When it comes to becoming a financial leader, there are several essential things that you need to know. These include understanding the cash flow statement, the cost of goods sold, and the gross margin. The best way to learn these skills is to get out of your office and spend time in the field. You can find some great ideas as you communicate with great leaders like David Geithner.
Understanding cash flow statement
A cash flow statement is an essential tool for financial leadership. It provides crucial data about the health of a business and helps investors and business owners determine what measures to implement. It also allows entrepreneurs to make adjustments to key initiatives and manage budgets. It can help business owners manage teams and develop relationships with top leadership.
The cash generated from operating activities includes revenue and expenses. Cash generated from investing activities includes proceeds from selling assets, dividends, and loans. These cash flows can be either positive or negative and can be a crucial indicator of a company’s ability to stay solvent.
Collaboration skills
Collaborative skills are essential for leaders in today’s financial world. Complex global organizations with offshore operations, matrix management structures, and multiple parties need leaders to develop collaboration skills across the organization. Although this book is written for financial technologists in the investment banking and capital markets sector, it applies equally to leaders at all levels of the hierarchy. It will teach financial leaders how to create an environment that supports collaboration and achieves the desired results.
Effective collaboration requires skillful communication and emotional intelligence. It also requires respect for diverse viewpoints. To foster successful partnerships, team members should express their ideas and don’t try to impose their views. Effective written communication is also essential, especially when working remotely. Using nonverbal cues when writing can convey meaning as well.
Analytics
Developing analytics capability in finance can help finance organizations fulfill two crucial roles: taking the lead for analytics within the organization and providing analytical insights to non-finance functions. In this way, finance can benefit from the increasing demand for analytics in organizations. Today, many companies have realized the value of analytics and incorporated this technology into their business processes.
The finance function is responsible for creating and consuming a large amount of data. As such, it is vital that it understands and makes use of the data it generates to drive business decisions. Analytics is becoming the most common method of data consumption, and dynamic data storytelling is replacing pre-defined dashboards.
Measuring COGS
Cost of goods sold (COGS) measures the price of a company’s products and services. It includes direct materials and labor costs and certain overhead expenses such as marketing and shipping. The cost of goods sold can help business owners determine a company’s profitability and guide strategic decision-making.
COGS is calculated in two ways. The first is the cost of the product or service. For example, a manufacturing firm’s COGS would include costs associated with raw materials such as wood, paint, and fabric. The second method is to calculate the cost of inventory. For example, buying the raw materials for a product from a wholesaler will result in a charge that is considered COGS. This cost is then passed on to the final consumer through the markup.
