Many heads of finance departments - CFO's and financial controllers - know it is a core role to be a trusted adviser to the organisation's management team.
That means explaining, suggesting, analysing and reviewing the data they manage - in fact, converting it from 'data' to 'information', something that can be used in a timely way in the business, by others.
It means empowering others to take action based on facts and feedback.
But those same finance managers find themselves doing it all themselves because their 'team' just don't have the training or the skills. Or the readers of these reports try to do the interpretation.
The result is unsatisfactory for everyone.
Stuart Bilbrough has set out to change that, by developing a full toolkit that goes to the heart of the problem - upskilling the whole finance team.
His new book, Bean Soup - beyond bean counting is a comprehensive guide on how to lift the skill-sets toward adding value.
Written as a fictional story, it is an engaging read for professionals. It is aimed directly at finance managers, and at senior managers - CEO/MDs and Boards of Directors who rely on the finance managers reporting to them.
It starts by identifying what skills are lacking (the skills gap), and works comprehensively through the process of how to close those gaps.
It's about change, and makes no pretensions about how easy the process will be. There are few short cuts although this is a toolkit that will keep you focused on what really needs to be done.
Bilbrough notes that large enterprises get the advantages of significant successful transformations through the experience of having done them before, and the level of resources they can bring to them.
But most New Zealand businesses don't have these experiences, resources or time.
Bilbrough's book helps make up for that by sharpening the focus on what needs to be done, and how.
You can buy the book at the Bean Soup website. Hard copies cost $39.99 (incl GST, delivered), while the ebook version costs $19.99.
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