It can be one of the greatest intangibles in the FP&A world – how do you succeed as a business partner?
Within any organisation you’ll find some groups of people who are the most well-known and highly valued. Given there are many functions, groups, roles & people within our organisations today how can FP&A become, and be seen to be more valued?
Like many of you, I have spent significant time thinking about 1) What does FP&A do and 2) What should FP&A do? My team and I landed on this very “packed” vision statement for our finance business partnering group.
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: