As we step into the fresh days of January, leaving behind the festivities of Christmas and New Year’s, I find myself embracing the start of 2024 with renewed energy. Outlook calendars are now reset, marking the beginning of another year’s journey ripe for goals and projects. Amidst the new year fervor, perhaps you also bypass the slew of “Happy New Year” emails, pushing them into the forgotten realms of your inbox. However, I urge you to take a moment, not just to glance forward but to reflect back on the year that has just concluded as a crucial piece of where you stand now and where you’re headed.
Like some of you during the holiday season, I found myself watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” again. This Frank Capra classic, now 78 years old, profoundly underscores the significance of looking back at our past. Spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen the film: it revolves around George Bailey, whose life’s events, both triumphant and challenging, are key to the narrative. At a particularly low point, George experiences the ultimate Monte Carlo simulation guided by his guardian angel, Clarence. By understanding his past, George comes to appreciate his present and the immense value of his own existence.
There’s a poignant scene at the end of the film where George is surrounded by loved ones, singing “Auld Lang Syne,” a song you might have sung yourself just days ago after the clock struck midnight. This song, which stems from an old Scottish phrase meaning something akin to “for old time’s sake”, is not just a New Year’s tradition but a homage to bygone days. It reminds us to begin each January by embracing the past year, however merry or miserable, as a part of our cumulative history.
At Versoft, we deal with a lot of history. Understanding the background of each firm we work with provides crucial context and meaning for their current state. We also convert history, in the form of transactions or performance data, and occasionally, we must confront history when resistance to new processes or technology is manifested in the phrase, “but that’s how we’ve always done it.”
William Faulkner famously wrote, “The past is never dead, it isn’t even past.” As consultants, our role is often to initiate change: to introduce new workflows, systems, and ideas. Sometimes, this might seem like a dismissal of the countless hours spent building existing processes or established technology systems. But your firm’s history, however riddled with inefficiency, remains vital. Just as we welcome a new year by remembering the old, we don’t need to discard the past to build something new. The years of duplicate data entry, clever workarounds, complicated spreadsheets, and memorized account codes – these are the building blocks of your firm, an immutable part of your identity which has led you to this crucial juncture, where the past year gives way to new beginnings and exciting opportunities.
In his darkest hour, George Bailey felt utterly helpless. He needed a guardian angel to show him what he was missing and to help him see what truly matters. Perhaps, from an operations standpoint, you too feel at the end of your rope. Perhaps you are struggling to justify another year while clinging to outdated processes, overwhelmed by the effort required just to maintain the status quo.
At Versoft, we may not be guardian angels, but we offer perspective and assistance in tackling the daunting task of genuine and meaningful progress. Our goal for 2024 is to assist you in this journey of transformation. By the end of this year, as you sift through holiday greetings, we hope you’ll see 2024 as a landmark year – marked by embracing change and ended with nostalgic reflection on just how far you’ve come.