In the period from 2001 to 2006, the Retail division of Swiss Post transformed itself from a public service company into a business driven sales organization. Crucial drivers of change were, on the one hand, the adaptation of the steering systems up to the final implementation of a "Beyond Budgeting" philosophy and, on the other hand, a humanistic attitude of management and finance department against all employees. The success was amazing: The division succeeded in increasing the sales of new retail products from 0 to over 400 million CHF, optimizing the bottom line by more than 100 million CHF or more than 5 percentage points and becoming the first state-owned company in Switzerland to win the EFQM- Award for Business Excellence.

So, you are a C-suite executive, Vice President, Director, Manager, Senior, or Staff financial professional and you just had a high potential and high-performance team member or members move on to greener pastures. Or you aspire to be a high potential and high-performance employee and looking for success factors to take your game to the next level. Well, look no further than this post.  

I’d like to claim that I am not easily annoyed….but that would be untrue. And one of the things that are guaranteed to irritate me is glib statements from people who claim to be experts – particularly if it is part of an act to get people to buy something.

I recently had the honor of moderating a global webinar focused on how Finance leaders can leverage FP&A business partnering to impact performance across the enterprise. The featured speakers delivered nothing short of compelling experiences and insights.