In this article, the author focuses on reflecting on how to show up as a listener to the business to earn trust quickly and become a more impactful Business Partner.

According to the 2021 FP&A Trends Survey, only 12.5% of organisations spend 40% of their time on value-adding activities. Ironically, the feedback I am getting from my stakeholders is that our Business Partners have never needed us more than they need us today. Clearly, as an FP&A community, we all need to be taking action to empower, execute and become laser-focused on moving up the dial from 12.5% to ensure we can support and guide our Business Partners and show up as our best version.

When I am asked to explain why Cash is so important, I use the analogy of building your dream home. In order to build that dream home and give it the best chance of standing there for years, it needs solid foundations. Likewise, an organisation needs cash to survive and grow, it needs cash to survive day to day, and without it, an organisation has no foundations and eventually collapses.

We only need to look at the evolution of the mobile phone to understand why the role of the FP&A business partner has changed. In 2000, I began my career in FP&A as an analyst at Silicon Graphics, the same year that the iconic Nokia 6210 was launched.  Back then the functionality of the mobile phone was limited to voice calls and simple text messages.