Business Partnering Institute

Imagine you've stumbled upon a complex problem. It's a problem that's affecting millions of people across the world. At the time, no one has been successful in solving the problem, and as time passes more and more people's careers are being impacted. That's how I feel about business partnering.

All finance and accounting professionals face a choice. Evolve or be automated. Business partnering is one of those evolutionary paths that these professionals can take. However, despite being a desirable path for more than two decades only a few have found the way and made it to the other side. Most are still on the journey and are having a hard time making it.

This is why we have founded Business Partnering Institute and why I have made it my mission to help these millions of people find their way. In my role as Chief Commercial Officer, I'm responsible for creating awareness around what business partnering is and how you become good at it. In doing that I'm making the connection between companies and individuals who are looking for guidance and how BPI can help them.

As a former business partner myself, I have been on the journey and know all about the struggles that others are facing. That's why I and the team at BPI are ideally suited for helping finance teams across the world elevate their influence in the company through business partnering. We can help you too. Just send a message and let's get the conversation started.

Partner | Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)

We've founded the Business Partnering Institute because we want to crack the code on Business Partnering and unlock the value potential hidden in finance functions around the world. By helping them adopt a business partner mindset they'll instantly move closer to the business and start Creating Value Together.

At BPI we want to be the catalyst for change in Finance and help individuals and organisations to change in a digital world where the finance function of tomorrow looks very different from that of yesterday!

We focus on three core areas being Training & Advisory, The Business Partnering Round Table and an online Business Partnering Community. You can read more about each of the three areas at www.businesspartneringinstitute.org.

At the Business Partnering Institute my main focus is to grow the online community and in particular, the Finance Business Partner Forum which is the largest online Business Partnering Community in the world with close to 5,000 members. You can join the forum here https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8475765. In the forum thought leaders will share relevant content and new articles about Business Partnering and the changes happening all around the finance function. Everyone can join in the discussion and ask questions directly to the leadning thinkers in Business Partnering. What are you waiting for? Join today!

Co-Founder

Here's the most comprehensive piece ever written on how to become a successful finance business partner and how to implement the concept in your company. Moreover, we describe how being a finance business partner is just as much a mindset for the whole finance function as it is a specific role.

In essence, it's about knowing your business and how to create partnerships with your stakeholders/internal customers by always having the customer's needs left, front and center of everything you do.

Finance is not here to do Finance but to support the business create value or even create value on its own. Without value creation, neither you, your finance function nor your company will go anywhere.

You can buy the book here www.financebusinesspartner.dk [Currently only available in Danish).

Co Author of the book "Create Value as a Finance Business Partner"

Imagine you could work with something that you're immensely passionate about and fulfill your purpose. What would that be? To me, it's helping finance professionals across the world becoming better business partners. That's exactly what I can do at the Business Partnering Institute which I was part of founding in April 2018. 

Through learning and development programs we train finance professionals in the skills that are needed to succeed with business partnering. We also advise senior leaders in Finance to help them better understand how strong their teams are at business partnering. Lastly, we cover immediate needs through interim business partnering when you've received a critical resignation.

What's my role in all of this? As a partner, I deliver our services and am in charge of our research and networks service line where we release business partnering best practices every day. As a COO I make the company run from strategy to execution and drive us to achieve our goals. It's also my job to take the company from a start-up to a scale-up. As a CMO I do marketing when it comes to our point of view on business partnering as well as our product offering.

Our ultimate goal is to crack the code on successful business partnering and start creating some value together with you! If you want to join the journey and improve on business partnering then don't hesitate to reach out!

Partner | Chief Operating Officer (COO) | Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

As the CMO of the Business Partnering Institute, I'm in charge of all online marketing activities aiming at increasing brand awareness and placing the institute as the go-to company for training and advisory on business partnering. This includes lead generation and talking about business partnering with individuals and companies all around the world.
I'm also responsible for creating and publishing content that showcases the latest developments within business partnering and case studies of how individual companies are doing it.
Reach out to me if you'd like to learn more about our approach to business partnering and how we could potentially help you and your company.

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Profitability Analytics Center of Excellence

The Profitability Analytics Center of Excellence (PACE) is a non-profit community of professionals dedicated to helping organizations make better, more informed decisions through the use of data analytics employing integrated, causal models.  Focusing exclusively on how to enable better managerial decision-making within organizations through the use of such models, PACE is the go-to source for people looking for independent and impartial (vendor and methodology neutral) information in this area.

Board Member

Linkedist

LinkedIn is the best marketing channel you haven't heard of yet! Most see it as a resume platform however there's a thriving content community on the platform and professionals go there for the latest news within their field. From companies to individuals this is a cannot miss opportunity to improve your employer or personal brand. Linkedist is your go-to company in the Nordics and Baltics for help unlocking this potential.

As advisory board member at Linkedist I help shape the strategy for the future and make real choices about where to play and how to win as a company. I use my experience from my own start-up and other advisory board roles to help the Linkedist team make the right choices. That and I get to further pursue my passion for how to best use LinkedIn as a platform!

Advisory Board Member

Born Capital

The tides of change are flowing into the finance function which sends the function into the age of 4.0. We say it is "Enabled by tech - Driven by people". 

At Born Capital, we focus on tech enablement and are looking for early-stage startups in what we call #CFOTech that will enable the finance function to become a profit driver. We have a keen interest in FP&A and Business Finance as this is where we see the biggest improvement potential.

Actually, CFOs themselves know this as 71% of them are not happy with the performance of their FP&A team despite significant investments made in the past decade. We will help the office of the CFO get the right tech and tools to step up to the plate and deliver on the expectations of the CEO and other CXOs.

Feel free to reach out if you would like to know more about how we can help your start-up to the next level...

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world's largest networking site for business professionals. Since 2014, they have opened up their platform for the members to write content which they can share with other members.

I write about how the finance function is changing and what you as a finance professional or company can do to keep up with the changes. In addition, I write about personal branding, disruption, networking, leadership and other areas where I think I can add some insights.

I'm not a specialist, but I share my opinions and discuss them with other LinkedIn members.

Blogger

A.P. Moller - Maersk

8 months into my new senior finance business partner role I got an added scope. Now It's my job to drive value creation as a trusted partner for the trades from Asia to/from Middle East and Europe as well as Middle East to/from Europe. This scope makes up roughly 30% of Maersk's Ocean Business and a massive opportunity to create value!

My approach to business partnering is simple. 

Step 1: Go learn about how the business is doing. 
Step 2: Pair your newly acquired business understanding with your understanding of the numbers and present your view on the business. 
Step 3: Make recommendations for how to improve performance. 
Step 4: Follow-up on if the decisions made to improve performance yielded the expected results.

From here you repeat steps 3 and 4 and elevate your impact from an operational level, to tactical, and to a strategic level. This is my mission with my added scope as it was since I started my new role. Meet or beat targets and get a positive NPS score from my stakeholders. That's really all that counts!

Senior Finance Business Partner, EMEA (Europe & Middle East)

Business partnering is simple to understand but hard to do successfully. That's why I've decided to once again be a finance business partner at Maersk. I want to crack the code on successful business partnering and I hope that you want to help me! We need to collaborate on solving this challenge and it starts now. Connect with or follow me and let us create value together!

At Maersk, I'm a business partner to our largest product being the trade lane between Asia and Europe. I challenge the strategic direction setting and ensure we make the right choices about Where to Play and How to Win. It's my responsibility to answer the question "Are we Winning?". If we're not winning then I collaborate with my stakeholders to come up with actions that can improve performance. If we're winning I challenge them to deliver even better performance.

I measure myself on two success criteria: 1) are we achieving or overachieving on our targets and 2) do my stakeholders think that I made a positive contribution to that end. Nothing else matters.

Senior Finance Business Partner; Europe Trade Cluster

What would you do if someone offered you the opportunity to create a World-Class finance function? I decided to say "Challenge Accepted!" when offered this opportunity back in the Spring of 2017. With a purpose of helping the finance function become more involved with the business and drive value creation this role was ideally suited for me!

Now I work with providing strategic advice to our senior finance leaders in terms of how to develop our finance function at Maersk. I also help them execute on their strategic plans through overall program management and specific project support where needed.

I collaborate with The Hackett Group on understanding where we need to further develop the function and with top-tier consulting companies on some of our large-scale initiatives. One such initiative which I am particularly proud to have been part of is our Business Finance College. Probably the largest training program of its kind ever globally, we took 500 Finance Business Partners and leaders through a tailormade training program designed to make them better business partners and better leaders. We are aiming for a complete culture and mindset change with a winning aspiration to Drive Value Creation as a Trusted Partner.

We're not World-Class yet but we're not far off so watch out for the big fanfare when we reach this milestone!

Head of Global Finance PMO

Maersk Line is the world's largest container shipping company and operates a vast logistics network covering almost all countries in the world. Whether you need transportation from door to door, port to port or any other connection Maersk Line will get the job done for you.

I work as a Senior Finance Business Partner in the Europe Region where I help shape the finance function of the future in a global finance transformation project. We're moving almost all finance staff from the frontline to global service centers. Teams that only a handful of years ago consisted of several hundred people are now down to pure business finance teams supporting the front line. Consequently, the global service centers take end-to-end responsibility for processes and tasks and can make significant improvements the former teams could only dream about.

I work with defining what good finance business partnering looks like and how the remaining teams can accelerate their value adding activities. I help them implement the strategic direction set by top management and through performance management ensure that we reach Maersk Line's strategic goals.

In addition, I have been the project manager on a cost saving project where we several years running have saved upwards to USD 100M. I set the direction for the region and facilitate knowledge sharing sessions where operations managers come together to discuss how to come up with new savings ideas.

You should also read some of my articles on finance business partnering and how you can transform your finance function below.

Senior Finance Business Partner

Freelance writer at D!gitalist Magazine where I write about digital finance, finance transformation and the future of finance. 

Have a good story you want to publish? Reach out and let’s work on it together!

Freelance Writer

CFO innovation Asia

Contributing with articles about current developments in the finance function and in particular around how Finance can help the business add value.

Techstory.in

Jobindex A/S

Jobindex is the leading job site in Denmark where companies post their positions and enlist Jobindex to encourage candidates who have an active CV to apply for the positions.

I help people who are looking for a job refine their resume and cover letter and prepare pitches for interviews and have so far helped more than 10 candidates whereof several of them have found interesting jobs after receiving my guidance. My offer of assistance isn't limited to Jobindex as I generally try and help all job seekers out there getting closer to their dream job.

I have been recognized by https://www.topresume.com/ for having a resume ranking in top 4% of all resumes and I want to use that expertise to help you write a stellar resume too!

You can read some of my advice in below articles.

Job Search Coach

It is time to finally crack the code on business partnering. That is our mission at the Business Partnering Institute. If you are interested in knowing more please do not hesitate to contact me at +45 2926 6410.

We help companies with learning and development programs, advisory to better understand your current state of business partnering, and interim business partnering when you have an urgent need. 

Our starting point for business partnering is our framework that outlines in a nutshell what business partnering is. In simple terms, we say INSIGHT X INFLUENCE = IMPACT.

Insight is when you have information that your customers/business stakeholders do not know about but can help them make decisions.

Influence is your ability to communicate those insights to your stakeholders. This is a function of how solid your relationship is to your stakeholders and the language you speak ideally something that non-finance people can understand.

Through our learning and development programs, we train finance professionals in all the key aspects of business partnering. We deliver an immediate ROI through live casework that results in bottom-line impact upon completion of the program. 

Not sure where to start with business partnering or what it takes to be ready for starting the journey? Then talk to one of our advisors to get a diagnostic of your current state and recommendations for how to proceed on the journey to becoming better business partners.

Have an immediate need for a business partner due to a critical resignation? Then we can definitely help you with an interim business partner/controller. We go beyond traditional interim support though as our business partners are trained in our way of working. They bring a second to none toolbox to your team and act as role models while they work for you. They will leave you further ahead on the business partnering journey than where you started when our interim business partner walked in the door.

In short, at the Business Partnering Institute, we take your business partnering further and create value together with you!

Finance pro’s, are you adjusting your numbers?

If you read most financial statements you’ll find many adjusted measures.

Companies make a point out of explaining those where they improve.

And they try to hide where they don’t.

Not making enough progress on a key figure? Then just invent a new one…

No matter how much you adjust your EBITDA though you cannot hide from your free cash flow development.

Are you actually generating enough value to repay your financial creditors and shareholders?

That’s the ultimate test and it’s up to us to ensure our companies pass it - not to jump thorough hoops to hide it.

So, are you adjusting your numbers and if yes, why are you adjusting them?

Seen on SecretCFOs Twitter…

#finance #accountingandaccountants #cashflow

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster and The Softer Side of Finance podcasts on your podcast channel

Anders Liu-Lindberg

Finance professionals are great at developing insights.

However, for insights to matter they need to be communicated properly to those who make the decisions.

That means you'll need a seat at the table.

You only get there if you speak the same language as business leaders.

Hence, you'll need to learn some new skills, and we'll discuss them in the latest episode of the #FinanceMaster Show.

You can take part in it too. Just raise your hands and come on stage to share your perspectives or ask questions.

Will we see you there?

#finance #business #careers

View event: The #Financemaster Show 🛑 - E28 - How Finance gets a seat at the table

https://www.linkedin.com/events/the-financemastershow-e28-howfi7038417148762836992/

They say Accounting is the language of business.

But have you ever tried explaining accounting to a non-accountant?

It’s far from easy, I can tell you!

We need to simplify our explanation significantly.

And even better if we can visualize it!

Here’s a simple attempt to do that…

REVENUE

A field of green ready to be harvested.

This is the maximum potential income your company can have.

ADJUSTED EBITDA

Your harvest cleaned and sorted on a pan ready to be fried.

This is the expected income you show to management, the board, and investors.

EBITDA

What’s left on the pan once you’ve fried the harvest.

This is what actually left after you’ve paid operating expenses and salaries.

NET INCOME

What you can actually eat from the pan.

This is what’s left after accounting has finished processing the numbers and what can be used to pay dividends.

So you explain to non-accountants that this is the potential cash flow they can expect.

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Accounting is neither sexy nor rosy.

Some would say it takes the fun out of business.

The least we can is try to be humorous when we explain it 😉.

How do you explain finance and accounting to non-finance and accounting people?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #careers #storytelling

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster podcast on your podcast channel

How to organize the finance function according to Nicolas Boucher.

The finance function is led by the CFO or Chief Financial Officer.

Two distinct departments report to the CFO.

✅ The Controller
✅ The Head of FP&A

The Controller is in large parts responsible for producing the numbers.

S/he does that through coordinating all accounting operational teams.

The Head of FP&A is in large parts responsible for using the numbers.

S/he does that through managing analytical, planning, and forecasting activities.

Under The Controller we find Accounting and Tax.

Accounting is responsible for closing and consolidating the numbers and staying on top of AR and AP.

Tax is responsible for everything tax both the operational, tactical, and strategic part.

Under the Head of FP&A we find Business Partnering and Business Intelligence.

Business Partnering may in some companies be an activity that everyone in the finance function does whereas other companies have specific teams dedicated to this activity.

Business Partnering is responsible for decision-support and helping business leaders meet or beat their targets.

Business Intelligence is responsible for ensuring that all data both financial and non-financial is ready for use.

The department may also do part of the analysis to free up time of the business partnering teams.

What (if any) would you say is missing from this chart?

And how closely is your finance function aligned with this view on how to organize it?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #tax #careers

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster podcast on your podcast channel

Here are 8 CFO types that you see in companies today.

No role is evolving faster than the CFO role so you need to wear multiple hats to succeed in the role today.

No one CFO is only one type but is able to flex between different types according to the specific needs of the company.

Sometimes a different type is needed than what the current CFO can muster and that's when you see CFOs leave companies.

In addition, because the role is evolving so fast you see that the tenure of CFOs decreases in general compared to other CXO roles.

Here are the 8 distinct CFO types...

1️⃣ The Accountant
2️⃣ The Analyst
3️⃣ The Strategist
4️⃣ The Technologist
5️⃣ The Disruptor
6️⃣ The Networker
7️⃣ The Adaptor
8️⃣ The Environmentalist

You can learn more about each type 👇

We've highlighted three functional characteristics and from where they typically get their prior experience outside Finance (if at all).

Do these types make sense for how you see the CFO role today?

Any types you'd add or take away?

#finance #careers #cfo #accountingandaccountants 

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster and Softer Side of Finance podcasts on your podcast channel

An example of effective data storytelling by Brent Dykes.

Most finance professionals fail to communicate the insights from their analysis. Here's why...

❌ They use descriptive headlines
❌ They use poor visuals

Here's what they should do instead...

✅ Use explanatory headlines
✅ Use visuals to highlight your insights

Let's consider three examples from the story of The Three Little Pigs...

❌ Top natural predators of pigs
✅ Wolves kill 23% more pigs than the next biggest predator

❌ Wind resistance by material type
✅ After steel, bricks are the next strongest building material for wind resistance

❌ Wolf meat recipes by star rating and ease of preparation
✅ Grandma's wolf stew is both highly rated and easy to prepare

Communicating like this will significantly increase your stakeholder's ability to understand your insights.

You need to go further though ❗

You need to synthesize a conclusion from your insights and put forward a recommendation.

Staying in the universe of The Three Little Pigs.

SYNTHESIS: Pigs need to take defensive measures against wolfs to avoid ending up in Grandma's Stew.

RECOMMENDATION: Build a house of bricks as they're the most effective building materials for a house considering a ratio of protection/cost.

Take a good look at your slides...

Are you using explanatory headlines?

Are you using the most effective visuals?

If not, start upgrading today!

#finance #accountingandaccountants #storytelling #careers

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster podcast on your podcast channel

10 useful ways to visualize your data.

Do you often struggle with visualizing your data in an appealing and engaging way?

Maybe you don't select the right chart or you make it too cluttered.

By my own assessment, 95% of all reports and charts could do with some improvements.

Here are ten useful and exemplified ways to visualize your data.

✅ INDICATOR

This is much like the speedometer of your vehicle.

Indicators are simple ways to demonstrate how your organization is doing on a particular metric, and if you’re heading in the right direction.

✅ LINE CHART

This plots your data on a simple line to show how it's developing.

These are super simple and very popular because they give you an immediate idea of how a trend emerged over time.

✅ COLUMN CHART

Shows a comparison of two datasets next to each other in bars.

They give you an immediate way to compare values for related data sets side by side.

✅ BAR CHART

A bar chart is essentially a column chart on its side

They’re often used over column charts when the names of the categories are too long to comfortably read on their side!

❌ PIE CHART

Pie charts show values as a “slice” of a whole circle (the whole pie).

It makes sense to use a pie chart when you want to get a rapid, overall idea of the spread of data.

✅ AREA CHART

A dynamic and visual chart that gives an idea of comparative masses.

Area charts are used to demonstrate a time-series relationship. 

✅ PIVOT TABLE

A pivot table brings together, simplifies, and summarizes information stored in other tables.

Pivot tables allow you to quickly summarize and analyze large amounts of data.

✅ SCATTER CHART

Scatter charts are mathematical diagrams or plots that rely on Cartesian coordinates.

Scatter charts are great in scenarios where you want to display both distribution and the relationship between two variables.

✅ SCATTER MAP / AREA MAP

A scatter map allows viewers to visualize geographical data across a region by displaying this as data points on a map.

Scatter maps show where activity is concentrated, geographically speaking.

✅ TREEMAP

A treemap is a multi-dimensional widget that displays hierarchical data in the format of clustered rectangles.

These types of charts can be used where you want to incorporate more granular insights than other visualizations will allow.

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Leveling up your visualization skills will give you a huge boost when communicating your messages!

What charts are your go-to charts?

Personally, the waterfall chart is the one missing here and the favorite of most FP&A professionals...

#careers #storytelling #visualization #finacne

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster podcast on your podcast channel

12 exercises to test your data analysis skills in Excel.

Let's be honest. Excel is the tool of choice (or necessity) for most finance and accounting professionals.

However, most are only using a fraction of the functionalities available.

How often do you for instance do data analysis in Excel?

Probably every week (and likely every day even).

Do you know how to do linear regression, t tests, or using ANOVA, though?

I'm guessing no.

That's where these 12 Excel exercises will come in handy.

They'll take you through some of the most useful data analysis techniques in Excel...

1. Importing external data

2. Importing data from a file

3. Using descriptive statistics

4. Using basic statistical functions

5. Variance and standard deviation

6. Creating histograms

7. Calculate correlation co-efficient

8. Create chart and linear regression

9. Forecasting

10. Significance tests

11. ANOVA: Analysis of variance

12. Obtaining your Rank

Here's an example of how I've used one of these data analysis techniques...

I remember one case where I used correlation and linear regression in Excel.

We were analyzing the relationship between commercial rates and labor costs for the oil and gas market in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The challenge was that increasing labor costs were eroding our profit margins.

We were unsure if these were covered in our contracts.

So we did a correlation analysis between the labor index and contract rates.

It showed that the shorter the contract the higher the kicker we needed in our contract to cover increasing labor costs.

This insight resulted in millions of more revenue on future contracts.

What are you analyzing in Excel and what features are you using?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #careers #Excel

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
🔔 To see more content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster and The Softer Side of Finance podcasts on your podcast channel

How to get started with Power BI?

There’s no doubt that Power BI has won the business intelligence battle.

What Excel is to spreadsheet software, Power BI is to BI solutions.

To prove a point we can look at our own company.

We’re small by any standards but just got our first Power BI dashboard last week.

We didn’t look for a BI solution but Power BI was just there in the Microsoft suite and ready to be used.

No other BI solution can beat that!

But how do you get started with Power BI?

Here’s a great guide to get you set up…

It covers the following points:

✅ Overview of Power BI
✅ The parts of Power BI
✅ Use of Power BI and roles
✅ Power BI flow
✅ Building blocks of Power BI
✅ Power BI services
✅ Power BI license
✅ Importing data into Power BI
✅ Dealing with errors
✅ Applied steps in modeling data
✅ Visualization panel
✅ Plot modifications 
✅ Pages
✅ Exploring the marketplace
✅ Filters
✅ Editing interactions
✅ Saving as pbix files
✅ Exporting and publishing reports
✅ Deepening your understanding

Are you already a PBI user and if yes, what was your first dashboard?

Ours is an NPS dashboard of the performance of individual modules on our learning journeys.

Next up is to put our sales pipeline in a dashboard.

What’s your next dashboard to build?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #careers #businessintelligence

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🔔 To see more content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster and The Softer Side of Finance podcasts on your podcast channel

5 mistakes finance and accounting professionals should avoid.

Did you know that the way you work is likely getting in the way for your success in Finance?

Here are five mistakes you should avoid…

LONG READS

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead”.

It’s a recipe for failure, right?

Yet, most finance reports are complete information overloads.

And it causes business leaders to ignore your material and your work is wasted.

✅ Use top-down communication instead by starting with the answer

DEATH BY EXCEL

Have you ever used Excel as a communication tool like attaching it to an e-mail?

It’s a failure every time.

Excel should be used for quick ad hoc analyses or the work sheet of generating insights.

✅ Create a captivating presentation to present your insights

DATA DUMPING

Never dump data on your audience.

If there’s no interpretation and/or context it’s completely useless.

✅ Do your analysis, explain unknowns, and share condensed insights instead

IGNORING THE ROOT CAUSE

Have you ever just said yes to a request without understanding why it was needed?

Or have you shared high-level explanations of numbers without understanding the underlying drivers?

We’ve all done but it’s a road to nowhere.

Leads to wasted work for all parties.

✅ Understand what problem is supposed to be solved by working on the request

E-MAIL EXCLUSIVITY 

Communication through e-mails is like not communicating at all.

You have no control or influence on how the communication is received or if it will lead to the desired actions.

Moreover, it’s so easy to misunderstand e-mail communication.

✅ Go talk to your stakeholders face to face and present your insights

Have you ever made any of these mistakes?

What made you realize you were wasting your efforts?

And what did you start to do instead?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #careers

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🔔 To see more content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster and The Softer Side of Finance podcasts on your podcast channel

A manual to Microsoft Excel.

Imagine you could learn Excel all over, how would you do it?

Most of us don’t have a structured approach to learning Excel (and keep learning).

We probably had a book at school and did some exercises but did we really study in-depth?

Probably not but here’s a chance for a do over.

Here’s a Microsoft Excel Manual!

It covers the following points…

✅ What is Excel
✅ Cells, rows, and columns
✅ Navigation
✅ Formatting
✅ Separating text within a cell
✅ Sorting
✅ Filters
✅ Functions and formulas

I can almost guarantee you that you’ll learn something new!

How did you first learn Excel and do you sometimes wish you could do it all over?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #careers #Excel

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
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Once upon a time in the finance function, all that mattered was the numbers.

Prepare high-quality numbers and publish them, internally and externally, where needed.

What happened afterward was none of our concerns.

Those days are long gone, and finance people are no longer pure numbers people.

Instead, we should focus on using the numbers to improve decision-making.

We can only do that by becoming customer-centric, increasing our influence with business leaders, and communicating in a way they understand.

In short, we need to become "people people".

This is a challenging development but in the next episode of the #FinanceMaster Show, we'll discuss different tools and approaches you can use to ease the transition.

We're also having a special guest Soufyan Hamid who spends all his time and efforts helping finance and accounting professionals make the transition.

You can be a part of it too! Just raise your hand to come on stage and share your perspectives or ask questions.

Will we see you there?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #careers

View event: The #Financemaster Show 🛑 - E30 - From numbers people to people people

https://www.linkedin.com/events/the-financemastershow-e30-fromn7043490880506220544/

Delivering a great management report presentation is not about entertaining the audience, but informing them. 

Telling the story is important, but you don’t need to be a great storyteller. Slide decks can be made clear and impactful with minimal design skills. 

The most effective part of a great management report presentation is its consistent and logical structure.

Over time, all of the nice-to-have skills develop as the presenter gets more confident in front of an audience. 

The way the presentation is delivered, and the design of the slides will improve with experience. 

But from the very start, getting the structure right allows the key messages to be communicated effectively. 

If the structure is not logical and consistent, the best entertainer in the world is not going to be able to deliver precise information and recommendations for decision-making.

#finance #accountingandaccountants #careers #storytelling

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
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Open article: How to structure your management report for maximum influence by Anders Liu-Lindberg

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-structure-your-management-report-maximum-anders-liu-lindberg?trackingId=kbR7n5pLNnDmTGgHgKfg5A%3D%3D

70% of finance professionals' time is spent on controlling the numbers...

That leaves little time to actually use the numbers for improved decision-making.

It also only answers the basic question of WHAT happened in the business in the past period.

I'm sorry to say but business leaders already know this.

They're looking to understand WHY it happened and what are the underlying drivers.

If they don't get new perspectives on how to solve their current challenges then we won't become a part of their decision-making.

Hence, in simple terms, we must move from controllers to partners.

It's a journey for sure and it spans these six activities.

1️⃣ DATA

These are the indisputable facts about a company's performance.

No one will disagree with these but they hardly ever come as a surprise to anyone.

2️⃣ ANALYSIS

When we say data are indisputable facts this needs confirmation first.

We need to analyze the numbers and get variance explanations in hand to understand what's up and what's down.

3️⃣ REPORT

When we've concluded the analysis we structure our findings in a report that we can present to our stakeholders.

Ideally, this happens in an actual meeting rather than sending an e-mail.

4️⃣ INSIGHTS

Either at the meeting where we present the numbers or ideally before we go beyond the numbers to understand the underlying drivers of performance.

Only when we can share information that our stakeholders 1) don't know about and 2) will help them make better decisions do we start to add value.

5️⃣ INFLUENCE

To truly change decisions for the better or inspire for taking action we need influence though.

In every interaction we have we should deepen our relationship, improve how we communicate with each other, and structure our insights and recommendations to lead to a decision.

6️⃣ IMPACT

If we do everything else well, business leaders will act on our advice and make better decisions.

We'll need to follow the decision through to the end though to understand if we get the desired outcome.

If we do, we should see if we could push for more, and if we don't, we should understand why and take different actions or improve our execution.

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This is how you move from WHAT to NOW WHAT and from being a controller to being a partner.

Where do you spend the majority of your time?

#finance #business #careers

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
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📻 Find our #FinanceMaster and The Softer Side of Finance podcasts on your podcast channel

62% of finance and accounting professionals say our mindset is what's preventing us from creating the future of Finance!

Let's discuss what mindset we need then...

Here's the "Old Mindset" vs. "New Mindset" battle.

❌ Don't just minimize costs
✅ Maximize business value 

❌ Don't just explain past performance
✅ Improve future performance

❌ Don't just eliminate risks
✅ Take the right risks

❌ Don't just share data and reports
✅ Share relevant insights to improve decisions

❌ Don't try to succeed on your own
✅ Help others be successful

It sounds so simple when you read it but in reality, it's not.

It took me ten years to embrace the shift!

The simple answer is the good ol' comfort zone.

Here are five more specific reasons...

1️⃣ Cost is more tangible than revenue to finance professionals so given the choice this is where we prefer to optimize.

It's easier to dictate "stop spending" than "start closing (the deal)".

One is an internal decision and the other involves external stakeholders.

2️⃣ It's much easier to explain the financials we know and have produced ourselves than impacting the future.

One is completely within our control whereas the other requires the influencing of business leaders.

3️⃣ It's straightforward to say "NO" because it entails the status quo whereas saying "YES" leads us into the unknown.

However, without risk, there's no reward hence being the "no people" means we're slowly but surely shutting the company down.

4️⃣ Data and reporting come straight out of the system and only requires a bit of organizing.

New perspectives and recommendations require not only thorough analysis but also in-depth discussions with business leaders to enrich the numbers.

One is easy and takes little time whereas the other is far from a straight-line activity.

5️⃣ Working to succeed for ourselves is much simpler than helping others succeed.

We define our own success criteria and can take action to directly impact them.

Bringing others into the equation makes it more unpredictable and irrational and not least out of our control.

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Simple on paper but difficult in reality.

Changing one's mindset is certainly not for the faint-hearted.

How did you change your mindset (if you did at all)?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #careers

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster and Softer Side of Finance podcasts on your podcast channel

Are CFOs the best bet to take over the CEO role?

Nothing can start a discussion than suggesting one function is better suited than others to land the top spot in a company.

Why do I believe CFOs are best suited?

Here are five arguments...

1️⃣ They have analytical skills
2️⃣ They have business acumen
3️⃣ They span the entire value chain
4️⃣ They have relationships with all CXOs
5️⃣ They always make data-driven decisions

However, CFOs can only lay claim to the top spot if they have the right mindset.

Here's what it's not and what it should be instead...

❌ Minimizing costs
✅ Maximizing business value

❌ Explaining past performance
✅ Improving future performance

❌ Eliminating risks
✅ Taking the right risks

❌ Sharing data and reports
✅ Sharing relevant insights to improve decisions

❌ Trying to succeed on your own
✅ Helping others be successful

This mindset change made them successful as the right hand to the CEO.

AND it will make them a successful business partner to the customers.

Do you think the CFO is the natural choice to succeed the CEO if given the chance?

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I'm currently researching an article series about the evolution of the CFO role.

If you would like to contribute please let us know 👇or send me a message.

If you'd like to be interviewed for the series we can discuss this too!

#finance #cfo #ceo #careers

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster and Softer Side of Finance podcasts on your podcast channel

All we need is another dashboard and we'll make better decisions, right?

This seems to have been the mantra of finance and accounting professionals in the past decade.

It has led to what I call "The Dashboard Explosion".

And to be honest it hasn't helped anyone make any better decisions. Why?

Because we've gotten lost in all the data we can track and gone KPI Bonanza.

Heck, there's even a KPI that measures how well we understand our dashboards and KPIs 👇.

When everything's a focus area it means nothing is a focus area.

Here's what I suggest you do instead...

1️⃣ Select two-three Wildly Important Goals you want to achieve

2️⃣ Find the relevant data to measure progress on these goals and visualize them on a (virtual) board

3️⃣ Set up a weekly meeting where you meet with your team to discuss how you're progressing on the goals

4️⃣ At the meeting each team member makes one or two commitments on what they'll work on in the coming week to progress on the goals

5️⃣ At the next weekly meeting team members debrief on their efforts and make new commitments

This is the ABSOLUTE best way to create meaningful progress in your team, function, and overall business.

How many dashboards and KPIs are your team looking at every week?

And do you feel like your current progress is helping you create any meaningful progress?

#technology #businessintelligence #finance #accountingandaccountants 

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
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🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
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📻 Find our #FinanceMaster podcast on your podcast channel

What will make you successful as a finance and accounting professional?

It may not be what you think…

#careers #finance #accountingandaccountants

"Give me your projects, I have the money for you to invest!", said the CEO of a major blue chip company early in the last decade.

Words uttered on the stage at the annual management conference.

10 years later, billions had been spent with very low ROI and equally billions of value destroyed.

What went wrong?

It was a breakdown in the strategic investment management process and probably poor execution.

How to fix it?

At PACE we have designed the Profitability Analytics Framework.

It goes from strategy formulation to strategy execution highlighting the very important step in between...

STRATEGY VALIDATION!

This is where Finance comes into play as the main driver.

It's a review of six items:

1️⃣ Market model
2️⃣ Revenue model
3️⃣ Operational model
4️⃣ Cost model
5️⃣ Investment model
6️⃣ Investment capital

In our latest eBook, we address this analytics framework from a strategic angle.

We highlight what companies should do to strengthen their investment process.

We also highlight seven areas where Finance can play a very specific role and should act as guidance to what you should do differently:

✅ Evaluate the performance of investments

✅ Support continuous learning from failures

✅ Drive effective decision-making during execution

✅ Create multiple scenarios on investment performance

✅ Establish new baselines for performance as projects mature

✅ Improve organizational confidence in investment capabilities

✅ Identify and prioritize investments throughout the organization

Don't be like the CEO on stage.

Drive a strong investment process in your company to ensure increased ROI.

How are you managing investments in your company?

#finance #accountingandaccountants #investmentmanagement #careers

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🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
📻 Find our #FinanceMaster podcast on your podcast channel

5 ways for Finance to get involved in value creation.

Do you want to create value as a finance professional?

Here are five key ways to get involved:

1. Performance management

2. Management reporting

3. Planning & forecasting

4. Cost and profitability analyses

5. Drive finance transformation

What else would you add?

#finance #careers #accountingandaccountants

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 🧑‍💼 I'm a partner at Business Partnering Institute
 🆘 Need immediate help in your finance team, call us!
 🤝 We help increase the influence of your finance team
 🗣️ Send me a message to join our Slack community
 🔔 To see more of my content ring the bell on my profile
 📻 Find our #FinanceMaster podcast on your podcast channel

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