Get in touch
555-555-5555
mymail@mailservice.com
Welcome to Our Opinions
This is where we share our thoughts, insights, and expertise gained from years of experience in business consulting. Here, you'll find articles offering our perspective on various business topics, along with practical tips and advice to help you on your entrepreneurial journey. While these posts reflect our professional opinions, we hope they'll provide valuable food for thought as you navigate the challenges and opportunities of running your business.
There is a huge gulf in knowledge and expertise between the so-called "bean counters", ie finance trained people, and those who have little, if any, finance training. However, everyone must still "count their beans" at regular points in time, eg, end of financial year for tax purposes, applying for loans, grocery shopping, paying your bills, etc, to better understand the state of their respective business and personal financial health. Being able to successfully bridge that huge knowledge and expertise gulf can be extremely daunting for anyone unfamiliar with the art of financial wizardry. The bridge and its structural strength analogy here, represents your level of financial literacy, competence in financial management, and the gulf is the consequential "black hole" into which you may potentially fall due to errant financial management, or even worse, intentional or unintentional financial mismanagement. When you hear terms like - budgets, balance sheets, profit and loss statements, cashflow forecasts, bookkeeping, assets, liabilities, working capital, operating capital, gross sales, cost of sales, gross profit, operating costs, net profit, return on investment, depreciation, amortization, compounding interest, taxable income, and the list goes on ... do you nod wisely because you know what those terms mean, or are you confused and then nod off in ensuing boredom? If you nodded wisely, you probably already possess a reasonable to higher level of financial literacy. If you are in the other camp, then you have much to learn to attain a competent level of financial literacy. Summing up, the key to "Monetary Figures Making Sense" is "Financial Literacy" and the key to astute "Financial Management" is "Financial Literacy". We are proudly affiliated with "The FIQ Project" which is on a mission to improve and enhance "Financial Literacy" within the general community, especially the sectors encompassing the disadvantaged. They are actively developing educational pathways and creating opportunities in association with both public and private sector organizations to foster their "Financial Literacy" for all mission. To find out more and potentially add your supportive voice, you can contact the author directly on MD-Dakeyras@bigpond.com and also click on the following links: https://fiq.net.au/our-offering/
Does that headline and the following strongly resonate with you? You are a relatively seasoned, established professional, currently engaged in an influential, corporate role, but self-reflecting with increasing frequency over your ambition to extend your professional career into the Boardroom world and speculating on how to successfully do it? If so, then you will need to transform yourself from being a “Corporate Hired Gun (CHG)” into a “Gunslinger of Choice (GoC)", as the two roles while respectively important, influence change and outcomes in different ways. Here are three questions will likely manifest repeatedly in your transformation journey with a contextually, simplistic view on each for your consideration – What’s the difference between a CHG and GoC? The CHG is a member of the organization’s executive team and is tasked to find viable answers to questions posed by others The GoC is a Board member and is the one asking the questions How does each role influence change and outcomes? The CHG’s role is a combination of being primarily operationally focused with a strategic overlay The GoC’s role is primarily strategically focused with minimal, if any, operational overlay Why does it matter to your Boardroom aspirations? As an operational executive, the CHG is engaged by only one organization at any given time and provides their operational value-add accordingly As a strategic Board member, the GoC may be concurrently engaged by a number of organizations and provides their strategic value-add accordingly. Everyone has an inherent quantum of unique talent, with great ambitions to realixde its full potential. However, those who continuously strive with unwavering focus, dedication and leverage to advantage the collective wisdom of our earlier pioneers, will be the ones best positioned to successfully achieve their goals. In closing, trust this helps you to clarify whether you are, at the start, end or somewhere in between, of the “Gunslinger of Choice or Corporate Hired Gun” continuum. If you would like to further explore how to transform yourself from a "Corporate Hired Gun" into a "Gunslinger of Choice" in the Boardroom, please reach out to me MD-Dakeyras@bigpond.com .
You may have a new business venture, or an established one, and any ”business expert” you may meet, will espouse that every successful business has both a brand, and a supporting creative tag, which timelessly endorses it in their chosen market sectors and greater general community. This creative tag is sometimes called a “Meaningful Motto”. If you don’t already have one which delivers as intended, those “experts” will challenge you to either invent one or may offer to help you invent one. You may then potentially expend an inordinate amount of time, energy and resources trying to create a "Meaningful Motto” which informs the world about both your business and personal brands. Whether you realize it, or not, often you actually already know what you want to say but putting it all into one succinct line of ten words, or less (which genius came up with that parameter), can be incredibly challenging, frustrating, distracting and dare I say it .. even depressing at times! Further, the extensive history and "experts" you can access in your “Meaning Motto” quest can sometimes lead to even more confusion, rather than the clarity you need. Consequently, after much "navel gazing" the desired “Meaningful Motto” outcome may seem even more distant than when you first started on this journey! Here are some “Tips and Tricks” which you may find useful in establishing your "Meaningful Motto" - Always trust yourself and your instincts, after all you got yourself to this position in the first place and you know exactly what you want to say The input and/or advice, from anyone who cares to contribute, can't make the decision, only you can Always keep your audience in mind (sound familiar but amazing how often ignored) as this is meant for them, not you, and what they see and interpret is biased by their own subjective experiences Your primary intent is to get their attention in the first place and then encourage their interest in exploring more with you Procrastination is perfectly normal, not abnormal, when you are trying to be creative and the benefit I got from a potential negative scenario, is it actually helps you to discard the "wannabe" options and focus on the "probable" ones What you ultimately create may already be someone else's mantra, that doesn't mean it's not available or right for you, you just need to figure out how to say it in an original way Test it out on your circle of trusted friends and colleagues, they probably represent a good spread of your potential audience and will give you good, constructive feedback, without prejudice, which will either confirm and/or help you further crystallize your thinking How much effort, time, resources, advice and money you wish to spend is always your choice, don't let it become the torpedo which sinks your ship before it launches on this quest Finally, you can always evolve it as the unknown future reveals itself, what you are trying to do is best position you and your business to take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves today which is aptly summed up by my own “Meaningful Motto” .. “Today Shapes Tomorrow – We Help Shape Today”. Putting these points into context for when creating my own "Meaningful Motto", ie "Today Shapes Tomorrow - We Help Shape Today" - Original theme … not necessarily … original wording … "YES” Total time spent - approx TWO HOURS overall Total cost – ZERO $ apart from the OPPORTUNITY COST OF MY TIME End result = GOAL ACHIEVED and VERY HAPPY If you found this article useful and would like some strategic help to achieving incremental business success, then please contact me at MD-Dakeyras@bigpond.com