Finance & Accounting
Our Finance & Accounting foundation module began this week and I am having what you can refer to as an improper dalliance with Finance and Accounting (F&A) at the expense of my first love Sales and Marketing (S&M). In fact the topic is slowly becoming a obsessive interest. The more I learn about it, the more I truly appreciate its value. The better I understand its inter-dependence the more invaluable the insights become.
There were a couple of times when the thought of taking a Masters Degree on Finance crossed my mind.This might sound heretical, especially to the Finance purists, but the more I get to know Finance and Accounting (F&A) the more I see its similarities with Sales and Marketing (S&M). Consider the following:
- F&A tells the story of a company and at any one time captures its business health; S&M is the story of consumers and captures their buying health
- F&A allows for a thorough diagnosis of a company by looking at its operational, financial and economic operations; S&M allows for a diagnosis of consumer buying, aspirations and their environmental context
- F&A is an arbiter of conflicting business viewpoints and is the glue that binds business strategies; S&M is an arbiter of conflicting consumer and corporate needs and is the glue that binds strategies
- F&A is the glue that binds short-term and long-term business planning; S&M is the glue that binds short-term and long-term product planning
- F&A can be a catalyst for business change; S&M can be a catalyst for change in consumer behavior
I know I am oversimplifying and potentially comparing apples and bananas; and I certainly do not mean any disrespect to either discipline. All that I am saying is that there are some congruences that I never recognized. The bottom line is being a disciple of Sales & Marketing, I never thought Finance & Accounting could be this much fun.
My Excuse
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| The caseload |
Things have become frenetic the last couple of days and as a consequence, I have not been able to update this blog. The cases and other reading materials have been piling up and I often find myself staying late in the night reading and analyzing case materials. There are also online materials and supplementary classroom discussions that students are required to attend in order to enhance their learning and prepare them for integration outside the confines of Harvard Business School (HBS).
The other nice thing about the Advanced Management Program is the networking opportunity. All the CEO's and senior executives of several companies worldwide are in attendance. That is why HBS goes to extra lengths just to provide students the chance to interact with each other. The truth is, if we were left to our own devices we would just coop ourselves in our rooms and study. But I am glad that they have organized, Inter-Living Group coffee get-together and dinners, Friday night themed socials and best of all private dinners with the professors.
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| The view across the river from my room |
In the meantime, you guessed it, I need to go back and read my cases.
