Business Insights and Analysis

🌍 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲. The risks of a warming world and the transition to a low-carbon economy are no longer future threats—they’re here today. The question is, will your company adapt and thrive or fall behind? A great new report from the World Economic Forum and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) explores the costs of climate change and the imperatives for leaders to succeed in a changing world. 📉 The cost of inaction is staggering: Businesses unprepared for climate impacts could lose up to 25% of EBITDA by 2050 due to physical risks. 💰 The opportunity is equally compelling: Companies that invest in adaptation and resilience now could see a return of up to $19 for every dollar spent (CDP data). 🔑 Four critical steps for climate risk readiness: 1️⃣ 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻. 2️⃣ 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲-𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀. 3️⃣ 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀. 4️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁. For leaders who understand the stakes—and the opportunities—this is your chance to lead the way and ensure your business is on the right side of history. 💡 What steps is your company taking to manage climate risks and embrace green growth? I’d love to hear your insights. 📖 Explore the full report here: https://lnkd.in/de3Nn3n5 #climate #climaterisk #physicalrisk #ceo #sustainability

Africa has too many small businesses, and too little business."  A few months ago, The Economist said this and it stuck with me.   #Africa is the only continent with no company on the Forbes Global 2000. We have just 60% of the large firms you’d expect, given the size of our economies. Why? Are we less talented? Less ambitious? No. But we do face structural roadblocks. Here’s what we hear all the time:  Lack of access to finance. Lack of access to markets. #Finance Want to start a business? Collateral + 20% interest rates. Manage to grow? You’re lucky if you get paid within 90 days. And yet, Kenyan banks are thriving.  NCBA Group just reported profits of KSh 61.8B (~$460M). So we have money — just not for businesses that create jobs and value? #Markets: -Flights within Africa cost $400–$1000. Cheaper to fly to Dubai or Europe. - It’s easier to ship goods from China to Kenya or Uganda than between our own countries. -54 countries = 54 licenses. One continent, but no real single market. -Even our trade payments go through the US dollar, costing us $5B every year. And yet, we have the tools: AfCFTA – continental free trade SAATM – single African air transport PAPSS – Pan-African payment system But we haven’t activated them at scale. So what now? Global systems are skewed. Capital is more expensive. Risk is exaggerated. But we’re not powerless. Individually, we are weak. But collectively, Africa is strong. Let’s stop waiting for  international governments or donors to save us.  Can we build trust, work as pan-Africa, drop the ego, and prove The Economist wrong again?

Mike Maples, Jr is one of the most successful startup investors in history. He's worked with more early-stage startups than almost anyone alive, and with his fund, Floodgate, helped pioneer seed-stage investing as a category. He's been on the Forbes Midas List eight times and has made early bets on transformative companies like Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, and Okta. In his new book (coming out this Tuesday!), Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future, he shares the three common elements he's uncovered that separate startups (and founders) that break through and change the world from those that don’t. This research is rooted in his decades of notes, decks, and founder relationships, and is unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. In our conversation, Mike shares: 🔸 The three elements of breakthrough startup ideas 🔸 The importance of founder disagreeableness 🔸 Why you need to both *think* and *act* differently 🔸 How to avoid the “comparison trap” and “conformity trap” 🔸 How to apply pattern-breaking principles within large companies 🔸 Mike’s one piece of advice for founders 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gPjw8RXk - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gAUbgGxz - Apple: https://lnkd.in/g6t367uY Some key takeaways: 1. Get out of the present: Instead of just thinking about solving current problems, you need to immerse yourself in the future. Look for emerging trends, technologies, or shifts in behavior that suggest where the world is heading. Great innovations often stem from individuals who immerse themselves deeply in a niche or cutting-edge area. 2. Great startup ideas share three elements: a. Inflections: External shifts that create potential for radical change in how people think, feel, and behave. b. Insights: A unique understanding of how to harness these inflections and enable a future that the company believes in. c. Founder-future fit: An alignment between the founders and the future they envision, including their skills, motivations, and network. 3. Three things that successful founders do differently: a. Movements: A movement aligns early believers around a higher purpose, leveraging their emotional commitment rather than just pragmatic benefits. b. Storytelling: Frame your startup’s story as a hero’s journey. Position yourself not as the hero but as the guide (like Obi-Wan Kenobi) who invites customers (the heroes) to embark on a transformative journey toward a better future. Tailor your narrative to resonate with different stakeholders—investors, customers, employees—by emphasizing how they can achieve their aspirations through your vision. c. Disagreeableness: Founders who challenge the status quo often appear disagreeable because they defy conventional norms. They drive change by questioning existing patterns and persuading others to embrace new ways of thinking and acting.

McKinsey & Company Valuation book should be mandatory reading for every Finance Manager and CFO Most finance professionals talk about value creation Very few truly understand how value is created That’s exactly why Valuation by McKinsey is not just another finance book. It is a mindset shift The book makes one thing painfully clear: Growth alone does not create value. Returns on capital do One of its most powerful insights is counterintuitive for many managers: - High-ROIC businesses should obsess over growth - Low-ROIC businesses must fix returns before chasing growth __ This single framework explains why: Some fast-growing companies destroy shareholder wealth Some “boring” companies quietly compound value for decades What makes the book indispensable for CFOs and finance managers is its clarity on: How ROIC, growth, and reinvestment interact in valuation Why not all growth is equal, and why acquisitions often create the least value How strategic decisions translate into shareholder value, not just accounting profits It bridges the gap between strategy, capital allocation, and valuation in a way few books do If you are responsible for capital decisions, budgeting, M&A, or long-term strategy, this book does not just improve your valuation skills It changes how you think about business decisions altogether. In my view, every finance leader should revisit it at least once every few years Markets evolve, but the principles of value creation do not #Book

Reporting is NOT delivering insights. Unfortunately, many data & analytics professionals think it is. Reporting dashboards show WHAT's happening and enable basic slicing and dicing, but fail to deliver WHY. Example - "Performance is down 15% WoW" This is just stating the obvious. It's not a real insight. It's not actionable. This leaves many business leaders frustrated. When business stakeholders ask for more dashboards, what they are ultimately trying to achieve is "I need to know what's impacting my key business metrics and what I should do to improve it". Adding 15 more charts/views/slices won't help much to understand what's impacting the key business metrics and which actions should be taken. The key to REAL INSIGHTS that can move the needle? ROOT-CAUSE ANALYSIS to find the WHY (i.e., DIAGNOSTIC analytics) This is the most effective way to drive change with data & analytics. This can make the data & analytics team a TRUSTED ADVISOR and get a seat at the leadership and decision-making table. Insights need to be: 🟢SPEEDY: business stakeholders need quick insights into performance changes to make decisions before it's too late 🟢PROACTIVE: don't wait for business stakeholders to ask. Monitor key metrics and proactively share insights to become that trusted advisor 🟢IMPACT-ORIENTED: focus on the key drivers that drove most of the change and communicate accordingly 🟢EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATED to drive the right action #data #analytics #impact #diagnosticanalytics

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘀. 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗕𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 Start with the Patient, Not the Plant Medical cannabis is medicine, not wellness or lifestyle. Your product must serve a real need consistently & safely, backed by data. Understand patient journeys, work with clinics & doctors, & embed yourself in the healthcare system, not outside it. Build GACP First, Then EU GMP or Equivalent Too many try to chase EU GMP without mastering GACP. Good Agricultural & Collection Practices are about how you grow. EU GMP is for post-harvest processing & pharma-grade quality control. Get the basics right, document everything, & then scale. Make Regulation One of Your Strengths If you don’t understand the regulatory landscape, you don’t have a business. Know your country’s cannabis laws, narcotics classifications, export rules, & patient access pathways. Compliance is not a department, it’s part of your product. Never Outsource Your Integrity There will be pressure to cut corners, overpromise, or take shortcuts. Don’t. One contamination, one false claim, one deal with a bad distributor and your business collapses. In cannabis, reputation takes years to build and seconds to lose. Trust the Local Team If you operate in another country, listen to the people on the ground. Local growers, engineers, regulators, and logistics teams know more than a remote HQ ever will. Many failed projects stem from ignoring local intelligence. Control the Supply Chain Medical cannabis isn’t just about growing. It’s about controlling drying, processing, lab testing, packaging, export clearance, & more. Own your chain or verify every part of it. You cannot afford surprises with patient-use products. Avoid Chasing the “Next Big Thing” There’s always a new hype, CBD for pets, infused snacks, luxury creams. These trends rarely survive strict medical regulation. Stick to your core business. Deliver clean, consistent, compliant flower or extract. Then grow. Document Everything This industry runs on traceability. You need clean SOPs, batch logs, validated results, cultivation records, & patient outcomes. If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen. If it’s not auditable, it’s not exportable. Raise the Right Money Work with investors who understand the timelines and risks. You need partners who can handle a 3 to 5-year return horizon and still back compliance over short-term revenue. Misaligned finance will kill your project faster than pests. Know When to Say No Sometimes the smartest move is to walk away. If the laws are too grey, your partners untrustworthy, or the facility isn’t ready, pause. Medical cannabis must be built with discipline and maturity. Forced projects fail. Focused ones succeed. Please ask me how to build or fix your cannabis business if you are unsure, stuck, or scaling. I’ve worked in this space for 9+ years, and I have seen what works and what wrecks good ideas.

Our #EY half-year 2024 #IFRS17 and #IFRS9 benchmarking report is here! Dive into our latest insights as we explore insurers’ results reported in their half-year 2024 interim financial statements. We analyzed a panel of 46 international insurance groups, focusing on: ◾ Tailored #FinancialMetrics: discover key metrics used by us that offer valuable insights into the dynamics of the insurance market’s results ◾ #KeyPerformanceIndicators (KPIs): uncover how insurers are measuring their success and how reported their performance ◾ #Methodology changes: discover the significant changes in accounting policies and methodologies since year-end 2023 and their implications Join us in understanding the evolving landscape of #insurance #reporting and what it means for the #future! #insuranceaccounting #financialreporting #CFO

Investing in a Changing Climate: Climate change presents two major financial risks for #investors, transition and physical risks; together, these risks accelerate the devaluation of #assets, potentially rendering them stranded long before the end of their expected lifecycles. 🔹 Transition risks—driven by rapid policy shifts, evolving market behaviors, and technological innovations—impact industries beyond fossil fuels, including real estate, automotive, agriculture, and heavy industry. 🔹 Physical risks—such as extreme weather, rising sea levels, and prolonged heat stress—can disrupt supply chains, reduce worker productivity, and devalue assets. A delayed transition brings hidden risks—while some sectors (utilities, basic resources) may see short-term relief, they face sharper, more destabilizing corrections when policy action eventually accelerates. Using NGFS climate transition scenarios (Baseline, Net Zero 2050, and Delayed Transition) alongside Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Interest Coverage Ratio (ICR) valuation methods, we identify sector-specific vulnerabilities across the US and Europe. 📉 Sectors at risk under a Net Zero 2050 scenario: 🔹 Real estate (-40% in Europe) due to energy efficiency mandates and rising costs. 🔹 Telecommunications (-26.3%) and consumer staples (-24.8%) facing stricter carbon regulations. 🔹 Energy (declines of -6% to -7%) as fossil fuel operations become costlier. 🔹 Basic resources (-11.9%) and technology (-11.7%) showing relative resilience but still facing policy-driven adjustments. 📈 Sectors showing resilience across scenarios: 🔺Technology & Healthcare remain stable due to innovation and lower emissions intensity. 🔺Consumer discretionary in the US (-16%) sees moderate declines but adapts through renewables and supply chain shifts. A well-orchestrated transition is critical to minimizing financial shocks. Scenario-based risk assessments allow investors to safeguard portfolios, mitigate stranded asset risks, and capitalize on opportunities in the green economy. #ClimateRisk #NetZero #SustainableFinance #ESG #Investing #ClimateTransition #RiskManagement #AllianzTrade #Allianz

After 25 years in the #BusinessAnalysis field practicing, consulting, teaching, writing, and basically devoting my career to the betterment of business analysis; I see some common things organizations do that severely compromise success. 📍 Using requirements documents as the "system documentation". 💥 Requirements documents, user stories, and information should not become the system documentation. These are very different artifacts and very different purposes. It leads to poor requirements quality as BAs have the wrong focus on tech/system details. Requirements should be agnostic of the system details and implementation. Then requirements are durable and reusable. System documentation is created for many reasons and uses, and needs to be suited to those uses and audience. 📍 Locking the requirements documents and artifacts in a hidden folder no one can access. 💥 Requirements information should be reusable and an asset teams can and should look back on. If it is locked up for "compliance and audit" and no one has access to it, this severely compromises other teams work and pace when looking to identify what previous team worked on, the context, and user impact. 📍 Assigning BAs to a specific application and focusing their training on "how the system works". 💥 Business Analysis is about analyzing the business goals, user goals/actions/scenarios, not the system. Most user actions encompass many applications. Assigning BAs to an application compromises the analysis and focusing on system knowledge negates the goal of a BA overall. They will learn the system(s) naturally as they work to focus on the user's needs and processes. It is better to focus BA training on the analysis skills and techniques agnostic of the system and business process. Good BAs use the analysis techniques to learn what they need to learn quickly about the users, data, and systems. 📍 Assigning BAs to projects based on application knowledge. 💥 The more complex the project is, the more BA skills agnostic of the system knowledge are needed. Knowledge of the system or business operations cannot replace analysis skills and techniques to do god business analysis when complexity and risk are high. A experienced and well trained BA with strong BA skills will outperform a subject matter expert as a BA on any complex piece of work impacting many users. Best is when both can work together! 📍 Not guarding the intent of the BA role and allowing every other role to tell the BAs to produce artifacts that compromise quality, value, and time. 💥 Many BAs experience developers, business teams, PMs, and Testing teams giving them loads of tasks to do that compromise the intent of the BA role. Good BAs know how to create far less artifacts and meetings that serve all these audiences well. Untrained BAs and BA Teams fall victim to creating artifacts for everyone. What are you seeing? Comment below 👇

It took 30 years to reach a £4.1 billion valuation. I could have done it in 15 with these lessons: No one tells you how many mistakes and hard lessons entrepreneurship will teach you. If I could start again, I would want to take these 25 lessons with me. They are the result of 40+ years of building and scaling businesses: 1. Copy then pivot ↳ Take what works, adapt it, and make it better. 2. Hire your replacement early ↳ Get out of the weeds early for faster growth. 3. Think evolution, not revolution ↳ Small, steady improvements beat risky leaps. 4. Guard your integrity ↳ Reputation is built slowly over years and lost in seconds. 5. Build businesses, not jobs ↳ If it only works when you’re there, it’s not scalable. 6. Fail fast and learn faster ↳ Own your mistakes. They teach you the most. 7. Listen to the frontline ↳ Your best insights come from the people closest to the customer. 8. Choose partners like you choose a spouse ↳ Shared values matter more than a slick pitch deck. 9. Keep a “Not To Do” list ↳ Focus is saying no to more than you say yes to. 10. Stay relentlessly curious ↳ Keep asking “why?” It’s how you stay ahead. 11. Lead by example, not title ↳ People follow your actions, not your role. 12. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best ↳ A margin of safety is survival and risk management, not fear. 13. Make decisions fast, then iterate ↳ Overthinking kills momentum. 14. Get close to customers ↳ A customer visit will teach you more than a strategy report. 15. Brand is a promise, not a logo ↳ It’s built on how you show up when it matters. 16. Build resilience into your personal life ↳ Your business can’t outgrow your energy. 17. Go global with locals ↳ Hire people who know the culture and speak the language. 18. Money is fuel, not the destination ↳ Without purpose, profit burns out. 19. Leave the ego at the door ↳ Hire people better than you — and let them lead. 20. Small wins stack into big ones ↳ Compounding applies to habits as much as money. 21. Keep your energy for what matters ↳ Time is limited. Energy is even more valuable. 22. Measure what matters ↳ Don’t let the wrong numbers lead you the wrong way. 23. Give back early, not someday ↳ Share your lessons while you’re still learning. 24. Play the long game ↳ Protect trust. Prioritise longevity over speed. 25. Stay humble, stay hungry ↳ Success is never permanent. Keep pushing. Every one of these lessons came the hard way for me. But they don't have to for all of you. That’s why I wrote How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps,  So others could learn from my experiences. If you’re building something that matters, It will help. Order the book here 👇  https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT Which of these lessons resonated the most with you?  I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. ♻️ Repost to share these with founders in your network.  And for more lessons on building and scaling businesses,  Follow me Richard Harpin.