Great leaders need more than an ax to grind.

“Great leaders don’t blame the tools they are given. They sharpen them." Simon Sinek

As the Association for Financial Professionals wraps up #afp2017 in San Diego, I am mulling over this quote above from @simonsinek. On the one hand, it seems so obviously true. We all have our battle scars from chasing the next IT application only to realize:

IT did not work as promised because:

1. IT did not fix underlying issues of process complexity
2. IT did not fix underlying issues with data management
3. IT did not change key behaviors required to get the most out of technology

From this perspective, Simon is spot on – blaming the tools will not solve anything. Leaders are best to build people capability and simplify processes and data first, and when it comes to technology, focus on getting the most from existing tools. However, the more I reflect on this, the more I feel there is a nuance missing: While great leaders shouldn’t blame their tools, their bosses have an obligation to ensure their organizations have the right tools for the right job.

An Axe to Grind?

A common feeling among my fellow #FP&A colleagues is this sense senior management is happy with what they get from our function. So happy, in fact, management doesn’t see an underlying problem: The toil and frustration caused by cumbersome tools and organizational complexity that makes adding value difficult.

The ax analogy is an appropriate one I think. Imagine the finance function of 5 or 10 years ago as your backyard and think of data as the trees in it and a few bonsai trees as insights. From this perspective, an ax or even a hatchet or basic saw fit the work of pruning, chopping firewood or removing a dead tree. These simple tools could be used with small branches and thick trunks. If the ax wasn’t getting the job done, the likely culprit was a dull tool. Stopping to sharpen the ax would make the work go better. Of course, so would buying a chainsaw. And while a chainsaw could indeed make the work go faster, it cost much more to buy, use safely, and maintain. It was a more complex instrument as well with more need to bring in experts to fix it. And, it wasn’t the best tool for artisan work – can you even prune a bonsai tree with a chainsaw? Great for clear-cutting, not for nuanced work!

In Finance, the equivalent was the choice between using and improving simpler, Finance-owned tools such as Excel or Access, vs. buying an expensive on-premise solution, which required considerable internal IT and/or external consulting support. Often Excel was best for the job and if it wasn’t it was often due to staff capabilities more than system functionality.

Fast forward to the #finance function of today: Sharpening our tools will only get us so far. Our axes and even chainsaws are not up to the task. The trees we need to prune are no longer just in our backyard but are in fact a vast forest. #bigdata, #cloud, #epm, and #predictiveanalytics are a few of the many trends which change the tools required for the FP&A job. Some of these tools even combine the best of axes (self-service, easy user interface) and chainsaws (scalable, powerful, efficient), mitigating some of the drawbacks of each.

Senior management: Just as it would not make sense to send the forestry service an ax grinder instead of approving a request for heavy equipment, so does it no longer make sense to ask FP&A to make due with only Excel and on-premise. Our excellence with them has helped us give you bonsai trees in your backyard. Please invest in the tools needed to give you a forest of them.