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Are Your People Financially Literate?, Harvard Business Review
“Senior executives routinely share and discuss financial data with marketing directors, operations chiefs, and other direct reports. But how much do those managers really understand about finance? We recently investigated this question, and the news is not good.”
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CIOs Are from Venus, CFOs Are from Mars, CIOZone [link]
by Lisa Yoon
“CIOs and CFOs come from very different places, each having his or her own view of what really drives business strategy. Yet CIOs interested in getting ahead must understand that working with the CFO is inevitable; therefore, they might as well learn how to make that relationship work. A good place to start is understanding your CFO's perspective. There's a book that can help: Financial Intelligence for IT Professionals: What you really need to know about the numbers by Karen Berman and Joe Knight (Harvard Business Press)...”
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Decoding The Numbers, T&D magazine [PDF]
“Patricia Sparacio, managing director of the New York Institute of Finance, is sitting in her office on a Monday evening, waiting for her students to arrive. When her class of several hundred students is ready to start, she logs in and greets the group. Her closest student hails from Manhattan. Others are logged in from Egypt, China, and Europe. Sparacio teaches a virtual course in business and industry analysis. Although she is working with a big group, there is adequate capacity. If the virtual classroom is very large, Sparacio uses a moderator to manage questions and answers for her.
From New York to California, trainers, consultants, and finance companies are using old and new methods to teach people about finance concepts, products, and services.
Students range from the greenest administrators to the savviest managers and executives. Courses can last for a few hours or for weeks, depending on the students’ level of understanding and what they need to learn.
The most effective way to train professionals on complicated financial principles is to rely on the same methods used to train participants on any other topic—by simulating a real environment with real numbers and real decision-making opportunities.”
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BusinessCast 98 - 'Financial Intelligence For Entrepreneurs' with Gold 'n Brown
BusinessCast 98 takes us to the source of financial intelligence with Joe Knight, co-author of the book "Financial Intelligence For Entrepreneurs". The book is a must-read for any entrepreneur or manager who doesn't want to be an accountant, but needs to understand financial information — and that means you! Another 'must-hear' episode of the BusinessCast. Joe knows — and so will you.
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Learn About HR Finances Now! An Interview with Joe Knight
The current economic crisis has brought Wall Street and the flailing economy front and center. And it’s not just the financial industry that's hurting. Everyone is affected. To make your job recession-proof, it has become crucial to not only understand, but manage your position’s return on investment.
Joe Knight, who has written several books on the importance of understanding finances in managerial positions, turns his attention to human resources professionals. His new book, Financial Intelligence for HR Professionals: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers (Harvard Business Press, 2008), written with Karen Berman and John Case, explains the necessity of human resources professionals taking control of the financial aspects of their positions. Knight shares with HR iQ his HR tips for financial success.
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Smart Moves in a Bad Economy
Good benefits, including medical and dental insurance, certainly don't come cheap, but they do keep you competitive with larger employers in the ongoing war for top talent. If you cut them now, you may find that when things turn around, it will cost you more to get back on track, Knight points out. "If you're going to have a long-term business, you've got to take care of your people," he says. "I know a lot of small-business owners who will keep their people and cut benefits. I would rather keep the benefits and have to cut staff."
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New book aims to teach HR conversational finance
It's a timely tome for benefit professionals. As more and more money is spent on health care and other group benefit offerings; executives are increasingly interested in the subject. That means HR and benefits talent will have to be versed in the language of finance to satisfy the heightened interest level. In his book Knight outlines how HR and benefits professionals with a better understanding of finance, can help companies avoid financial peril.
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“How To Raise Your Firm’s Financial IQ”
If your goal is to have a financially intelligent workplace or department, your first step is to figure out a strategy for getting there. We don't use the word strategy lightly. You can't just give a one-time training course or hand out an instruction book and expect everyone to be enlightened. People need to be engaged in the learning. The material needs to be repeated, then revisited in different ways. Financial literacy needs to become part of a company's culture.
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“Dollars and Sense”
“Training can make the difference between employees sitting in a meeting and having no clue what the CEO and CFO are saying when they are talking about EBITDA and free cash flow, and workers actually understanding the financials and key metrics before them, so an intelligent conversation can take place,” says Karen Berman, co-owner and co-founder of the Business Literacy Institute in Calabasas, CA, a company that specializes in business literacy training, strategy, and reinforcement.
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“A Winning Combination”
Charles Dickens’ classic line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” rings true for many small business owners. Every day, small business owners face a unique set of challenges and opportunities. But entrepreneurs have the innate ability to turn challenges into opportunities. One important example of this is the small-business banking relationship. Consider the following two stories which illustrate both the importance and difficulty of building and maintaining a strong banking relationship in today’s business and economic environment.
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“Financial Intelligence Unlocks Career Growth”
Those of us in training and development have a special ability to help others learn. So, why can't we just leave the numbers side of the business to the finance and accounting folks?
The reason is simple: Competition is fierce, so if you haven't picked up financial intelligence through your work or in the classroom, you will easily be relegated to the sidelines.
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“Making Financial Training Stick”
After the Business Literacy Institute in Calabasas, Calif., implemented business literacy training for a major pharmaceutical company, Money Maps® depicting the financial results of various departments were developed and posted for all to see. Manufacturing employees, for example, were able to reference the Money Maps to determine the financial implications of the manufacturing process, including their own contributions and the impact that their mistakes and successes had on those in front of and behind them in the manufacturing line...
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“Using Retirement Money for a Startup”
In general, your retirement funds should be used in the way they are intended: To finance your retirement years. New businesses are inherently risky ventures, and most experts would advise you not to risk your golden years on one, especially since you will be losing the IRA benefit of tax-free compounding for your nest egg...
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“A Rumor of Money for Entrepreneurs”
“No matter how good your business plan is overall, the most important section of the plan is the sales and marketing,” says Joe Knight, coauthor of Financial Intelligence: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean. “You need to really analyze your market…and have a solid strategy for how you are going to sell into that market. Venture capitalists go straight to the sales and marketing plan and if that doesn't make sense to them, then the rest doesn't matter.”
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“The Financially Intelligent Organization: Knowing the Numbers Is a Part of Everyone’s Job”
—by Karen Berman and Joe Knight
“We’ve done away with silos, created cross-functional teams, learned to collaborate and gotten to know our internal customers. But something is still missing. It takes something more to create an organization in which everyone feels involved and committed, where they understand what they are a part of, what the organization is trying to achieve and how they affect the results...”
posted by the American Management Association
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“Working Smart”
—by Holly Dolezalek
“Karen Berman has studied this issue in a little more depth, and the results she found told her that there were benefits in sharing more information with employees.”
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“Yes, You Do Need to Know About Sarbanes-Oxley”
—by Karen Berman and Joe Knight
“Sarbanes-Oxley addresses codes of ethics, financial reporting and procedures and processes. But it is also about becoming financially transparent, an approach to leading and managing that is one of the best ways you can personally prevent financial fraud in your organization.”
originally posted by the American Management Association
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“Fear of Financials”
—by Aliza Pilar Sherman
“At Business Literacy Institute, they have found that the fear of finance comes in part from not having the opportunity to learn about it. Once exposed to the numbers and how they work, anyone can become a powerful part of a business’s success.”
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1-800-CEO-READ Blog conversation on 1/12/2006
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