Do you aspire to be the Chief Financial Officer of Google, Microsoft, Tesla or any other organization? I interviewed three Executives including two former CFOs to get their advice. These business leaders all spent several years in FP&A and credit this time as a critical experience in their ascent to the leadership positions that they eventually earned and thrived in.

At a time when finance is being challenged to add more value, getting the right attitude and mindset becomes critical to attract finance talent that is fit for purpose. This article zooms in on two important qualities of a good FP&A professional – Challenging and Compassionate.

I have previously written about 8 qualities which I believe characterize good FP&A performers. The article will explore what 2 of these – Curiosity and Creativity - can mean for Business Finance and FP&A in particular.

One of the advantages of working in the domain of FP&A is that it provides excellent opportunity to learn about many aspects of the business. This enables the individual to, not only do the job with a more solid ground, but to also get a better picture of what and how is done in the other departments. Additionally, working closely with colleagues from different functions increases one’s visibility in the organization. But how do you get started in FP&A?

In this article, I share my view on the key skills to have when you want to work in Finance and how they bring value to your organization.

FP&A helps create sources of future value whilst being on top of how much value is being created at present. Neither of these two things is as easy to measure at any one point in time. So, how can we answer the question “is FP&A delivering what is expected of it”?