Successful Workplace

In an unexpected move, Cyprus announced today that they are replacing the euro with Bitcoin, an unregulated, decentralized virtual currency that has become all the rage. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said in an an interview, “Regulation and centralization are what got us into this unholy mess and it was time to do something just a […]

This week the UK Payments Council announced that by Spring 2014 consumers will be able to submit and receive funds via SMS, a move that marries up an opt-in database of mobile phone numbers to customer bank accounts with 8 of the large retail banks including Barclays, HSBC, Santander, RBS and Lloyds Bank. The concept will be run by the […]

Unless you’re turned off to the media world, you know that Square received $25M investment from Starbucks yesterday and very soon will be processing your credit or debit card at over half the Starbucks in the US. If Forbes has it right, Square and Starbucks will let you mention your name to the cashier and by knowing […]

The following was first published on the Harvard Business Review. It’s difficult to get senior executives who have been successful managing a particular way to realize that they need to change their approach. Yet this is exactly the challenge facing leaders of the finance function who are asked to help their organization improve the way […]

The following was first published on the Harvard Business Review. In a recent post, I argued that companies can’t keep their costs in line by attacking them directly. The typical approaches of budget cuts and layoffs usually don’t result in sustained changes to their cost structure — the costs creep back. Instead, companies must make […]