What’s the story behind our new workshop?
From account managers and project managers to resource managers and recruiters, everyone at an agency is working towards a common goal: the financial health of the business.
Whether you manage clients, teams, projects or budgets, you’re having an impact, even if you don’t know exactly what that impact is.
Everyone in these roles – not just the most senior people – should understand what the financial goals are, how they’re set and how progress against them is measured.
Take resource managers, for example. If they don’t understand the agency’s forecasts, they can’t plan for where resource will be needed or see where the peaks and troughs lie in the months ahead. Recruiters are similarly in the dark, while for project and account managers, setting targets is little more than guesswork.
A good grasp of your agency’s forecasting and finance planning will shine a spotlight on all this. Even better, it’ll show in stark black and white where any overservicing or scope creep is causing havoc on financials.
Our workshop, Understanding agency forecasting and finance planning, demystifies the subject for people in non-finance roles. Jo Petroccia and Sarah Vick explain how everyone’s work is linked to everybody else’s and how seeing the bigger picture helps you make better decisions and more effective plans.
The half-day session will give you the confidence to discuss the financial aspects of your role and ask questions about issues you’re not trained in.
Agencies benefit too when people get their heads around finances and forecasting. As managers across the disciplines join the dots and understand how their work affects the whole business, perspectives shift and decision-making improves.
Your workshop presenters
Understanding agency forecasting and finance planning is co-presented by Jo Petroccia and Sarah Vick. As well as being highly experienced in their own rights, Jo and Sarah have worked together for over a decade.
Jo has spent 20 years in operations and resource management roles. Over the last eight years, she’s been helping agencies improve their resource management and operational efficiency on a consultancy basis. The developer and presenter of The Industry School’s resource management workshops, Jo also mentors resource managers who are moving into more senior operational roles.
Sarah’s background is in project and account management. After spending many years managing clients, working on projects and developing new business, she became the managing director of a major international agency.
Jo and Sarah’s combined experience covers the whole spectrum of agency management. They both say that gaining a solid understanding of forecasting and finance planning helped them enormously in progressing their careers.
