Welcome to my newsletter “Behind the Numbers”.

A fortnightly newsletter where I share my Finance tips for Operational Leaders and their teams. I may also share an interesting sporting stat along the way.

For those of you who know my story you’ll get why numbers and sport are so much part of who I am.

One tip: How to beat the “Budget Bombshell”

“My numbers are different to your numbers.”
“Where are you getting your numbers from?”
Do these sound familiar?

When you don’t have regular budget tracking “touch points”, you risk a lack of engagement from your budget owners and their teams. Especially when the numbers include surprises or “budget bombshells”

When this occurs, your people will question the numbers. It is the first time they are seeing the numbers for the month.

This is a reaction to being overwhelmed by data they don’t understand.

Nobody likes surprises. Especially when they find out after the fact.

To remove this budget band-aid you need to start having regular “touch-points” using real time data. In my experience, weekly updates work best.

Then ask your people “what’s changed in the last week?”

Your people will be most engaged when they can see how their efforts contribute to the company’s results.

You can download the tip sheet here.

One sporting stat

The English cricket team scored 393 runs on Day 1 of the first Ashes test versus Australia. England's total in Birmingham was the second-highest by any team on the first day of an Ashes Test since World War II.

England also holds the record for the highest Day 1 score in Test cricket (506/4 vs Pakistan in Rawalpindi on the 1st of December, 2022).

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