I love working on cash flow management problems. I approach cash flow management through two different lenses. One lense is upstream cash flows and the second is downstream. Most articles on cash flow directed toward small business owners are downstream in nature such as improving AR collections and speeding up inventory turns. I prefer focusing on upstream cash flow–marketing and sales.
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The Best Accounting Books Ever Written
I know many seasoned accountants who are lifelong learners and readers. If you ask them about their favorite accounting books, expect a pause, and possibly a very long one. However, I’ve found several titles worth reading or referencing periodically from this narrow business genre.
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You Finished a Great Book, Now What?
What happens after you finish reading a great book? You know, the one you tell everyone about or the one you can’t quit thinking about. I know, you want a similar follow-up, right?
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Best Books about Financial Fraud
I guess I have a pea-sized brain. While working for KPMG, first-year accountants (aka grunts) were inundated with internal controls training (alums, remember SEADOC?). But I just didn’t get it. How did/do accountants learn how to steal? If only I had these two books at my fingertips nearly 30 years earlier.
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My 15% vs Ownership Thinking
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.
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Ending the Negative Connotation of Planning
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.
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The Effective Executive – Read the Introduction
Every financial leader should be reading Drucker. If you have not read any of his books, I’d start with The Effective Executive. You’ll find he was way ahead of his time.
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How I Subscribe to the Wall Street Journal
There have only been two online publications I’ve subscribed to for years, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Harvard Business Review. I’m not including publications like Forbes, Inc., or Bloomberg’s Businessweek. That’s because I continually switch out those publications yearly for variety.
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Books Similar to Shoe Dog
I still remember my first impressions after reading Shoe Dog a few months after the book was released. I had not recalled reading a memoir or autobiography with that much transparency and drama since Sandra Kurtzig’s book (mentioned in my list), but I bet she would say her story pales compared to Knight’s.
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The Firefighter Financial Expert
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.
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