Does Pizza Express have enough dough?
I’m guessing most readers have either visited or at least have heard of Pizza Express. After all, they are on pretty much every high street across the country.
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read our blog posts or listen to our podcasts.
Lessons in real-time analytics from racing the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 simulator at Suzuka
written by alastair barlow [blog]
Last week I had the joyous experience of sitting in an F1 simulator – the full on virtual reality version at Mercedes-Benz World. It was an incredible immersive experience whereby I actually felt like I was on the grid and racing the Suzuka circuit in Japan. Words just do not do justice to the experience!
How a coach and OKRs helped me run again
written by alastair barlow [blog]
I used to love running – I used to run a few times a week without fail. However, I hadn’t run a race for over 3 years until last Sunday. Normally, I’m pretty competitive but this time, I was just running to complete it.
Independent Firm of the Year – Greater London | British Accountancy Awards 2019
written by alastair barlow [blog]
flinder wins Independent Firm of the Year – Greater London at the British Accountancy Awards 2019. Sponsored by Accountancy Age Jobs
3 is the magic number! | Accounting Excellence Awards
written by alastair barlow [blog]
We recently attended the 2019 Accounting Excellence Awards in London where we won 3 🏆🏆🏆 national awards…
Heinz cans CFO: How not to Kraft a finance strategy
written by alastair barlow [blog]
Heinz’s appointment of a 29-year-old non-accountant as CFO ultimately led to accounting errors, scandals and a plunging share price, and he was swiftly replaced. Alastair Barlow examines how modern finance leaders need to walk the fine line between control, compliance and performance management.
Patisserie Valerie: How to strip out the fat but leave the butter
written by alastair barlow [blog]
The Patisserie Valerie story is one that Hollywood could very well have written. After listing on AIM in 2014, Patisserie Valerie held a higher than industry-average price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, exhibited strong year-on-year growth and, just a year ago, had a valuation of approximately £450m.
Why data is power: Our 4 Key Pillars of Effective Data™
written by alastair barlow [blog]
If technology is the engine behind your business, processes, customer experience or even designs, then data is most certainly the new oil. While oil is there to make sure your engine runs smoothly, data is also a rich resource and powerful commodity the can drive your business performance.
Are all accounting firms born equal?
written by alastair barlow [blog]
Are all accounting firms born equal? Not quite, here’s just one reason why we are different…
I recently recorded a top tip with ACCA to share with other accountants (I have flashes of altruism) – I realise that accountants and accounting firms are often viewed as the same with little differentiation.
This is how we view and transform the finance function.
written by alastair barlow [blog]
Every company has a talent, Apple make beautiful products, ,Google do search and Amazon delivers, well anything…
While maybe not to the same scale, flinder transforms and runs finance functions!
But how do we do this? It’s all in our approach: The flinder Effect – let me tell you more…
First blood: What ambitious businesses can learn from Theranos
written by alastair barlow [blog]
The much-hyped startup Theranos raised hundreds of millions in investment all based on a lie. Ultimately, the story is about how growth targets canmetastasise if not properly set and controlled. In this month’s AccountingWeb column, I dissect the case to extract a few key lessons for ambitious businesses.
6 steps to designing an awesome reporting blueprint that kicks-ass!
written by alastair barlow [blog]
Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly of reporting. There’s one theme I see time and time again; Finance teams produce what they think is relevant and stakeholders don’t really value what they are given. There is a huge mismatch between the two. But why?
Fyre Festival – 4 lessons of a fraudster 💸
written by alastair barlow [blog]
If you haven’t come across Fyre Festival (where have you been for the last 2 weeks?) it was an event (or a disaster) that was to be held on Pablo Escobar’s island Great Exuma in the Bahamas in April 2017.
How the Naked Chef got Caught with His Pants Down…
written by alastair barlow [blog]
The ‘Naked Chef’ Jamie Oliver has seen his second restaurant group go down in flames with about 1,000 jobs lost. The sad collapse offers four key lessons for interested observers.
6 Key Principles of Leading Practice Management Information
written by alastair barlow [blog]
I recently gave a talk on How to be a Kick-Ass CFO at Accountex in London (Europe’s largest accounting conference). Most of my presentation circled around improving management information.
We won a marketing award! Here’s how we did it.
written by alastair barlow [blog]
At this year’s Accountex our efforts paid off when we won ‘Best Personal Brand‘ at the British Accounting Marketing Awards! In this newsletter we want to give you some insight into how we achieved this fantastic award to help you increase your own awareness.
Here’s the top lessons from Accountex
written by alastair barlow [blog]
The past couple of days I’ve attended Accountex in London and I’m exhausted from it! If you read my previous newsletter on management lessons from my fitbit I absolutely smashed my steps over the 2 days and my calories target – I actually burned 4,000 calories on day 1 from walking around. It really is on a huge scale!
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management lessons from my fitbit
written by alastair barlow [blog]
I’ve had a personal trainer for about 18 months now – he’s awesome. We’ve worked hard together (more so me!) to shift some of the fat I put on post ankle surgery (invasive micro-fracture surgery on my ankle where my cartilage had pretty much disintegrated). It turns out running is not that great for you after all!
[…]
4 lessons in leadership and team work from Coach Carter
I recently watched the movie Coach Carter for the first time – if you haven’t seen it before it’s a biographical sports film drama based on the true story of a basketball coach (Coach Ken Carter) played in the movie by Samuel L Jackson.
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