Precision Equipment CFO and Vice President of Finance & Administration Dave Dahms admits that while finances are critical to any enterprise, he can put it all into perspective. Here’s his take on a good day and bad day.

Good Day. “The finances run fluidly throughout the business. It’s important that our cash flow is as strong as it can be month in and month out, without hiccups. But there is nothing so insurmountable that we can’t work our way through it from an operational standpoint.”

Dahms, who also has corporate oversight of the HR department, defines a good day as “when all employees come to work, operate in the shop or out on the farm and go back home safe.” He adds, “If we have a catastrophic accident, it’s not something we turn back the clock and eliminate. Our people are the most important thing.”

Bad Day. Dahms says while he and his staff aim to be as “pliable as possible” to the needs of the day, he is most frustrated when a problem becomes an emergency because it wasn’t addressed earlier.

“None of us are so busy that we can’t look down the road and work our way toward a proper business decision,” he says. “Those things that all of a sudden become an emergency and must be decided in a rush are attention failures. All of a sudden, you’ve got a major decision that needs to be made and you may not make the best one.

“If you would’ve had a couple weeks to gather more information and be more thoughtful in the process, you make a different decision. Those are the things that task me the most.”

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