Stray__Cat

After a couple of years of faithful service, this blog retires. The writer keeps writing on UPSTREAM Click on the link above if you are not automatically redirected - Stray__Cat

In the previous post we discussed the margins as health indicators for your business. They're the simpler and most basic of all the indicators that you can get from the three sheets prepared by your accountant: the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow. Now we focus on some other financial indicators that can tell you something insightful about how is your company doing. From the balance sheet you can get the Current Ratio defined as (current assets)/(current liabilities) It is the ratio of what you collect in the short term to what you have to pay in the short term (that's the meaning of "current"). To make a long story short: Current Assets = Cash +Bank + Debtors + Bills Receivable + Short Term Investment + Inventory + Prepaid Expenses and Current Liabilities= Accounts payable+Accrued expenses+Income tax payable+Short-term notes payable+Portion of long-term debt payable This ratio measures if a company can withstand its obligation relying on its ordinary operations,... - Stray__Cat

The term Shadow System recalls to my mind James Bond movies' SPECTRE organization. The truth is much more trivial. Shadow systems are those fantastic gothic cathedrals built with Excel which keep so many businesses running. The IT would happily use a flamethrower on them but they would make the worst mistake possible. Uncovering a shadow system and bringing it to light is an incredible luck, both for IT and the company. I tell you why. When Alessandro, an old friend of mine, was first promoted to lead the minuscule private label division of the clothing company he used to work for, he faced a hard task. The small division has been operating at loss for more than a year, with a part time manager who had issues far more critical to the company to be tackled. Alessandro dove nose deep to the task and identified the root cause of the problem. That kind of business could become interesting for the customers only with some services attached. For example, a famous motor company had a... - Stray__Cat