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Written by Laurie Blake
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Thursday, 03 April 2008 |
Financial Intelligence for HR Professionals: What you Really Need to Know About the Numbers
By Karen Berman& Joe Knight, with John Case
Harvard Business Press; $24.95 (US)
 "HR people are ambivalent about finance," say authors Karen Berman and Joe Knight. "They seem to understand the importance of non-financial people learning the financial side of business - the statements, the measures, the tools. On the other hand, some HR folks aren't sure about applying the lesson to themselves."
Yet, the authors continue in their new book, Financial Intelligence for HR Professionals, the discipline itself has been chipping away at this limitation for many years now until most senior HR leaders have gotten the message and are urging others to do the same. If you're one of the hold outs, or if you're still trying to learn about the financial side, this just may be the book for you.
Karen Berman, PhD, and Joe Knight, co-owners of L.A.-based Business Literacy Institute, have spent more than 20 years teaching executives and managers at all levels how financial success is measured and how their roles make an impact on that success. Their first book helped general managers understand the value and power of understanding numbers, and this new publication was created to do the same for those in human resources.
Financial intelligence is not some innate ability that you either have or don't have, the authors assure us. For most business people, HR included, financial intelligence is no more than a set of skills that must be, and can be, learned.
Financial Intelligence for HR Professionals provides managers with the four basic skills sets needed to hone their financial intelligence:
1. Understanding the foundation: how to decipher income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
2. Understanding the art: how to identify when the artful aspects of finance have been applied to the numbers and what that means to drawing accurate conclusions.
3. Understanding the analysis: how to make informed decisions based on the information underneath ratios and return on investment.
4. Understanding the big picture: how to value the context created by changes in the economy and the competitive environment and what that means for interpreting a company's financial numbers.
On the practical side, the authors hope that once you've finished reading the book, you will be prepared to:
- Speak the language of finance. In HR you need to use the language to be taken seriously and to communicate effectively.
- Ask questions. It is tremendously important to understand the what, why, and how of the numbers your are using to make decisions.
- Use the information. Use it to improve cash flow, analyze an outsourcing decision, and assess your company's results.
For more information, visit www.financialintelligencebook.com or www.amazon.ca.
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