Check out my Daily Briefs. Each morning, an automated process scans a curated set of RSS feeds, summarises the key points using AI, and publishes a concise roundup to the site.
Lean Financial Reporting That Executives Actually Read
The Reporting Paradox Finance teams often find themselves caught in a frustrating paradox: they invest enormous effort into producing detailed reports that executives barely read. A survey by Financial Executives International found that finance departments spend up to 30% of their time on report preparation, yet 65% of executives admit to reading only summaries or conclusions (FEI, 2023).
As David Parmenter observes in “Winning CFOs: Implementing and Applying Better Practices” (2012), “Most finance teams are producing a monthly financial pack that is more like a doorstop than a decision support tool.” This disconnect wastes valuable resources and misses the critical opportunity for finance to influence decision-making.
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Part 4: Core Data Structures in Python
Post 4: Core Data Structures Welcome to the fourth post in my Python learning journey. So far, we’ve installed Python, set up a development environment, and explored the basic syntax. Now it’s time to dive deeper into Python’s core data structures; the building blocks you’ll use to organise and manipulate data in your programs.
In this post, we’ll cover:
Lists: Python’s versatile sequence type Tuples: Immutable collections Dictionaries: Key-value mapping Sets: Unique value collections Choosing the right data structure I’ve found these data structures similar to concepts we use every day; lists are like columns in spreadsheets, dictionaries resemble lookup tables, and sets are perfect for tracking unique items like account codes.
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KPIs That Actually Drive Performance
The KPI Crisis in Modern Business Most organisations are drowning in metrics while starving for insight. According to research by MIT Sloan Management Review, over 70% of executives believe their KPI systems don’t provide the strategic guidance they need (Neely & Bourne, 2020). This disconnect illustrates a fundamental problem: despite the prevalence of performance measurement systems, few organisations have metrics that genuinely drive improvement.
As David Parmenter explains in his seminal work “Key Performance Indicators: Developing, Implementing, and Using Winning KPIs” (2015), “Most organisations have been measuring the wrong things in the wrong way.” The result is what he calls “measurement dysfunction”—where metrics create perverse incentives, drive suboptimal behaviors, or simply fail to influence performance at all.
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Part 3: Python Syntax Fundamentals & Language Features
Post 3: Python Syntax Fundamentals & Language Features Welcome to the third post in my Python learning journey. In the first two posts, we installed Python and set up a proper development environment. Now it’s time to dive into the language itself. This post covers the fundamental building blocks of Python code that I’ve been learning.
We’ll explore:
Variables and basic data types Operators and expressions Control flow with conditionals and loops List comprehensions and lambdas Iterators and generators Error handling with try/except This post is a bit longer than the previous ones, but these fundamentals form the foundation of everything else in Python, so it’s worth taking the time to understand them.
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From Bean Counter to Business Partner
The Stereotype vs. The New Reality For decades, finance professionals—particularly accountants and controllers—have battled the “bean counter” stereotype: detail-oriented, historically focused, compliance-driven, and somewhat disconnected from the operational realities of the business. This perception, while increasingly outdated, persists in many organisations.
As David Parmenter notes in his book “The Leading-Edge Manager’s Guide to Success” (2011), “Yesterday’s finance team was renowned for producing financial information that was too late, too detailed, and not focused on what matters to the management team.” This observation captures the fundamental challenge that modern financial controllers must overcome.
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Hugo & PaperMod Theme
Hugo + PaperMod Theme: A Complete Crash Course Introduction Hugo is a blazing fast static site generator written in Go. Combined with the elegant PaperMod theme, it’s a powerful solution for creating modern websites, blogs, and documentation. This crash course will guide you through setting up, configuring, and customising your Hugo site with PaperMod. This is how I created my site.
Installation Install Hugo First, you need to install Hugo on your system:
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The Modern Financial Controller: Series Introduction
The Evolution of Finance Leadership When I earned my chartered accountant qualification, I envisioned a career focused primarily on technical accounting principles, financial reporting, and compliance. Fast forward to today, and the role of a finance manager has evolved into something far more dynamic and strategic than I could have anticipated. This transformation mirrors a broader shift in the finance profession—particularly for those in controller and finance manager positions.
The days of the financial controller as a mere “bean counter” are long behind us. Today’s financial controllers are expected to be strategic partners, data analysts, risk managers, technology implementers, and forward-looking advisors. We’re tasked not just with reporting what happened financially, but with providing insights that shape what will happen next.
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VS Code Mastery
VS Code Mastery: A Beginner’s Guide to Being Productive So you’ve downloaded VS Code and opened it up. Now what? In this guide, I’ll walk you through everything I’ve learned about making VS Code work for you, especially if you’re just getting started.
Why I Chose VS Code Before getting into the details, let me share why I chose VS Code:
Lightweight enough to open quickly Powerful enough for serious development Enormous extension ecosystem Regular updates with new features Works consistently across Windows, Mac, and Linux Getting Started: The VS Code Interface When you first open VS Code, here’s what you’re looking at:
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Part 2: Text Editors vs. IDEs for Python Development
Post 2: Text Editors vs. IDEs for Python Development Welcome to the second post in my Python learning series. Last time, we got Python installed and ran our first code. Now it’s time to set up a proper coding environment. Working directly with .py files in Notepad gets tedious quickly, so let’s explore better options for writing Python code.
In this post, we’ll cover:
The difference between text editors and IDEs Popular options for Python development Setting up VS Code for Python (my personal choice) Key productivity features that will save you time Running and debugging Python code from your editor 1. Text Editors vs. IDEs: What’s the Difference? When I started learning Python, I was confused about whether to use a “text editor” or an “IDE”. Here’s the simple breakdown:
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Powershell Essentials
PowerShell Essentials: A Comprehensive Guide Introduction to Command Line Interfaces Before diving into PowerShell specifically, it’s important to understand what command-line interfaces are and why they remain essential tools for modern computing.
What is Command Prompt? Command Prompt (cmd.exe) is the traditional command-line interpreter for Windows operating systems. Dating back to MS-DOS, it allows users to interact with their computer by typing text commands rather than using a graphical user interface (GUI). While functional, Command Prompt has significant limitations:
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