The Implications of “Only Connect” in Business

When my father-in-law died, the world stopped. It was my first experience with any death of a parent (my own or my wife’s) – and he was an inspiration to many. His name was Dr Fariborz Amini and he was an amazing psychiatrist who only added value. He wasn’t interested in getting things done faster. He was interested in getting things done right. And that was totally against where the healthcare system was heading as he got near the end of his life.

He once said “Only Connect: you can always make up money, but you cannot make up the important things in life – such as time with your family.”

It’s hard for me to imagine Dr Amini pursuing a career other than being a wise professor and psychiatrist, but he once told me he could have seen himself in the business world. This led me to ask the question:

“How might we apply Fari’s notion of ONLY CONNECT in a business setting?”

It would not have anything to do with the internet, computers, technology or “the cloud.”

It would have to do with working with people to take the time to really understand and listen. It would not seem practical at times. It would start with management. The leader’s voice would be the authentic vision for the company. This vision would then be validated by a peer or advisor. We would agree that this vision would be the seed by which beautiful things would grow; that is, corporate profits!

The financial model of the business would be based on meaningful, high-level models that would in fact be developed in a tool such as Alight Planning; after all, why would any serious business executive build mission critical models in spreadsheets given all the documented risks inherent in spreadsheets.

First of course, the financial model should be white-boarded or architected in some way. It’s not so important whether it’s done directly in Alight Planning, on a white board, or on a napkin. It is important that we as finance professionals capture the seed inside the leader and visionary and translate it into a business model to enable a beautiful business to grow. But, it must connect and align the entire management team toward the vision – the model itself must be used to drive the connection that happens between the people at the top of the organization so that there is an emotional resonance and a sense of true ownership in the rightness of what everyone is doing. We must believe in it – not just conceptually but implicitly as something that is right – whatever that word means to each of us.

I welcome your comments and hope that we can connect! Try me at 415-456-8528 as well - sometimes it's even better to connect over the phone than via blogs on Proformative :)

Special thanks to:

Dr Fari Amini, my father-in-law, told to “only connect” – His words will never leave my heart.

Rand Heer, my manager at Alight Planning, who inspired me with his sense of rightness about driver-based planning and software designed to get to the authentic elements of what make a business a business.

Jeff Walker, former Oracle CFO and designer of TenFold and Oracle Applications, is my current mentor who reminds me of Fari at times. He takes the time to listen and add value - to make sure what I’m doing is right. He does it because he knows the wisdom of “only connect.”