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8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
1/13
IMAsSecrets to a Successful
Accounting CareerFall 2011
IMA, the association for accountants and financial professionals in business, is pleased to release a
compilation of career-focusedStrategic Finance articles,Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career.
IMA is your one-stop source for professional development and career enhancement. This report
will help you redefine your career path options and provides specific, actionable career advice.
Strategic Finance is IMAs award-winning, monthly publication and provides the latest information
about practices and trends in accounting and finance.
Reaching Your Career Goals
Personal Branding: Create Your Value Proposition
Building Skill Excellence
Take Charge of Your Online Brand
www.imanet.com
8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
2/13
This is the fifth installment of
our six-part series aimed at
providing the framework for
building a successful career man-
agement plan. Weve explored the
components and application of
the four pillars: networking, lever-
aging self-awareness (situational
assessment), skill excellence, and
personal branding. As 2012 comes
into view, it still isnt too late to
build a career management plan.An effective plan will optimize
application of technical and rela-
tional skills within your current
work environment as well as pro-
vide a solid network and founda-
tion should circumstances require
you to launch an external job
search.
In August, we discussed how
personal branding combines withyour technical and relational skill
sets to create a powerful personal
value proposition in the work-
place. Your value proposition will
differentiate you with decision
makers in the organization so you
become the candidate of choice
for opportunities and assign-
ments. Now lets examine building
a strategy to target and achieve
long-range career goals.
Breaking Through One Step
at a Time
At some point in time, everyone
starts at the entry level of an orga-
nization. From there, skill applica-
tion and development combines
with network connections and soft-
skills acumen to significantly influ-
ence your path and trajectory.
Having a vision coupled with well-
planned strategy is essential for you
to be selected for role opportunities
that build an internal knowledge
base and business acumen required
for higher-level roles.The majority of senior-level
executives in a functional area
arrive in their roles via a shared
career path. Its important to iden-
tify the underlying roles and
processes that drove their progres-
sion and then plot a high-level
view of the experience and organi-
zation support you would have to
gain in order to arrive at a targetedlevel or area of the organization.
The main factors driving success
in your organization most likely
will be tied to gaining experience
within certain functional areas and
geographies and working with cer-
tain key functional leaders. This
sounds obvious, but you must take
ownership for managing relation-
ships and acquiring the develop-
ment necessary to gain access to
the roles you need to move up in
the organization. Evaluate the pil-
lars of your career management
plan, and assess if you are building
the network, skill excellence, self-
awareness, and personal branding
to compete successfully.
Consistent and Persistent
You wont always be first in line for
roles needed to move up in the
organization. Understanding and
acquiring the technical require-
ments for targeted roles, consistent
demonstration of skill excellence incurrent roles, and taking ownership
for building relationships with the
decision makers will significantly
increase your career momentum
and prevent stagnation or stalls.
Table 1 highlights the key compe-
tencies for job levels and how the
factors within the pillars of your
career management plan should
evolve and mature to satisfy them.The emphasis and mix of
required technical and relational
skills changes with each level of
progression. Some people will rise
through the organization quickly,
some will plateau at a certain level,
and some will leave the organiza-
tion. The combination of technical
skills developed and soft-skills
tools from your career plan will
optimize your success within your
Reaching YourCareer GoalsIt wont be long before we willsay goodbye to 2011. How is
your career management plan
progressing?
16 S TRAT EG I C F INANCE I Oc t obe r 2011
By Mark Morgan
CAREERS
8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
3/1318 S TRAT EG I C F INANCE I Oc t obe r 2011
current organization or help you,
if necessary, to find a better fit in anew company.
Play to Win
A career management plan is your
personal business case to assemble
a resource base, assess the land-
scape, and create professional
equity in the place where you
invest the majority of your life.
Your network is your advisoryboard; self-awareness enables you
to take an objective view of the
landscape; branding is your mar-
keting plan; and skill excellence is
your face to the customer. Profes-
sional equity will be created in
proportion to the quality of the
components of your career man-
agement plan and how well you
are able to align them with the
drivers of the career ladder for
your organization.
The workplace is a very com-petitive arena, so its critical for
you to know where you want to go
in the organization and clearly
understand the rules of engage-
ment for how to get there. Then
you must decide if youre willing
to make the commitment, sacri-
fices, and efforts required to earn
the opportunities and fit into the
culture. If not, then its best toleverage your diagnostics and
career management plan to exit
and find a place where the job
opportunities and cultural fit are
more compatible.
In evolving and maturing the
elements within the pillars of your
career management plan, remem-
ber these essentials:
NetworkMaintain a solid
base while building an upward
presence. Remember that the five
people you associate with most atwork will have the greatest influ-
ence on your future.
Skill ExcellenceContinuous
learning and growth. Focus on
acquiring the skill and experience
foundation necessary for roles two
levels above your current place in
the organization.
Self-AwarenessDont over-
play your strengths. Adapt style,and modify delivery to comple-
ment the culture and ensure fit.
Practice your elevator speech.
Exercise good listening skills.
Personal BrandingQuietly
and steadily distinguish yourself
through quality delivery that adds
incremental value to the client.
Anticipate, innovate, and excel at
execution.
Table 1. Career Progression Path and How to Influence Success
Job Bands: Key Competencies: Career Plan Evolution:
Strategy Network: Experts and advisors to
Vision provide insight and support
Vice President Integrity Skill Excellence: Commanding presence
Leadership Self-Awareness: Master of graspingFacing skills situations and maximizing outcome
Executive Director Branding: Face of the function
Senior Director Tactical delivery Network: Well connected within the
Influencing skills broad organization and profession
Accumulated technical expertise Skill Excellence: Superior technical
Director Delegation and staff development skills and knowledge baseBreadth of experience Self-Awareness: Organizational maturity
Depth of perspective and ability to bring closure to issues
Associate Director Trust Branding: Partner of choice
Senior Manager Timeliness Network: Map influence sources and
Leadership qualities and fit with company build relationships with impact
Quality of insight Skill Excellence: Continuous
Manager Integrity development and knowledge growthCommitment Self-Awareness: Ability to build relations
Relation building and conflict resolution and manage perceptions
Professional growth exhibited Branding: Demonstrate capacity, quality,
innovation, and delivery
Senior Analyst Aptitude Network: Gain traction in the organization
Analytic skills Skill Excellence: Aptitude and accuracy
Analyst Innovative thinking Self-Awareness: Gain insight and prepareMaturity and fit with role Branding: Demonstrate initiative and
Entry Role Adaptability ability to apply skill sets with quality results
CAREERS
continued on page 61
8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
4/13
A career is a marathon, not a
sprint. The hills get higher as you
progress, so you must prepare for
the climb. Its never too late tobuild a career management plan.
Tomorrow is another day at the
office where your ability to net-
work, interact, demonstrate skill
excellence, and show your person-
al brand will be tested against your
peers. Anticipate, innovate, and
excel in your execution with the
help of a solid plan. SF
Mark Morgan is a finance profes-
sional and founder of The Hyperni-
con Group, a management consult-
ing firm assisting clients in achiev-
ing strategic, process and organiza-
tional excellence. He is also a mem-
ber of the IMA Global Board of
Directors and IMAs Eastern Con-
necticut Chapter. Please contact
Mark [email protected].
Oc t obe r 2011 I S TRAT EG I C F INANCE 61
Careerscontinued from page 18
8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
5/13
How is your 2011 career man-agement plan progressing?The first of our six-part series
on career management appeared
in the January 2011 issue. Now,
more than half the year has evapo-
rated. What progress have you
made to structure and initiate the
actions necessary to build your
competitive edge in the work-place?
The first three installments
focused on building the pillars of
an effective career management
plan: networking, leveraging self-
awareness (situational assess-
ment), and skill excellence. In this
issue, well explore the fourth
pillar: personal branding.
Weve already explored buildingskills excellence and leveraging the
soft skills of networking and self-
awareness. Personal branding
weaves these three components
into a personal value proposition
for the workplace. Your personal
branding efforts will differentiate
you with decision makers in the
organization so you can become
the candidate of choice for oppor-
tunities and assignments.
Essence of Branding
As accountants, were taught that,
in principle, goodwill is the intan-
gible value paid for an asset above
the book, or pure, value. That
intangible value, or branding dif-
ferentiation, becomes the ongoing
quality associated with the asset.
Branding success means building
value for the quality of your work
and differentiating your future
value potential.
No organization has a perfect
career development and succession-
planning process. Most decisionmakers view the organization from
a distant, elevated platform. Even
though companies promote the
fact that they have a succession-
planning process, its a hard fact
that opportunities and assignments
are awarded to people management
knows, likes, and trusts.
Your personal branding efforts
weave your soft and hard skillsinto a portfolio that establishes
ongoing conversation about you
within the circle of decision mak-
ers. Personal branding speaks to
your unique selling points and
values within the competitive
landscape of all other brands and
is often the source of first impres-
sions for decision makers.
Every day we all see examples of
personal branding efforts in the
workplace. There are people who
dress in a unique ways, behave in
unique ways, and bring their cru-
sade for a cause to work each day.
This type of branding distinguishes
and raises awareness but does little
to speak to their quality of work
and potential for future value.
Although personal branding is
far more about substance than
appearance, your appearance is
still a very critical element of
branding success. Appearance
should communicate that youre a
positive fit with the company cul-ture and that your presence, as
viewed through the lens of the
decision makers, can consistently
be counted on to be appropriate.
Branding based on unique appear-
ance and behavior often requires a
person to demonstrate a greater
amount of quality work and sub-
stance in order to overshadow the
first impression created by theirunique dress and behavior.
Unique appearance and behavior
usually wont stand the test of time
and will become a caricature rather
than a lasting positive impression.
Most companies have adopted
business-casual dress environments,
with some opting for casual dress
on Fridays or even full-time casual.
You should adopt the guidelines, fit
into the culture, and wear clothing at
By Mark Morgan
CAREERS
Personal Branding:Create Your ValuePropositionBuilding your personal brandthe right way will let you make
a positive impression on the
decision makers in your
organization and build your
professional presence.
Augus t 2011 I S TRAT EG I C F INANCE 13
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6/1314 S TRAT EG I C F INANCE I Augus t 2011
the high end of the scale. Spend the
extra money to buy good-quality
clothing that demonstrates respect
for the workplace.
Scott Adams, creator ofDilbert
and author of many books on theworkplace, noted in an interview
that as hard as it is to accept,
dressing like your boss is still the
best way to get ahead.Weave in
the lessons from the self-awareness
pillar (March 2011) to evaluate
how to maximize the impact of
your appearance branding and fit
in the company. Remember, most
decision makers view the organi-
zation from a distance, and
appearance is a large part of their
first impression.
Brand Your Work Product
Weaving hard skills into your per-
sonal brand is essential to creating
positive conversation around your
analytical contributions. Each
company has a style and format
for written communication. Howyou format your work product is
more important than whats in
your content because the decision
maker will never appreciate the
quality of what youre contribut-
ing if he or she isnt positively
attracted by the presentation.
Master the slide formats, presen-
tation style, and font characteristics
your key executives are most com-fortable seeing. Borrow and study
old slide decks for format and style.
Preview your work with key stake-
holders in the organization where
you will ultimately submit your
material. Demonstrate that you
value their input by reflecting the
feedback in the final product.
Executives are more impressed
with someone who demonstrates
respect and value for their time by
providing exactly what they need
vs. someone who tries to impress
them with volumes of informa-
tion. Be concise and organized.
State the issue clearly, and recom-
mend a solution early in the pre-sentation; then follow with an
appropriate amount of detail and
narrative. Always do a quality
check of your work for spelling
and word use, and be certain the
little things that could derail you
like page numbers, dates, and con-
fidential designationsare in
place. Quality work that meets the
analytical need and is formatted
properly will always find its way to
higher places in the organization
than it was first delivered.
Technology and Building
Relationships
In the Stone Age, pre-Internet cor-
porate world, people exerted great
efforts to make contact, gain an
introduction, and ultimately earn
an in-person opportunity to makea first impression. Now LinkedIn
and Facebook have become the
networking door openers.
Both internal and external deci-
sion makers immediately turn to
your LinkedIn profile when your
name crosses their radar. Its far
easier and safer for them to gain
insight to whoyou are before
offering in-person meetings toexplore whatyou are. Then most
will turn to Facebook to see if
your personal profile comple-
ments how you portray yourself in
your professional profile.
Your professional profile on
LinkedIn should include a recent
photo, accurate professional and
academic history, and a crisp view
of your past accomplishments,
strengths, and career aspirations.
A good professional profile is
built with vibrant, concise, and
forward-looking wording. Your
Facebook profile should comple-
ment your professional profile.
Weve all heard stories of Face-book pages that have torpedoed
and sunk careers. Dont be one of
them. If you havent yet built your
social network profile, read the
first article in our series, then start
establishing relationships with
people who can be a resource to
your career development.
The networking pillar (January
2011) requires you to build an
influence map of key stakeholders.
Use LinkedIn to get connected to
as many of the key stakeholders
and decision makers as possible.
Dont force yourself on a person
who has a profile with very few
connections. But a person whose
profile and connections reflect
openness to invitations is fair
game to approach electronically.
Building Personal Relationships
Remains Critical
Having a person as a LinkedIn
connection is only a statistic. Keep-
ing your name fresh with them is
essential. This requires occasionally
dropping a brief note to people on
your connection list to bring them
up to date on your professional
activities, inform them of some-thing interesting you read, or pass
along a link for a site they might
be interested in viewing.
Its essential to build personal
relationships with key stakehold-
ers and decision makers. Be con-
scious of and take full advantage
of each opportunity that might
afford contact with a high-value
target of career influence. Be
CAREERS
continued on page 60
8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
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aware that technology has actually
created major hurdles to break the
ice, have conversations, and build
relationships.Relationships are built most suc-
cessfully in small increments of
interaction. Offsite meetings and
conferences are key opportunities
to gain access to high-value targets
on your influence map. Breaks and
common areas are the prime places
to successfully interact with a high-
volume target on your influence
map. What do you see most people
doing during breaks or when stand-
ing by themselves? They have their
face buried in their BlackBerry or
are texting on their phones. What
does this communicate? They
arent open to conversation and
dont want to be approached.
Ifyou are staring at your Black-
Berry or are texting, then you have
a wall between you and others that
negates the prime opportunity tobe approached or initiate conver-
sation where you most likely will
pick up valuable nuggets of infor-
mation that could open the door-
way for building a relationship. So
appear open and approachable.
Initiate conversation while
demonstrating appropriate cour-
tesy. Remember, decision makers
give opportunities to those theyknow, like, and trust.
When youre attempting person-
al interaction with a key stakehold-
er or decision maker, respect the
atmosphere and situation. Dont
force your way into a group or
conversation. Use the lessons from
your self-awareness exploration
(March 2011) to understand how
to leverage your personality
strengths and make situational
modifications to optimize results.
Attracting people who can help
you succeed is critical to building
your own brand. Your character
personal and professionalis
defined by the sum of the five peo-ple you spend the most time with.
Successful branding requires you
to make choices. Surround yourself
with people who can have a posi-
tive influence on building your
character, and spend your time
doing activities that lift you in
incremental steps toward becom-
ing who and what you want to be.
Execution Is Even More Critical
Change and excellence guru Tom
Peters introduced The Brand
Called You concept in 1997 in his
writings that describe getting
ahead in the corporate culture as
the Age of the Individual. A huge
component for successful personal
branding is preparation for execu-
tion excellence when the opportu-
nity presents itself to interact witha high-value target on your influ-
ence map.
Theres no replacement for hard
work and effort in preparing for
successful interpersonal interac-
tion. Preparation requires study,
planning, and practice. A three-
minute conversation with a deci-
sion maker most often creates an
unchanging view of your fit andpotential. This may not sound fair
or even logical, but its true.
Therefore, be prepared. Weve
all heard about having an elevator
speech ready for the time when a
decision maker unexpectedly
opens the door to a relationship
by saying tell me about yourself.
Preparation and practice will
make what you say smooth, con-
cise, and polished. These critical
introduction opportunities rarely
arise in a scripted and structured
way. Unpolished rambling during
this career-critical three-minute
window will require a ton of
cleanup effort and can result inirreparable damage.
Learn how to execute for excel-
lence to optimize the interaction
opportunity. Be polite and profes-
sional. Stay away from questions
that are personal and overly social.
Let the high-value target ask the
personal and social questions,
then always gauge their ego factor
before you answer. Executive ego
will get ruffled if your answer
migrates the conversation toward
anyone but themselves. Be pre-
pared to ask leading questions that
are timely and relevant, and give
answers that put the conversation
back in the executives control.
How to Play to Win
The workplace is a very competi-
tive environment where positivedifferentiation is critical to attract-
ing the attention of decision mak-
ers. Dont try to recreate the gold
standard. Study what is working
and excel at delivering to that
standard through your personal
branding efforts that draw from
the other pillars of your career
management plan. SF
Mark Morgan is a finance
professional and founder of The
Hypernicon Group, a management
consulting firm assisting clients in
achieving strategic, process and
organizational excellence. He is
also a member of the IMA Global
Board of Directors and IMAs East-
ern Connecticut Chapter. Please
contact Mark at
60 S TRAT EG I C F INANCE I Augus t 2011
Careers
continued from page 14
8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
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How is your 2011 career man-agement plan progressing?The first of our six-part series
on career management appeared
in the January issue. If you initi-
ated an activity scorecard, you
should be close to accumulating
1,500 points for the plan develop-
ment and networking activity you
have completed.In the March issue, leveraging
self-assessment explored the cause-
and-effect relationship between
you and the work environment.
When you do this exploration, you
can achieve a level of self-awareness
to better manage relationships and
improve the projection of your skill
set to the organization.
Its never too late to build acareer management plan around
the four pillars outlined in Janu-
ary: situational assessment, net-
working, personal branding, and
skill excellence. An effective plan
will optimize application of rela-
tional and technical skills within
your current work environment
and provide a solid foundation
should circumstances require you
to launch a job search.
Part three of the series focuses
on the skill excellence pillar by
discussing key components for
building a skill set, growing pro-
fessionally, and demonstrating
performance that will optimize
value in an organization.
While the self-awareness portion
of your career plan is built around
the soft skills required for interper-
sonal success, the skill excellence
pillar is built around development
and demonstration of the hard
skills of functional and technical
expertise. But skill excellence isntlimited to education and function-
al training. How far your skill
excellence drives your career suc-
cess is determined by how well you
can exercise those skills to influ-
ence the understanding, quality,
and delivery of business results.
Take Ownership of Your
Skill Development
Finance and accounting positions
in corporations are staff and func-
tional in nature or are line and
technical-support oriented. Exam-
ples of staff and functional roles
include the controlling, reporting,
treasury, tax, audit, and compli-
ance groups. Line and technically
oriented roles support the various
lines of business, such as sales and
marketing, supply chain, and
research and development (R&D).
Simple reporting of numbers
wont create value and sustain
your presence in an organization.
Demonstrating ownership of the
access to financial information
under your responsibility and how
it relates to the delivery of the
business results will ultimately
determine the value created and
lead to opportunities for career
growth and advancement. Owner-
ship is demonstrated by improv-
ing the timeliness, quality, and
utility of the information reachingthe client group. Linking your data
and analytical contribtions to
improve the work stream for the
client group creates value.
Your contribution to an organi-
zation is measured equally by both
what you do and how you go
about delivering your work prod-
uct. Building a skill set that will
advance career momentumrequires demonstrating aptitude,
ownership, initiative, innovation,
and continuous growth and learn-
ing. See Table 1 for some examples
of how to do this.
Each individual must own the
effort to build his or her skill set.
Career management requires a
continuous learning process for
functional skills and knowledge of
the internal business process as
Building SkillExcellenceIt takes a variety of skills tosucceed in your job and cross-
functionally throughout the
whole organization. Honing
your technical skills is a large
part of your success.
16 S TRAT EG I C F INANCE I June 2011
8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
9/13
well as the external factors impact-
ing the business environment. The
corporate culture recognizes and
rewards those who take personal
responsibility for managing the
development of their skill set and
professional growth.
Demonstrate Ownership, and
Influence Data Quality
Those in finance and accounting
roles are the primary owners for
assuring that the acquisition, pro-
cessing, and conversion of data
occurs seamlessly and in a timely,
accurate, compliant, and transpar-
ent manner. Though IT platforms
produce standard reporting, the
finance professional must aquire
expertise to access the source data
and enhance the transparency of
the data through custom reports
June 2011 I S TRAT EG I C F INANCE 17
By Mark Morgan
CAREERS
Table 1. Building a Skill Set
Skill Fundamentals: Examples of Actions to Build an Effective and Holistic Skill Set
Aptitude Relate functional responsibility to overall business processes, drivers, and P&L goals. Identifydata sources, and master use of systems to acquire necessary information for analysis. Con-
tribute perspective beyond the boundaries of your function to the development of client busi-
ness strategy.
Ownership Build a map of the functional, matrixed, and client lines of your role. Identify the key deliver-
ables for each group. Map the business and reporting processes supported by your role. Vali-
date with functional and client groups. Map the data flows, analytics, and reporting responsibil-
ities for your role. Link to timelines and client needs.
Initiative Match the delivery of information and analytics to the style and needs of the client group. Bring
opinion and analytics that improve decision making and drive actions toward higher margin
returns. Relate financial data and performance against competitors while identifying underlying
drivers of difference.
Innovation Improve data flow from systems into analytical models, then into management reports linked to
business key performance indicators (KPIs). Create modeling that improves utility of forecasts
and facilitates client visibility into cause-and-effect alternatives. Propose methodologies that
simplify process workstreams, which results in increased efficiency and reduced costs.
Growth Earn assignment on special project team for key strategic issue or team executing a key tactical
initiative. Shadow operations group or sales force for period of time to build understanding of
key commercial processes. Take temporary assignment outside functional area to better under-
stand business process and operations.
Learning Increase familiarity with business segment and industry issues through intense reading of
periodicals. Attend trade show with operations or commercial group to understand technologies
and market developments. Take advanced study courses (MBA), and obtain professional certifi-cation (CMA (Certified Management Accountant), CPA (Certified Public Accountant), CIA (Certi-
fied Internal Auditor)).
8/3/2019 IMA Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career
10/1318 S TRAT EG I C F INANCE I June 2011
written in software such as Excel.
Custom reporting should provide
details for the drivers of the under-
lying activity of the business.
Effective ownership enables the
functional leaders of the businessto focus on their core responsibili-
ties while operating with reliable
data flows and optimum data
availability. Visibility, contribu-
tion, and value to an organization
are increased through taking own-
ership for minimizing data issues
impacting the performance of the
business process flow.
The conversion of data into use-
ful information requires the finan-
cial professional to connect analyt-
ical delivery with the overarching
business processes, the underlying
drivers, and the decision process of
the business. Skill excellence that
delivers impact is demonstrated
through taking ownership for the
management of data and driving
the quality and reliability of the
end product that reaches the client
group. See Table 2 for examples
that demonstrate taking ownership
and delivering impact.
Create Value for the Client
The business environment oper-
ates in a constant state of change.
All finance and accounting profes-
sionals earn their place in an orga-
nization or seat at the table with
their client groups by being
engaged and active professionals.
The constant change and challenge
in the regulatory, reporting, and
economic environments require
ongoing initiative to align profes-
sional skills and services with the
business process in a manner that
influences business results.
Job postings for finance and
accounting professionals across
the major Internet sites frequently
reference business partner as a
critical characteristic of senior
positions. The concept of business
partner is the underlying essence
of value creation for finance andaccounting roles. Business partner
is client recognition for the critical
need to bridge ownership of data
management and analysis to go
beyond reporting figures to bring
insight that helps steer the course
of decisions.
Joel Barker introduced the
requirement for business to accel-
erate the speed of change and
explore new solution paradigms in
his 1992 iconic book, Future Edge,
written at the time information
technology greatly advanced our
access to data. Fundamental advice
from Barker for reaching new lev-
els of achievement is to anticipate,
innovate, and excel in execution.
CAREERS
Table 2. Taking Ownership and Delivering Impact
Skill Focus: Examples of Activities that Demonstrate Ownership and Influence Quality of Data and Analysis
Seamless Assure that data availability enables business process performance and is aligned with creation of
end product. Manage the development of required information submissions with minimum impact on
client resources. Influence data flow and processing to achieve increased analytic and review time
with client group.
Timely Relate the activities of your role to the timelines of the client group. Meet with the client group and
discuss. Map data sources impacting your role. Organize monthly meeting to manage data flow and
control timing. Manage data flow and reporting in a manner that is aligned and seamless with the
client business processes.
Accurate Build models and measures that provide sanity checks for data and highlight deviations requiring in-
vestigation. Assure allocation methodologies and expense timing are consistent between budget as-
sumptions and actuals. Provide brief cover page to analysis and reports that identifies data sources
and assures tie to ledger.
Compliant Invest time to educate client group on internal financial policies and practices. Work proactively with
the audit group to build compliance into client processes and data flow. Take initiative to self-audit
processes and data flow. Prepare client group for audits.
Transparent Educate client group on allocation methodologies and timing assumptions in budgets and forecasts.
Build process discipline and data access to enable insight into client group in advance of final ledger.
Provide analysis and reports with insight to link client performance with business goals and influence
actions.
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Achieving execution as a business
partner and driving value creation
requires a continuous cycle of
linking functional expertise and
analytical skills with a fundamen-
tal understanding of the business
process to provide leadership that
influences information quality,
contributes insight, and drivesexpected business delivery.
Achieving Differentiation
Theres no standard formula for
building, focusing, and leveraging
skill excellence in an organization.
Remember, as one of four pillars
in the career management plat-
form, skill excellence represents
the hard skills in the overall port-folio each person must build.
Organization and culture heavily
influence the blend of hard and
soft skills that must be practiced
situationally in order to gain
recognition in the workplace. See
Table 3 for ways to differentiate
yourself in the workplace.
In hierarchical organizations
with parochial culture, functional
excellence is most often the domi-
nant driver of career success. In
highly matrixed organizations
with multiple dotted-line report-
ing relationships and a more open
culture, soft skills are essential to
gaining access and acceptance in
order to demonstrate the harder
skill set. Global organizations
most often operate with distinctcultures within their headquarters
group, operating regions, and
functional lines that require flexi-
bility, sensitivity, and adjustment
in order to adapt to each situa-
tion. You need to assess the cul-
ture of your organization and
make sure you have the right skills
to succeed. SF
Mark Morgan is a finance profes-
sional and founder of The Hyperni-
con Group, a management consult-
ing firm assisting clients in achiev-
ing strategic, process, and organiza-
tional excellence. He is also a mem-
ber of the IMA Global Board of
Directors and IMAs Eastern Con-
necticut Chapter. Please contact
Mark [email protected] with
questions and comments.
June 2011 I S TRAT EG I C F INANCE 19
Table 3. Differentiating Yourself
Skill Excellence: How to Differentiate Yourself in the Workplace
Anticipate Know your clients travel schedule and calendar. Plan your availability, and prepare accordingly to de-
liver. Bring reality into focus by identifying the gaps between current and required performance to de-
liver goals. Build multiple fact-based analytical scenarios with defined actions to provide client with
opinion and options.
Innovate Identify all sources of impact to operations, and construct disciplined reviews to control timing and
impact. Establish global service centers in cost-effective locations to eliminate duplication and lower
operating costs. Analyze price, consumption, and service model for all services to identify opportuni-
ties to reduce baseline costs.
Excel Network across the organization to understand business requirements and manage expectations.
Establish shared incentives across the organization to fund new investment through reduced baseline
costs. Quarterback execution to deliver business goals through converting analysis to tactical plans
with measures.
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Its a Web 2.0 world, and infor-mation about each of us is pro-lific and readily available to poten-
tial employers. In the accounting
and finance world, its imperative
that you know what that informa-
tion is saying about you. If you
arent creating your brand, chances
are its already creating you.
The good news is that taking
control of this information alongwith other traditional job-search
tactics, such as networking, can
impact your career profoundly
and positively.
To establish your brand, answer
the following questions:
x What are my strengths and
weaknesses?
x What do I have to offer
thats exceptional or uniquefrom other candidates? What is
my differentiator?
x What am I known for? What do
I want to be known for?
x What are my short- and long-
term career goals? Where would
I like my next job to be, and
what attributes will that
employer will be seeking?
x Have I highlighted my advanced
degree and/or certifications?
After conducting an honest
assessment based on your answers,
you should be able to develop a
statement thats both authentic
and appealing to a potential
employer. This is your branding
statement. Think of it as a person-
al mission statement, and use it as
the ruler by which you measure
your branding efforts. Remember
to keep it simplethe more you
try to communicate, the more
diluted your message will be.
Assess Your Existing BrandNext, youll need to assess the
information about you thats
already available online. If youve
set up accounts with any of the
various social networking sites,
those are a great place to start.
Also, conduct a search on your
name in various forms, including
all of the nicknames you may have
used in the past. Dont stop atGoogle. Search Bing, Yahoo, or
even DogPilea search aggregator
that pulls from various other
search sites. Use a variety of search
techniques to be sure you find
content that may be buried just
under the surface. For example,
try searching on a common mis-
spelling of your name or using
your name in conjunction with
common keywords to check for
information you suspect may
already be available, whether nega-
tive (Jane Doe + misdemeanor),
positive (Jane Doe + awarded),
or neutral (Jane Doe + volun-
teer). Many companies are per-
forming these types of searches
before making a hiring decision!
Youll want to update, remove,
or disassociate any content thats
inconsistent with your desired
brand. For example:
x Revisit the entry-level rsum
you posted years ago on Mon-
ster, CareerBuilder, or other jobsites. While use of these gener-
alist job boards can be mini-
mally useful in your search,
your profile is still active, so
you need to be sure its com-
municating the most up-to-
date information about you.
While youre at it, post a revi-
sion date within the text of
your rsum so that it will beclear to all who view it whether
the information is current.
x Use privacy settings for person-
al information as appropriate
on social networks such as
LinkedIn or Facebook. A word
of caution, however: Nothing
on the Internet is truly private.
x Remove and avoid posting, to
the best of your ability, any
content that you wouldnt want
By Janette Marx
CAREERS
Take Charge of YourOnline BrandBuilding your professional imageinvolves more than updating your
rsum. Heres some advice for
proactively branding yourself in
todays digital world.
Ju l y 2011 I STRATEG IC F INANCE 17
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your manager, potential man-
ager, or even the folks who
report to you to see.
x Be sure that content on
LinkedIn and other sites match-
es information on your rsum
(i.e., dates of employment,
company names, titles, etc.).
x Your Facebook page can have a
large impact on how hiring
authorities perceive you. That
picture of you and your friends
at a beach party may not
enhance your ability to score
that opportunity with your
next employer.
x Disassociate content thats
inconsistent with or will dilute
your brand. In other words,
you can continue participatingin the personal-interest com-
munities you enjoy as long as
they meet the above criteria.
Also, consider using an alias
instead of your real name for
those forums to keep your
forum identity separate from
your professional one.
x Tighten up and manage your
circle of friends. Remember,you can often be judged by the
company you keep.
Create Content Consistent with
Your Desired Brand
Going forward, measure every bit
of content you post on the Web
against the yardstick of your
desired brand. If it doesnt pro-
mote your brand, then ultimately
your brand wont promote you.
Here are a few ideas to help you
get started:
x Join and participate in profes-
sional communities. Seek out
the online communities of two
or three highly relevant profes-
sional organizations. Join their
network, add your name to
their directories, follow and
comment on their blogs, and
even contribute content in the
form of Web articles, if you
can. With an audience of peers,
timewise youll get the most
bang for your buck here.
x Create or enhance your profile
on public directories such as
Wink, Spoke, and ZoomInfo.
x Stick to professional network-
ing. While social network siteslike Facebook are fine, opt to
spend the bulk of your time
and energy with professional
networking sites like LinkedIn
if youre after career growth.
x Ask peers and colleagues to pro-
vide references and testimonials
regarding your work ethic, quali-
ty, or knowledge and to comment
on or share your blog content.x Determine how much effort
youre able and willing to com-
mit to blogging. With more
than 100 million Web authors
on the World Wide Web, suc-
cessfully managing and pro-
moting a blog can be intensely
time-consuming. If you feel
you must share your profes-
sional insight, opt for a micro-
blogging platform such as Twit-
ter. While this can still take a
great deal of time and energy,
the overall commitment neces-
sary to maintain this type of
content is far less than that of a
traditional blog.x Follow, comment on, and for-
ward news from blogs, podcasts,
and RSS (Real Simple Syndica-
tion) feeds. In particular, RSS
feeds are critical to staying
abreast of your industry, news
about your company and its
competition, and new jobs.
Maintain Your Brand
Now that youve managed to suc-
cessfully create and/or redirect
your brand, be sure to stay in con-
trol by keeping your brand:
AuthenticNothing is more
powerful than actually being who
you claim to be.
ConsistentRemember to con-
tinuously measure your Web con-
tent against your desired message.
Publishing posts, pictures, or othercontent that isnt relevant will only
dilute your message.
RelevantThe Web is dynamic
and ever-evolving. Be sure to con-
tinuously revise, update, and
renew your information so your
brand can evolve along with it.
Again, in this Web 2.0 world,
information about you is readily
available to potential employers,and many of them are actively
seeking it out to aid in their
recruiting efforts. Embracing this
trend by creating a brand thats
consistent with your goals is vital
to managing your career. SF
Janette Marx is senior vice president
of Ajilon Finance, a part of Account-
ing Principals. You can reach her at
CAREERS
According to research released by the Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM) in April 2011, 56% of organizations frequently
scan LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other professional networking
sites for recruitment purposes. Another 20% confessed that while
they havent previously done so, they plan to begin using social media
sites for recruiting in the future.