Anyone who rises to a position of leadership, regardless of their role, faces a common concern: numbers. To properly understand and use numbers—often called 'the language of management'—you need a basic grasp of accounting and finance. But for a leader who has grown up in a field far removed from numbers, it can feel overwhelming to know where and how to even begin.
This was a pressing question that the author—who spent 40 years on the front lines of business, serving as both CFO and CIO—long grappled with as well. The concern grew especially deep through the process of developing and mentoring junior leaders. The three domains of accounting principles, managerial accounting, and financial management may look complex at first glance, but they ultimately converge into a single integrated language: management accounting. If you don't know this language at the critical moments when executives must make important decisions, you are bound to hit a wall as a leader.
The reality leaders face in modern organizations is clear. Communicating with numbers, persuading with numbers, and negotiating on the basis of numbers is part of everyday life. No matter what specialty you started from, being able to speak the language of management will become your most powerful and effective leadership weapon. If numbers have until now felt frightening and burdensome, I invite you to open the first page of Management Accounting Through a Novel (소설로 배우는 경영회계).