Jacoline Loewen

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

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Invited as expert on BNN The Pitch, CBC, Dragons' Den and published by National Post, Globe & Mail, Leadership, Business Entrepreneurs, The Journal, Women's Post, as well as author of three books.

Money Magnet by J. Loewen - Book Review

The feedback we have had about using the steps in Money Magnet is that business owners are surprised by how simple it is to understand, how much more money they can invest and earn and how shockingly few of their lawyers and accountants were aware of the benefits.

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Other books by J B Loewen:
The Power of Strategy
Business e-Volution

See Jacoline Loewen on BNN TV Show The Pitch

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Rick Spence, National Post, review

"A lot of business people still have trouble with the concept of strategic planning. They wonder who should do it, and what it's for. I just encountered a great explanation of strategy. It comes from a book, The Power of Strategy by Jacoline Loewen.

"I think that strategy is very similar to the search for the Holy Grail. Renowned knights traveled great distances and overcame severe hardship in the struggle to find this sacred relic, the chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Finally, Sir Galahad was the one who discovered that the Holy Grail is, in fact, within us. There is no right or wrong answer -- it is the journey that provides the learning, not the Holy Grail itself.

In strategy, it is the process of people going through the questioning and thinking that ingrains the strategy into their everyday actions, not the plan itself."

You can read a much longer excerpt from Loewen's book at

post by Rick Spence, Canadian Entrepreneur

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