Listen Now

“The future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed.” -William Gibson All companies like to know where they are succeeding and most use benchmarks as a methodology to determine the areas of high performance. Typically, organizations believe that benchmarks will provide a magical answer as to what their competition is doing right, that can then be applied to their own business. However in our experience, traditional benchmarks have been found to not be as effective as many believe. So how should they best proceed? This week, we discuss how to create a benchmark based upon a best-achieved performance of a company and how this ties into the financial statement story. Tune in to hear how you can pinpoint your best-achieved performance, formulate a benchmark based off those resulting best practices, and ensure you are maximizing your potential. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: How to identify the best-achieved performance of a company. Why procedure manuals typically do not yield the best possible performance. The importance of making tacit knowledge explicit. How to determine the bell curve of productivity. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein www.FinancialStatementStory.com  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

“We all need a daily check up from the neck up to avoid stinkin 'thinkin' which ultimately leads to hardening of the attitudes.” -Zig Zigler Companies, big and small, have been trying for years to find the ultimate new technology or system that will revolutionize their business. Many choose to utilize enterprise resource planning (or ERP) without thoroughly researching the simpler, and cheaper, solutions that exist.  So, what is the best path for your business? This week, we are discussing ERP implementations and why so many fail to help organizations achieve the competitive edge that they are looking for. Tune in to hear how you can avoid these pitfalls and ensure that your company is not added to the long list of failed ERP implementations. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: How to avoid the 3 basic pitfalls of an ERP implementation. Notable failed ERP implementations of several well-known companies. The importance of ensuring there is a sound business reason for an ERP software. Why an ERP is just a utility, like an internet connection, that is not meant to give a competitive advantage. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein www.FinancialStatementStory.com Panorama Consulting Solutions ERP Reports  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

“Give me twenty days to solve a problem and I’ll take nineteen days to define it and one day to solve it” -Albert Einstein We often find ourselves in the situation where we need to present a new idea or a new product or service for internal approval or to sell to our customer. Many times we find it difficult to get the right audience and we run the risk of losing the sale or your idea stalls and dies because it gets lost in the cacophony of the many other projects that are being talked about. So how do we get to the person calling the shots? In this episode of the Financial Statement Story we explain how you can make your argument more compelling and present it in the best way possible. We show you how using the financial story and the relationship of its characters you can explain the value of your proposal to the business in order to rise to the top of the organization and get in front of the decision makers. Don’t miss this episode full great advice that will help you find the right problems to work on using the financial story and the treasure map. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: Our examples of effective and ineffective conversations with decision makers. How to present your idea by explaining its financial impact. Real world examples of the losses that can happen without proper grasp of the financial story. Featured On The Show: Learn more about Nalini Ambady  Mick Holly Andre Gein www.FinancialStatementStory.com  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

“Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing". -Helen Keller, the Open Door, 1957 Most often company owners and executives are reluctant to share the financial information believing their employees will want a different position if they see the numbers. Those fears do not translate into reality; people simply want to know that they are working for a healthy, growing organization. This week we are discussing a concept called “Open Book Management” and how implementing it will help your organization become a more successful, transparent business. Tune in to hear how you can start building a culture of trust within your company today. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: What open book management is. Why you should not be afraid to share your company’s financial information. The importanceof understanding how financial statement works. The attributes of good open book management companies. Featured On The Show: Sam Walton’s10 Rules for Building a Business  Mick Holly Andre Gein www.FinancialStatementStory.com  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

“Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.” -Ogden Nash In order to start a business, in many cases, we need to look into borrowing money from a third party, which in turn will put you in debt. How do you know whether that was a good decision?  Should you borrow even more money?  Why should we even care about debt? Debt is a powerful instrument that allows you to finance the investments vanity and sanity need to grow the business. Listen to this week’s episode as we get into what debt is, good debt versus bad debt and how you should use it to fund your business. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: What is good debt and how it works for you. What is bad debt. How to tell if you are making a profit from debt. Three components of good debt. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein www.FinancialStatementStory.com  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

This week we get even deeper into chapter five; this is where we bring the whole financial statement story together with one measure - our accountability measure. This truly is how vanity, sanity and the king works together to deliver the return on the capital employed. Once you understand all of the components that engineer the return on capital employed, you will be able to tell how much return you are generating on your invested dollar. Listen in for a breakdown on chapter five and how to determine your company's return on capital employed. Don’t miss our easy explanation and examples of the return on capital employed. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: Why accountability is the key to how we establish value within the organization. How to understand the equation to measure the returns on capital employed. How an increase in revenue dollar based upon your investment determines how efficient your balance sheet is. How to use the return on capital employed formula to choose a company to invest in. The two key components of the returns on capital employed formula. Why return on capital employed is called the accountability measure.  Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein www.FinancialStatementStory.com  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

On this weeks's episode, we revisit our mission - to engender the financial statement story in organizations in order to help people understand this indecipherable set of hieroglyphics. Once you have a clear understanding of the financial statement, it will become your ultimate business scorecard that will allow you to uncover hidden “treasures” and achieve superior financial performance in your organization. Listen in for a quick recap of the four first chapters of the story, followed by a thorough analysis of the last chapter – return on capital employed.  Don't miss our explanation of the strategic measure of value creation. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: Why the statement is the critical scorecard of any organization. A recap of the first four chapters of the financial statement story. How we are creating (or destroying) value in our organization. The importance of looking at value from both of the perspectives: of the money making machine, and that of the wealth creation engine. The equation that will help you measure the returns on capital employed. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein www.FinancialStatementStory.com  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

Are you having a difficult time determining if your business is consuming or generating cash? If so, then you’re in the right place, because this is the very question we are answering on this week’s episode. You’ll be amazed that to answer that burning question, you only need to extract two numbers from the financial statement; it's incredibly simple, if you know what to do! Remember, your financial statement is the only business scorecard you need to manage your business better. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: The direct relationship between income statements and balance sheets. Why you don’t pay for working capital twice. If The Hunger Measure has inflated and if it’s a bad situation. Why the “King” doesn’t have to go to other sources to fund a new development when using this method. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

To continue our working capital theme, we are giving you a measuring tool to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the end-to-end supply chain of your business; this tool is called "The Hunger Measure.” On this week’s episode, we are discussing how you can use The Hunger Measure to find out if your business is improving or if it's in static mode. You’ll hear four scenarios, which will help you understand what a simple, yet extremely powerful, tool The Hunger Measure is for your business. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: The elements of The Hunger Measure. How cash consuming changes to cash generating. Why period 2 of the business sheet replicates period 1, changing nothing. The dilemma when capital increases. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

According to the statistics gathered by Gallup.com, on average, only one third of the employees in most organizations are actively engaged. That means that only this small fraction of employees is creating value for that company. The organizations with the highest level of employee engagement in the same industry experience dramatically higher earnings per share growth rate. In this week’s episode, we aim to help you create an environment conducive to increased productivity of your subordinates. Implementing our actionable tips will ensure an improvement in your organization’s financial performance. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: Frightening statistics about employee engagement. The importance of working on root causes rather than symptoms. How to harness the power of loyal employees to improve performance. How to free up your employees’ time in order to increase productivity. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

This week, we begin the a series of shows that will help organizations manage their costs. Managing costs is a critical factor for any business. While rapid cost reduction is often a pressing need, undertaking this feat will often damage the cultural fabric of the business and possibly the long-term competitive advantage of the organization. In this week’s episode we are specifically discussing managing costs of service businesses.  Our goal is to help you create a condition where people can understand how they can get cost competitive advantage in their enterprise by making better collective decisions instead of driving debilitating cost reduction. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: Why we manage the bottom line, and the main issue with it. An interesting case study from a service-based business. The difference between visible and invisible costs and why you should care about them. Ideas on how you might help people understand the nature of the challenge and how they need to work collectively to manage the cost of goods sold. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

Continuing the theme of our last episode, we look deeper into ways to bring more meaning and purpose to financial review meetings for all parties involved. As a tradition, those kind of meetings are usually a one way reporting mechanism with very little engagement. In this week’s episode you will hear three main structure ideas for making the financial meetings more dynamic and action-oriented. Implementing these actionable tips will undoubtedly set you apart within  your organization. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: The three key elements of a successful financial meeting. How to create and deliver a clear and well-presented message. What is “treasure map”, and why it is so powerful. How properly described relationship between the financial statement characters will make things clear during a presentation. Which numbers are important to focus on. Ways to create a great call to action that will “move the dial” within the financial statements. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

Many people dread Financial Review Meetings because of their inherently dry and oftentimes confusing nature. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the numbers and walk out of these meetings retaining very little of value. In this episode, you will hear how one of our clients turned her Financial Review Meetings around, saving everyone from confusion and impressing the CFO in the process. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: How to make sense of the characters in your financial story and prepare yourself for financial review meetings. Learn to organize the numbers to understand their relationships and even predict what is coming next. How having this knowledge will help you arrive at the right conclusions of your financial meetings. Three easy ways in which you can improve your financial presentations. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

In this episode, Mick and Andre really hone in on how you can distance yourself from your competitors in the sales process using the financial statement story. These characters and relationships will give you a powerful understanding of how your company works from the inside-out. They are going to look at how the financial statement story can help internally with your own company, as well as the impact it can have on your customers. This information is valuable for anyone who is looking to get a whole lot more out of their financial statements. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: The two key elements to your Financial Statements. How to make the characters in your Financial Statement Story work in harmony. The five chapters of your Financial Statement framework. How your framework can set you apart from your competitors and help you succeed. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

While many view financial statements as somewhat confusing or perhaps occasionally "over their heads", in this episode you'll hear from Mick and Andrew as they break it down, and demonstrate how a person can use their financial numbers as a tool for profit, improve, cash and returns in their business. They'll show you how to do all this in just five minutes.  You'll hear some examples using Target's 2012 number and I think you'll be surprised at how this episode's concepts can be applied to reading your own financial statements. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: The 5 minute financial statement demonstration How YOU can use your statements to find more returns in the business The Hunger Measure and it's effect on your profitability, revenues and working capital Target's 57 day inventory, their supply chain and the lessons to be learned for your strategy Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gien  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

In our previous episodes, we have talked about the characters in your financial story, how they react and four building blocks to turning your Financial Statements into a bonafide treasure map. This week we are going to go much deeper into the money making machine, and how we strategically engineer our operations through gross profit, operating profit and our retained profit. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: The three core components to your money making machine. How revenue and Cost of Goods Sold relate to gross profit. The definition of Cost of Goods Sold, Operating Profit and Retained Profit, and how they interact with each other. Three ways to get higher gross profits. What Vanity and Sanity can do to improve gross profit. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein  Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat

In our previous episodes, we've introduced the three characters in your financial story, and explained the relationships between those characters and how they interact with each other. This episode is all about your financial statement story, and reducing the complexity of your financial statements into five key chapters. Hopefully after this episode you'll dig in and start finding wondrous wealth everywhere. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: How we can effectively focus on growing revenue in our business. How to translate revenue growth into superior profitability. How to measure the right kinds of profit in your financial statements. How to measure the "hunger" of your working capital per dollar of revenue. The three components of working capital. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat  

In our last episode, we introduced the three characters in your financial statement story. Today we are going to discuss a little bit more about the environments that these characters play in. We'll talk about exactly how to visualize how these characters interact with each other, and how these relationships can relate to you. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: Two fundamental building blocks to the financial statement story. How to visualize your characters and their interactions. Two incredibly important components to wealth creation. How the relationship between your money and other people's money impacts your story. How understanding these relationships can help you make more intelligent, thoughtful, long-term decisions. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat  

Welcome to the first episode of the Financial Statement Story podcast. We will help you transform your financial statements into a compelling story. We want that story to lead you on an adventure, with many clues and paths to follow. These clues will give you insight into where hidden riches exist in your business. Hopefully these insights will help you improve profits and drive returns in your business. You will discover and obtain new qualities that will help you stand out and become more effective in your business pursuits. Listen To The Full Interview: What You'll Learn From This Episode: What makes financial statements important at all. If you can master your financial statements, you automatically connect yourself to every decision inside your business. How do we get behind the numbers and really understand the meaning behind them? How to turn your financial statement into a genuine story. The three characters in your financial statement story, and the potential conflict between them. Featured On The Show: Mick Holly Andre Gein Get More Stories: Subscribe in iTunes & Leave us a Review Subscribe to the show via RSS or Stitcher Join our email list to never miss a beat