WEBVTT

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<v ->What is one lesson learned</v>

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that you've had from finance transformation?

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<v ->Looking back, I wish I knew</v>

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that perfect doesn't exist, right?

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Mistakes happen, setbacks happen.

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It's often the unknown unknowns that set you back.

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Learn from it.

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You don't want to give up on all the benefits.

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So keep pushing forward, learn from the mistakes,

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celebrate the mistakes,

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and you can still get to the promised land.

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<v ->The expectations of the businesses</v>

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of what you told them will not go down.

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So if you told them you're going to get, you know,

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real-time KPIs or access to information,

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linking it with your financial systems,

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and it's not happening, it'll fail.

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Even though you've made tremendous progress,

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it will be seen as a failure.

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So you remember the scoreboard

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is not necessarily your own internal scoreboard,

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it's actually, everyone's running their own scoreboard.

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<v ->You have to eat the elephant a piece at a time.</v>

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You have to have constant prioritization,

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and you can't let things bleed into the next phase

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or the next week because, eventually,

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it gets so big that it consumes you.

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<v ->And so many companies</v>

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don't have what I call an operating mechanism.

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How do they come together and develop a strategy?

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How does that strategy turn into operations?

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How does the operations turn into a budget?

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Those three very large things can be a catalyst

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for the finance team.

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If you use those three very large business processes

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to your advantage, you can drive tremendous change.

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<v ->I think the other thing for me</v>

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is going through this type of process,

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is making sure you're really clear up front

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on decision rights.

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Who has the decision rights

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on what part of your transformation?

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Because it's not just your organization,

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it impacts your peers as well,

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and multiple parts of the organization.

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<v ->Looking back, what were some of the impacts</v>

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that you've delivered in each of your transformations?

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<v ->After a transformation, you know you've been successful</v>

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if you've got the right people, the right processes,

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the right infrastructure

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so that information can flow quickly.

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If it's still cumbersome,

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if it still takes you two or three weeks to get there,

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something's not right.

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<v ->I think, for me,</v>

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it's the predictive piece to it as well.

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Because, you know,

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you can have a really strong organization,

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but if people are doing a lot

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of shadow spreadsheets on the side,

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if you move away from that to where people

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can really just leverage that and use it from a predictive...

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<v ->...one version of the truth.</v>

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<v ->...one version of the truth,</v>

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and you're using it to actually predict and get out in front

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and ahead versus waiting for the results,

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to me, that is ultimate success.

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<v ->I think of it as like a batting coach.</v>

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You're trying to increase everyone's batting average

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with fact-based decisions.

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And if they understand what drives the company,

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they just make better decisions.

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So as part of this transformation,

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you get a real opportunity to say, "You know what?

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You thought this was really important.

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That was ten years ago. This is really important now."

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And getting that understanding allows people

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to make faster decisions

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that are more aligned with the strategy

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as opposed to having to kind of bring everyone along.

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<v ->Where am I really making money?</v>

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Where do I really want to invest?

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Where's my market and customer going?

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And how do I allocate capital against that as well?

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The more you have in this transformation,

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that people can have those conversations

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and drive those decisions,

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you're ultimately going to have a better shareholder return.