In Module 2 we would learn more about marketing and finance – which are essential to understand whatever your role in the business.  Once again, I wasn’t new to the subject but by no means an expert so I was looking forward to a refresher and to pick up some new tricks.   I was also looking forward to seeing the participants again and seeing how they had been getting on with their Manager’s Toolkits and to meet a few more managers from owner managed businesses who want to be more effective managers.
Adam started off by getting the managers to indicate how they had put their learning from Module 1 into practise. A vital outcome for us for all the management development programmes run by Your Business Your Future is for each participant to realise the return on their investment in the programme.
Paddy Radcliffe looks pensive
Each module costs £895 for the two days and the whole four day programme is £1595 (discounts for three or more participating from the same business) so I was interested to see whether anyone had achieved that return yet in the two weeks since we had last been together.  With my background in training and HR consultancies, I know it can be really tricky to evaluate a return on investment in training and development so I’d thought about it quite a bit. When I worked out roughly what that equated to in real money terms, I felt that some of the actions that I’d heard discussed and promised would easily exceed that investment.
I know from my days of managing teams to achieve a certain objective, that the energy and time wasted as a result of average versus excellent communication and management and a low level (or even a lack of) motivation can easily be reversed by concentrating on getting individuals to want to and actually do that bit better for the organisation. Happier customers, less mistakes, a little extra energy put into coming up with the optimum solution or making more sales, more understanding of what makes a difference to the organisation’s bottom line and better teamwork all make a difference to the organisation’s results in some way.  Even the best businesses have scope for improvement in my experience so I was really pleased to hear that some of the participants had already completed some of their initial actions and had set about making more changes within their organisations.
The rest of the first day was about marketing, essentially selling more of your product or service. Paddy Radcliffe – he’s run his own business and been on the Dragon’s Den so has a great track record – took us through lots of great marketing tips. Some of the ideas were new and some was familiar but it gave me a different perspective. It was great to see the participants discussing their own real marketing materials and what had been successful and what didn’t work. At the end of the day, Adam’s session on sales really helped to pull it all together.
Most of the participants once again enjoyed an evening together sharing stories about how they do things in their businesses, making new friends and refreshing themselves ready for the second day.  Everyone was looking forward, many with trepidation, to the finance session in the morning.
I was interested to see this session as I don’t think finance is an easy subject to teach. I have sat on some pretty dull finance for non-financial managers courses in my time. Caroline Billington was determined to prove me wrong. She is a practising external Finance Director who somehow managed to make a subject that can be dull (and even scary) for many, FUN! We learned about profit and loss, balance sheets and cashflow statements. Once we understood what they were we did some practical work together to help us understand how they interrelate and what the figures show you.
The participants had a variety of backgrounds and experience in finance, from a lady who is responsible for the finances in her organisation to the person who stays as far away from the numbers as possible (no not me Gerard!). Caroline taught us that you can never really know it all but that you can apply some basic knowledge to help you make sense of the figures and most importantly use them to make better decisions in your business.
Participants used their own management accounts to learn some new tricks and a few got a bit of free FD level consultancy on the side. Even the expert finance people who were really on top of their numbers had some lightbulb moments where they saw some immediate benefits they could take back to their work. One or two who had been concerned about the day’s session left loving finance!
Another very successful programme completed. We’re running The Manager’s Toolkit again in October/November so do get in touch if you’d like more information. Perhaps we’ll see you or your colleagues there?
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