15 Tips For Finance Professionals When In The Middle Of A Crisis

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The whole world is in an unprecedented crisis mode which we’ve never experienced before. It’s worse than the financial crisis and while World War II had a larger impact on the world then this is different and to some extent worse.

It’s because the world is more connected than ever before, and we’ve felt the impact with almost lightning speed. It has hit everywhere on the globe! Different countries are in different stages, yet billions of people are right now under tight lockdown in their homes. These are crisis times indeed!

Finance and accounting professionals are hit hard just like everyone else. The disease knows no boundaries whether you’re a prime minister, billionaire, or a finance professional. Still, we can play an important role in mitigating the impact of the crisis and getting our companies up and running fast again. It all hinges on how we handle this crisis.

That’s why I’m launching a new series “Crisis Management For Finance Professionals”. In this, I and other professionals will share our thoughts on how to best manage and get through the crisis as well as thrive when it’s over.  

It’s time to roll up our sleeves 

When crisis comes there’s no time to be picky about what you need to do. You must do your utmost to preserve the value in the company, leverage new opportunities, and start thinking about how to make the company stronger in the long-term. Here’s a list of tips for what you should be doing right now to best manage the crisis. 

1. Stay positive which is hard for sure! However, as soon as you let go of your positive thinking and start letting too many negative thoughts through, your capacity to manage the crisis drops like a stone.
2. Be ready to help where you can as it might not be your normal job. Same time others in the company might be struggling more than you and lending a helping hand can make a big difference!
3. Be a role model by showcasing that you’re calm about the situation and decisive to act when needed.
4. Assess business continuity plans to see if they’re fit for purpose in the current situation and adjust on the go.
5. Set up a daily forum for decision-making since your normal routines and meetings are probably bust you must find quick ways to remaining operational.
6. Review your cash flow and liquidity to assess for how long you can survive. Then make plans for how to survive longer by cutting now for instance staff that due to the crisis cannot produce anything.
7. If you have any emergency funds to draw on now is the time to include them in your crisis response.
8. Review your risk management strategy although it might be too late for a short-term response you might still be able to make changes today that’ll preserve value one-two months from now.
9. Review your accounts receivables and assess collectability since many of your customers might be at risk for defaulting on payments and going bankrupt. Not only do the assessment though but do some active outreach to understand their situation and see if anything you can do to get them through the crisis as well.
10. Review all existing contracts both with vendors and customers to see how you can better share the risk and get all of you through the crisis in one piece.
11. Review your insurances to see how you’re covered for losses and other negative impacts.
12. Build models and dashboards that can better show the current situation in the company to give senior leaders the needed insights to make the right decisions.
13. Start working on process improvements that you’ve been putting off for months or years due to the daily whirlwind. You might not get a better opportunity than this.
14. Look for new market opportunities or product conversions such as physical to online. Some might see this as taking advantage of the situation but do it well and that won’t be an issue. At the same time, you’re building a new long-term product offering.
15. Grab market share where possible as how brutal as it may sound every crisis is also the survival of the fittest 

I want to thank everyone who contributed with their crisis management tips on my post here. This is something we must get through together as a community and if there was ever a time where you should adopt best practices now is that time! 

What are you doing to manage the crisis? 

The 15 tips shared here are by no means an extensive list. I want to add as many tips as possible to create a full guide that you can use to better manage the crisis. What would you add to this list? More importantly, what are you doing right now to manage the crisis? How long can your company survive the current situation? We’re surely in dire straits now but we will get through it! 

If you need interim support (mostly in Denmark) to get back on track once the health crisis is over then don’t hesitate to reach to me. As part of the Business Partnering Institute, I work as an interim business partner and can be the boost that helps your finance function to emerge from the crisis stronger than ever. Give me a call on +45 2926 6410 or write to anders@businesspartneringinstitute.org.

For more tips to help you through the crisis you can find more inspirational articles below.

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If you're in the unfortunate situation to have lost your job during the crisis here are a few resources that might help your search for a new job.

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If you want to become a better business partner you should consider taking our online course "Business Partnering Explained - Value Creation Unlocked" to get a better handle on the role. It's accredited for 5.5 CPD hours.

Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder, COO (Chief Operating Officer), and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more 8,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger on LinkedIn with 40.000+ followers.