I'm sitting as a juror this week in a (civil) trial, and it made me reflect on an old Albert Brooks movie called "Defending Your Life."
The main character goes to heaven and has to bring witnesses to make the case that he has lived a good life.
Who would testify for you?
Who would testify against you?
How comfortable / confident would you feel that your "jury" would find in your favour?
Educated in Toowoomba, Richard Wood commenced his career establishing his own practice in March 1996. With an entrepreneurial spirit and vision as Managing Partner, he has developed and guided Vistage Corporate Advisory to where it is today.
Unlike traditional accountants, Richard (pictured above) does not position himself as external to his clients' businesses. Where possible, he becomes a part of the client -- knowing as much about their operations and corporate and marketing challenges as possible.
This provides a sound foundation from which to develop financial and accountancy strategies which are tailored to meet their individual requirements. Importantly, it also allows Richard to identify business opportunities for his clients on a progressive basis, and combat any commercial threats before they take effect.
Richard has extensive financing and joint venture experience. As a majority shareholder and director of a number of private companies, he is keenly aware of the need to monitor unit-based profitability and to implement sophisticated financial management systems.
A deep thinker, passionate about the potential that lies within individuals and their businesses, Richard has been instrumental in creating opportunities that have inspired success for his clients, colleagues and peers.
A proven entrepreneur now focused on working with other entrepreneurs, Richard's commercial experience and business nous has led him to develop a distinctive suite of financial management solutions and products; including Optimist. He is driven to generate positive growth and wealth for his clients by focusing on activity based financial information, shareholder value and the true story behind the finance information that is generated. He has been influential in achieving significant results for his clients and their businesses, using strategic vision, big picture analysis, consistent monitoring and mentoring systems.
Richard believes that when business owners start to fear growth it is due to uncertainty. Unlocking these uncertainties and providing a clear platform for change recreates hope and the confidence to grow. Clear vision helps clear thinking. By relating activity to financial outcomes, he has the ability to provide a whole new way of thinking about strategy to drive financial performance.
Richard is a connected and valued strategic advisor to his clients and is driven to ensure he can empower them with peace of mind, confidence to grow and banker confidence.
Qualifications & Memberships
> Bachelor of Business (Accounting)
> Bachelor of Laws (Banking & Finance)
> Member, Institute of Chartered Accountants
> Member, Institute of Management
> Member, Institute of Corporate Managers, Secretaries and Administrators
> Member, Australian Institute of Certified Practising Accountants
> Member, Institute of Company Directors
3 comments:
A long, long time ago I read Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, and the only scene that has stuck with me was the story of a sinner sent to hell, whom an angel offered to pull out using a green onion the man had once given a person in need, which represented the only good deed of his sorry life.
I don't pretend to begin to understand who'd testify for or against me in a final or critical reckoning, but I suspect if anything saved me, it wouldn't be any grand gestures but rather the accumulated weight of a number of everyday little green onions.
I was twice called to the jury pool in my county, Richard.
It's a fascinating exercise in civic duty.
Also boring as hell.
Both.
I'll lay you a side bet of a good dinner that you won't get called; and, if called, that you get peremptorily rejected faster than you can say Tom Peters.
To answer your question -- it depends on who's on the jury!
Which is why you, Richard, will get rejected for most civil cases.
But that's OK.
In the Big Trial, I'll testify for you, and I won't be alone.
I deal with measurement in my work.
A big part of that is showing clients and prospective clients that there is more that is measurable than they may have expected, or that the benefit of a little digging into what's going on is often worth the effort.
Values aren't ideally suited to this sort of analysis.
Where do (personal) values come from?
Are there good or bad values?
(Jim Collins, in Built to Last, I think, put forward the idea that for a company, it was more the existence of core values than the nature of the values themselves that propelled the companies to sucess).
Values themselves can't easily be measured.
The outcome of those values can sometimes be measured, provided there is sufficient information.
Actions are visible, and can be misinterpreted.
Non-actions aren't seen, so most often no motivation is even suspected.
So, presumably we wouldn't say that good people are only good people if they are seen to be good people.
There are also a large number of "good activities" that will automatically be seen by at least someone, if the recipient is a single individual.
But what about as a professional providing professional services?
Is it in our best interest to make sure that we are known to be good, trusted professionals?
Or should that be a hoped-for result of being good, trusted professionals?
As much as I don't like the idea of trying to show off values in order to get more work, perhaps some small amount of it is helpful in the real world in which we live?
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