Financial Intelligence

Price, Quality and Accessibility. You can only have 2 out of 3. Harvard is HIGH price, HIGH quality, and LOW availability. Find out about the dynamics of LOW price i,e FREE.

Find out what a business simulation is all about and how It can help your teams become more engaged. Managers often say that that they have never seen their staff so engaged in learning as there were during our business simulation learning experience. Email me at justin@fastforwardbusiness .net to talk about how we can run a business simulation for your management team. They will learn more about each other in just 2 days than they have in years.

Leader Maturity is about how leaders react when their power or safety is threatened. I find it fascinating to watch leaders under these circumstances. What intrigues me even more is how I react. In this podcast I share how I use a leader maturity framework as part of a business simulation. I also share how you might take a closer look at your leader maturity. Careful...most wont do it. It requires courage and the desire to take a closer look at how you show up in the world. The links below are to some of the resources that I talk about in the podcast. Harvard Business Review Article. https://hbr.org/2005/04/seven-transformations-of-leadership Leader Maturity Questions https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UV6Jfnnny8QLyr4vIbKo-c1z9Ar-2O8I/view?usp=sharing Leader Maturity Workbook https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yof16NOLlnFpLj23TDeGB-DpX-xJ0kPA/view?usp=sharing

What are the 10 questions that you want answers to? Or maybe you don't want answers to but want to ask anyway. This came up in conversation over coffee after a long slow Sunday run. I am interested in what these questions reveal about someone. I am also interested in how these questions might change over time. In this podcast I share my 10 questions. I would love to hear what yours are.

The Thinking Council is a process for converting your thoughts in to words. It is simple yet very powerful and is a process that I use regularly with my Men's working group. In this podcast I lay out the process and the rules for conducting a Thinking Council. I also talk about the hybrid version called a Thinking Pair. Have a listen and give it a try. I think you will be surprised.

The new age, all inclusive language these days is to talk about stakeholder inclusion. I am all for shareholder returns...nothing else is more important. On the way to shareholder returns a business must: 1. provide value to the customer. 2. attract and retain talented employees. 3. procure products and services from suppliers at a sustainable rate 4. fulfill the minimum requirement of rates and taxed 5 and more... Dealing with stakeholders is about making trade offs. Many stakeholders are exuded as a result. Some customers won't pay your price, employees demand more than they are worth, suppliers can't meet quality standards...sometime the business must say NO. The business cannot keep all the stakeholders happy all the time. Focus on shareholder returns and the rest will come along for the ride...and some will get off.

I had another go at a one word title and 300 word piece. The process is challenging me and I am loving it at the same time. I find myself walking through a maze of thought and emotion. I am drawing on my life experiences to dig out of my mind the essence of what I want to say. The subject of trust is an emotional one. Especially for me. Some years ago I broke the trust of my wife. The return journey was long and hard. See if you can spot my reference to that in today's podcast.

I took inspiration from David Whyte and his single word title, 300 word poetry writings. The link below is the Sam Harris podcast interview with David Whyte. David reads 2 of his pieces, namely "Regret" and Friendship". David inspired me to write a 300 word piece on "Inimitable". https://open.spotify.com/episode/4dX8hVr8uBW6S4AWajyNLj?si=3ac74882070a4079

The answer to the question in the title is not as it might seem at first thought. The question has deeper meaning. Do you work in the CAPITAL suburb or the OPERATIONS suburb of the business? I use the income statement and balance sheet (which I reorganise to make more user friendly) to position people based on what areas of the business they have influence over. When you think of your work address based on how you impact the balance sheet and income statement it brings a whole new dynamic to the conversation of how an individual adds value to the business and how the business creates value for shareholders. Have a listen and see if you can find out more about your work address. I am also working on a YouTube video to demonstrate this with visuals. It will be out shortly under the same title.

According to investors in South African Government debt, i.e those who lend money to the SA Gov by way of owning Gov bonds...SA is becoming more risky. This can be seen in the steepening of the yield curve. More interestingly in step changes in Gov bond yields at specific events. The firing of finance minster Nene in Dec 2015 was one of these significant events. The next one was Corona virus lockdown in March 2020. In this podcast I talk about how these events and the step changes in Gov bond yields are the indicators of a more risky environment in South Africa.

I have combined my podcast and YouTube channel recording today. If you need to see the visuals then head over to my YouTube. Today's podcast is about representing financial data in a user friendly format. A very un-accounting format. I talk through the performance and value creation of Shoprite in a quick and dirty fashion.

I have been updating my database of financial information for listed companies. This requires collecting information from PDF documents on the investor relations websites of these companies. The more I do this the more adamant I am that accountants are making it more complicated to access and interpret the financial performance of a company. Annual financial statements are written by accountants for accountants. For a mere mortal without any financial or accounting training it is near impossible to interpret and understand what is going on. This gives me courage to keep doing what I am doing and that is to help the other improve their financial acumen and understand financial performance. If you are looking for more on this then look me up on YouTube (just search for my name "Justin Spencer-Young"). I have just started a Business Finance course. I am releasing 2 videos a week and the first 2 are out.

In this podcast I talk about the business model as it pertains to the cost structure of a business. The subjects of operating leverage and business model go hand in hand. Operating leverage is about the change in profitability based on a change in sales. Depending on the the proportion of fixed and variable costs in you business a change in sales will have a different impact on your profitability. Find out how risk is related to your business model based on your variable and fixed cost structure.

I'm reflecting on my capabilities. My #runeveryday journey has for me to Day 832 and over 8,000 km. Five years ago I would never have thought that possible. So I am asking what is possible in other areas of my life? Russell Brunson of Clickfunnels asks "What if you produced content every day for a year?" This podcast is all about me producing content that inspires others to be better and to be winners. It is also about helping others grow and develop their financial capabilities. I want you to be my customer. For that to be the case I need to offer you something of value. I'm inviting you to come and have a closer look, I think you will find lots of value in my content. 5 secrets of Finance: http://building.gobrlink.com/fivesecrets eBook download: https://fastforwardbusiness.net/free-ebook-download

Do you buy business education to tick the box and get the certificate? Or do you buy business education for the skills that you can use to advance your career and business? In this podcast I reflect on the types of buyers of business education that I have experienced over 20 years in this industry.

A year ago lockdown forced many entrepreneurs to take a close look at themselves and reconsider their way of doing business. This podcast is a reflection on the pivot that I had to make from being a in-person service provider to becoming a online productised business. https://fastforwardbusiness.net/financeonsteroids https://fastforwardbusiness.net/free-ebook-download

Thinking about how distracted I am by the pettiness of what goes on in our local sandbox and missing out on the opportunities just beyond our horizon. https://fastforwardbusiness.net/free-ebook-download

Getting back on the horse and being more consistent with my content production. Recorded in my car on my way to my morning run. Day 829 of #runeveryday.

Justin tells the story about his daughter asking for a new kitty cat...hence "Kill the Cat". Justin also ties this back to Value Creation Part 1 in Podcast 6 and completes the discussion about how businesses create value or destroy value.

This is a part 1 of a lecture on value creation and investing that Justin did at Gibs last week. Justin discusses equity market returns and how this is the foundation of calculating is a company is creating value or destroying value.