Financial Modelling Handbook

Every financial model starts with a question.

Intelligence is important. But the self-discipline and consistency you bring to a task make a huge difference to the outcome.

I've taught thousands of modellers from many of the world's top companies over the years. And what I've seen is this: in all but a handful of dedicated modelling shops, it's hard for companies to achieve standardisation across a team.

The different modelling standards are more alike than they are different. They all emphasise similar elements of good practice. What's important is to pick one and apply it consistently.

The myth that systemisation destroys creativity stems from the idea that systems turn everybody into robots, incapable of original thought. This is just flat out wrong. In reality, systems create space, and space opens doors to creativity, inspiration and opportunity. From SYSTEMology by David Jenyns and Michael E. Gerber A

"Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort" - Theodore Roosevelt

A good system is external scaffolding for your brain.

"If you can't describe what you're doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." - W. Edwards Deming

Let's be honest. This is not a book to read cover to cover in the bath with a glass of wine. It's a guidebook and a technical guide that you will want to dip in and out of. It's meant more as a companion

I was wasting a day per year looking for socks. The solution was simple.