Jul 20, 2021 | Business
if your association is familiar with a huge load of show and technique, moving to Kanban will feel like youre being thrown into the focal point of the ocean without a net.
A lot of marketers have started Agile advertising with no genuine construction. While that may work in a small company that is adequately balanced to Agile promoting norms, most marketers are transforming from a standard culture, and as such, benefit from an exhibited technique for completing Agile advertising. Entrepreneur and philanthropist Ann Marie Puig explores Agile marketing procedures and how to apply the right plans for small businesses.
Scrum was produced using the item improvement network a decades ago. Today, it is comprehensively used in various corporate workplaces, just as in schools, home, house flipping, wedding orchestrating and much more. Scrum consolidates three positions: A Scrum Master, Product Owner and Development Team. Its anything but a relentless example of timeboxed occasions planned to ensure participation and straightforwardness. The group works in runs, which can be some place in the scope of one to about a month-long, with the target of having possibly shippable or tackled job close to the end.
At the point when everything is said in done, enormous associations starting from a customary culture regularly favor Scrum since its nearer to how theyre as of now adjusted with working. States Puig, if your association is familiar with a huge load of show and technique, moving to Kanban will feel like youre being thrown into the focal point of the ocean without a net.
New organizations or marketing departments are commonly more modest in size and are typically logically planned. This confining society may consider Scrum to be unnecessarily coordinated and firm for their free strategy for working and are more equipped for Kanban. On the off chance that you just have three people in your group, Scrum isnt for you. A little group doesnt need to consider its own Scrum Master and Product Owner; along these lines, if the organization has a small group, stick to Kanban.
The proposed Scrum group is a two-pizza bunch. Now, its too large, more modest than that and you basically dont have the need. A nice size is five-to-seven people, notwithstanding a Scrum Master and Product Owner. On the off chance that your work changes like clockwork or days, Scrum will be difficult to execute because of its run time boxes. Kanban turns out fantastic for bunches that get a lot of requests every so often that cant be organized.
Scrum is unprecedented if you can plan 80% or a greater amount of your work and hold fast to that course of action for one, two or even three weeks. Adds Puig, If a standard mission takes you weeks or months to pass on right now, Scrum may be your most intelligent choice. In any case, you can convey work at whatever point in Scrum, not just around the completion of a run.
Care groups will be gatherings of people in a comparative request who help a couple of areas inside the affiliation or with outside clients. Content advertisers are often an assistance group for the rest of the marketing division. These sorts of groups work better using Kanban considering the way that the sales come in quickly and work regularly happens in the solicitation its referenced.
Cross-practical gatherings are ideal for Scrum since they can pass on a mission beginning to end. A cross-practical marketing group may have a strategist, content sponsor, visual maker, website specialist, editor, SEO professional and some other individual expected to pass on honestly to the client without embarking on another project. Agile marketing is about experimentation and learning, and the best groups are the place where businesspeople grant each gathering in the relationship to pick a design that best affects them, endeavor it for quite a while and change if vital. Adds Puig, A lot of cutting edge marketing departments end up using a cross variety to manage these two frameworks that is typically called Scrumban. The target of a construction isnt to perfect a system, yet, rather, to have an illustrated, known technique for being an expert advertising association.
About Ann Marie Puig
Ann Marie Puig has been a distinguished Consultant, Assistant Controller, Accounting Manager, Director of Accounting and Finance and Chief Financial Officer for almost 20 years. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has a reputation for accurate, clear and concise record management in month-end closings, accruals, reconciliations, AP, AR and JE, as well as superior human resource skills. She is extremely knowledgeable in current technology, eCommerce and a variety of Industries.
Jun 12, 2021 | Business
When this happens, morality, passion and motivation will never be lacking and the growth of the organization is a natural consequence.
On the road to business success, the first and most important thing is to ensure that the foundations of your company are solid to withstand any situation. The values of a company are the purposes that guide the attitudes of its employees and keep them linked to common objectives. In addition, these values are the ultimate expression of a companys mission and vision. Ann Marie Puig, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist from Costa Rica, discusses the essential values all businesses should follow and how to embrace them.
The values of a company define from head to toe the ethical, moral and business principles of the organization, in addition to making very clear the corporate identity, along with the mission and vision of the same. They are formed by all those ethical and professional principles on which we base all activities within the company, which evidence, in one way or another, the identity and spirit of the same. We could say, they are the personality traits of the company that, summarized in a simple and concise way, are used to transmit to their own and third parties the route that the founders or managers have decided to take.
The simplest way to choose them is to ask yourself who the company owner is and what he believes in, how he responds to crisis situations and how he wants his environment to define him. In this way, you can trace that personality and determine the values of a company. In addition, as a marketing strategy, corporate identity is fundamental to define aspects such as the target audience, tone of the message, needs, among others.
Transparency, sincerity and openness are values that the public today not only wants for companies, but that are demanded. This has to do with using the truth as a tool to gain trust and credibility in the face of the environment.
We live in a world where everyone says they have the best products on the market. But it is one thing to affirm it and the other is to guarantee it. Says Puig, The products must meet the established and promised parameters of quality that can only be considered as close to perfection as possible.
Punctuality is important, as well. This isnt only about being respectful of delivery times for goods. It also refers to the importance of punctuality at the time of arrival and departure. Also, take special consideration over time of customers, suppliers and partners in cases of meetings and bill payments.
Few things appeal more to customers than seeing people who enjoy what they do. Therefore, having passion as the value of a company will serve to create and maintain emotionality at the top and transmit that motivation abroad.
Having the clear goal that you can only settle for being at the top, is a value that very few manage to put into practice. Your company can only be the best only if the best is demanded, asserts Puig. When this happens, morality, passion and motivation will never be lacking and the growth of the organization is a natural consequence.
When have you seen a sports team win championships solely by individualities? Possibly never. The management of work teams arises as an important need in corporate environments where tolerance, respect, admiration and consideration are the priorities. But this does not come this far; the values of a company are linked to the personal principles of the heads of the company. Therefore, values such as freedom, resilience, loyalty, solidarity, among others, can also be considered.
A company that constantly strives to rethink its value proposition to adapt to the needs of its customers has everything it needs to grow sustainably. In the end, businesses only continue to exist because their consumers choose them to solve a problem or loophole, based on products and services. That is, the customer is the central axis of a successful company. Thats why customer orientation brings so many benefits to corporate processes. This value can be incorporated into the organizational culture with the following measures:
Taking into account the previous point, the role of companies in improving the quality of life of people, from their customers, is noticeable. But this movement can be further strengthened when it extends to the wider community. To make a broad and positive impact on the society around them, businesses must give strength to the value of Social Responsibility. That is, they can carry out collective actions to make their resources generate benefits for people who do not necessarily establish a consumer relationship with them.
When you enter the corporate world, the best thing is to eliminate the illusion that you can build a perfect scenario, without any problem. It is impossible, since in the attempt to grow and improve there are limitations that the company must overcome. Thats why the value of problem solving is so important in the business environment. Employees and managers should always encourage thinking oriented to the search for solutions, thus avoiding the waste of time to find culprits or regret what did not work, concludes Puig.
About Ann Marie Puig
Ann Marie Puig has been a distinguished Consultant, Assistant Controller, Accounting Manager, Director of Accounting and Finance and Chief Financial Officer for almost 20 years. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has a reputation for accurate, clear and concise record management in month-end closings, accruals, reconciliations, AP, AR and JE, as well as superior human resource skills. She is extremely knowledgeable in current technology, eCommerce and a variety of Industries.
Jun 12, 2021 | Business
The function of Agile methodologies is to find ways of working that adapt to the conditions of the projects. At the same time, it must provide more flexibility to the internal processes and adapt them to the particular requirements of each team.
Companies are increasingly betting on different working methods that allow employees to work in a comfortable and efficient environment. In the context of the digital age, the need arises to implement the Agile Methodology as a way to improve the quality of the product and service while reducing time and costs. Ann Marie Puig, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist from Costa Rica, explains why Scrum and Agile are beneficial for a companys success.
Agile Methodologies refer to the whole set of actions that are beneficial to the company. It is about implementing methods that facilitate the management of teams in evolving environments and that help improve the quality of the business and action times, strengthen the commitment of workers and increase productivity. Obviously, all are positive results for both the company and the team.
There are several ways to work Agilely, but they all have the same objective: to work flexibly, autonomously and efficiently, reducing costs and increasing your productivity. Asserts Puig, The function of Agile methodologies is to find ways of working that adapt to the conditions of the projects. At the same time, it must provide more flexibility to the internal processes and adapt them to the particular requirements of each team.
The methodologies used in Agile project management (such as Scrum, XP or Kanban) follow a model of continuous improvement, flexible and with clear objectives that seek good quality results. All these methodologies were born thanks to the development of software, which facilitates work processes. For example, tasks as simple as communicating to deliver a job were not so years ago, with traditional work models. Now, with Agile methodologies, all of these practices have become easy and quick. As a result of the birth of Agile projects, we see better-achieved results and more motivation among workers.
The Agile Manifesto emerged almost two decades ago, when 17 programming experts met to share their ideas on improving team management under fundamental values that are closer to a change of thinking and business culture than to methodologies that do not take into account the quality of the team or the client. Values are related to customer satisfaction through the early and continuous delivery of valuable software, adds Puig, promoting sustainable development or using effective methods of communication between team members.
The reason why thousands of companies already use this methodology can only be one: the great advantages it offers. The speed of Agile projects also helps to save on costs. We work within a model that has set goals, with times, costs and forecasts before external factors. The great advantage of the Agile methodology is that it is fast and efficient and therefore, the results will be better. The core of the software is the great capacity to accelerate processes and make them more efficient. The model works on partial deliveries of the product, with monitoring that allows the detection of failures in time and improvements in short periods of time.
The result of the above feature is the detection of errors and failures, which will help to have quality products and a high technological level. Being able to work in short terms of time allows you to pay more attention to the product, the customer will appreciate it and save on costs.
Since a few years ago, the demand for related profiles in the Agile field such as Agile coach, Scrum Master, Project Manager or the Product Owner, has seen an increase of almost 50%. This is revealed by one of the graphs of an Infojobs 2018 report. Of course, given the high demand, the level of competition is medium-low. If you are also interested in working within the field of project management, you need specific training such as the Master in Agile Project Management from IEBS Business School.
Digital Transformation has caused a break in the labor paradigm. More and more new profiles are emerging that require trained and flexible professionals with continuous training. Without a doubt, ignoring the work of these new jobs means falling behind in the strategy and wasting a competitive advantage provided by human capital.
About Ann Marie Puig
Ann Marie Puig has been a distinguished Consultant, Assistant Controller, Accounting Manager, Director of Accounting and Finance and Chief Financial Officer for almost 20 years. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has a reputation for accurate, clear and concise record management in month-end closings, accruals, reconciliations, AP, AR and JE, as well as superior human resource skills. She is extremely knowledgeable in current technology, eCommerce and a variety of Industries.
Mar 23, 2021 | Business
To provide training and development to the person is to equip them with knowledge so that they can carry out their work more efficiently. This indicator provides information on how to improve employee productivity by providing you with the tools needed for your professional growth.
The importance of measuring and analyzing is related to the ability to anticipate problems that might arise in a company, preventively performing tasks that help detect potential situations before they have a negative impact on the organization, which is always a better option than making decisions to correct a problem. Similarly, monitoring and measurement allow you to have information for proper, better decision-making based on more reliable data. In the particular case of the human resources area, it is important to measure management results as people are a very valuable asset for the company to achieve its objectives and is considered a strategic element that provides capacity for differentiation from the competition. For this reason, it is important to take the time to review how human talent management is being carried out. Ann Marie Puig, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist from Costa Rica, explains the main indicators for human talent management.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that help measure and quantify performance based on specific goals and objectives that have the activities that are carried out for a companys operations. For KPIs to be truly effective and reliable, they must have certain characteristics which can be summarized with the acronym SMART, Specific, Measurable, Affordable, Relevant and Time-based. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that key indicators of the human talent management process must be aligned to the strategic objectives of the company.
Average training and training time must be considered. Explains Puig, To provide training and development to the person is to equip them with knowledge so that they can carry out their work more efficiently. This indicator provides information on how to improve employee productivity by providing you with the tools needed for your professional growth.
This KPI should show the relationship between the investment made per employee in relation to training and the improvement in job performance. By increasing the levels of this indicator, the company obtains important advantages such as an increase in the level of employee satisfaction, confidence of the collaborator to take on challenges and innovate as well as the commitment of part of it to execute with its best effort the tasks entrusted to them.
Average time to reach goals is another consideration. With this indicator, you can measure the effectiveness of collaborators, which is important since it is measured from the moment the employee starts his activities in the company, so you can evaluate whether the selection process has been appropriate. It is important that the objectives and expected times are achievable and measurable. This you can do with the help of the Balanced Scorecard, which will guide you to know the progress of the collaborator in meeting established goals. Ideally, as the employee gains experience in the position this data decreases thanks to the time and training that the company provides.
Staff turnover rate is one of the main indicators to take into account as it measures the degree of permanence of employees in the company. States Puig, One figure that can be considered suitable for this indicator is that the rotation is less than 5%. Having a high turnover involves high costs for the company in areas such as recruitment, training, employee efficiency due to the learning curve, etc. In addition, this KPI is an indicator that expresses the motivation, sense of belonging and commitment that is being fostered in the company towards employees.
By tracking absenteeism levels, you can measure the absences of employees to the workplace either by faults, by permits or by delays on arrival. This indicator is very valuable as it not only reflects the obvious data but has a broader background on employee motivation, commitment to job performance and the operation of the company as such. Depending on the payment granted to the employee, the costs for the company of the accumulated absences per worker can be estimated. Itis essential to pay attention to this indicator individually since, usually, an employee with high levels of absenteeism and delays when arriving shows dissatisfaction with his work and with the company, which will affect his performance and probably in his permanence.
We can consider the talent retention rate as a complement to the previous point as retention should be the main goal of the company. For this, it is important that you identify key positions and collaborators for the organization as well as the time they have been in the company. For this calculation, you will have to divide the key collaborators who remained in the company during the year among the total of key collaborators.
Measuring the time that vacancies are available without being able to find the ideal person is an important indicator that allows to evaluate the effectiveness of the human talent department to provide staff to the company. Asserts Puig, It is also very useful to know if job profiles are well defined, whether recruitment is being effective both processes and channels. It is essential to understand well the reasons why this index can appear as high for the company since in the understanding of achieving goals of decrease of days can make the mistake of contracting without the person covering the requirements generating an affectation to the other indicators, especially the turnover rate. This can have an impact on the organizational climate as it is considered job instability.
The ability to attract and retain talent will be reflected in the ability to establish key indicators that allow it to evaluate the management of human talent processes. Knowing the competencies that your team has is one of the most important challenges that the human resources department currently has, so analysis and monitoring in this area are fundamental for the company.
About Ann Marie Puig
Ann Marie Puig has been a distinguished Consultant, Assistant Controller, Accounting Manager, Director of Accounting and Finance and Chief Financial Officer for almost 20 years. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has a reputation for accurate, clear and concise record management in month-end closings, accruals, reconciliations, AP, AR and JE, as well as superior human resource skills. She is extremely knowledgeable in current technology, eCommerce and a variety of Industries.
Mar 10, 2021 | Business, Finance
Bank reconciliation is a control process between the companys ledger records and the bank account movements. Keeping control like this will help entrepreneurs discover and correct errors in their accounting, often before they become big issues. Accurate bank reconciliation, coupled with proper cash reconciliation, is essential when having orderly management, administration and accounting and Ann Marie Puig, an entrepreneur and financial specialist from Costa Rica, explains why.
No matter the size of the business, bank reconciliation is a process that must be done as often as possible within the company. Reconciling means making two or more things compatible; in this case, bank reconciliation is super simple and simple to check if it is right or wrong since the balance must be analyzed at the end of X day, i.e., the balance of the bank statement (digital, paper, printed, etc.) compared with the balance of the banks main account in question. If both balances are equal, we can say that the bank is Reconciled.
First, the finances of any company have a relevant role because they aim to optimize and achieve the multiplication of money. Says Puig, Its key that every organization, large or small, has timely, useful, clear, relevant, and concise information to make the best decisions. Based on this, the future can be forecasted and the company can be viewed, so it takes a lot of attention and ability to do so.
That is why financial analysis is a fundamental part of an organizations strategic planning process, which is an ongoing process for the efficient allocation of both material, human and above all financial resources that enable the achievement of strategic objectives and goals. Therefore, all information and data concerning the organization come from all its day-to-day operations, whether sales, purchases, services, but all these operations involve a series of transactions in which the money is involved.
Bank reconciliation is inevitable. Not out of accounting whim that only experts can see, but for several reasons, including avoiding unpleasant mistakes and surprises, verifying transactions and expense projection. For example, if a company has $100,000 in the bank but the Own Checks report indicates that next week $400,000 of checks will expire, the business owner needs to know where the $300,000 is going to come from.
First, in the normal cycle of operations in a company, financial transactions are constantly carried out in its day-to-day life. For this purpose, it uses the bank as a financial ally, where the company has full confidence to deposit and manage its money coffers. All organizations require the management of bank accounts to facilitate their business operations, so they make contracts with banking institutions that allow them to manage their financial resources. Opening a bank account allows the company, in addition to managing its finances, to have source documents to make its accounting records, explains Puig, and thus facilitate the control of operations. However, these financial transactions involved in the companys operations are reflected in reports called bank statements, either printed by the bank or extracted from the banking website on any day of the month.
It should be noted that, in accounting, the bank balances both at the beginning and end of the monthly period reflected in the bank statements and which obviously must match the bank book of the company. This is the amount of the amount reflected in the nominal ledger account called Bank. Your entries must be posted in both the journal and the company ledger. That, in turn, at the end of the accounting cycle in the preparation of the financial statements, goes as a current asset reflected in the statement of financial position, according to international financial reporting standards.
This will make it much easier for you to control and record your finances, with which you can make better business decisions. It can be said that a good bank reconciliation added to a correct reconciliation of the companys bank books, is essential when it comes to wanting to have good management both administrative and accounting and thus manage more efficiently the finances of the company.
About Ann Marie Puig
Ann Marie Puig has been a distinguished Consultant, Assistant Controller, Accounting Manager, Director of Accounting and Finance and Chief Financial Officer for almost 20 years. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has a reputation for accurate, clear and concise record management in month-end closings, accruals, reconciliations, AP, AR and JE, as well as superior human resource skills. She is extremely knowledgeable in current technology, eCommerce and a variety of Industries.
