I came across an interesting post by BNET’s Steve Tobak called “Aspiring Managers: Learn to Act Like Adults” in which he lists the five skills at which managers have to become adept:
- Finance
- Selling
- Presenting
- Negotiating
- Communicating
His comment about Finance was spot on: “I don’t care if you manage engineering, HR, IT, sales, whatever, you need to learn about finance. Why? Because that’s how companies are run and how business works. Period.”
Finance is the language in which business is “scored” so you need to be aware of how success is going to be measured. This is especially true for marketers who often mistake their objectives of high awareness, strong brand equity, loyal customers as ends in themselves. These objectives are important – but their importance comes from the fact that these are the things that ultimately produce strong and stable cash flow.
That is why it is so important to maintain a healthy dialogue between the Earthlings in the marketing department and the Vulcans in the finance department. Without an understanding of what drives customer value, it is impossible for a company to deliver shareholder value on a sustainable basis.
