Welcome to Waypoints!

Describing today’s business environment as complex is an understatement. In fact, a recent survey showed that four out of five CFOs rank internal complexity as the number one challenge facing their organizations. Adding the ever-evolving external factors impacting your business increases the challenge even more. Yet, you are asked to manage and succeed in just such an environment, and the risks are often huge.

Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, understood complexity and risk.  He was a daring military and test pilot who risked his life almost every time he flew. He was known for meticulous research about the complex systems in the aircraft he tested. He said, “I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit.”

Yeager’s approach – learning everything he could about his airplane – saved his life on more than one occasion. He knew that when things went wrong, he had to adapt or die. And he could only adapt if he understood the systems, engineering and physics that made the aircraft fly in the first place. At 92, his long life is testimony to the effectiveness of his strategy.

Now, I’m not saying that we’re fighter pilots, but members of HORNE’s Public & Middle Market team do share Yeager’s passion for understanding the complex. We also share his belief that recognizing opportunities in complex situations requires an understanding of the underlying business systems, climate and challenges in your industry.

You do, too. You’ve seen how complexity arises from rapidly changing environments, the speed of innovation and the increasing number of regulations enacted. Technology decisions alone can impact your flexibility and competitiveness in major ways, and growth can create internal complexity that must be managed and leveraged.

Opportunities can come out of the complex issues surrounding your business – whether it’s financial integrity, taxation, regulation, information technology, risk management, or mergers and acquisitions. Our new blog, Waypoints, will contribute new perspectives, share best practices and help you develop new approaches that can manage the risks and costs inherent in complexity and help you develop new approaches to anticipate and solve problems before they occur.

Use Waypoints as a platform for discussion and to spur new ideas – the weekly posts can start the conversation and you can continue it using the “reply” button at the end of every post.

High-performance businesses thrive by finding new opportunities in an increasingly complex world, and successful leaders must design and implement strategies that will deliver exceptional business value. We hope Waypoints can be one of the tools you use to navigate enterprise complexity.

For weekly insights into enterprise complexity, please sign up here: