In October, we held the fourth Brussels FP&A Board meeting devoted to FP&A Business Partnering.

32 senior finance practitioners joined the event. They represented international companies in different industries, such as

• Cargill
• Cartier
• FedEx
• FrieslandCampina
• Henkel
• Thomson Reuters
• UCB
• and many others.

Agenda

1. What is FP&A Business Partnering and why is it important?
2. What are the most critical attributes of an FP&A business partner?
3. Mini-case studies from the field:
   • A case study from the field: Laurent Claes, Head of Controlling at Cartier, will share his experience on FP&A Business Partnering
   • A case study from the field: Wilna Lindeman-Kunenborg, Head of Corporate Finance Systems at FrieslandCampina, will share her experience on FP&A Business Partnering
4. Review of the FP&A Business Partnering Maturity. Small groups work
5. Conclusions and recommendations

The conclusions were the following:

• The alignment of the FP&A function with business operations in order to acquire business knowledge and influence decision making.
• The true value of an FP&A professional has shifted away from the “what happened” to “what should happen” and “how to execute change”.
• FP&A Business Partner's job is both strategic and operational in focus.
• An FP&A business partner acts as the bridge between the wider business and the board.

Our Sponsors and Partners

We are very grateful to our sponsors and partners - Anaplan and Robert Half for their great support!