Managing the strategic financial direction of an organization is at the heart of the CFO role. CFOs are charged with making informed decisions regarding how to distribute an organization's assets in order to maximize value to customers and, therefore, generate profit. To that end, it is critical that CFOs stay informed about new and emerging business principles and management systems across all...
When user organizations outsource business functions to a service provider, the risks of the service organization become risks of the user entities. Organizations that use service providers want to ensure the integrity and security of the system and company to which they are entrusting their data. Accordingly, user organizations are increasingly demanding that their service providers undergo an audit that...
In an article published by First Round Review (original post here), Jessica McKellar, former founder and now engineering manager at Dropbox, shares her experiences and insights on how to lead an engineering team. As with most articles on management and leadership, I read this one with an objective mind towards knowledge and kept an eye out for lessons and ideas that support...
Finding better ways do things is a standard component of business success. While there are a number of ways to going about this, a common component of continuous improvement programs involves eliminating or at least reducing human error. In fact, well-known engineer Shingeo Shingo, who is considered as being the world's leading expert on manufacturing practices, coined the term "Poka yoke,"...
In an article published in the Harvard Business Review, September-October 1990 entitled “Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services", Bain and Company, working with Earl Sasser of Harvard Business School analyzed the costs of revenues derived from servicing customers over their entire purchasing life cycle. What they found is that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to...