Storytelling in Finance - It's Not As Difficult As You Think!
By Andy Burrows
We hear quite a bit about storytelling in Finance these days. And it can seem like quite an intimidating concept for accountants.
âI got into accounting because Iâm a numbers person! Now youâre telling me I have to be a novelist too!!!?â
So my aim here is to take some of that fear away for you and make it easier.
Because my belief is that storytelling is not such a new thing, as it sometimes seems.
Itâs something that accountants do already, and have always done, but it simply needs developing because we donât tend to do it very well.
Storytelling is in our blood
What do I mean?
Well, Iâve been reflecting on the meaning of the word âaccountantâ as someone who is employed to help the directors give an account of the ownerâs assets and the success of the ownerâs business.
An account, another word for which is⌠a story.
Accountants are trained, really, to tell the story (give an account) of how the ownerâs assets are being used, and how well his/her business is p...
Everyone's a winner with good Finance business partnering
By Andy Burrows
Weâre accustomed, I think, to talking about a âWin/Win situationâ as some scenario where everyone involved in a deal ends up happy with what they got out of it.
I havenât got time to justify (and shouldnât need to anyway) why âWin/Winâ is the best outcome to aim for in any relational situation.
But one thing is certain. You donât get Win/Win situations without having a Win/Win mindset.
And when we think of what Finance business partners, CFOs and Finance leaders should be aiming at, it must involve situations where everyone ends as a winner, certainly where the business is concerned.
For instance, as an example scenario, sales managers might feel they have gained some great insight from Finance that will enable them to convert more leads, whilst in the same interaction the Finance manager feels theyâve got sales managers to better manage risk.
These are the kind of interactions we in Finance want with our non-Finance colleagues. We donât just want our processes an...
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