First Impression Is A Lasting Impression

It is always said that the first impression is the last impression.

Success of an individual evidently lies in his interpersonal skills and his bussiness knowledge. Your overall communication skills and your persona play an important role in leaving an indelible effect on the opposite person. In essence, you are responsible for creating your own image for the world to gauge and react.

Presenting yourself more astutely and professionally in an official environment like a job interview is half the battle won! Many studies and analysis have led to the same conclusion that a person is judged within the first couple of minutes of his interaction with his fellow beings. Subsequent opinions are based on the first impression that is cast on us.

Whenever we communicate with others the impact of our communication on the other person is also influenced by voice and facial expressions. On telephone the percentage of our impact raises much higher as it is based on the tone of voice.

In today’s age the important areas which one should always consider to present yourself professionally & which also have a huge impact on your image are

Dress Code

Comunication Skills ( Written as well as Oral )

Social Networking

Dress Code

To project your professional image it is very important to dress sharply. Dressing formally also means wearing clothes in a manner that makes you feel at ease in a public space. Accessories and jewellery are encouraged if worn in a good taste. Excessive makeup or sprinkling of perfumes giving a suggestion that one has not bathed in weeks is an absolute no no. The importance of maintaining a semblance of decorum in one’s dressing activities cannot be underestimated. It could be that thin dividing line between a promotion and disappointment post an annual appraisal.

Communication Skills (Written as well as Oral)

Communication Skills are vital for professional success. In fact these skills are the bane of many senior level management personnel today, who are found embarrassingly wanting in either written or oral skills. It has been observed that many individuals have to forego their assent up the corporate ladder due to serious deficiencies in communications. It is not hard to explain why. Our thoughts, emotions and feelings are channelized through verbal and non verbal communication. As professionals rise higher in an organization, communication skills become more important, not less. You can actually influence people by the art of communication which gives you the authority to make them do what you want them to do. While the importance of verbal communication cannot be underestimated, one cannot do away or ignore written communication. A simple well written message, manages to hold your attention. Ultimately, communication should be effective. As long as there is clarity in communication, the goal of communication will be accomplished.

Social Networking

Modern idividuals now know how to brand themselves. Social media has given us the chance to showcase our own image in public. It has eased our life to share our thougths and identities. Your presence online is your own clever form of publicity. It’s a good idea to have a online presence but it should be always updated so that your potential stakeholders are aware of your status and availability for business and employment opportunities.

Making first impression your best impression completely depends on willingness of an individual to put his best foot forward in any kind of situation and thereby gain an advantage over his or her competitors.

Have you factored for Inflation in building your savings for Retirement?

Inflation: There are many technical definitions about Inflation. In simple terms it represents increase in cost of products and services over time. Increase in cost also directly results in lower buying power and is therefore the X factor that drives down value of money.

I have been reading newspapers and listening to expert interviews that are filled with a lot of technical jargon on the need for reforms & RBI/Central Bank’s intervention to control inflation, and how economies would face problems as a result of inflation, etc. etc. etc.

But what does this mean to us? There are lots of matters that happen outside of our work-life environment and one wonders if this is something that we have to be concerned about, and if so do we need to lose sleep over it?

That’s when I started doing some math and came across some shocking numbers. Let me illustrate the same for ease of explanation.

Assuming an individual aged 35 years has monthly living expenses of Rs. 50,000. At annual inflation rate of 9%, when that individual reaches the age of 60, he would require Rs. 431,154 to enjoy his current lifestyle. Remember, this excludes cost of medical, higher education/marriage cost for children, vacation, etc. Now for that individual to earn this amount of money, post retirement, at an average bank interest rate of say 6%, he would need a corpus of Rs. 86, 230, 807!!!

Once I calculated these numbers, I realized how expensive it could get if inflation continues at the present levels and the challenges it could pose to everyone to enjoy life and lifestyle even at present levels, forget upgrading the same. And at this rate, I am wondering how expensive could healthcare get, which would be very much required at that age.

Should you wish to run numbers for yourself or for your friends/family, click here to download an easy-to-use calculator.

Migration from a “People Driven Company” to “Process Driven Company”

Often I come across the following phrases when I meet Entrepreneurs:

• I want to become a very Large Company

• I want to become a Public Company in 3-5 years

• I want to sell my company for a great valuation and then retire on a beach

• I want to professionalize my family business

• I want to go global and make acquisitions for inorganic growth

• I want to be the most successful entrepreneur, and receive appropriate recognition

I ask them one question: Who runs your company? People or Processes?

And then with lots of ifs and buts, they give me justifications as to why they are still dependent on People and not Processes.

While many companies implement ISO and other operational systems and processes, accounting often gets neglected; which actually could deliver enormous results, with proper systems, policies and processes. Moreover, having strong finance controls and procedures increases auditor and board confidence and helps the company in meeting with the strictest of compliance requirements. A lot of companies embark upon fund raising, including IPO, and when the time comes to submit regulatory/investor reports, they struggle putting together the required reporting pack. Also when there is a change in job roles or with attrition, there is significant loss of business process knowledge in the absence of adequate documentation.

A simple solution to this is to have a detailed Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual. This document acts as Bible for the Finance & Accounting team. This document covers everything from team structures, job roles, chart of accounts, approval process, reporting requirements, policies, etc. It involves a one-time effort in putting this together, and thereafter it needs incremental updates to keep it alive. Having one not only helps the company to function smoothly but helps the CFO and the finance & accounting divisions to operate seamlessly as one team, across territories.

It does however consume some effort in putting together a manual and needs expert help in preparing the first draft, atleast to get the necessary framework. The quality of the manual can be judged by the depth of its coverage. And to be honest, there aren’t many expert professionals who can undertake designing one. Some of the big accounting firms are quite well equipped and produce an excellent SOP/Manual. However, it does get expensive for SME’s (Small / Medium Business Enterprises) considering their billing rates. Also getting anything custom made is expensive.

On the other hand I come across CFO’s, Controllers and Accounting Heads who all say that they would love to have a good Accounts Manual, but they do not have necessary budgets to engage a consultant to draft one. However, if they had a template or a framework to work on, it would suffice and will be much more cost-effective and efficient.

To empower SME’s, CFO’s and Accounting Team’s globally, SuperCFO has now built an Accounting Policies, Systems and Process Manual with a compilation of different forms and checklists that can be purchased in editable Word / Excel format and can be customized by the user for their specific use. This Accounts Manual has been prepared such that it allows the users to implement the policy in part or in full, across different territories. Some of the unique features of this Manual are:

• Over 12 pages of Index

• Over 400 pages of Content

• Includes over 50 forms and formats

• Includes various checklists

• Fully editable in Microsoft Word / Excel