Recent trends in FP&A have been to focus on data analytics and driver-based planning to provide better information for business leaders to make decisions. An often-overlooked challenge in transforming financial planning and analysis is the FP&A team’s structure and resource alignment. This article examines how we are transforming the people part of FP&A.
A finance manager is nothing without the team that they work with and that got me thinking about what makes a good finance team and pushes the department forward from being perceived as a ‘bean counters’ and a group of people that are constantly saying no to a real business partner function and being the engine room of any organisation.
Within any organisation you’ll find some groups of people who are the most well-known and highly valued. Given there are many functions, groups, roles & people within our organisations today how can FP&A become, and be seen to be more valued?
Finance staff should find Logos the easiest dimension to work with. As opposed to sales who may use only a small part of the whole facts to support their story.
Like many of you, I have spent significant time thinking about 1) What does FP&A do and 2) What should FP&A do? My team and I landed on this very “packed” vision statement for our finance business partnering group.
Does a career purely in finance hinder your ability to be a senior finance leader? Making sideways movements such as becoming a project manager which still has a massive link back into finance, or moving to a strategy department which requires an understanding of the financial implications of company’s strategy can be beneficial.