Business intelligence is about knowing exactly what is going to drive business results, is quantities of data translated into analytics reports for decisions informed by solid research, data and facts, rather than intuition or assumptions. Business intelligence is more than tracking KPIs; includes forecasting, skilled analysis and tailored narratives. A dashboard of quantitative data and qualitative analytics builds the big picture as a storyline of 'why', ‘how’, 'what'.
In sustainability, data analytics has largely been driven by tedious compliance reporting, focused on safety or environmental incidents, materials consumption, energy and water use. New BI solutions offer the opportunity to move from compliance to value driven reporting, raising the profile of the sustainability professionals. With data analytics solutions, a variety of other performance relevant data, collected for different purposes, in different formats, on different supports – supply, operations, headcount, demand, weather, political, social, etc. - are also being incorporated in the decision process. Business analytics helps to exploit the multiple, large sustainability data sources – quantitative or qualitative – and build the predictive knowledge necessary to deal with the uncertainty and volatility of resources in today’s market. 
Bringing hard and soft data in the cultural transformation process – such as behavioural safety perceptions at Dupont Sustainable Solutions, transforming the materiality assessment into an efficient ongoing analysis – with Datamaran research tools, running the plant maintenance surveillance with IIoT connected devices as Acciona or tracking issues such as environmental, human rights or child labor abuses with the due diligence RepRisk SaaS platform are just few of the remarkable developments in the recent past.
In corporate sustainability strategy, the quick-wins have been won. Businesses need to reach higher and wider to address more complex issues that cannot be solved anymore alone. Sustainability business intelligence has become a key pillar in sustainability strategy and will be instrumental to measure and manage a business impact across its entire range of stakeholders. As for the shareholders, they are increasingly relying on the data analytics for investment and voting decisions, particularly with respect to sustainability issues.

#sustainabilityanalytics #sustainabilityreporting  #businessintelligence  #sustainabilitybi

Financial Accounts are designed to be a communication tool, but, as they are backward looking and quasi-complicated, business owners, business management, creditors, investors alike are losing confidence in them.
Accounts need to be brought into the 21st Century, so that they can communicate effectively both backward looking and forward looking, embracing technology, business and marketing strategy while delivering the necessary tax reporting compliance. 

​A cost-effective accounting advisor is a partner which brings sector specific knowledge, interprets the business transactions through sustainability lenses, contributes the necessary investors’ information, makes connections to expand the enterprise business network. In other words, is an active business growth agent.  That’s money well spent.

Register  here for our digital accounting webinars.

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Les comptes financiers sont conçus pour être un outil de communication, mais de par leur caractère rétrospectif et assez compliqué, les entrepreneurs, les dirigeants, les créanciers et les investisseurs y perdent confiance.
Les comptes doivent entrer dans le XXIe siècle afin de pouvoir communiquer efficacement, à la fois rétrospectivement et prospectivement, en adoptant les nouvelles technologies, suivant la stratégie commerciale et de l’entreprise, tout en respectant les exigences en matière de déclaration fiscale.
Le conseiller en comptabilité du XXIe siècle est un partenaire qui connaît les opportunités et les contraintes spécifiques du secteur de l’entreprise, analyse les transactions par leur impact, fournit les informations nécessaires pour la communication avec les financiers et contribue au développement du réseau d’affaires de l’entreprise. En d’autres termes, est lui-même un agent de croissance, pas seulement un fournisseur de prestations comptables. À ce point, la facture comptable devient de l'argent bien dépensé.

Inscriptions ici pour nos webinaires  'Comptabilité digitale'   

I have recently joined a team on a compliance consulting project for a growth-stage business, in process to expand internationally and also preparing a significant Series A funding. It was supposed to be a simple, straightforward small engagement, focused on the reviewing the database of 3rd  party service providers and defining a due diligence approach, efficient in managing the risks and  cost – effective. 3rd party risk in the client company has just been elevated to high priority level, as part of strengthening the core prior to the funding round scrutiny.

While discussing the approach, it came clear that the client was uninformed about the significance of the existing regulations and, by consequence,  was rather unpleasantly surprised by the extent of work needed to perform the due diligence on all 3rd parties and by the associated accountability of the board.

As part of the business’ risk profile, reviewing the due diligence of 3rd party relationships would establish whether the business is assuming more risk than it can identify, monitor, manage and control.  The  board retains the accountability for the relationship with 3rd parties.

The due diligence on 3rd parties is common practice in global organizations where risk management is taken seriously, but since there is no minimum level of due diligence set by regulation,  a fair share of companies take this work lightly, keeping the compliance at checklist level.

With the vast improvements in technology and communications, it is now possible for small to medium size businesses to operate beyond their geographical boundaries. From a business risk management, with international partners come a number of challenges.

For growth-stage businesses, the ‘know-your-customer’ intense process is one of many growing pains. These expanding operations are more vulnerable since they operate with less resources, less legal advice and have less power to impose rigorous  due diligence on their new international partners . The growth-stage companies  would not necessarily prioritize 3rd party vetting automation and   audits.  Often, the vetting would come after the fact, once the transaction took place and the risk control became ineffective.

Growing with 3rd parties is a two-edge sword.  Employing agents and distributors reduces the initial investment needed to enter and test a new market. But relying on third parties also brings with it greater risks for bribery, money laundering and other improper conduct.  The growth imperative often dominates in the strategy execution, and the 3rd party risks remain underestimated. So it happens that the due diligence processes are not put in until late, when external pressure intervenes, such as supply chain crisis, regulatory reviews or shareholders demands.   At that stage, the efforts and cost implications are a very unpleasant surprise.  Also,  very  likely that some risks cannot be mitigated anymore.

10  mins amazing education on the water problem and the water credits - a simple and meaningful solution to water and sanitation.

https://youtu.be/Sqeh-ycjiFU​
Matt Damon & Gary White - Transforming Lives with Water.org and WaterEquity | The Daily Show

Find here the article published on May 16th about the CoolStudio vision and offering.

 Getting outside funding is a necessary step for many businesses, but lacks transparency and turns into a very frustrating process, especially for first time fundraisers. In the Investment Readiness coaching sessions, I hear often from founders `I should have known these before spending so much effort for no results’ ,  hence sharing  here few of the most ignored advices, in my experience.
 
 #1 Quality over quantity
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In the previous post, I mentioned the basic starting point in the fundraising: the indirect research - understanding the preferences and the current portfolio of the investors targeted, learning from peer founders who got funded - . This comes up on my list as the #1 most ignored advice. It may be counter-intuitive, but more meetings does not equal more money. What is likely to bring more money is quality introductions to investors who are identified to be a fit. This comes from thorough investor research and segmentation and will lead to contact probably 20 investors, not 80. More effort in preparing and planning the fundraising approach will pay off in faster funding. 
 
#2 Keep your pitch deck at max 10 slides
 
It is important to realize that investors reviewing pitch decks will have different expectations on how a deck should be presented. If you are in fundraisingmode, takea look at some of the top pitch decksthat have been successful in raising capital,  in your industry.
One clear investor preference, is : Lead with the Investment thesis.
A most favoured sequence is: problem – solution – opportunity - competition - business model – team –financials. Deal terms disclosure in the deck is not a one-for-all approach. Instead, should be tailored to the investor requirements (circling back to the point #1 above). 
A Docsend study indicates the Top 3 pages reviewed by investors are: Team, Financials, Competition.  And yet, 1/3 of seed decks do not include competition information and only about ½ include financials.
 
 
#3 Articulate the opportunity and your competitive advantage 
 
The same Docsend study states that ¼ of pitch decks are missing the opportunity sizing. Often, where the information is covered, we see tendencies to overblowing the target market size or just using generic numbers, not really focusing on the addressable market size.
Everyone has competition, the pitch deck needs to explain how is your business better. If partnerships and intellectual property are the arguments for competitive advantage, know that partnerships are relevant only if they actually impact directly your bottom line and that patent defensibility is very low, because it comes at very high cost, most likely unbearable for a start-up and unappealing to most investors. Defensibility is more in the market approach and  not as much in the patent.
 
For my  posts on how to navigate the funding maze, click  here. 
Lets connect and work together at  The Social Partner and The Investment Clinic.

​Few tips from our experience in working with entrepreneurs from around the world: 

Learn from peers: look for founders and startups in your industry and geography who have got funded.  Research or even better, ask them how they did it. Find out the investors names, their portfolio, their expectations. Ask the founders where they failed,  learn from that. 
Learn the terminology: Read a good number of how-to articles about getting funded,  get comfortable with the investment process, the necessary hurdles, learn  what is important for investors at different stages.  Pinterest and youtube are also good sources for infographics, for a quick self-education. 
Learn the standards: Browse through the different models and applications, get up to speed with the tools used in the investors selection process, search for pitch decks from companies close to your industry. Do not copy, just make sure you cover the necessary content and demonstrate you bring a solid market approach. 
Learn to present your team and your story. Early stage funding is more about the team capability and passion than about the product. Show grit, vision for growth and track record.


Lets connect to work together @ The Social Partner  or @ The Investment Clinic.

​Do you want to cut down on time to get funding?
 
I would  start by saying that this article will not say anything new. The quantity of articles and free templates available for entrepreneurs to get ‘investment ready’ is overwhelming.   And yet, surprisingly and sadly, so is the number of businesses which need funding but are unprepared to face investors.  
 

With every business that I coach, I experience a growing attachment  as we go through the preparation together.  I have a lot of admiration, respect and empathy for the hard work and dedication of the entrepreneurs, for the pain, the resilience they demonstrate to get where they are. And from this deep connection comes my message to entrepreneurs who are raising capital for the first time, want to cut down on time to get funded and speed up their growth: Invest to get Invested !

I break it down in four:
 
Realise that getting funded is a process not a one-off action

As a rule of thumb, it takes between 6-9 months to complete a funding campaign. It is a gradual evolution, from internal alignment to intensive public presence, requiring different types of resources – some could be in-house, but some are better found externally. Finding the right balance between internal capabilities and experts’ services is key to move forward in the funding process.  This is not a plea for working with experts (I am biased here, of course), it is a plea to recognize the own team strengths and plan to fill the gaps, timely.  
 
Take time to prepare before approaching investors

Most entrepreneurs can eloquently speak about their product or service, the technical features and quality. There is predominantly less eloquence about the market position, the market entry or the market protection, the differentiation vs. competitors, etc. There is less convincing talk when it comes to product development strategy on long term, intellectual property, etc. Way too many are not prepared to defend their valuation estimate with a solid, professional financial plan. 
 
Accept there are costs associated with a good preparation 
Preparing a business for scrutiny requires resources and time. Preparing the business for investor scrutiny is an intensive process and goes in parallel with the product and the  commercial development. Obviously, the preparation puts a serious strain on the internal team. Adding external help is a must – rarely a team covers all competences required. Free external help is limited to superficial support, some marketing, maybe a little back office work. Good, efficient external help comes at a cost and failing to recognise this reality is a cost in itself:  the funding process gets longer, and the cash burn is higher.
 
Recognize that approaching investors is more of an art than a science
There is no single proven way to secure funding from investors. The preselection made by investors is an imperfect process. In hindsight, many businesses turn out to be selected or deselected based on false positive or false negative screens.  One investor’ reason to reject is another investor’ reason to fund a business. That’s to say that, in this imperfect process, where rules are sometimes unclear or unexplained, the entrepreneurs need to master the combination of the right introduction, smart supporting information, sharp insights in the investor preferences, sector and geography funding benchmarks, current information about the investors in funding mode, their past investments and track record … and more. A good strategy, serious research and segmentation work are required to define the optimal approach for, say, the top 5 target investors. 

Invest to get invested! - simply  a reminder for entrepreneurs to reflect on which help is best to engage to navigate the investor landscape, which is anything but transparent.

Lets connect to work here at The Social Partner  or at The Investment Clinic.
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