The digital revolution is not only shaking company business models but also has a direct impact on the finance function. The world is now evolving at a faster pace, and now more than ever before, there is a need to question regularly the long-term strategy. Also, Business Partners need daily support to work on new ideas and to create robust business cases. 

Why is strategic partnership important? You might be asking yourself this question when going to a sales meeting, working with another department or attending a company meeting.  Strategic partnership is paramount as it allows FP&A teams to spend less time on traditional finance functions like reporting, treasury, tax and investor relations. 

I belong to the rather small group of Finance people who also have worked in Human Resources. The four years I headed up HR in the petrochemicals company Borealis was a great experience (after heading up Finance where we kicked out the budget already back in 1995, another great experience!).

The great thing about being in FP&A is that we get to observe in real life and hear stories about many interactions, good and bad, between many colleagues across the business.

At a high level, the best-performing organisations take a more rigorous approach to FP&A.  They have tightly integrated all the components of FP&A, merged operational and financial planning, and have a deep understanding of how operational metrics drive their financial results.

The below article summarises an approach developed throughout the years of my work and explores ways to fully integrate FP&A with other divisions and remove barriers in cooperation.