Consider the importance and magnitude of most business process reengineering projects. The time, the money, the systems, the consultants – usually driven by some compelling external or internal concern – an acquisition, a new product line, competition and a topsy-turvy market, the need to innovate or improve quality, to change the corporate culture, to simplify, to cut costs drastically. To transform the business.
One of the most inspiring insights of the INTEGRATED REPORTING (IR) framework is the set of guiding principles. This is the “magic” list, based on common sense, that we may use to evolve ourselves from strictly doing activities that “tick the box” to doing more exiting and added value ones. It’s not only improves our professional life but it is also a way to upgrade the personal life of our people.
Can we evolve the Finance job into an innovative activity? Yes we can.
Can we increase the number of corporate reporting users from just a few specialists to potentially everybody who is interested in our company? Yes we can.
Can we transform our financial statement from a boring encyclopedia into a business tool able to increase the value of our capitals? Yes we can.
Forests are a great renewable resource. You may cut them down, but you can replant and grow new ones to cut down again later. I suppose it’s sort of like that for software vendors who provide small business solutions. While many small businesses fail and close every year, lots and lots of them start up…
Like most of us, I try to exercise as regularly and eat healthily. However, I’m also very good at rationalization. Skipping a workout today won’t matter much. I’ll run an extra mile tomorrow. Pizza for lunch? No problem. I’ll cut down at dinner. But unchecked that can lead me to a place I don’t want to be.
“Competitive and ever-increasingly sophisticated in the marketplace[1]” describes a company positioned for long term business survival. Complacency takes the business nowhere but into irrelevance-land, which I think we can all agree is not where most business owners wish to end up… it makes selling the company slightly more challenging. Even in markets which were once firmly held to be localized are now open to new – and new kinds of – competitors, due in most part to advancements the development of information technology (IT) as well as how it is applied. These days, competition is globally facilitated rather than locally, and it’s becoming the standard approach. Welcome to the cloud.
Do you know the “Three Little Pigs” fable? If not, they were three anthropomorphic pigs that, after being sent out by their mother to seek their fortune, built three different houses with different materials. A big bad wolf was able to blow down two out of three houses made of wood and straw but was unable to destroy the last house made of bricks, so he first tried to trick the pig to come out by asking to meet him at various places and then finally tried to enter the house via the chimney where he fell into a cauldron of boiling water and retreated.
The banking industry has a reporting issue. The traditional systems that have been in place for years continue to serve their purpose, but are not designed for today’s banking reporting needs. Traditional Asset & Liabilities Management (ALM) systems are designed to do risk assessment for the institution and have a complete listing of the banks instruments, while some banks have a separate system for tracking the individual instruments. The General Ledgers (GL) have all the standard accounting information needed to run the business. When it comes time to do reporting, such as the Y-9C or Call Reporting, the finance department needs information from them ALL.
With the rise of analytics, in many organizations Finance is expanding its role, providing increasing value in other functional areas and looking for ways to deliver greater value as a business function. Nowadays Finance has become the enabler of analytics and decision support. The reasons are simple: as the economy evolves, Finance data is rapidly being deployed outside its traditional scope. Finance also has an ability to apply analytics above and beyond traditional delivery channels.
The Budgeting process for Banks is quite different from most industries. The focus begins with the Balance Sheet, and the reflection of the instruments already generating revenue and cash flows, at various rates and maturity dates. This then serves as the basis of the budget going forward as new volumes are forecasted.