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If you know
a company — customer, supplier, friend, or your
own — that could benefit
from improved operations, please email a link to this site or
let us know.
Your best interest is our best interest.
The
Finish Strong® monthly e-newsletter is for
business leaders who recognize Operations as a
strategic function that creates competitive advantage,
profitability and brand loyalty to the marketplace.
IS THAT ALL THERE IS,
MY FRIEND?
The financial crisis has forced
many manufacturers to make decisions they normally
would have borrowed their way through. As a result,
many have cut muscle and even bone in response
to falling sales.
Some of those assume that key workers
will be available when they need them, that key
suppliers have survived and can finance increasing
sales, and that the same customers will once again
place orders and pay promptly. But calling them
when you need them is NOT all there is, my friend,
to a profitable recovery.
Have you been regularly communicating
with key workers who you laid off? Do they know
the status of your business, of your interest
in them? Have you stretched out supplier payments
to manage your own cash flow, ignoring the impact
on supplier stability and on long term relations
with them? Do your customers know that you want
to work with them to support their recovery? Not
just that you want their orders, but that you
want to work with them?
Your supply chain partners know
that you don't have the crystal ball, but they'd
sure like to hear from you. Communication during
good times and silence during bad times is not
the way to success. If you haven't already, start
communicating with them now. Discover what's keeping
them up at night.
THE
ONE-DAY CLOSE
Are you still waiting for Accounting
to "close" June 2009? Whether you
use a calendar month, or a 13 week quarter approach,
your June financials should be closed by the
time you receive this newsletter on July 7.
And yes I know this was a holiday weekend in
the US.
An April 2002 Industry
Week article on this topic quoted me as
saying: "For me, the one-day close is a
euphemism for believable and timely data."
If you're still waiting to learn
what happened weeks ago, the numbers are almost
useless. Worse yet, you may ask managers to
explain variances that are alleged to have occurred
weeks ago. It's unlikely they will remember,
and reporting errors are too common to exclude
as the cause. What a crazy chase.
Just how much time do your accountants,
your managers, and other employees waste in
your accounting close process? If you don't
close in one business day, the answer is "entirely
too much." And it means you don't have
believable and timely data any other day. Streamline
this process, and solve the root causes of delays.
It may well make you aware of problems in time
to do something about them.
FINISH STRONG®
The Starting Pistol
Warren Buffett:
“We believe that according the name 'investors'
to institutions that trade actively is like
calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night
stands a 'romantic.' ”
The Tape
Rebecca Morgan:
“...which is like calling
those who work in a business with repeat problems
'problem solvers.' ”
REACH FULCRUM
VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: http://facebook.com/Becky.Morgan
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fulcrumcwi
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/beckymorganfulcrum
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