Donata Koreń

For me, it starts at least two years before that. A company called me in to get them “exit ready.” The goal? Build the data room, make reports, make everything look good so that the due dilligence goes smoothly. Easy, right? We did not go near the data room for a year. First, we had to automate tasks. Then rebuild cost controls from the ground up. Next, we focused on revenue recognition. In the meantime, we swapped manual work for an AI tool and fixed the sales pipeline. All this took months....

When I recently saw a 25% gap between the investor report and the actual financial statement, I knew one thing for sure: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁. Financial statement says one thing. Investor report says another. And everyone in the room is quietly wondering: “Wait… which one is less wrong?!” I’ve seen this movie so many times I could recite the script (with 97% on Rotten Tomatoes 🍅) Here’s what happens when finance gets pushed off the priority...

Such an innocent question: "so, what does your company do?" Why it is often the beginning of the fail? 🤝 I was recently at an exclusive C-level event. Many brilliant leaders attended. But as I networked, I noticed a surprising pattern. When I asked executives to explain their firm, many struggled to do it in few clear sentences. In several cases, I walked away genuinely not understanding the value added of their products or exactly which problem they solve. 🚫 If a C-level leader can't...