Ten Questions and Ten Statements

McKinsey posted a great little conversation starter this week entitled:

What next? Ten questions for CFOs

and subtitled:

"As companies shift their attention from fighting the crisis to getting the most from the recovery, CFOs must keep them focused."

It's nice to see that McKinsey are calling this a recovery now, and so here's the 10 questions to get the conversation started:

1. What shape will a recovery take?
2. Have you restructured enough?
3. Is your supply chain sufficiently flexible?
4. Do you have a short list of acquisition targets ready?
5. Should you restart conversations with potential alliance partners?
6. Are you ready to divest newly underperforming businesses?
7. Do you have the financial resources needed for an upturn?
8. Have you taken advantage of the buyers’ market for talent and other resources?
9. Do you know what risks a recovery might bring?
10. Can you sell your recovery plan to investors?

Interesting, and if your CFO doesn't have the answers then maybe your Corporate Banking Advisor should be assisting …

… meantime, James Gardner who will be speaking at the Financial Services Club along with other bloggers on 16th June, posted a lovely little item about the fact that: "You have to work in a bank to know how to work a bank".

He came up with these statements from vendors:

"You can implement this quickly and get a payback this year"
"The productivity improvements here will pay for themselves"

"We have shown you a real business case and the numbers stack up. But you still say no"

"All I have to do is get a meeting with <C-suite executive> to unblock this deal"
"I will only meet with <insert senior management level> due to <status/time/preference>"

and explains why vendors who think this way don't understand how banks work.

I thought I would add a few more to (a) make this ten statements and (b) add my own vendor think:

What a vendor says: "Why don't we partner with you on this?"
What a vendor means: "Instead of discount, why don't we make out this is a JV"

What a vendor says: "We can provide this on a pure benefits basis"
What a vendor means: "We know we will save you at least 5% more than this is going to cost us"

What a vendor says: "If you sign now, we'll be able to give you X% discount"
What a vendor means:  "It's the end of the quarter, and I'm desperate"

What a vendor says: "Why don't you come and visit XYZ Competing Bank and see how they've done this?"
What a vendor means:  "I'll shame you into buying"

What a vendor says: "Just on green emissions alone, you will see ROI this year"
What a vendor means:  "It doesn't pollute as much as cow's methane gases"

Please feel free to add any more CFO, bank or vendor views as you see fit …