Big data is the big thing these days, and I don’t know much about it, so I attended the AAMA’s Big Data–Big Impact conference recently at the Tech Museum in Mountain View. It was very well done, with a good variety of speakers and panelists.
While I’m not a technologist, I am very interested in market trends and the history of technology. I wanted to find out if this was truly one of the ‘next big things’ in the technology industry, and what it could mean for us and our clients.
It turns out that big data really is big. I think there is no question that it’s significant in terms of its impact on consumers and businesses. As we look to the future, it’s important to understand how to leverage and control big data, and what and how to gather, analyze and use all of this information.
There are multiple opportunities in a variety of industries. For example in transportation, it is used for air traffic control, and the logistics of airport operations. Airport logistics, for example, are very complicated and involve multiple systems working together. The ability to harness this amount of data helps end customers as well as the airline industry.
Utility companies, traffic control for roads and bridges, all have numerous applications that couldn’t be done before. Whether big data applications are integrated into existing solutions or they are complete systems, there are huge opportunities to harness the data they gather, which opens up new markets such as data analytics in sports and gaming.
Big data breakthroughs are now possible due to the rapidly dropping cost of computing power and communications infrastructure. They weren’t affordable as recently as five years ago, even though ideas and applications were there.
After a day of listening and learning, I concluded that big data is not a temporary trend or bubble. The number and extent of potential applications is phenomenal, and will be embedded in existing technology, and evolve into a mature business, creating new technology, new infrastructure and possibilities for many kinds of companies.
If CFOs and management teams have access to the right big data, and know how to analyze and interpret it, will big data help their business decisions? Will it change the CFO world in some way? I think these questions have yet to be answered. One thing is certain: we will be hearing much more about this technology in the near future.
Friday cocktail: Fiscal Cliff
Now that the federal shutdown is over, you may feel like having a drink. The Fiscal Cliff is the perfect choice—it’s a complex cocktail that will make you laugh in the face of economic doom. Just don’t drink alone—this is a beverage to be shared. Don’t want the booze? The nonalcoholic option is similarly robust.
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a Collins glass over fresh ice. Garnish with an orange slice.
The nonalcoholic recipe
Combine 8 or so half-inch chunks of pineapple, mint leaves, 3 hard dashes of rhubarb bitters and the cane syrup or simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Muddle well. Add ice and shake for 10 seconds. Strain over fresh ice, top with soda and garnish with a mint sprig.
Check out the rest of our recipes in the RoseRyan 20th Anniversary Cocktail Collection. Every one of these drinks has its charms, thanks to the fine mixologists at the Bull Valley Roadhouse in Port Costa, California, who invented them.
* Available at BevMo or specialty liquor stores.
Finance, accounting and…B2B marketing?
RoseRyan strives to help our clients thrive any way we can—not just in accounting and finance. In that spirit, let’s talk about modern marketing. The world of B2B marketing has radically changed over the last few years. The evolution from push to pull marketing has revolutionized the way companies communicate with customers, forcing us to rejuggle our budgets, retune our programs and prepare for a “brand” new world.
In the age of social media, new clients want to find us, rather than us finding them. So we’ve got to be relevant to their business and easily findable—here, there and everywhere. We can be that by providing our target clients with the kind of information they want in the formats they like.
Research is up
Today’s corporate buyers are researching more and learning more as they approach new companies for products or services. They make purchasing decisions based mostly on information they gather—and they are savvier than ever before about getting this data from various sources. Here’s where they go and how you can reach them.
RoseRyan continually rejiggers our own marketing programs to take advantage of these trends so we can best share our cool content with you in the formats that you, hopefully, like the most. Because in the end, it really is all about our clients.
Interested in learning more? Check out this fun and informative video from the Earnest Agency, Vital Statistics for B2B Marketers 2.
Building business relationships: what it takes to delight clients
Here at RoseRyan, we have 20 years of experience building business relationships in Silicon Valley. Throughout that time, attracting and retaining long-term clients has been one of our most consistent themes. How do we do it? Here are the basic building blocks of our approach.
Think long-term. We expect to have long-term relationships with our clients. If you think long-term and share your insights, clients will keep coming back because of the value that we deliver over time. Clients are often pleasantly surprised that we have their best interests in mind and don’t jump at short-term opportunities that we believe won’t benefit them in the long run. For example, many times we advise clients that hiring a full-time worker will be more effective than working with us, or that we should be brought in later.
Do the right thing. We once had a client who insisted that a particular consultant work with them or we wouldn’t get the project—one of the most high-profile IPOs of the last five years. That would have enhanced RoseRyan’s profile greatly and started a long-term relationship, but we politely declined because our consultant was already working with another client. It was a tough decision, but we did the right thing—and now, two years later, we are working with the client as a public company.
Strive for a win-win relationship. RoseRyan values all of our business relationships and strives to ensure that both we and our clients benefit from working together. Of course, we ensure that our consultants understand what is expected of them from start to finish of every assignment—and that we meet all of our clients’ expectations. We go beyond that, too. We want both companies to benefit through referrals for additional business, sharing best practices and intellectual property, and honest and open communications.
Keep adding value. Although clients are usually wowed by our ability to meet key deliverables, we consider adding value throughout a relationship to be equally important. One of the ways we keep adding value is by providing technical accounting updates on a regular basis. Our clients are busy with their day-to-day activities and have little time to keep up with all the latest accounting changes. Our technical updates (usually delivered around a pizza lunch) provide just the helping hand our busy clients need.
Deliver great quality. A large part of our business comes from current or previous clients. We consider their decision to keep working with us some of the best feedback we can get about whether we are meeting and exceeding their expectations. Many clients also tell us they appreciate that we are experienced, we listen, and we are flexible in our approach. This positive service delivery experience is the cornerstone of what we do, and provides the consistency and efficiency that clients love about RoseRyan.
The Friday cocktail: Per Diem
We’d find all kinds of ways to travel on business if the Per Diem were one of the daily perks. It’s a gin-lover’s dream that will transport you to the South Seas—even if you mix it up at a Holiday Inn in Houston. Sans alcohol, the Per Diem retains its cool bite.
*Available at BevMo or specialty shops like Sur la Table.
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
The nonalcoholic version:
Fill a Collins glass with ice and add a shy ½ oz of elderflower syrup. Top with tonic water.
Garnish with a grapefruit strap.
To sample all 20 of our anniversary drinks, view the RoseRyan 20th Anniversary Cocktail collection recipe book. Each libation was lovingly crafted for us by the fine mixologists at the Bull Valley Roadhouse in Port Costa, California.
RoseRyan in action: smoothing steep growth with equity accounting
Here’s a situation that might sound familiar: your midsize tech startup is growing so fast that you’re scrambling to bring new people on board just to keep up with demand. Talent doesn’t come cheap, and you’ve lured the best with a wide variety of stock-based compensation deals. The trouble is, your lean finance team lacks the in-house resources needed to handle a high volume of complex equity transactions and doesn’t have time to set up automation.
The solution: a RoseRyan equity expert. We excel at helping innovative companies meet the challenges of explosive growth and position themselves for their next leap. See our latest project profile to learn more about how we implemented an efficient spreadsheet system that enabled our client to manually manage equity grants as their company grew from just four employees to nearly 700.
Also check out what else we can do on our startup and emerging growth services page.
There’s a new sheriff in town: will you be meeting the SEC at high noon?
When the SEC swore in Mary Jo White as chair in April, it was clear there was a new sheriff in town. White is a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York with decades of experience as a federal prosecutor and securities lawyer, so it really was no surprise when she said in her confirmation speech that her top priorities included strengthening the SEC’s enforcement program.
Now she’s laying down the law. In July, the SEC announced three new initiatives building on the Division of Enforcement’s ongoing efforts to concentrate resources on high-risk areas and employ cutting-edge technology. And in a September 26 speech called “Deploying the Full Enforcement Arsenal,” White focused on the consequences for companies when fraud is discovered.
Here’s the SEC’s plan of attack:
With these initiatives, we expect that more companies will soon receive calls from the Division of Enforcement. And while a showdown with the SEC sounds bad, the aftermath could be worse. In her September 26 speech to the Council of Institutional Investors, White emphasized the need for strong penalties. While supporting legislation to increase limits on monetary penalties, she also plans to make the most of the Commission’s existing penalty authority, saying “we need to make sure our settlements have teeth.” Further, she stressed the relationship between financial penalties and personal accountability, stating that “Redress for wrongdoing must never be seen as a ‘cost of doing business’ made good by cutting a corporate check.”
Think that your company might be living in the Wild West but you’re not sure? Be prepared for the SEC to come at you with guns a-blazin’—or better yet, take action to keep the peace. Here are some tips to help prevent a potential showdown:
And if Sheriff White calls you out, just remember the words of John Wayne: “When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it.”
New webinar provides strategies for increasing valuation
Does company valuation feel more like a black art than a science? How do investors look at financial integrity and accountability, and their impact on valuation? RoseRyan CEO Kathy Ryan and Adrian Bray, founding partner of international advisory firm Assay, are joining forces to demystify valuation’s key drivers in a Proformative webinar at 11 am PT/2 pm ET on October 29.
“Best Practices in Understanding and Increasing your Company Valuation” will reveal how you can build value throughout your organization, identify key valuation factors, and describe actions you can take to determine a valuation strategy that goes beyond the benchmark. This webinar’s practical advice will include the importance of an equity strategy and how to deliver best-in-class analyst presentations. The presenters will also cover how basic financial practices can impact valuation and how to avoid common pitfalls.
For more information and to register, go to the Proformative website.
The Friday cocktail: Balance Sheets to the Wind
Quarter close is nigh. What better way to steel yourself than with one of RoseRyan’s 20th anniversary cocktails?
Balance Sheets to the Wind, a tequila-based, berry-colored inhibition loosener, is guaranteed to take the sting out of any financial close.
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and pour into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lime peel.
If you’d prefer to keep your balance, you can try the equally lovely nonalcoholic option, with a well-mannered shot of vanilla. It’s a bit complicated (you have to start two weeks in advance), but worth it.
Mix juice and blackberry shrub in a tall glass. Add ice and top with soda water.
To make the blackberry shrub: First, make vanilla-infused balsamic vinegar. Add two vanilla beans to a bottle of good-quality balsamic vinegar and let it sit in a dark place for two weeks.
Mix 2 cups fresh blackberries or berries of your choice with 1½ cups granulated sugar. Stir and let macerate for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Place in cheesecloth, squeeze out juice, and pour into a jar. Add 2½ oz of the vanilla-infused balsamic vinegar and shake to combine. Store in an airtight container.
To sample all 20 of our anniversary drinks, view the RoseRyan 20th Anniversary Cocktail collection recipe book. Each libation was lovingly crafted for us by the fine mixologists at the Bull Valley Roadhouse in Port Costa, California.
Big data’s big impacts are not going away
Big data is the big thing these days, and I don’t know much about it, so I attended the AAMA’s Big Data–Big Impact conference recently at the Tech Museum in Mountain View. It was very well done, with a good variety of speakers and panelists.
While I’m not a technologist, I am very interested in market trends and the history of technology. I wanted to find out if this was truly one of the ‘next big things’ in the technology industry, and what it could mean for us and our clients.
It turns out that big data really is big. I think there is no question that it’s significant in terms of its impact on consumers and businesses. As we look to the future, it’s important to understand how to leverage and control big data, and what and how to gather, analyze and use all of this information.
There are multiple opportunities in a variety of industries. For example in transportation, it is used for air traffic control, and the logistics of airport operations. Airport logistics, for example, are very complicated and involve multiple systems working together. The ability to harness this amount of data helps end customers as well as the airline industry.
Utility companies, traffic control for roads and bridges, all have numerous applications that couldn’t be done before. Whether big data applications are integrated into existing solutions or they are complete systems, there are huge opportunities to harness the data they gather, which opens up new markets such as data analytics in sports and gaming.
Big data breakthroughs are now possible due to the rapidly dropping cost of computing power and communications infrastructure. They weren’t affordable as recently as five years ago, even though ideas and applications were there.
After a day of listening and learning, I concluded that big data is not a temporary trend or bubble. The number and extent of potential applications is phenomenal, and will be embedded in existing technology, and evolve into a mature business, creating new technology, new infrastructure and possibilities for many kinds of companies.
If CFOs and management teams have access to the right big data, and know how to analyze and interpret it, will big data help their business decisions? Will it change the CFO world in some way? I think these questions have yet to be answered. One thing is certain: we will be hearing much more about this technology in the near future.
Why we don’t do lunch (not to build partnerships, anyway)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what partnerships mean in Silicon Valley. In building our ecosystem of partners—service providers that complement RoseRyan’s offerings—I’ve realized two things: One, partnerships between service providers are tricky. And two, many people throw the word partner around, and yet it has different meaning for each person.
Our clients often ask us for referrals to attorneys, HR specialists and other service providers that can help them build their business. When I refer a business partner to a client, the partner’s work is a reflection of our firm. I want it to be a good match. I need to be confident about their values, how they work with clients and how they treat people.
But the typical Silicon Valley methodology doesn’t reveal this information. It usually goes like this: I go to lunch with X service provider, they tell me what they provide, and I explain the services we provide. After 90 minutes, we feel we know each other. Time goes by. Now I have a client who needs what X does, and I try to remember exactly what X told me three months ago. Nothing stands out—and I assume X’s services are like everybody else’s in their industry.
Couldn’t be more wrong! All service providers are different—their services are just part of the mix.
That’s why our process for building partnerships goes beyond the typical 90-minute lunch-and-go scenario. We spend a lot of time getting to know our partners. We do a deep dive into their business, we know their strengths and weaknesses, and we talk about the squishy stuff. We come to understand their values, what it’s like to be their client, and how they treat their clients when issues arise.
I’ve learned that this type of partnership isn’t for everyone. It takes time and a lot of energy to develop and maintain the relationship—just like any relationship—and many firms don’t want to make that investment, for a host of reasons.
But it’s worth it, because in the end, we are truly partners. I know their work complements ours, and that our goals and values are aligned. We have each other’s back, and we create new energy. Our clients love it. They get what we promised them in our referral, and I know the partner will treat them as well as we do.
And now I have an extra skill: I can spot the energy in a meeting quickly, and I know when people are present and engaged, and willing to have tough discussions and to push the relationship forward. And I’ve learned you sure don’t want to have these meetings during lunch!