussions with shareholders during pandemic as they were fully aware about the status of the organization, its financial and non-financial position.

3.     Leadership approach and employee motivation: Don’t we spend sometimes, endless hours cleaning, maintaining our prized possessions? My dad used to spend every Sunday – the only holiday he had - polishing his vehicle for hour’s coz he loved it. IF we can do it for our cars and shoes and phones, and work cabins or tables, wonder why we can’t do the same for employees. I have heard enough people saying they are our assets but treat them differently. Bring in the culture of taking everyone together (sabka saath, sabka vikas) will go a long way in improving the motivation and morale of the employees and helps bringing in acceptability to change. The organization should ensure to create a positive environment and open culture in the organization where every employee is valued and encouraged to contribute superlatively. Recognition then would automatically follow. Throwing your weight around of your position in meetings will not help. So statements such as “It is my way or the highway”, “Please think before you speak with me, I am the function head!”, or “That’s the way how it will happen, whether you like it or not”. Respect and value people irrespective of their position or level. Else, if you stifle employees, their voices and respect, you will one day have a team of dummies who have been pushed back into their shells by your behavior. The loss will be completely yours and the organizations. For once, just try leading a team of respected, valued and happy souls and you will be amazed at the force or power of their willingness to contribute. My team is ready to work for me continuously night after night, if required, not because as a CFO I can force them but because of the relationship and bonding that we have as a team.

4.     Financial discipline: Maintaining discipline in any walk of life, has always been tough. Maintaining financial discipline daily is also crazily difficult. Aren’t we habitual of setting up stock price falls and rises as notifications on our mobiles, setting up videos of servants working at home, or getting a constant feed of where our kids are and when will they return home? Wonder why we don’t do that for our leadership or us for some key metrics or set up out KPIs as news shots for ourselves? Think! This, however is extremely important. Ensuring regular reviews of financial results and keeping an eye on the outcome is the key. Quite often reviews unstructured, negative and beating exercises with discussions that are all over the place. Put a proper structure together for reviewing your business KPI’s and follow it regularly. There are five financial elements that your business needs to get right:

a.     Financial planning

b.     Financial infrastructure

c.     Budget

d.     Reporting

e.     Financial expertise of the team

5.     Learning and development: Motivate each employee to learn and encourage them to implement while working on the job, within certain defined boundaries and limitations. I personally believe that every employee should feel that he/she is on some professional time-bound mission to excel and bring results. Include this as part of the KRA’s of the managers to ensure that each employee is learning something new and contributing using their strengths. Ensure that each and every person feels valued by contributing to something solid. Professional growth of my team members is my responsibility. Over years, I have ensure that each one of them gets exposed to multiple areas of finance and accounts weather it is raising funds, automation, Internal financial controls, credit ratings, working capital management, cash flow management, audits etc. I am absolutely confident that the knowledge that my team has, none of the professionals of their age, will have.

Giving back to the society: Business exists for the society and because of the society. Ensuring well-being of the society is also an area that the business should focus on. The focus on this area is picking up with more and more companies wants to be ESG compliant. Similarly the PE/VC and other funds are also considering ESG compliance an important criteria before making investment. CSR regulations currently are also a step in this direction, however most of the companies are trying to use this spending as part of their advertisement expense rather genuinely helping the society. It is time we re-thought and corrected this ideology with immediate effect. There could be more such small things that one should focus on but I felt the above ones are the critical.

In case this writeup inspires you, and you wish to seek help from me, please send me a message and I will respond ASAP. You will help me in my mission too this way! Thanks, in anticipation.