I commented last week about an assessment of your Finance team and to pose the question of how strong they are.  However, the question as to the strength of your Finance team is not just an assessment of them and their skills, but your own strengths and what you have done to develop the team, mentor them, and create a cohesive group that brings value to the organization.  I have always placed a strong value and emphasis on the team so to see situations in which processes deteriorate and morale lags makes me question the skillsets of those leading the finance effort and their ability to deliver value within an organization.

Recently retiring Cisco CFO Dennis Powell commented recently on this same subject and noted that the quality of the team is as important as the accounting systems that are in place.  Without a quality team there is no efficient utilization of the systems in place.  Read more of his comments at http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/10754935?f=alerts .