Damien Wild has a sympathetic look at the wisdom of Sir John Harvey-Jones who passed away yesterday. Reflecting on Sir John’s views about FD/CFOs, Damien says:
A good FD, said Sir John, must be able to measure innovation, reinforce everything that is working well within a company and be willing and able to cut out everything that is not. And to do it quickly. But, again he warned, FDs who were going to have a lasting impact on their business must do more. They must, he said, be visionaries and persuasive ones at that. ‘In the finance function it’s all about risk and if you don’t take risks that’s the most dangerous position of all. It almost doesn’t matter what you do as long as you are constantly trying something new.’
Interesting that these are themes I write about all the time and yet within the profession, the ability to act in the manner Sir John recommended back in 2000, is often absent. Damien adds:
He also talked of the need for younger accountants to change. ‘They have got to have a dream of where they might be in future,’ he said. ‘It’s not that they might have a 20% chance of becoming chief executive, it’s that they have a 60/70% chance of being the main agent for change in the business in which they working. That ought to be the ambition of the young accountant.’
To achieve that he urged the accountancy institutes to make their training more relevant to modern business needs. ‘The pressure on the training of young accountants is to buy into that change. My message to them is that it is bloody good that you have started but please hurry. You haven’t got much time.’ Ensuring that that happens wouldn’t be a bad legacy.
How long have I been saying much the same and it still hasn’t happened?
Great eulogy Damien. One I hope the bods at Moorgate Place think about printing out and sending around the place.
