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.
Amrish Shah
Amrish Shah is a seasoned and senior finance leader with over 20 years of financial management experience in international organisations. Some of the companies he has worked for include Unilever, O'Neill Group, Staples, Royal Wessanen, Kao, EndemolShine.
A qualified management accountant with CIMA, Amrish has held regional finance leadership positions since 2001. He has held both staff and line roles managing teams of up to 40 people and has a clear belief in the value of finance at both strategic and operational levels to the organisation.
In Amrish’s experience, the perception of finance as a backward looking, administrative, reporting and compliance-driven function belongs to the past. Modern finance should have creativity to spur innovation from within and support organisations on their journey towards more sustainable and robust performance management. And this is a journey that Amrish remains excited about every day.
Author's Articles
The image of a silo is one that is sealed off from its surroundings. It is insular and protected. In the organisation, this has tended to manifest itself in functional silos. Meaning Finance, HR, IT, R&D, Supply Chain, Marketing etc. It can, of course, apply broader to also divisions within an organisation or even regions / markets. How does this relate to Finance?
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”?
The explosion in computing and data processing power has led to an exponential increase in data available to the business. Paradoxically, this has led to business leaders becoming more uncertain about what to do with this data. Hence, business is scrambling to put the appropriate “analytics” capability in place. This generates a lot of friction and tension because business leaders and managers, who have been brought up in a very different world, have to scramble to learn new languages and redress their relationship with data.