Let me tell you another story: Many years ago I went to work at an organisation as a factory accountant (I love factories) for a technology company.  Part of the role involved the cross comparison of large tables of data to find discrepancies between the factory systems and the financial systems – Yawn!  My predecessor.. read more →

Pareto is your friend Pareto was a wonderful guy.  He left us with that wonderful 80/20 rule that seems to apply to just about everything.  A few examples: 20% of your customers provide 80% of your income. 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your products. 20% of your people add 80% of the.. read more →

19 Jan 2011
January 19, 2011

HMV and Credit Insurance

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On January 6th, in my post about HMV, I commented that the issue for SMEs will be what happens if or when the insurers pull cover: When a big retailer sneezes it is the suppliers that catch the flu.  The debt insurers will pull their cover.  The banks will then pull any financing, discounting or.. read more →

12 Jan 2011
January 12, 2011

Proactive Positive Laziness

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Some years ago I was contracted to an international FMCG.  There had been a change of management and the new team was not sure of the financial status of the business. I’d been called in to drive the year end close and get the books square. The US boss was in town and we had.. read more →

Two more profit warnings have hit the press – This time it is Clinton Cards and Mothercare The Telegraph article opens by saying that shares in Clinton Cards and Mothercare fell sharply on Thursday after they became the latest retailers to say that the snow had hit sales over Christmas. Clinton Cards, which also runs.. read more →