Senior Financial Analyst (Jan. 2004 - Nov. 2004)

I received my promotion from Analyst to Sr. Analyst in January 2004.  At that time, the US Shows and Events group had come in considerably over budget, and with the increased authority of the audit community, a sense of urgency had begun to surround the department.  I had a previous experience which was very similar to the situation in which this group found itself during my time as Financial Analyst - Interactive Communications.  For this reason, I was recommended for the position, which I accepted.

Beginning the work was fairly difficult.  My work in Interactive had not been backfilled, and so I was required to streamline processes in both my new department and my old one in order to accomplish my goal.  This difficulty was complicated by the mid-season position of the Shows and Events group.  Although its annual budgets were based on the calendar year, work on properties for the Events had already begun, and we were therefore in immediate violation of DaimlerChrysler's standards.

My first step was to include the new group in my previous paper-based process.  Estimates and quotes were no longer accepted without a cover sheet showing very distinctly the expense authorization (internal order) against which the charge should be placed.  This immediately eliminated my concerns regarding doubly committing funds for any show, as well as providing a paper trail to begin to hold managers responsible for submitting their paperwork on time.  After the implementation of this process, the next hurdle was with the Purchasing department (IPS).  Many of the purchase orders against which the suppliers were billing were running out of allocated funds, or they were missing clauses noting which charges were pass-through expenses as opposed to those subject to the 2001 5% reduction.  Finance had been issuing debit memos on invoices based on the purchase orders, knowing that they would have to be reversed when the orders were amended.  The solution to this issue is what I have come to call "MBWA," or "Management By Walking Around."  In this case, IPS had failed to realize the additional work all parties involved were incurring because of their lack of movement on this issue.  After several face-to-face meetings with the DaimlerChrysler (DCX) clients, finance, purchasing and the suppliers, the issues were resolved.

The final release created after work had begun was issued in August of 2004.  At the same time, 95% of the releases for the third and fourth quarter shows of the 2004-2005 season had been processed as well.  Coincidentally, this was also the month before the Shows and Events group was expanded to include all global shows.  The same process was implemented internationally and continues to be a working solution.