NUMBERS ORIENTATION … CRITICAL FOR TOP EXECUTIVES

As I start to write, I am reminded of Peter Drucker’s legendary adage “What gets measured gets managed”.

“Numbers orientation”, the penchant for numbers and ability to express in terms of value is a sine qua non for the Manager who aspires to reach the top. This, I can vouch for on the basis of my close and regular interaction over the decades with some of the most prolific Managers, CXOs and Strategists. The ability to visualize, identify an opportunity, expressing it in numbers does not come easy to many. Leaving the finance functionary apart, I have at times sensed a visceral allergy to numbers in other functionaries. However, the important and encouraging fact is that “Numbers Orientation” can be easily acquired over time.

Inextricably linked to numbers orientation are 1. A grasp of financial management concepts and 2. Proficiency at MS Excel. This article focuses on the spreadsheet prowess.

Integrated with my own “Riyaaz” (the self-enabling and self-empowering routine) is the practice of select Excel Functions, which I believe are critical for my professional performance. There are about 50 of them - I practice 16 of them each day, so that I am hands-on with the functions at least once in 3 days. This takes about 15 minutes of my time every day. Practising them on a regular basis ensures that I can deploy them instantly and that is a great enabling attribute for me.

My prowess at the spreadsheet is most tested when I function in the role of a “Meeting Jockey” (who anchors brainstorming sessions). By definition, the Meeting Jockey concurrently documents the proceedings of the brain storming sessions on the spreadsheet, which is projected on the big screen. This inter alia involves a lot of data handling, calculations, tables etc. which mandate spreadsheet proficiency. The spreadsheet is a vast canvas which provides the space, features and functions to quickly and effectively document, elicit thoughts, make inferences and thereby facilitates good decision making.

The functions which I routinely practice are:- Change Source, Choose, Index, Index-Match, Vlookup, Hlookup, Insert Table, Slicer, NPV, Large, Small, Left, Mid, Conditional Formatting, Min/Max, Randbetween, PMT, Forecast, Median, Scenario, Data Table, Indirect, IRR, MIRR, XIRR, FV Schedule, Filter, Advanced Filter, Protecting a Sheet, Data Validation, Countifs, Iferror, Sumproduct, Sumifs, Rank, And, Or, Recording a Macro, Pivot Tables, Charts, Subtotal, Columns/Rows, Isblank, Frequency and a few others. With some experience, one can deploy a combination of spreadsheet functions in nested formulae.

Would urge upon Managers to develop the canny ability of “Numbers Orientation”. Persist, you will gain significantly. Appoint an Excel Expert to develop a practice module in a Workbook, with each sheet containing one function which will be really relevant to you. A narrative should explain the process by which the function has to be executed. Initially, don’t even bother to understand the underlying subject concepts. First, get the mechanics right. And then, later, try to get down to the core concept, logic and rationale. While mentoring and training for Excel, I have observed that trying to understand the concept first and then working on the process tends to result in loss of interest, particularly when the concept appears too complex. As a process per se is mechanical, it is quickly grasped and then, gradually the concept is correlated and imbibed.

 Soon, prowess at each of these functions would be a part of your core competence, ready to be deployed immediately. With the passage of time and “Riyaaz”, you will discover newer ways of deploying them and thereby developing an extraordinary “Numbers Orientation”.