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:
- What shape will a recovery take?
- Have you restructured enough?
- Is your supply chain sufficiently flexible?
- Do you have a short list of acquisition targets ready?
- Should you restart conversations with potential alliance partners?
- Are you ready to divest newly underperforming businesses?
- Do you have the financial resources needed for an upturn?
- Have you taken advantage of the buyers’ market for talent and other resources?
- Do you know what risks a recovery might bring?
- 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 …