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A new book by the leadership team of Stryde challenges founders and business leaders to ask whether their finance function is giving them the information they need to run the business they have built. The Finance Seat is published today and is available in Kindle, paperback and hardback editions.
Written by North East based business owners Kieran C. James, Jamie R. Whelan and Lisa M. Eccles, the book is aimed at owners, CEOs, leadership teams and finance leaders in growing companies. Its central question is practical: when an opportunity or difficult decision arises, can the business see its financial position clearly enough to act with confidence?
As companies grow, the quality of that answer matters more. A monthly set of reports may show what happened, while leaders still need to understand cash in the coming months, which parts of the business are making money, what capacity they can afford to add and how a decision will affect the wider plan.
The Finance Seat shows how to move beyond finance as a record of the past. Using the authors’ SHIFT Framework®, it takes readers through diagnosing weaknesses in their current finance function, building the right team for their stage of growth, improving the flow and quality of financial information, and turning that information into useful forecasts, discussions and decisions. It also examines the people, systems and processes behind reliable reporting: the work that determines whether leaders can trust the numbers in front of them.
Kieran James, founder and CEO of Stryde, said: “The financial questions change as a business grows, but the finance function does not always grow with them. Owners need accurate accounts, of course. They also need to understand what the numbers mean for cash, hiring and the decisions ahead. We wrote this book to help leaders build that capability deliberately.”
The three authors draw on their experience advising hundreds of business owners and working in finance and leadership roles. Alongside the framework, the book uses examples and practical lessons to help readers assess where their current arrangements fall short and what to improve next.
The Finance Seat is available now on Amazon.
