Your stakeholders may think they make decent Finance decisions.
They might have a good head for numbers, but that’s not enough. Because they don’t have the experience Finance does.
Knowledge and experience aren’t the same thing. And I learned the difference when I was working with a stand-up coach.
Comedy is a lot of writing jokes, testing them in front of an audience, then re-writing them.
Make the joke shorter, punchier, funnier.
Trim the fat, get more bang for your buck.
Can you use fewer words and still get a laugh?
For two years, I opened my set with the same joke.
Over that time, I whittled it down to the essentials. If the joke got any tighter, it would snap in half.
It had achieved its final form.
Or so I thought.
Enter the Experience
Working with a comedy coach is like going back to school.
I had to bring my jokes, printed out like a homework assignment.
I proudly handed him my opening joke - and he quickly marked it up.
Red pen.
Red pen.
More red pen!
Is he correcting my spelling or something?
Then he hands it back to me - what’s left of it anyway.
50% of the words… gone!
I thought I made the joke as tight as it could be.
I had studied comedy books, but he wrote them. Big difference.
He had 30 years experience under his belt. He had been on the Australian TV show “Hey Hey It’s Saturday.”
I had been working on this joke for an entire year. He took one look at it and instantly saw how it could be improved.
The joke was based on a conversation, so I wrote it like a conversation. He told me to take out all the “then she said, then I said.” Instead, I should just turn my head, put a slight inflection on in my voice, and voila! Everyone knows it’s someone else. No extra words needed.
With my knowledge, I could make the joke work. But with his experience, he saw a way to make it even better.
The Experience Finance Brings
The business might have read a book on making better financial decisions. Maybe they’ve gone through some training.
But they don’t have Finance’s experience.
That experience is our bread and butter.
We can look at a proposal and see where the red strokes are needed.
The decision might look okay in isolation, but we’re going to see it in the overall context of the business.
We can anticipate suppliers negotiating small increases, which can all add up and decrease margins substantially.
We’ve also read many, many more proposals than our stakeholders have. We can pick up on what’s not being said or terms that have been left out.
The 1% Difference
There’s a great scene in the movie 300.
The Spartan army, 300 warriors led by King Leonidas, meets their ally’s army en route to the battle.
Daxos : I see I was wrong to expect Sparta's commitment to at least match our own.
King Leonidas : Doesn't it?
[points to Arcadian soldier behind Daxos]
King Leonidas : You there, what is your profession?
Free Greek-Potter : I am a potter... sir.
King Leonidas : [points to another soldier] And you, Arcadian, what is your profession?
Free Greek-Sculptor : Sculptor, sir.
King Leonidas : Sculptor.
[turns to a third soldier]
King Leonidas : You?
Free Greek-Blacksmith : Blacksmith.
King Leonidas : [turns back shouting] SPARTANS! What is YOUR profession?
Spartans : HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!
King Leonidas : [turning to Daxos] You see, old friend? I brought more soldiers than you did!
This is why Finance needs a seat at the table. Otherwise, it’s like sending sculptors and potters into battle - but leaving the soldiers on the sidelines.
Other departments might dabble in Finance, but they aren’t experts.
The business might make Finance decisions that are good enough. Maybe they could have been 1% better here or there if they had more experience.
That doesn’t sound like much, but it is. When five departments are making decisions that are 1% off, that becomes a real problem. It adds up quickly.
When margins are tight, companies can’t afford not to have Finance sitting at the table. Knowledge can only get them so far - they need experience to help them get further.
- Alan “Red Pen” Cameron-Sweeney.