Jim Wanserski
Sound and thoughtful advice has been extremely influential to me, and responsible for favorably impacting much of my career. As a matter of fact, relationships maintained from that valued “counsel” have now led directly to business opportunities. Looking backwards, it was clearly beneficial for me to have done two very important things: first, to listen…and second…to act on such advice. I certainly did not anticipate the magnitude or long-term nature of its impacts.
Over the course of the last several years, I have filled a number of executive positions and executed high-level consulting projects, including nominations as trustee by the United States Department of Justice. I have been told that the number of assignments, management experience, and the variety of industry experiences have been most instrumental in securing those selections. That history also includes uncovering fraud, testifying, and subsequently giving over 50 presentations on multiple topics, in particular “fraud prevention and detection.”
One thing has consistently occurred to me, I look like many other senior business people, with similar backgrounds, comparable responsibilities, and common experiences. My tenure and experience with public and private companies in industry, my Midwest upbringing and education (BSBA-Accounting/MBA-Management), functional work history in audit, accounting, finance, operations, consulting, or the assignments from government/regulatory agencies…mirrors my audiences.
Quite frankly, senior people possess valuable if not unique perspectives to impart to peer groups, to people we mentor, our associates, and for the benefit of those people under our direction. I recently determined to do just that, to join the electronic media and offer a platform for perspectives, opinions, observations, and “lessons-learned.” Furthermore, I intend to provide such lessons in “clear and crisp communiqués,” so they can be easily understood and applied.
Hence…this blog.
Now, not all of this is my original thinking, personal experiences, and insights. It is with great pride that many lessons are blatantly repeated, important things I have learned from bosses, staffers, writers, speakers, across all the disciplines. These observations result from any number of sources: the classics, a philosophy course long ago, someone’s hard-won victory, practical wisdom, ethical guidance, or taken directly from special people who made a distinct impression on me. Consider my commentary rooted in sources reflective of your own. Use any of them as you see fit, and maybe take a hard look at your opportunities to provide insights to those people who could use a lift, an insight, a motivation, maybe even a “call-to-action.” It wasn’t me, but someone said “if you are not growing, you are dying,” so, take the opportunity to “spread your wealth” this same way.
The people who have made a difference in my life have been waiting for me to reciprocate.
So, while this blog will be initially populated with lessons-learned from my “fraud prevention and detection” experiences, you will subsequently see observations on operations, turnaround, actionable data, accounting, ethics, and other relevant topics.
Stay tuned.