Well, it is Friday and after a tough week, what better way to welcome in the weekend with a bit of light entertainment.
A colleague recently shared this video with me and although it is quite funny, it does have some very serious points. Spreadsheets are at the core of a lot of businesses and as great a tools as they can be, in the wrong hands they can be equally dangerous and costly to a business.
Watch the video and have a chuckle and then maybe take the opportunity to reflect on the use of spreadsheets in your business.
Try asking yourself the following questions:
- Are you using spreadsheets because they are convenient rather than implementing proper systems?
- Do you understand all of the various formulas calculations in the spreadsheets you look at or do you just assume them to be correct because they were written by someone else?
- Do you have standards in your business for reporting / information sharing or do different managers in your business create their own spreadsheets / reports with no management direction?
- How accurate or up to date is the information in the spreadsheet report you are looking at?
- How do you verify it is up to date? Or are you taking the word of the person who sent it to you?
- Do people manipulate numbers in spreadsheets to make their projects or themselves look better than they really are? How do you stop this?
If you are still running your business on spreadsheets and you feel it is time to stop, we are happy to discuss how we may assist you in removing the spreadsheet risk from your business.
Enjoy the weekend!
The Workbench Team