Category: Career Advice and Training

At the dawn of the internet era, Yahoo became one of the first stalwarts of this new process for accessing information and communicating in real time. A generation later, the company has lost its market positioning, ended its most recent CEO’s brief tenure through a phone call and instituted layoffs affecting more than 10 percent of its workforce.

Simply put, Yahoo is in the midst of an identity crisis, as it seeks to operate in an internet space where it has been surpassed by Google and Facebook in both traffic numbers and advertising pull. Compounding these challenges is the fact that the internet is constantly evolving, so instead of being a market leader that sets the tone – as it once was – Yahoo must now respond to fluctuations over which it has little control.

"It all adds up to an identity problem for Yahoo, a company that began as a portal to the web," David Rosenbaum writes for CFO.com. "Today, the very idea of a portal seems anachronistic, replaced by apps that immediately serve up whatever anyone is seeking. The difficulty of defining what Yahoo is today, and what it may become tomorrow, may make challenges like Big Data, mobile and new computing platforms seem trivial."

In order to successfully complete its ascent back to the lofty peak of internet dominance, Yahoo needs to begin thinking long-term, which means, in part, catering to consumers who prefer to access its services through mobile devices. Yahoo will also focus solely on its most popular services, which include news, sports, finance and email. Despite this leaner business structure and a 1 percent increase in profits year-over-year, the company’s expenses still outpace its profits.

By working with headhunting firms that have experience recruiting managers and accountants, companies like Yahoo can begin to think more strategically about their organizations and institute more effective long-term plans. Similarly, a financial project consulting service can bolster staffing positions in the short-term as needed.

By the very nature of the job, auditors are expected to be skeptical of the information they are presented, although according to a recent study, some may have lost their way.

The report, titled “Professional Skepticism: Establishing a common understanding and reaffirming its central role in delivering audit quality,” was conducted by England’s Accounting Practices Board (APB) and it laid out the steps that companies must take to ensure that their auditors constantly remain skeptical and pragmatic when assessing a company’s financial profile and organizational strategies.

“A bit of history is also thrown into the mix to help auditors understand their origins,” according to a review on Accountancy Age. “Many may be pleased to know part of their role derived from auditing servants in the manorial estates of the 14th century. The auditor was the most trusted servant in the household and all other servants reported to them.”

One of the problems auditors have is that businesses lack a significant degree of control over contextual and environmental effects that can have a lasting impact on a particular entity. These constantly oscillating factors, coupled with the slightest change in a company process or procedure, could produce unintended consequences that spiral into and cause other issues.

Many companies prefer internal auditing services because of the ease of such processes, in lieu of hiring an external service provider. The report recommends that auditors remain insulated from management so that they can best make objective assessments without the filter of biased business decision makers.

To truly enhance skepticism among auditors, businesses should work with an internal audit consultant that knows how to train these individuals to develop a more discerning eye. When recruiting for auditing positions, this expert will understand who can best best perform these responsibilities adequately.

Few top-level business executives have time to get to know every one of their employees, but some organizational benefits could be derived from CEOs and CFOs who interact with other members of their business outside of the executive team.

A CareerBuilder survey released this week found that a considerable number of employees – 40 percent – have never met the CEO of their company. Employees in retail, IT and financial services are even less likely to be familiar with their organization’s CEO, and even fewer workers across-the-board do not know other C-level officers in their business.

“They need to find a level of accessibility that allows them to connect with employees, while on the other hand, dedicate the necessary time for building relationships with outside stakeholders,” Rosemary Haefner, an executive with CareerBuilder. “Employees realize their top leaders can’t know everyone on a first name basis, but they do expect their leaders to be a public symbol that embodies the organization’s values.”

While it may not be important for employees to understand the inner workings of their accounting departments or the exact annual profit-and-loss numbers, some degree of transparency on the part of the an executive team – in the form of communication with workers – could help the entire organization better understand the company’s position in the market.

Workers are likely to feel more invested in a particular company when their superiors engage with them directly and solicit feedback from them from time to time. To find business leaders willing to take on these responsibilities, in addition to their day-to-day tasks, companies can hire headhunting firms to conduct a financial professional search. Accessible CEOs may benefit companies more than CFOs who behave in that way, but such actions may still be appreciated by employees.

Any time a business invests in something – a product, a service or even an employee – there will always be an expected cost attached. Business decision makers who stay within the parameters of their budgets understand that doing so requires careful planning and, in many instances, a consideration of unexpected related costs.

Inc.com contributor Mark Davis wrote last week that the “snowballing” effect of purchases can lead actual costs to greatly outpace the advertised or expected price of a product or service.

“While getting a new TV for the conference room seems to balance in your checkbook, you must also factor in the cost of installation, the complementary speakers, monthly cable fees and maintenance,” Davis, CEO of social media startup Kohort, writes. “The full cost of ownership might not fit into a bootstrapper’s budget.”

Financial planners and CFOs who do not look far enough down the road could place their businesses in dire financial straits. Once committed to a product, service or employee, the organization may already have reached a level of commitment that makes it impossible to transition away – the initiative either needs to be scrapped entirely, thereby beginning the process again, or additional resources could be poured into the initiative, which could further sap the company of vital funds that could be better used elsewhere.

When headhunting CFOs and recruiting accountants, a business should seek finance professionals who are able to produce meaningful work related to a company’s business dealings, while also looking to the future as business plans and expected expenses are considered. Finding business professionals with these dual skill sets could be challenging, but experienced finance recruiters can expedite this process with care and precision.

Lifeblood, oxygen – experts use a variety of terms to stress the importance of cash flow to the future success of a business. If an organization does not ensure that it is receiving payment in an efficient manner, its development could be significantly curtailed or even stalled entirely.

For this reason, experts advise small business owners to take a myriad of steps to ensure uneven cash flow does not undermine a company. For longer term projects, organizations may want to request that customers make milestone payments throughout the process, instead of waiting until the conclusion of the service to receive payment. Having that cash-on-hand will benefit a business significantly.

For one-time purchases or short-term sales, experts recommend that organizations encourage their customers to pay up-front and quickly for products or services. This may force a business to provide customers with an incentive to pay early, perhaps in the form of a discount, but receipt of that payment is more critical than the money lost through a reduced cost.

“Once you give up your final service or product to the customer without payment, you ultimately are giving up your leverage. Don’t lose your leverage,” author Scott Gerber said in a video for Inc.com. “Make sure that you find ways to retain as much ownership over your final work product until the payment goes through.”

Once an organization solves the problem of uneven cash flow, it should expect funds to roll in on a continual basis. While this surely is to a company’s advantage, it could also overwhelm their finance department and produce accounting errors if financial professionals are unprepared for such an influx of information and money.

To ensure that financial departments operate smoothly, companies may rely on corporate and finance recruiters to find real quality applicants for these positions, from CFO down to accounting staff members.