Brexit and Trump turmoil is with us and will likely get even more chaotic.

And in a time of turmoil, the importance of being close to the actual real-time numbers of your accountancy firm, and the real-time numbers for your business clients, is more important than ever.

This means the skills of accountancy (your skills) are more important than ever – as long as your focus is on the right sort of numbers.

Focus on relevant numbers…
Brexit numbers. Economic numbers. And the past performance numbers in business are less useful.

Numbers that predict the future success of your firm and the future success of your clients’ businesses are more useful.

Start obsessing about the activity/input KPIs and, even more relevant, the KPIs that matter most to your clients.

An 18-year-old business owner shows the way…

Would you be impressed if you met an eighteen-year-old who had built his own profitable business from nothing to £750,000 in revenues?
Ben is young, but clear and confident about his business and his industry. I was impressed. He clearly has a very, very bright future ahead of him.

Ben and I shared stage a few weeks back and then sat afterwards enjoying a cup of tea comparing notes. Interestingly we were both booked in the coming weeks to talk about the impact Brexit is having on business or will have on business.
We both agreed on the one thing that matters most for our businesses, and for the accounting profession too, in response to Brexit.

And this one thing became more relevant as I listened to the knowledgeable opinion of the two eminent economists sharing their views at the ACCA Wales Conference last week.

The expert insights were well constructed and well thought through. But so what?

What stands out, the one thing that matters most, is that we have little or no control about the results of Brexit or Trump or anything else economically. This was Ben’s view too.

What we can control is our response, our decisions, our actions. This is what we should focus on.

This requires accurate and timely insight about our business performance – the right numbers must show up on time to help our decisions and inform our actions. The economic outcomes impact on everyone, including our competitors.

Rather than investing time, energy or resources in the economic story we’re better off investing the same time, energy and resources in the decisions and actions for our business.

Thanks to the ACCA National Conference here’s a three step focus to take seriously:

1. In a time of turmoil obsess about the right number – read the ‘success in turmoil’ report by clicking the link below – read about Amundsen’s obsessive ‘one number focus’ in the chaos that is the weather of the Antarctic. Scott did not have the ‘one number focus’ in their race to the South Pole. Amundsen won. Scott died.

2. Turn this number obsession into a business focus on Key Predictive Indicators – activity indicators that matter to clients – and we can all be more Amundsen-like.

3. Measuring what matters to clients is tied to your clients’ experiences of working with your firm – and the same applies to your clients and their customers.