We are recommending a great book by John Wooden, the famous basketball coach,
called Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. 

One key building block in his pyramid is skill.  To him, a key thing about skill is quickness.  He would look for the player that can deliver quickly.  A player who has the skills to shoot well but would hesitate to take a shot in a game when he is open is not as valuable as a person with slightly less shooting ability who will take the open shot.

That leads to another key area to consider when deciding on a key finance person, one that is often overlooked, quickness.  You might ask what quickness has to do with finance- to some people that might even sound like an oxymoron.

That is all the more reason to look at quickness closely.  A complaint often heard about finance is that it moves too slow and bogs things down.  Put the wrong person in charge of finance and he could grind your company to a halt.

Quickness can be relative.  A player going from high school football to college football will notice a big jump in the quickness at that next level.  After graduating from Harvard, I joined the toy industry, where speed was critical- most of the product line could change from one year to the next.  Then I moved to the generic pharmaceutical business.  For someone from a branded pharmaceutical firm, the pace could seem incredibly fast.  Relative to the toy industry, however, it was a definite slowdown.

Not everybody needs quickness.   What fits your business?  Here are some things to consider:

·         How long is your product life cycle?

·         How long is your sales cycle?

·         Are you more or less capital intensive?

·         What is the pace of your decisions?

When interviewing the finance person, put them through the same set of questions.  You will get a sense of whether they have been traveling on back roads, the Interstate or the Autobahn.

See too how they have kept up with their skills.  Coach Wooden talks about mastering the fundamentals.  Has the person kept up to date with new technology, financings, taxes and reporting requirements, so they can be ready to take the quick shot when the opportunity comes?