2 - Activities of Finance Professionals Flashcards
Stages of info to impact diagram
- Assemble info
- Analyse for insight
- Advise to influence
- Apply for impact
- Acumen (ensures continuing process)
As we move thru stages of info to impact diagram, how does role of finance change?
Finance works in isolation –> work with others
i.e. accounting & governance –> guidance& management
Assembling info involves
collating, cleaning and connecting data into assembled info = reporting role
Analysing for insights involves
Analysing financial and non financial info to draw out patterns and provide relevant insights = questioning role
Advising to influence =
communicating insights to users and contributing to an objective, responsible perspective to influence their decisions = developing solutions role.
Applying for impact =
supporting and guiding actions to help org achieve the desired impact = deploying solutions.
How does acumen help?
Apply it to assemble valuable info and inform consideration of subsequent proposals. Acumen is what connects the different activities together.
Because of tech, finance have to focus more on which of info to impact activities?
Less on accounting & gov i.e. info & insights
More on guidance & mgmt i.e. influence & impact
Define data
raw, unprocessed facts and figures.
define info
Data that has been processed in a way that makes it meaningful for planning or decisions.
Financial data =
standard metrics which are well tracked and understood by org
Enterprise data =
financial data + broad operational & transactional data that bolsters analysis & forecasting - info bis generates internally outside standard financial data.
Big data =
enterprise data + new types of internal and external data which can be unstructured and large in volume but could yield new bis insights.
Why do we need to consider costs of assembling info?
Need to determine if value of info > costs
Quantitative vs qualitative info
Quant = can be given a value, objective Qual = cannot be given a value, subjective
ACCURATE mnemonic for good qualities of useful info
Accurate Complete Cost effective Understandable (needs of end user) Relevant (omit irrelevant info) Accessible (choice of medium) Timely Easy to use
Informal data collection
Goes on all the time e.g. by employees learning from world around them in newspapers, news or meetings with bis associates.
Formal data collection
Org needs specific data to fulfil a particular purpose so goes away and collects it.
IS informal data collection mostly driven by external or internal data sources?
EXTERNAL
Environmental scanning =
Process of gathering external info from a wide range of sources.
IS market research external or internal data source?
External - collect from outside org even if carried ou by org itself.