All CFO Bookshelf Blog Posts

Numerous CEO friends continually extol the employee virtues of ownership thinking. I’ve never jumped on that bandwagon. I’ve met my share of passive and disengaged, country club-like, and unsophisticated owners. With that jaded imagery in my mind, I don’t want employees thinking like owners, even if the bad ones represent a small minority of all entrepreneurs. Instead, I prefer a stewardship mentality.

[Read more…] about My 15% vs Ownership Thinking

When you think of planning, what springs to mind? In your organization, is planning a positive experience or a negative one?

Many of us, including this writer, have suffered many tortuous planning exercises that never gained steam once they were finalized. Future planning events continue with similar results.

Perhaps we need a reminder of what planning is and its primary aim. I’ll keep this short by referencing a page from Peter Senge’s masterful business playbook, The Fifth Discipline.

The Essense of Planning

Senge calls planning a form of institutional learning. It’s through this continuous learning that the organization adapts and grows. Reading between the lines, planning is far more beneficial than the plan itself. Additionally …

… the process whereby management teams change their shared mental models of the company, their markets, and their competitors. For this reason we think of planning as learning and of corporate planning as institutional learning.

Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

Based on the comments of Senge, is planning a learning and growth experience in your organization? If not, why? If so, how can you help to change this thinking about planning?

I love hearing about or reading stories of people learning a new skill that helps others in a significant way.

John Cuomo was an active firefighter and paramedic for nearly 25 years, and he tells the story of becoming a pension expert in his book, Leadership Refined by Fire.

[Read more…] about The Firefighter Financial Expert