Forget about “information overload.” Instead, reexamine your assumptions. The return on your time and attention investment will be worth it.

I recently read an interesting blog entry from Thomas Davenport, who co-authored Competing on Analytics (Harvard Business School Press, 2007) and works as a professor at Babson University.

In his blog, Davenport makes a compelling case for ignoring our universal “information overload” problem. He identifies some surprising benefits of information overload as well as one crippling obstacle: the fact that few, if any of us, are willing to regularly invest our time “to save our attention” (i.e., change our information consumption habits).

Instead, I believe that we can make greater process improvements in business, as well as in our lives, by focusing on the assumptions we make about all of the information we use. Far too often, our assumptions range from “outdated” to “dead wrong.” more

I recently caught up with Korn Ferry International’s Chuck Eldridge and asked him to tell me what skills CFOs are looking for in their senior finance executives. He answered immediately, noting, “The hottest position today is financial planning and analysis.”

Eldridge knows more than a thing or two about corporate finance departments. A former auditing partner with Ernst & Young, Eldridge has spent nearly two decades with Korn/Ferry. He serves as a senior client partner operating in the global executive search and talent management firm’s Financial Officers Center of Expertise, based in Atlanta. Eldridge has authored a number of white papers, including “Navigating the Uncertain Road from Controller to CFO: The Leadership Imperative.”

“Companies have invested tens of millions of dollars in their back-office controllership function,” Eldridge continued. “Now, everybody is trying to figure out the same thing: Today is the 28th of January, and I know how much we sold yesterday on the 27th. But if I can figure out what we’re going to sell in March, I can truly pound my competitors.” more

As this month rushes by, I’ve been thinking about everything – including the kitchen sink.

In part, that’s because of an enlightening conversation I enjoyed with John Hrudicka, who leads the finance efforts for cabinetry and plumbing products maker Elkay Manufacturing Co. The 90-year-old manufacturer makes and sells faucets, cabinetry, countertops, water coolers, food service equipment, and sinks. If my wife walked into their showroom, I would need a second job.

Despite the company’s rich heritage, I learned that the manufacturer is not content to look back.

As Hrudicka explains in this interview, Elkay Manufacturing has developed innovative ways to look ahead with greater clarity. This includes replacing the traditional budgeting process with a rolling forecast (without a pilot, no less!).

Clarity is something I intend to gain while speaking to audiences in conjunction with the U.S. release of Future Ready: How to Master Business Forecasting (Wiley, 2010), a book I co-authored with my friend and longtime research partner Steve Morlidge.

Starting tonight in Dallas, I’ll be talking to folks about the book and signing copies. In the process of these discussions, I will be looking to identify finance transformation stories and practices, like those at Elkay Manufacturing. Their stories illustrate for us all that there are better ways of doing things. As I do, I’ll share those insights right here …

If you are in Dallas tonight, come see me. ###

If your life is like mine, you face an overwhelming array of ways to spend your time. Some of these time investment opportunities seem to hold the promise of greater success. The potential value of other opportunities remains more mysterious, such as those emails from people who sound familiar but you just can’t quite remember why.

Still other “time consumers” seem more necessary because we feel expected to perform them – reading the morning papers and fresh content on our favorite Web sites, for example. After all, don’t our bosses, clients, and colleagues expect us to keep current on our rapidly changing world?

But how necessary – and how valuable – are these time-investment opportunities, really? more

This time of year usually brings a brief period of relief for finance teams within organizations that use a calendar year-end.

Hopefully, your weeks of budget negotiations have finally concluded with the board approving a 2010 budget. Yet for many, this “accomplishment” fails to generate any deep satisfaction. It feels shallow because good managers know that the actual shelf life of a budget is very short.

The 2009 Business Finance survey of planning, budgeting, and forecasting practices (view here) researched how long budgets remain relevant. Two-thirds of the respondents said they were obsolete within four to six months. Even more startling: In 2009, a whopping 28 percent of respondents acknowledged that their budgets were obsolete on day one. more