Solving Ambiguous Problems – What Successful Companies Get That the Rest of Us Don’tI’ve had the distinct pleasure of working with some of the best run companies over the years and I’ve come to appreciate what really separates them from “the merely good”. Some of what makes great companies so successful, like hiring great talent, is quite obvious. But in this blog I’d like to share one of… Read More |
Who is Raymond Panko… and why should you care?Raymond Panko, a professor at the University of Hawaii, is the leading expert on spreadsheet errors. Who makes them, why they happen, what rate they’re seen in the average spreadsheet, you name it. He wrote a paper on the subject called What We Know About Spreadsheet Errors first published in the Journal of End User… Read More |
RFP’s Don’t WorkMany organizations still issue RFP’s for selection of software products. Issuing and RFP is an extremely poor way of evaluating software in today’s world, particularly end user software such as budgeting software. RFP’s are generally a generic wish list of historical features and functions that are also normally equally weighted. The process is outdated… Read More |
10 Problems Colleges & Universities Have With BudgetingThe problems that colleges and universities face when it comes to budgeting are significant. Given all the economic challenges higher education faces today and the need to do more with less, budgeting is clearly mission critical. That makes addressing the problems associated with budgeting a top priority. One of my old bosses used to say… Read More |
Someday is now… Somebody is youSomeday we’re going to make our budget process better… somebody should really do that. How often have you thought that? How often have you discussed that with the people you work with? Well… that some day is now, and that somebody is you. I know firsthand that leading an effort to redesign the planning process… Read More |
The Moon Shot for Higher Ed – Make College AffordableWhen President Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth by the end of the decade, it became known as “the moon shot.” The challenge was bold, the mission was clear, and everyone knew sacrifices had to be made to accomplish a great goal. The moon… Read More |
Budgeting: Steve Jobs or Bill Gates?According to a recent survey (multiple surveys in fact) most organizations are still using Excel for budgeting. Part of the explanation for that, of course, is “it’s free”. But it’s also because we in Finance have a bias for spreadsheets. No self respecting accountant or finance professional would back down from the challenge of building… Read More |
A Shout Out to Linda Murphy ChurchEvery once in a while the sun and the moon and the stars all align just right to deliver an exceptional webinar. Such was the case recently when Linda Murphy Church presented how she used the rigorous Malcolm Baldrige Award criteria to access a critical decision the Rhode Island School of Design was facing. In… Read More |
The Malcolm Baldrige Award Criteria and Better Software PurchasingYou’ve been through the drill before. Some process in your organization needs fixing and a team is formed to address it. Before you know it, you’re looking at software as a solution. That’s not a bad thing, but the way we go about it often is. The team comes up with a requirements grid (often… Read More |
Unique Challenges of Budgeting in Not for ProfitBudgets matter in the not-for-profit world to a degree I rarely see in the for-profit world. In the for-profit world, the budget is just a snapshot in time. It can be forgotten about the first time the company produces a reforecast (which, incidentally, can be forgotten with the second reforecast). It’s not that for-profit organizations… Read More |
