The challenges of global business management
Hello! This is Torigoe, Colorkrew’s Corporate Planning Manager.
Today I’d like to talk about Colorkrew’s in-house service Goalous from the perspective of corporate planning and financial accounting. I’d like to talk about the company from the perspective of a corporate planning and finance/accounting person.
However, since I have just joined the company, I would like to talk about it from the perspective of a business planner and financial accountant.From the angle of “I wish I had Goalous at my last job.
“What it would be like if it were used in a company with multiple locations“.
Of course, we are also assuming that the company is expanding overseas.
Before coming to Colorkrew, I was working as a general accountant at a global manufacturer.
I worked in the accounting department of the head office and was involved in the early closing of overseas subsidiaries, consolidated accounting and IFRS implementation. So to speak, I was on the side of requesting difficult tasks to subsidiaries.
Before that, I worked on the other side, on the subsidiary side reporting to the parent company.
What I always felt there was a communication barrier.
I believe that many Japanese companies are struggling with communication between their headquarters and subsidiaries, especially overseas subsidiaries.
There are many things that both parties cannot see or understand, such as the policy they are trying to develop and the reasons behind it, local operations, progress, and whether they can meet deadlines or not.
Interactive communication
For example, when the head office issues a policy, it may send it out via e-mail or internal tools. And what comes back is a question. It is quite difficult to answer inquiries from each location. There are times when we receive the same questions, and there are times when we want to add or modify the information we sent out.
In such cases, Goalous is really easy to deal with. First, post the policy. Of course, you can add a screenshot or other image.
Then, if anyone has a question, they can post it in the comment section, and the answer to that question will be visible to all members, so there is no need to answer the same question.
This is a great way to share information and prevent conflicts from occurring due to hesitation in asking questions.
It is also good to be able to easily look back and refer to the past if the information is sent out on a regular basis, such as budgets or reporting packages.
Speedy communication
If you need to add or modify a post, you can do so in real time. If you have a good idea, you can incorporate it right away.
You can also post your daily progress in the form of shared activities, so that you can understand the current situation in a timely manner.
If we can see the progress, we can easily confirm whether we can meet the deadline or not.
Communication that transcends the #language barrier
Furthermore, Goalous has a translation function, so you can convert sentences posted in Japanese into English and vice versa with one click. You can turn a Japanese post into English and vice versa with a single click.
Colorkrew has a sales team in Brazil, but daily activities and weekly reports can be found at Goalous. New customer acquisition information is also shared in a timely manner. Information on new customer acquisitions is uploaded in a timely manner, and seeing what the members are up to also helps to improve teamwork.
If you don’t communicate well, things won’t get done
Many companies are implementing ERP and unifying accounting policies in order to strengthen global business management and governance of overseas offices.
However, if there are still problems with the base communication, even the best efforts will not go as far as expected. There are also language barriers and time differences. Let’s make this arduous work a little more fun and easy! .
This time the explanation was based on the assumption that it was a simulation, but Goalous is accepting free trials. If you are at all interested, please feel free to try it out.
