New Technology in the world of Legacy Systems

I attended the Association of Financial Professionals ( AFP) conference in San Diego on October 14th - 17th. It was my first time at the AFP conference and it was a wonderful experience to hear the latest developments in finance and treasury. It was great to network with people who have similar issues in their companies and hear how they are approaching to solve the problem, integrating new technology  and preparing for the changes in future.

There was so much new technology that was showcased during the conference. AFP mindshift was a new row of exhibitors as well as speakers that particularly showcased how these technologies are being commercialized and used.  Some of the ones that stood out particularly are blockchain, robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, predictive modeling, big data and analytics.  New startups definitely have an edge up in adopting such technologies as they are not tied down by legacy systems. But one of the main issues holding back companies in investing in such technologies are existing legacy systems.  Companies have invested millions of dollars in existing ERP systems  that are the back bone of their businesses and  with changes happening so quickly around us it becomes difficult to  develop a clear technology strategy for the financial function.

Finance needs to start adapting to technology and partnering with IT on the future technology strategy of the company. No company today can work in isolation from these changes and all its functions -  finance, HR, sales & marketing , manufacturing etc are being impacted by these technologies.   Finance function is being looked on more and more to answer not only the question of what happened   but what should we expect going forward and why - it becomes imperative for the the future finance leader to understand the language of technology and work hand in hand with  information technology experts to shape the technology strategy  of the company for the future. The technology strategy should line with the goals of the business, deliver value and be a united  outlook for the company  with the ability to be agile ( change the course as needed).

Big data for example is not just the domain of finance - but also for marketing, supply chain, R&D etc.  Thus  a company's strategy for data assets should not be based on the needs of one department but the holistic needs of the company itself so we get one version of truth from  the data asset.

Companies need to develop a 3 -5 year information technology strategy  and finance has important part to play in this strategy development to help understand the value in technology investment.

How is your company / organization adapting to the new technology  and planning for a technology strategy ?

5 Leadership Lessons learnt by Coaching Junior Lego League

Legos, Legos everywhere …. That’s what my coaching looks like.  I have been coaching Junior Lego League team for the last 3 years. I started this team when my elder daughter was in kindergarten and now she is in 3rd grade and the team is still running strong. I am starting another team this year with the kindergartners – this time with my younger daughter.   

Leading a team of kids through a season of a Lego league where they learn about a topic, plan and build a model, program parts, learn to work as team, share, argue, put their learnings on a poster board and then finally present and share their findings, has been full of so many leadership lessons for me as a coach. I work full-time in a leadership role and I can see how training a few junior school students provides leadership lessons for all adults

Here are the 5 most important lessons I have learnt from coaching kids for the Lego league:

Model in Kindergarten 

1.       Team ownership and pride: Kids in elementary school play together all the time but they don’t call it teamwork (or rather team play really).  Kids compete with each other to gain praise which is exactly what adults do too but not in such an open way.  I had to constantly work with the kids to help them understand that they are not really competing with each other when working in a team. They should be proud of what they all create and they don’t need to point out what each of them made in the model. It is a “TEAM” effort.  They may not agree with how things were done or all parts of the model but still it is their model which they present to others.  Leaders in real world need to help teams work together and celebrate the successes as a whole – the whole team should own the whole output not just parts of it.

2.       Listen to the ideas: Kids have to be taught how to “listen”. But so does any team – are the members actually listening to each other or predisposed to dismissing an idea in their heads with a “but” or a “no”? While coaching the Lego team, we established rules regarding listening to ideas by letting the kids express their ideas in their engineering journals first, and then present it while other team members listened.  By enforcing this simple rule, we came up with a combinatorial set of ideas for our team logo, model variants to build and test and, final presentation strategies. This helped team members who were not that confident about their ideas be included in the discussion. As a leader in the workplace, I learnt the importance of just listening (and trying not to have misconceptions prior to listening) and taking the time for in-depth discussions and brainstorming which allow everyone to express their ideas in different ways.

Model in 1st Grade

3.       Let them disagree …. But teach them on how to agree: One kid wanted to put a star wars figure in the middle of a wildflower garden model created by the team to show the relationship between bees and hummingbirds – that was a big disagreement in the team.  The kids argued and disagreed about it for quite some time with emotions running high.  As a coach, I let it happen for some time as I wanted to see how they would solve this problem. But with emotions running high and kids being kids, everyone was ready to have a melt down – I had to step in. This is where I worked with them to come to an agreement. Could we have another Lego figurine in the model or a little shed where the Star Wars figure could be put   with a storyline around it.  The kids came to an agreement which seemed to satisfy everyone and the model still worked (phew!!).  We have disagreements in work teams all the time. Some disagreement is healthy – it helps us make our results better. But at some point, the leader should guide the team to an agreement –  to make the output of the team better. We cannot keep the conflict under wraps because it would still keep coming up but rather steer the team to solve the conflict.

4.       Observe and understand the strengths of each kid: Every kid is special and brings a quality to the team. Some kids were good in planning the model and the whole picture, some kids were good in programming, some kids were good in art and making the poster. It takes times to understand what each kid is good at, let them develop the talent and give them a chance to work on things they are not so confident about. The goal of the Lego leagues is to help in holistic nurturing of talent. It was important for me as a coach to let the kids work in their comfort areas and challenge them when they seemed ready for it.  As a leader in an organization, each member of the team brings different expertise – it is important to recognize that talent and nurture it but also give them a challenge in other areas within their comfort zone. Successful leaders nurture the diverse talents in their teams.

Model in 2nd Grade  at World Robotics Festival 

5.       Explain to a “kid with curiosity”: As a coach to kids I had to answer a lot (believe me – a lot !!) of questions over the years and it forced me to explain complicated concepts in simple ways – use tools such as drawing, videos and books. My audience were kids and I wanted these kids to ask me a lot of questions.  I took the time to understand my material and then explain it in 3-4 main ideas. The discussion used to change midway if one of the kids asked an interesting question but I had to make the connection back to the 3-4 main points. As a leader, we have to communicate to our teams and to other business groups.  Using simple storylines, graphics and just fewer words helps to simplify communications. We need to keep our storyline within 3-4 main concepts, encourage the questions but make sure that the audience remembers the simplified message. Think of your audience as a “kid with curiosity” – and start with a very simple storyline to communicate.

Sports is full of stories of great coaches. Great coaches are also great leaders. Coaching kids is a two-way street – on one hand, you as a coach can impart your knowledge to the kids and see them learn and blossom but on the other hand, you can learn a lot from the kids and become a better leader and coach.

Bringing the Change in Finance

This is the 5th blog post in my series  about "Challenges for FP&A in the world of Big Data" Here are the links to previous posts:
1. ERP systems Adapting to Big Data
2. Process Change in Budgeting & Forecasting
3. Data Scientist as a job function within FP&A
4. Finance as the Gatekeeper in the era of Big Data

Now lets talk about Change Management.

Let me start by saying that I am not a change management expert . But I have lived through a number of changes and transformation within different companies.
\
Heraclitus correctly said " The only thing that is constant is change"

Organizations are always going through change - some brought about due to changes in the market, some brought about due to change in the direction of the company, change in leadership - whatever it may be. We seem to be a period of constant change. I strongly believe that in order to survive in today's world  one has to be "very" comfortable with change. Look at the pace that new technologies are being adopted everywhere  - in all facets of our lives.  Yes some people have to be pushed towards it a little bit more than others - but people who are not ready for change have a tough time surviving in this economy.  

So when we talk about " change management" - I think it is more about really defining the scope of a particular change and managing the planning and execution of it.  One of the strong beliefs that runs in the companies today is that since " we have been doing things a certain way " we have to hire consultants in order  to bring about a  real change. So in comes an army of consultants  who runs the analysis and tells the company - this  is how you have to do the change.  I don't think this is necessarily wrong but  do we need to discount the talent that exists within the company.

We are all trying to do "more with less". With big data the challenge of change becomes even more difficult . As mentioned by the Harvard Business Article "Big Data : The Management Revolution"  the three key differences in this big data revolution vs increased analytics is  volume, velocity and variety  of the data we are getting.  So the change management within this becomes even more important - since the outside markets are changing at a very fast pace.

I believe that there a few fundamental principles that need to be followed within such a pace of change management:

Project Team 

1. Executive Sponsor: Every  major change project needs a champion or a leader. 
2. Find the experts within your function  and  dedicate them 100% to this project ( this should not be a " development" or "stretch" opportunity for someone) - This internal team of experts should do the initial analysis of processes that need a change, define scope of change , budgets and timelines. This team of experts should be given the access to extract data from various sources and  be given the highest priority during the time of planning.  This team should also be responsible for execution and delivery. 
3. Hire a consultant - But remember the consultant works for you. The consultants can bring in the knowledge of industry and provide advice but the deep dive analysis , opportunity mapping, scope definition  etc should be performed by internal experts / employees
4. Have a dedicated project manager (s) 
5. Communicate  regularly
6. Plan  how to measure the impact and then measure it - Understand the KPIs that should be measured as well as how these will be calculated should be agreed upon before the projects / changes begin.
7. Be Agile: As  teams start executing the projects / changes, more unknown items are discovered which might require course correction or change of goals - be agile and open to change within a project

So lets get ready for the change  with "Big Data" revolution.