|| Bottoming Out

I am marking this day of July 31, 2019 as the bottom of my career life.  I will not ask how I get here,

But,

Where does it go ...

|| What do I really bring ...

65. What do I really bring ...

FP&A Eco-system best practices

• be obsessed with context
• corporate context includes investor relations feedbacks, earnings call feedbacks
• regulatory context includes important past and current financial regulations that impact the marketing, the pricing, the disclosure, the servicing, the capital requirements etc
• macro context includes the key consumer indexes, fiscal policy, geo-political tensions
• market competitiveness
• be religious of the financial management routines
• prioritize review routines with the appropriate accountable audiences
• foster the habit of looking data, trends in a consistent manner
• map general ledgers into profitability drivers with accountability
• routinely review the short term and periodically review the longer term and annually refresh the five to ten-year forecasts
• analysis includes variances to expectations, rate vs volume driven, assumption vs decision drive
• understand/identify strategic metrics to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of supply - demand - leverage
• supply strategy - sourcing, vendor, differentiated service levels; financial metrics, unit cost over time
• demand strategy - cost consideration at the time of targeting, acquisition, and onboarding; financial metrics, early-stage profitability
• leverage - technology-driven productivity gains; yield management; customer engagement; financial metrics, per customer metrics
• integrate with business planning
• for levers, proactively think of "what does it take to deliver"
• prepare to rank order financials, operational complexity, certainty, ranges of the outcome, customer experiences
• influence product roadmap, tech roadmap by attending offsite and giving updates on overall strategy and financial priority incl. option value, the economic value of the tech build
• invest in technology to facilitate on-demand forecast to reflect the dynamic change in business, to allow quick adjustment between business intent and financial outcome
• Everyone can use some time to learn Finance
• draw on our personal financial management experiences
• "how do we make money" helps put meanings to the work we do

FP&A value creation

• Outlines organizational connectedness.  Revenue, costs, and losses in one place will facilitate supply-demand-leverage discussions across the multiple AEs
• Gives quick feedbacks on the short term portfolio performances against expectation.  The accounting system is an early warning system, eg. variance analysis with rate vs volume, assumption vs decision insights.  This allows the quick adjustment with short term levers if needed / "lesson learned"
• The forecast of the longer term will enforce disciplined decision making, gives economic values/meanings to the capital investment, process improvement and technology modernization
• integrated planning will ensure no surprises between goal setting, intent, execution, and the measurement
• evolve from a support function to an operational partner with enterprise analytics, on-demand forecasts, organizational alignment, and overall financial literacy for the general managers

|| What do I bring

64. What do I bring

• enable better decision making through effective forecasting
• financial control analysis converted into digestible insights and recommendations
• rate vs volume
• assumptions vs decisions
• translates into available levers decision-makers can pull
• Self-service access to data through the latest and greatest software application has always sounded compelling. Taking the additional step enables stakeholders to focus on running their business or function, leveraging credible insights and recommendations to make better decisions, ultimately improving business performance
• Alignment with enterprise priorities and the questions stakeholders need answers to
• Relevance and linked to performance drivers and levers
• Context outlining the big picture and organizational interconnectedness
• Clarity through simplification and visual articulation of findings
• Support outlining sources and approaches to provide credibility
• To maximize effectiveness, business planning processes need to result in plans and budgets that drive organizational focus and alignment around choices and priorities. Everyone needs to be included and working off the same playbook. Strategic priorities should cascade into operational priorities, and enterprise priorities should cascade into business unit and functional priorities, where responsibility center leaders are fully empowered to own their plans. Finally, choices need to be fully reflected in both long-term and short-term financial plans so that execution can be measured
• Example Business Review Agenda: 1) External Trends & Developments a) Macroeconomic Updates b) Industry Updates c) Competitive Updates d) Customer / Supplier Updates 2) Operational Review a) Enterprise Business Review Scorecard b) Enterprise Priority Status Scorecard c) Enterprise Financial Review d) Business-Unit Review i. BU [A] ii. BU [B] iii. BU [C] e) Functional Review i. Function [A] ii. Function [B] iii. Function [C] 3) Special Attentional Review a) SAR Scorecard b) At-Risk Performance & Initiatives c) Emerging Opportunities d) Business Cases & Post Audits e) Insights & Recommendations
• As Peter Drucker once said, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Establishing priority goals and objectives is only half the battle – stakeholder accountability is essential to delivering outcomes on plan, and regular business reviews are a proven method to measure performance and progress. Effective business reviews require all accountable executives to be in attendance and ‘present’ with a clear and consistent agenda serving four core purposes: 1) Provide a regular progress report 2) Review insights and recommendations 3) Drive accountability 4) Create a culture of collaboration and problem solving
• Future of Finance value proposition
• It’s the aspiration for most FP&A professionals to evolve from a support function to a true operating partner. To achieve this, FP&A teams should focus on serving three core purposes that enable enhanced decision-making to drive business performance. First, facilitate full stakeholder focus and alignment around strategic and operational priorities. Second, drive enterprise-wide accountability to performance against goals and progress in delivering objectives. Third, create clarity and transparency into business performance drivers through the power of facts, data, and insight.
• Redefining FP&A as an Operating Partner Evolving from a support function to an operating partner requires FP&A professionals to break away from the status quo, and think differently about how the role adds value to the business. ❑ Traditional FP&A: Through foundational planning, budgeting, modeling, forecasting, reporting, and analyzing, traditional FP&A has always been effective at informing which questions decisionmakers should be asking. ❑ Enterprise Analytics: With effective data extraction & transformation, descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics generating rich insights, the answers to decision-makers questions become accessible and actionable. ❑ Fortune 500 Management Systems: Creating a culture where the right things get done right requires performance goal & objective setting, action plan development, business performance & progress reviews, special attention reviews, and accountability scorecards. FP&A redefined at the center of these three capabilities will not only enable FP&A to emerge as a true operating partner, but will also create a new systematic way to manage business performance – a system where focus, alignment, accountability, clarity, and transparency are at the forefront of decision-making
• Insight Creation The last few years have seen a considerable rise in software solutions intended to make data “selfservice” for executives. However, what busy executives are really looking for are distilled insights and recommendations, delivered by credible strategic partners. Through proactive collaboration and analytics, producing actionable insights and recommendations that drive clarity and transparency into performance drivers should become a core focus for all FP&A teams
• Working Together Organizational focus and alignment starts with a business planning process where everyone is included, and choices and assumptions are supported by quality insight. Strategic choices should cascade into enterprise priorities, which should further cascade into segment and functional priorities. With plans set, establishing regular business reviews drives accountability by serving as a recurring forum to review actual performance and progress while instilling a culture of collaboration and problem-solving
• Collaboration is the Path to Strategic Partnership Questions are one of the simplest and most effective ways to develop stakeholder partnerships. Ask the right questions to build your own context and inform what should be analyzed. Answer the questions stakeholders have with facts, data, and insight. This simple “ask-answer” recipe will become the foundation for a credible relationship where finance is thought of as a strategic partner. Additionally, it’s important to build an enterprise perspective – regular touchpoints with stakeholders spanning all business units and functional areas will maximize the value of collaboration.
• Lever Analysis Focus Areas Example questions lever analyses can answer: Growth: ❑ Pricing: Which products have the least elastic demand and can best support price increases? ❑ Volume: Will a decrease in prices improve volume sales enough to be a net sales improvement? ❑ Mix: Which products should we be focused on growing to improve both net sales and margins? Profitability: ❑ Pricing: What is the expected impact to gross margin if we change prices? ❑ Variable Costs & Expenses: What variable costs & expenses can we reduce to improve our contribution margin? ❑ Fixed Costs & Expenses: What fixed costs can we reduce to improve our operating margin? Cash Flow: ❑ Operating: How do we decrease our working capital requirements to improve our operating cash flow while we grow? ❑ Investment: What is the net cash flow impact to growth accelerating capital expenditures? ❑ Financing: How much runway do we have if we take on debt financing?
•  

|| Knife is falling ...

63. Knife is falling

A. getting rejected by a very promising internal lead, and that really hurts
B. seeing men sound so easy with getting up and high with just "general problem skills" whereas people like me having to prove every single data point
C. seeing diverse people not helping diverse people to succeed, because they are too busy protecting their own interests
D. high possibility that all of my leads are going down from now.  I have under-estimated the difficulty of making my way, optimism has blindsided me
E. networking takes time and effort, and what I had done is not enough

• What is the strategic significance of the product, the business, the roles we are creating?  We had a lot of growth over the years, and want to put up a good brake system to enable future growth and improve resiliency
• How do you create your agenda, there might be many good ideas out there
• strategic issue - identify to address; collect industry/market data; customer insights; determine strengths and weaknesses; synthesize
• develop strategic - core purpose, core beliefs, org-wide strategies, long term objectives, balanced framework with objectives, financial projections
• build plan - smart goals, set priorities, KPI, team member goals, budget
• manage performance - roll out, set calendar, leverage tools, adapt quarterly, update annually 
• What are your biggest contributions
• breakthrough the noises, develop my story and influence business AEs to work on the right agenda for operational readiness on checking the national growth ... scale
• Identifying what makes you unique, breakthrough the noises
• Developing your story and key messages, call to action
• Building your content strategy and increasing your in-person and online visibility, 1x1s and small leadership offsite roadshows
• Ongoing support for developing and publishing content
• Including content such as blogging, award submissions, and speaking materials
• situation - traditionally, revenue teams cheers for account growth whereas cost teams cheers for service levels (volumes) and disciplined cost management
• checking product expanded eligibility approvals, lower qualifile accounts have 2x the cost of fraud and call center, volumes increasing out-sized and service level suffers then the business had to tighten
• influence agenda at multiple levels, create awareness, motivated MVP to leverage account-level data to educate where the profitability drivers are
• road-show finance storytelling in multiple leadership offsite to motivate additional teams to proactively think about strategies to enable growth; service levels, diversifying channels, sourcing agenda between vendor and in-house
• directing business analytical standard as to go-no go impact both horizontal and vertical, between marginal and variable nuances
• putting together general manager hat to do round table considerations of financials, operations, tech, CRA requirements ... to reach the right conclusions for decision making

• integrated answer to the case when two distinct business models merge with all drivers on the move but with inter-dependencies
• spending time on data, fact, model strength and weakness, data representation, ranges of the outcome, inter-connectedness
• cycle information quickly and highlight business leverage, sensitivity, where things matter for financials
• direct the AEs and the models move towards a combined strategy with a mutual goal outcome, eg. closing branches, losing x % sales but claw back from the digital channel, to be measured by which team
• created high-level financial modeling for unproven, untested strategies, two steps checking by leveraging ING international research

• In card, 
• financial planning integrated with business planning at the recession time; massive marketing / new account pull back, credit line pull back, up to date financials to inform senior leaderships, before CCAR, base case and stressed P&L with levers to pull ...
• implement corporate finance regulatory changes into valuations, cash cashflows into GAAP cashflows, rewards, reserves, capital, every step of the way educating and influencing on how finance changes impact acquisitions, and the business leverages (data, negotations between lobs and corporate)
• scenarios of card act fee pricing changes, venture national marketing and business case, many new destination economics, tracks, etc

• people leadership
• everyone is their own leader, give them opportunities to shine, to contribute, to create their legacy; invite everyone for team development
• be obsessed with corporate context, work for a purpose
• inclusive starts from "i", sharing information but not judgment, leverage people network to make better decisions, chat or have lunch who is not like you
• take social roles for a stronger advocate for your resource groups, women's network, eagles, and talk about that work

• Biggest strength
• Curious and always learning from everyone everywhere, cycle information very quickly, get to the core/theme, asking the right questions to provoke deeper thinking on analytics approach and learnings
• Expansive thinking and talking, obsessed with context, history, current and where things go ... the cost is I always go longer
• Balanced approach, but always start with data, routines, follow them as they enable disciplined thinking, decisions and etc
• Telling story, get everyone feel excited 

• Biggest opportunity
• Things run longer, not concise enough
• Introvert by nature, small voices, always battle when I should speak first and speak up

|| Awful July month

62. This is awful July month

It's an awful time.  It's hot outside, it's anger inside.  Nothing gives a hope, everything hits the bottom of the worst yet, the bottom has yet to bottom out.

The external searches turned empty-handed, not even a positive email of any next steps, realizing the world is all about relationships, who you know, who you build upon, and not on merit.

The internal searches have been slow and destructs confidence all along.  The box is so heavy, and there is no one to help with lifting that up.  Women are not helping women, they are too busy helping themselves to survive.

The mid-year promo is full of names that destruct the trust in the system.  All the social work is useless, period.  It's a lie, and takes years to come out of the lie ... I give but I was not given much.

It's the darkest of all times.  It's an awful July month.

|| A Box

61. A box that you don't want

John talked about the box on him, being branded as a banker, and can never be trusted of running a credit card function because of the lack of loyalty, despite having 18 years of experiences on consumer and small business lending products.

Martin talked about the box on him, being branded as a financial analyst, can never convince people that he is creative and strategic, despite coming from a business and marketing background before joining finance.  

I feel so fragile, so vulnerable, so many small voices in my head and I cannot enjoy living in the world.  I looked around me, Xue left on Monday because of visa sponsorship, Summer said she has been seen in a hostile work environment, Jessica went on a week retreat, mindfulness, and finally, Tao returned back to our usual lunch spot and said everything hit a re-start button ... of all things and of all people, we all find a way and there is a way out,

Keep on going, KOG, we unconsciously put ourselves into the box, and it takes a lot to come out of it.  But we need to be out of it.

|| Mission Impossible I

60. Mission Impossible I

Friday evening, I flipped cable channels and locked in seeing the Mission Impossible I movie.  Produced in 1996, the movie is a personal landmark of mine as I admire every single detail that I could pick up from the movie screen as what I would anticipate coming to the western world in about two years.  This is also one of my favorite modern day espionage movies, unfortunately, all the subsequent mission impossible movie series was not compatible with the very first installment.  Tom Cruise was young, restless, intelligent, brave, meticulous, emotional, optimistic and daring.
- teamwork, trust, expertise, characteristics
- taking calculated risks, knowing the possible vs the impossible
- putting details together from culture and casual conversations, this one has taken me years to get to, the job 3-14
- keep on talking, despite the fact that who you are talking to, they could be traitors, ass-holes, manipulators, but they don't know what we have known, and that will give us the advantage

Keep on talking, KOT

|| Presence Art

59. Presence Art

Much of the time spent on my own has been to catch up with the data world and the fancy data visualizing tools which I had for years resisted, the tableau, the snowflake, the python ... etc.  It is actually fun and it's amazing how much youtube has developed itself in training the novices.  Yet, the daunting week is ahead of me, so I picked up this book of the Presence to help me as I feel weak and vulnerable.

Many people say that less need for external validation of their self-concepts; stronger listening, observing, and synthesizing skills.

• A truly confident person does not require arrogance; knowing and believing in her identity carries tools, not weapons
• Presence is when all your senses agree on one thing at the same time

Self-affirmation - and expressing your authentic best self

• What are the three words that describe you as an individual
• a curious mind (ask questions, blue, learn new things) to avoid acceptance risks
• analyzing everything, problem-solving (why, causal relationships)
• expansive thinking, like to have choices, options; dislike being in a box, working on a template ... at times it's costing me time because I'm going too far
• what is unique about you that leads to your happiest times and best performances
• conversations that build on understanding human beings, history, future
• situations when I express my core values and they are useful for the listeners
• being surrounded by nature things and freedom of life, farmers market, mountains, and road trips
• independent thinking and decision making, building my own judgment systems and being self-sufficient
• Reflect on a specific time when you are acting in a way that felt natural and right
• 1x1 catch up, what things are you spending time, "how does your day go"
• figured something out, becomes more self-sufficient
• What are your significant strengths, and how do you use them?
• curious ... I always listen first, everyone has a story to tell;
• analyzing ... I always consider that helps me build up the disciplines on decision making, inclusive thinking
• expansive thinking ... obsessed with obtaining context and giving context
• Leadership traits
• everyone has a story to tell and is the leader of himself or herself; vs the chosen one
• distributed power builds a stronger team as everyone creates a legacy and shape the way or the brand of the team
• use the human capital to build on career strengths, eg. learning from your peers, express the point of view and use a personal board of directors to work 
• I value
• being free thinking and having choices in life
• being knowing the whereabouts and the history in the making
• helping to see the future, ie. what's ahead of today

Moments that threaten the self tend to hinge on feelings of social disapproval or rejection: not being admitted to a university, losing a job, a breakup, making a mistake in front of an audience, opening ourselves up to someone who responds judgmentally.

It's about having easier cognitive access to the core value and the story content.  Sometimes you feel like you are trudging through the mud, not getting anywhere, you can't take flight with it.  Then sometimes you just feel like very alive.  When you become present, you allow others to present, be seen, and ask for it.

People prioritize warmth over competence.  It's crucial to our survival to know whether a person deserves our trust.  Presence is the medium through which trust develops and ideas travel.  When you listen to someone, it's the most profound act of human respect.  Real listening can't happen unless we have a sincere desire to understand what we are hearing.  Listening meant resisting the urge to do what they did best - preach or judge.  Then be a part of the problem-solving...

How you carry yourself - your facial expression, your posture, your breathing - all clearly affect the way you think, feel, and behave.  Stand up straight and realize who you are, that you tower over your circumstances.   The slow speech demonstrates a kind of openness, when people speak slowly they run the risk of being interrupted by others.  In speaking slowly one indicates that he or she has no fear of interruption.  Expanding your body language - through posture, movement, and speech, makes you feel more confident and powerful, less anxious and self-absorbed, and generally more positive.  Positive posturing also clears for creativity, cognitive persistence, and abstract thinking.  It overrides your instinct to fight or flee, allowing you to be grounded, open, and engaged.

Slowing down is a power move.  Just as speaking slowly, taking pauses, and occupying space are related to power, so, too, is taking your time to figure out how to respond and slowing down your decision-making process in high-pressure moments.

Doing nothing is doing something.  It tempered my feeling of threat.  Doing nothing reminded me that I do have some power to slow the runaway train.  And it freed me to see and respond to the situation with fully functioning cognitive machinery - better working memory, greater clarity, and the ability to adopt several different perspectives.  Slowing down becomes self-reinforcing.

Nudge myself through countless sludgy days.  Each tiny personal experience of improvement becomes a new source of both inspiration and information for me.  Each time I go through a pressure without panicking when I struggled to cognitively process what I was hearing - a tiny victory.  We encourage ourselves to feel a little more courageous, to act a bit more boldly, to step outside of the walls of our own fear, anxiety and powerlessness.

Nudges are small and require minimal psychological and physical commitment.  They operate psychological shortcuts.  And attitudes follow from behaviors.

Fake it till you become of it.

|| Hard work

58. Hard work for everyone, everything

The most entertaining shows have been the hip-hop singing and the street-style dancing competitions.  The performers bring unique styles, unique attitude from the street to the stage.  But nothing is as easy as you see on television, most of the performers have years of experiences with brand name companies, training, networking, staging, innovating, competing ...

Maybe all world things are survivors of a competition of a sort.  To stand out means to excel means to do an enormous amount of hard work that can't be seen and can't be talked about.

Until the time that they can be recognized, and they will be.

Continue learning, learning for life.

|| "Soggy" at the Herndon Fireworks

57. "Soggy" at the Herndon Fireworks

It's a light week but "soggy", all things seem to be spiraling downward.

1) on the July 4th, walked 5000 steps from the point of Reston entry to the W&OD trail to the Herndon old town.  However, the air was too thick and too damp and too much moisture to be able to fire up the light.  The location was also far enough, lacking excitement.  Working men were holding take out boxes and drinks, catching up after a day's hard work while watching the sky silently

2) on the July 5th, the morning started badly when I got the decline letter from the nearby credit union, looks like there is no shortage of people looking for similar jobs that are equally strong and competitive.  Then the morning discussion was a complete waste of time.  I see another white man who is fortunate enough to be moving around, accomplish very little and thinks that the world is easy enough for everyone to do well

Lots and lots of disappointment, confidence going down, life is difficult.