In the first of a series of three articles on becoming best of breed, we look at how management accountants can make the term concrete and measurable. By Leslie L Kossoff, executive adviser.
There’s nothing new about fierce competition. In fact, the smarter and better your competition, the better for you – because that keeps you on top of your game.
But in a landscape that includes challenges such as the deepest recession in nearly a century, technology changing faster than ever, sovereign debt and public sector cost cutting and global corporations vying for local business opportunities – to name a few – the need to be a best of breed accountant takes on a new meaning. It needs to be a concrete and measurable meaning.
Whether you are a junior analyst or a global CFO that puts the onus on you to both become and create best of breed, both personally and organisationally.
Starting with WIIFM
You need to start asking the question 'What’s in it for me?'
This is not a selfish desire for gain. It’s a means of seeing where you stand, what you need, how you can do and be more, personally and professionally – and, most importantly, how you can create and help others create and be more than they already are.
The gains are there – in whatever currency or measure you define them – but that’s to be expected. That’s not the real WIIFM.
The real WIIFM is a personal driver. It's the knowledge that the more you focus on being personally best of breed, the more you’ll achieve for yourself and your organisation.
Getting to best of breed
Best of breed isn’t an organisational fad or flavour of the month. Best of breed is the actualisation of the vision of your organisation; and of your vision for yourself.
The same measures that you use to determine: whether your organisation is going in the right direction; how well it is protected from outside influences; the extent to which it pushes the limits towards what’s new and what’s next; the ways that it is a market discriminator and market maker – this is how you define best of breed.
Best of breed requires a broad based understanding and application of management accounting – with the focus on management. This is about being able to convey the knowledge and insight you have in such a way that you become an enterprise-wide leader and knowledge resource for every level of the organisation.
You are the keeper of the information. You understand the numbers – from where they come from to what they mean – better than anyone else in the enterprise. For the organisation to succeed, you need to become teacher and mentor. You need to be become the guide to creating mini-CFOs throughout the organisation, so that they can take this new understanding that you’ve provided and do more, be more and create more with it.
That extends WIIFM from you to everyone else.
Start as you mean to go on
So, as you look at next steps toward success, ask yourself these questions:
- To what extent am I regularly communicating my understanding within and across the organisation?
- How am I working as a participatory leader – in staff and team meetings across all functions – bringing a management accounting perspective to others for their greater gain and performance?
- To what extent have I ensured that my staff are working that same way – and have the skills to do so?
- How are the improvements as a result of our actions being measured?
- What else – and how else – might I contribute to creating the skills and knowledge base the organisation requires?
- How do I define best of breed – and how can I move more efficiently and effectively toward that definition?
- What does my organisation need from me that I’m not currently providing?
Being best of breed is non-negotiable. In the next two editions of Insight we'll look at specific ways you can achieve it.
Links
CPD planner
Read Leslie L Kossoff's blog on 'Becoming best of breed'