What do we need to create the Finance Function of the future?
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
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Now is a very good time to look to the future.
The last few years have brought huge changes to every industry, not only as a result of the pandemic but also thanks to the rapid and significant proliferation of digital transformation.
Automation, machine learning, efficiency advances, and many other related developments are changing the face of work, and the Finance Function is not immune.
In fact, Finance professionals have seen some of the most marked changes in their working lives, as more and more technical accounting tasks are completed by machines.
So what do we need to make good on the promise of the Finance Function of the future?
Tomorrow's Finance Function
There's already a pretty well-established notion of the Finance Function of the future. At BPI we are proud to spearhead the business partnering revolution, and we are seeing that model transform Finance Functions and organizations more broadly.
The future of Finance is driven by people but enabled by technology. In short, this means that we work to harness the power of digital transformation to free up the time and expertise that's currently locked away in most Finance Functions.
Rather than spending the bulk of our time on "head down", pure numbers work, we can leave much (in fact, nearly all) of that work to increasingly powerful machines.
By teaching machines to complete the process-driven activities the Finance Function of the future capitalizes on the talent of Finance professionals, freeing us up to move further up the value chain.
If only we could build it...
So what's stopping us from building the Finance Function of the future?
Well in reality....nothing! We already have all the tools we need to radically transform the Finance Functions of even the smallest businesses. Software automation and ML-enabled accounting tools are now widely accessible. Their cost is dropping all the time, at a rate matched only by the advances in their efficiency. Today, if you can imagine an automated process within Finance, you can almost certainly build it.
This is the essence of business partnering, and it's the future of Finance.
So what's holding us back? I strongly believe that the only thing preventing the development of the Finance Function is Finance professionals themselves. In order to fulfill our potential, we need to radically shift our mindset. We need to understand and embrace the changing nature of our work and equip ourselves with the skills we need for this new paradigm - interpersonal skills, collaborative working practices, and strategic thinking.
And I'm not alone in thinking this. A recent poll of close to 1,500 Finance professionals found that 62% said mindset is holding back the development of the Finance Function. It is entirely within our power to act on this - and, in fact, we have a responsibility to do so.
Brick by brick
Mindset is completely within your control. You can start to change it today.
I've written an entire series on the shifting mindset required for the Finance Function of the future, including practical advice on leveling up your skills and becoming comfortable with collaborative, collegiate, strategically-informed work.
You can read that series right now at this link. Brick by brick, together we will build the future of finance.
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This was the fourth article in my new series on how to change perspectives on Finance. You can read the previous article(s) below.
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If you want to learn about the changes that are happening in Finance and Accounting these years then I have few recent articles for you that you might find relevant. Check them out below!
You can read a lot more articles about FP&A, Business Partnering, and Finance Transformation below. It all start's with “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” where you set the ambition for your transformation. You should join the Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic.
All Successful Business Partners Are "Leaders" (the last article in the series about our new capability model)
Should We Keep Talking About Business Partnering? (part of a 17-article series where we deep-dive on the WHY, WHAT, and HOW of business partnering by putting it on a formula)
Everyone Can Adopt A Business Partnering Mindset (part of a six-article series about FP&A Business Partnering)
From Business Partner To Working Within The Business (part of an article series where I interview finance professionals about their careers in FP&A and Business Partnering)
Is Your Product Optimized For Value Creation? (part of a toolbox series where we look at what tools FP&A professionals should leverage to drive value creation)
How Business Partners Turn Analysis To Insight (part of case study series where I interview business partners about how they drive value creation using real cases)
Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder and a partner at the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with close to 10,000 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 60.000+ followers and 140.000+ subscribers to my blog. Recently I became an advisory board member at Born Capital to help identify and grow the next big thing in #CFOTech.
Finance Business Partner | Writer | Geek
3yThanks for sharing Anders. Perhaps, we need to be viewing change through a different lens to change the mindset. As a positive impact on finance professionals and organizations and the role that we will now play and not as something negative.
Director - LMS Advisory, Advising SME's on Growth, Strategic Planning, Maximising Profit & Cashflow. Financial enabler. AI/Tech enthusiast | LMS | KeepMyBooks | WihseFP |Cerebiz |
3yGive Finance teams a software budget! New software is like adding team members that work 24/7 and don’t take holidays. The organisations need to embrace suggestions, when opportunities arise and the cost/benefit is clear
Business Unit Controller bei VITRONIC Machine Vision
3yIn my humble opinion, however, there are a few major hurdles here in reality for us to really make progress in FP&A's digital transformation: 1.Time: If we generate more and more reports and are really busy with planning and forecasting for months, where is the time (and the resources) for digitalisation? 2. Where does the budget for digitalisation come from? Don't the majority of CFOs "feel" that we already have modern ML tools? If we want something different, what is the RoI of that? 3. Misconception that a new tool (AutoML or RPA software for example) is already Digital Transformation! No! Digital transformation is more (innovative using of tools, influence on business model and processes, know-how, agile organisation and working methods as well as strategy and culture). 4. The ability to experiment, to think non-linearly, to act quickly and to have a 100% customer focus. How many FP&As use design thinking for new reporting needs for example? 5. 100% support of the entire C-level down to the employees in each department with regard to digitalisation activities. Because digitisation is a process in which mistakes have to happen in order to learn. Digitalisation cannot be restarted or stopped every quarter.
It's TIME! Earlier this week I was in a broad discussion about the book close process focused on tactics that I have deployed to reduce its cycle. I reframed the question and asked, "What would it take to provide the business with a "pulse" of performance through yesterday - meaning as of the 6th of October? Our mindset has been constrained by the close being the ultimate point of financial closure similar to the annual plan and we know that the plan is "old" the day it's finished. The pace of change will continue to evolve and each day of waiting for the "official" numbers can jeopardize the actions that we could have helped our operational partners make "if" we provided a daily pulse. Now, the question is - "What's Stopping Us?" As always, thanks for the "push" Anders Liu-Lindberg
On a Mission to Help 1M Finance pros Master FP&A skills | Author of All About FP&A and From Accounting to FP&A | Udemy Instructor | FP&A Trainer
3yYes, automation, machine learning, efficiency advances, and many other related developments are changing the face of work. But change is not always a negative. We can use these developments to our advantage to make more time for creativity, work on new skills and have more fulfilling careers. Thank-you for sharing, as always Anders Liu-Lindberg