Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in finance, but you are short of time? Don't worry. CFO South Africa weekly collects 10 of the most important articles from international media for your convenience.
1. Rebooting analytics leadership: Time to move beyond the math
To help their organizations capitalize on artificial intelligence and analytics, CAOs must do more than demonstrate their technical chops. They need to lead like a Catalyst.
2. Excel: Microsoft unveils Dynamic upgrades
In the first instalment of a seven-part series, Excel MVP Liam Bastick introduces the first major leap forward to spill from Microsoft’s partial rewrite of its spreadsheet application’s “calculation engine”.
3. 3 Simple and Quick Morning Rituals You'll Find the Happiest People Doing
If you're like most busy professionals getting ready for work every morning, self-care in the form of a healthy breakfast, some type of exercise, and other mental or spiritual habits to feed your mind and soul will typically take a backseat to life's other priorities before you fly out the door for work (or the nearest coffee shop). But what if you could create some margin to focus on taking care of that one person so many others rely on -- you?
4. 4 Analytics Concepts Every Manager Should Understand
Like many professionals, my job doesn’t require expertise in data or analytics. I’m a writer and editor, so I deal with words, not numbers. Still, nearly every knowledge worker today needs to be a regular consumer of data analysis. For example, I need to understand whether and why articles on having a mid-career crisis outperformed ones on receiving feedback or why pieces with particular headlines get more traffic than others.
5. 5 Tips for Reaching Your Goals in 2019
It’s about time for New Year’s resolutions to start popping up again. As 2018 comes to a close, how many of your resolutions did you complete from the start of the year? If your answer is “not many” or “none,” perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how you can reach your business and personal goals in 2019. Believe it or not, there are plenty of tactics you can use to make your dreams come true.
6. 6 strategies to successfully implement blockchain
Many organisations are looking at blockchain because the technology has the potential to solve several of the finance function’s daily issues. Some organisations are coming up with proof of concepts, but very few have a blockchain up and running and many are stalling in the research phase. In a global survey of 600 executives, PwC found that while 84% of organisations have some involvement with blockchain technology, only 15% have a live project underway.
7. How to Be Creative When You’re Feeling Stressed
More than just lightly toasted, your brain feels singed. You’re burned out, and the cumulative stress makes it hard to decide what to eat for dinner, let alone come up with innovative ideas. But people are still expecting you to produce creative solutions despite your current mental state. What do you do?
8. 8 things to know about lease accounting implementation
The changes brought about by FASB’s new lease accounting standard are coming into full view for finance departments that use U.S. GAAP for their financial reporting. Here are eight things company finance departments need to know as they work through the significant changes associated with the new standard, which will bring all leases onto the balance sheets for lessees in an effort to provide more transparency to financial statement users:
9. How Alibaba Uses Blockchain to Compete in the Cloud
For geographical, cultural, and strategic reasons, Chinese firms have always had an eye on the Southeast Asian market. Alibaba in particular has shown a keen interest in the region. Through its Ant Financial (formerly Alipay) subsidiary, the company has leveraged blockchain to get into the global remittance business, currently worth US$600 billion. My case study, “Alibaba and Blockchain”, examines the lessons we can learn from the use of this much-hyped emergent technology by big Chinese tech.
10. A Simple Way to Map Out Your Career Ambitions
It’s easy to be confused about how to grow in your career. My experience with even the most successful global companies is that they’re between average and poor at developing future talent. They’re often not transparent about your real needs and vague about the most effective development options. So how can you chart the shortest, surest path to success?
11. 11 Questions Interesting People Always Ask to Spark Great Conversations
Go to a company party or social or networking event and you're bound to hear the obligatory and predictable What do you do? and Where are you from? questions designed to save you from the awkwardness of silence. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of them. While some people prefer uncomfortable small talk that doesn't evolve into anything substantial, I think small talk serves a small purpose: to spark conversations that will naturally evolve between two curious and authentic people not afraid of taking it deeper…..
