Does a career purely in finance hinder your ability to be a senior finance leader? Making sideways movements such as becoming a project manager which still has a massive link back into finance, or moving to a strategy department which requires an understanding of the financial implications of company’s strategy can be beneficial.

What are the fundamental attributes of somebody in a finance manager role and what makes a good finance manager, and for that matter a good finance team?

There is no lack of discussion about the skill sets that FP&A professionals need throughout their careers to be successful; even a cursory search on the Internet would provide a wealth of resources.  Broadly speaking, those articles focus on four areas of skills:

Summer, along with the odd rain shower, means that for those of us with lawns, we find ourselves more regularly mowing them, but why do we mow them in the first place, and what can that teach us in FP&A about better influencing others? 

I have been thinking long and hard about what I need to do to stay relevant as a finance professional for the next ten, twenty, or thirty years, and after hours of research I want to share my thoughts and views on the skills future finance professionals will need in this ever-changing technology driven era.

“You cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking back”, as Steve Jobs famously quoted. A key challenge to the accountancy profession, well any profession to that matter, is how to look forward and be more proactive, not constantly looking back and reacting.