This is the third of three posts summarising some very interesting things I learned about finance on a recent IoD course. In part one I talked about funding and financial statements, in part two I talked about accountancy principles and ratios, and today I will talk about deciding which projects, and which companies, to invest in.
On Monday I published part one of three blog posts about finance, finishing with a quiz. In this post I will share the answers to the quiz, then talk about some important accountancy principles and some ways of thinking about the financial health of companies. In part three on Friday, I will talk about methods for evaluating projects and companies.
A couple of years ago I got some excellent training on finance from a finance director at the FT. At the end of last year I went on a longer, more intensive course from the IoD, aimed at non-finance directors, and I learned LOADS.
Last month I facilitated a panel at Lead Dev Live about how to build an effective tech strategy.
I recently went on an inclusive leadership course at work. It was very interesting. There were four particular lists that I wanted to make a note of to refer back to:
Last week I gave a keynote at CTO Craft conference based on my blog post about moving to durable teams.
Prompted by some discussions at work, I recently read Turn the Ship Around! I enjoyed it. Here are my notes.
Even if we don’t work in sales, we often need to sell something: an idea, a course of action, or ourselves (e.g. in a job interview). It’s a useful skill to have in your toolbox. I recently had a very useful conversation with the excellent Jon Slade, who is the Chief Commercial Officer at the Financial Times, and he outlined some sales techniques.
When I joined the Financial Times as Technical Director for FT.com, I inherited a team of around 50 engineers. One of the first things I did was meet each of them for a one-to-one. I was initially resistant, but it was extremely valuable, I’m glad I did it, and I would definitely do it again in a future role.
On Monday I was on a panel, organised by Codemotion, about technical leadership. It was a great discussion, with extremely impressive co-panellists Omosola Odetunde and Pat Kua, and well faciliated by Piergiorgio Niero.