Leela Gill: Doing More With Less

Leela Gill is a LaunchX Mentor and originally published the following article to LinkedIn on January 4, 2017.For those in Finance Transformation, the 2016 message we heard was “we need to do more with less”. Across multiple finance conferences, participants agreed that budget pressure is increasing while at the same time, business complexity is accelerating. As a result, finance teams cannot afford to be late, inaccurate, or costly. Timeliness, precision and low cost are baseline expectations, the necessary foundation. On top of this foundation, you must add value to the top line. So, in 2017, how can finance leaders do all this with fewer resources?

1.       Focus on your people

a. Invest in training, career development, and personal growthb. Focus on retaining talent

• It is easier than ever for people to change companies, and there is more competition for talent
• Millennials average only 2 years in any one job – this creates problems for transformation projects that take longer than two years!
• You must motivate, develop and challenge people so they stay interested

c. Talk to your team frequently – people want to have conversations

2. Practice excellence in change management

a. Change is not comfortable for most people so:

• Don’t surprise people, be as transparent as possible
• The words you use do matter
• Capture people’s stories (don’t just say “trust us”) and use these stories to help change behavior

b. Trust is earned; do what you say you are going to do

3. Implement self-funding models like dynamic discounting

a. Find ways to fund your own transformation processesb. Protect your funding, otherwise progress will stallc. Make sure you have the highest Executive sponsorshipOrganizations underestimate the value finance can bring to the table, but through investing in your people and creating a more effective process, your finance team can jump into the value-add conversation.