by Rich Bond
The term “Secret Sauce” may be overused, but it’s still a useful concept. No one knows what the ingredients of famous Secret Sauces are, yet they turn ordinary products or companies into roaring successes.
Recently, Business News Daily described the results of a survey conducted by The Conference Board of 56 highly successful companies. In the article “3 Things Most Successful Businesses Do Right,” three main traits were found to be common to the performance of each.
The first trait is:
“Successful businesses use resources effectively and efficiently to execute business strategies and follow these practices:
- Create a culture of rigor and high standards for financial stability.
- Require processes around fiscal management, oversight and decision-making.
- Execute strategies in an operationally efficient manner.
- Align organizational structure to support business strategy.
- Establish and maintain a culture of accountability.”
The survey results shouted at me that “Finance is the Secret Sauce!” Only your finance people – your CFO or Controller – can help you wisely allocate resources, create stability, engage in proper planning, and establish a culture of accountability.
However, if your company is like many that are small- to medium-sized, you may believe that “maximizing resources” is practically impossible. That’s especially true if you lack the right tools to measure things like customer profitability, return on capital investments, or inventory turnover. But a solid finance person can enable you to do just that and will work with you to develop a successful Secret Sauce.
What do you think? Email me at richard.bond@bondandcompany.com.
