Key Concepts and Questions - Chapters 2 & 3

‘Man, if you gotta ask you’ll never know’ - 

Initially, reading this quote really struck a nerve. In both of the two jobs I have had it has been my role to mentor new staff and the first thing I teach is that if you don’t know something – ASK! So, seeing this ‘if you have to ask you will never know’ really infuriated me, especially as a neurodivergent learner; I need extra clarification sometimes so I will be asking questions if I need to. 

However, after searching the origin of this quote, I found this is a mis-quote. The original statement made was ‘man, if you gotta ask what jazz is you’ll never know’ which makes much more sense, and quite frankly eased my anger over this significantly. After sitting and thinking about the mis-quote, I do understand the meaning behind it. There are certain things that are learned best through experience rather than explanation (what jazz is for example). 

I think that the way I reacted to seeing and then to understanding this quote can create a segway to my next KCQ, without verifiability (the fact of being able to be proved true or correct), the understandability of a statement is impacted. The meanings behind the mis-quote and the original quote being so different from each other really highlights the importance of ensuring information is correct and true.

 

Comparability, verifiability, timeliness, and understandability. - 

I don’t have many exciting things to say about this one, though I do believe it to be an important KCQ. These four concepts prove to be extremely important in most workplaces, regardless of the field. Obviously, the main point of these concepts is to help with the accounting process, though I relate it most to my workplace’s NPI and NPS scores. 

The comparability, verifiability, and understandability are all great, but it’s the timeliness that needs to be worked on. Our score for the previous month is almost always sent through in the second half of the next month, meaning we receive our results too late to do anything with. If we have a bad month in March for example, we don’t know what we should be working on until mid to late April when the month is almost over and have very little time to improve our score for April. Being on the receiving end of late reports allows me to understand the importance of timeliness and how it affects results and decisions. 


If you think your firm’s annual report is not a marketing document, think again. It is a marketing document. - 

This statement jumped out at me straight away – my firm’s annual report is 100% a marketing document. The entire time I was reading over the 2024 report, all I was thinking was ‘wow they have a good marketing team’. The report is filled with pretty pictures, appealing figures, and is all but bragging about the company’s achievements. I know if I ever move to the UK and decide to build a new home, Taylor Wimpey has already persuaded me to choose them. Jokes aside though, it did make me wonder why the report seems to be set out as a marketing platform – surely potential buyers aren’t going through their financial reports? Well potential buyers may not be, but potential investors are. Releasing such an attractive financial report allows the company to demonstrate or advertise performance highlights, profitability and financial stability, and by doing so in a way that is pleasing to the eyes only creates a further interest in the report. For my company, it seems investors and shareholders are an integral part of the finances, so I can see why the report is so marketing focused.  


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