“I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396 . . . “

“Why do cars have brakes?”

“To help them go faster!”

At first sight, I agree, it’s counter-intuitive. But I have it on good authority that Formula One races are won or lost at the corners, where the brakes together with the skill of the driver combine to help the leader get ahead.… Read More

 “Still don’t know what I was waiting for . . . “

We are creatures of habit.

Basing all our plans, decisions and actions on “received wisdom” is an example of that.

Daniel Kahneman hit the nail on the head in his inspiring work on human rationality and irrationality, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.… Read More

“Watch out, you might get what you’re after” . . .

Last week saw a great virtual audience and speakers at Global Shared Services Leaders’ Summit 2021 courtesy of Susie, Sally, Sarah, Josh and the team at SharedServicesLink. You can get access to all the presentations at the link below..… Read More

Smile like you mean it . . .

A change is gonna come . . . 

This week, I was joined by Robin Ashby, Audit Director and Head of Internal Controls at Qurate Retail Group, the $10bn company behind QVC and the Third Way to Shop®.

It seems we are still approaching risks and controls without sufficient recognition of the impact of the seismic changes underway, in M&A, “socially distanced” and “touchless” tasks, new IT application landscapes, global end-to-end processes and business governance itself.… Read More

Talking ’bout a revolution . . .

Digital transformation remains a top priority for business leaders.

Whether we aspire to digitally enabled products, integrated global processes, enhanced employee experiences, greater customer and supplier engagement, better data driven decision making or AI-enabled operating improvements, “transformation” is the name of the game.… Read More

Getting Good At What We Don’t Know! 

70% of Digital Transformation initiatives fail to deliver on their business case!

It is worth pausing for though on why that might be.

I think it is largely related to the “Dunning Kruger” effect.… Read More

It’s Time We Got A Grip! 

We asked Finance, Global Business Services (GBS) and Shared Services leaders about their aspirations as well as their “stakeholder demanded” objectives.

The results were highly aligned amongst those stepping into the “next generation” operating models.… Read More

Two Data Issues to Watch Out For in 2021

The last 12 months accelerated digitisation across global businesses as remote, separated work became inescapable and consumers, suppliers and partners demanded contactless interfaces and interactions.

Analysts project that this pace will increase!… Read More

Survey exposes ICFR / SOX challenges ahead . . .

According to a Deloitte survey, the significant challenges in ICFR / SOX compliance are accelerating.

We are seeing this also in our work with global businesses;

• End-to-end process transformation is exposing financial risk in new ways.