Wealth Management

Voted #6 on Top 100 Family Business influencer on Wealth, Legacy, Finance and Investments: Jacoline Loewen My Amazon Authors' page Twitter:@ jacolineloewen Linkedin: Jacoline Loewen Profile

November 13, 2012

The Asian Century will switch from 'quantity' of growth to quality

Will China perform as many experts say it will" Here is the journal of a recent trip to asia by a Goldman Sacks leader"
In the first decade of the Asian Century, much of the story has in effect been about the 'quantity' of growth rather than the quality and sustainability.
This is especially true with respect to China as I shall discuss in more detail, but also for India, Indonesia and others (if not, of course, in Japan where it has been and remains the absence of either). I introduce the aspects of my trip in this context because I think part of the challenge right now is that markets had become used to the drug of the quantity of growth in the region.
And importantly, in terms of our expectations, we never were and are still not, assuming that the same intensity of nominal and real GDP growth will continue.
For this decade, 2011-2020, for example, we are assuming that China will grow on average by 7.1%, down from 10.5% the last decade, and India 6.5% down from 7.5%. We are expecting the N-11 countries to see their real GDP accelerate to around 5.3% from 4.2%, but this would not be powerful enough to offset the softer Chinese and Indian growth in aggregate.
Let me re-emphasize that if China, India and the Asian N-11 countries achieve what we assume, their share of global GDP will rise sharply and the world will probably grow faster than previous decades, despite their softer growth rates.
 Jacoline Loewen   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch  Author of Money Magnet Director, Crosbie Co.
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726

What forces a business to change for the better?

People just go to the office, grab a coffee, do the stuff they were trained to do 10 or 20 years ago, go to the meetings in their calendar and go home, its a wonder anything changes at all anywhere. 
New companies do new things sometimes, but then stagnate. 
The way of the world, with exceptions I'm sure, is sadly that external crises only stimulate change. 
You all must have seen the same yourselves for the new ideas you've seen. 
Once people are in the comfort zone that's it, they're staying there.
Buy Money Magnet, by Jacoline Loewen, learn new ways to find money for your business.

Jacoline Loewen   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch  Author of Money Magnet Director, Crosbie Co.
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726

November 12, 2012

By definition, it is management's responsibility to maximize the value of the organization.

Yet growth is a confluence of issues (love that terminology). Yes, employees do get mixed messages but management (unless they are owners) are employees too. Complacency, ego and fear of failure happenign resulitng in the pink slip will all stop CFOs from changing the ways things get done.
There is no simple answer to helping a CFO look at risk and trade offs more but creating the right environment is a huge step in the right direction.

How do you do that?

Jacoline Loewen, Author of Money Magnet.

Jacoline Loewen   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch  Author of Money Magnet Director, Crosbie Co.
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726

November 9, 2012

How can a CFO add value in a family business?

The role of the CFO, particularly in a family business, is to help gather up all the ideas flying around the company and work out the risk and reward for each potential project.  Often, these ideas originqte with a comment from the business owner who then forgets.  A CFO is needed to capture the ideas and try and get them onto one page in order to choose the priority. To explain it better, here is the CFO of a family business explaining his situation and how he added value.
Once whilst in a new role I inherited 50-projects, all of which had the opportunity to add revenue, save lots of dollars, or lose dollars.There was however no clarity over which projects would do which. 
I think the simplest answer to "What should we do?", is PROVIDE CLARITY (in addition to having the right structure in place), to leaders who are completely inundated with hundreds of competing priorities. 
To continue - I managed after some time and much investigation to get all of the 50-projects on 1-page with the 'Approximate $ annual return' and '$ return per hour invested' for each project. It brought amazing clarity to the situation. Some projects were canned instantly. Some had potentially staggering returns. 
Projects were then pursued in detail and prioritised accordingly via a stage-gate process. 
Another important enabler is DETAIL, proving to the boss that all angles have been considered. I cannot stress this enough. One criteria for allegedly great consultant ideas, for instance, could be 'Do I trust this consultant who is offering me this advice, and if so, why?'. 
All of this should help in some part to help clear the fog and enable leaders to focus on the best opportunities in an environment where everyone is doing more with less.

Jacoline Loewen, author of Money Magnet, weekly TV Show, The Pitch, BNN

Jacoline Loewen   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch  Author of Money Magnet Director, Crosbie Co.
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726

Is asking managers to innovate a waste of time?

Isn't the real problem is that you are looking for love in all the wrong places? 
Even Peter Drucker, my favourite management guru, said that it is a mistake to ask managers to innovate. 
This is not what they do. 
Managers do their best to conserve the existing order. Asking them to engage in creative destruction is a recipe for failure.

Jacoline Loewen   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch  Author of Money Magnet Director, Crosbie Co.
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726

What drives change - emotion or logic?

Is it emotion, rather than logic, that is the key driver to change?

November 8, 2012

Is excellence a habit?

Excellence is not an act but a habit and all the companies in the world are not having great sense to excellence. 
Take an example of Google, who born and brought up with the idea of Innovation, Excellence and Inverted Leadership.
Hence forth, they achieved a product and results in the last 14 years which most of the companies can't even think up as goals. Companies need to do more to encourage the dreams of entrepreneurs, not just the drudgery of corporations.


Jacoline Loewen   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch  Author of Money Magnet Director, Crosbie Co.
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726

November 7, 2012

What is the cure for organizational paralysis?

As dull as it is, that old addage "leadership begins at the top" is still true. Many Executives who, when faced with what appears to be an obvious decision that will benefit the company, simply can't pull the trigger. What is the big stumbling block?
Fear of looking bad? 
Wondering if "the Board" will ask why it wasn't done sooner? 
Fear of screwing up? Who knows the reason; but, with indecisive or reluctant leadership, the organization eventually takes on the same personality - filtering down through middle management to each employee. Ask around and you'll likely find that people know what should be done; but, no one takes action. Find a cure for this "organizational paralysis" and we can make a lot of good things happen!

Jacoline Loewen   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726

Why are companies reluctant to consider new ideas that could save their companies millions of dollars? Is it the risk of looking bad for not having found these ideas before or is it complacency?

Here are my initial thoughts, but we will run with this theme this week - CFOs and their Risk Appetite: 
  1. Fear...the fear of looking bad. If any decision maker or an individual who can influence the decision perceives any personal risk he/she will kill it. The culture of the organization and the relationship between the decision maker and his/her boss/peers can definitely come into play here. 
  2. Complacency...without any incentive to change, why do anything new/different? 
  3. And arrogance...I am the smartest guy/gal in the room and anything I have not thought of isn't worth my time. At the group level, we are the smartest/best in the business so we are already doing things the best. You get the idea...
Jacoline Loewen 416 662 1930 Author of Money Magnet

Jacoline Loewen   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch  Author of Money Magnet Director, Crosbie Co.
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726

November 5, 2012

How can CFOs lengthen the average tenure of 18 months?


Many lower-level employees constantly make recommendations to improve the business -- and that is how they get promoted. Some people make recommendations, but these suggestions fall on deaf or antagonistic ears. 

How to get the benefits? 

To keep away from a general management textbook shelf, I think the bigger issue is the fact that we train people in sales, accounting, software development, and other vertical skills -- and we under-train in horizontal change methods, technologies, training and techniques. Most change, in the "millions" category require changes across organizational line, require changes in IT systems, and require a project management skill-set within a repeatable change methodology or system. 

We are Business Transformation professionals at Crosbie and Company, and "change" is our business. Until companies put "continuous change" at the forefront of everyday behavior, and train their employees in change (we call it Transformation), it will remain a hit or miss activity. 

CFOs need to be outspoken advocates for Business Transformation, or they will be doomed to a 18 month tenure as investors will keep searching for leaders to get them into the top quartile of industry performance.


See Jacoline Loewen on BNN, The Pitch

Jacoline Loewen, Director,   See Jacoline on BNN, The Pitch  Author of Money Magnet Director, Crosbie Co.
Crosbie & Co.
150 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1J9
416 362 7726