It is people’s abilities and behaviours that drive business success (and also failure). Training, leadership and motivation are critical to success. For people to perform well they should understand the purpose of what they are doing and its relevance to the organisation as a whole; it is also important for them to have feedback. Something [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Process improvement & risk management category.
Put your head in the Cloud – but keep your feet on the ground!
A lot of the work I do is around the information that comes out of a computer or the processes before data is entered. What happens in between is to me, quite frankly, a bit of a dark art. I recently attended a seminar “Cloud Accounting for the 21st Century Debunking The Myths” hosted by [...]
Double dip or not – 5 tips for steering through uncertain conditions
When the credit crunch hit I was struck by how many businesses adopted a slash and burn mentality. Doubtless many businesses had been complacent and there was fat that could be trimmed, but also there was a reluctance to spend money on the things that would take them forward, whether it was marketing, skills, IT or [...]
News of the World – an unanswered question
My initial reaction to the recent News of the World revelations was that the people at the top must take responsibility. I took the view that senior management are ultimately responsible for the organisation’s culture and when there is a serious breach of ethics they should resign. As mentioned in my last blog I have [...]
Is “audit” an emotive term?
For many people their experience of audits is of external audit, which to a large extent is a forced purchase required by law. For the uninitiated an external audit is carried out by an independent firm of accountants and its main focus is forming a view on whether the annual accounts give a “true and [...]
How fraud prevention can improve profits and cash flow
In my last blog I spoke about the increased risk of fraud in the current climate and the challenges of SMEs in preventing fraud. Whilst businesses can thrive on friendliness, informality can also result in loose procedures that leave a business exposed to fraud or error. Here are some tips which should not only help [...]
