The Best KPI For Finance Business Partnering
Andrew Jepson
??Helping finance leaders build teams that lead, influence decisions, and deliver measurable business outcomes with practical, no-nonsense training
Hello and welcome...?to our weekly newsletter, where we share 3 things weekly to help you become a great FBP.
This week those 3 things are:
And don't forget, theFBPteam is here to help you develop a highly engaged and commercially?strong?finance team that other functions want to work with.... book in a call and we will help address your number 1 issue in 20 minutes...
The Best KPI for Finance Business Partnering
What KPIs can I set my finance team around Finance Business Partnering?
It's one of the most common questions I get asked when I am working deeply with a CFO around their capability build.
There's only one.
Well there's only one concept.
There may be many KPIs beneath this concept but get this first bit right and the rest follows.
That concept is.....
FBPs KPIs = Commercial Teams KPIs
I had this?implemented?to me when I first moved into a Commercial?& Strategy lead role.
Previously my KPIs revolved around month ends delivery, budgets and forecasts, and process improvement. Things I was good at and thought I had good control over to do in my own circle of influence.
Then they?turned into the KPIs of the sales, marketing and operational teams.
Mainly around Sales, Margin and EBIT delivery.
Coupled with a number of qualitative KPIs around people and process. The things we were doing to deliver those financial metrics.
At first this was?hugely confronting.
I am not in charge of those areas, why should I be KPI'd on sales when I don't sell anything.
But it forced and led to a significant behavioural change that I then drove through my entire finance team at the time.
Month Ends and Budgets and DSO and all the finance KPIs are awesome.
But they are a little internally focused. If the KPIs are not at the forefront of helping your customers and converting that into value for your organisation it all means nothing.
This KPI change forced me to lean into the other areas more and be front and centre to help them deliver those KPIs.
I found myself on more sales visits. Meetings and in field.
I found myself in warehouses and deliveries trucks.
In manufacturing and R&D facilities
All to understand the experiences those commercial departments lived and breathed every day.
So I could help improve them.
And the best bit.
Everything I knew and had been trained in, I thought others knew too. How wrong I was.
Seeing processes that were clunky and hard to use and inhibited our teams to deal with customers were obvious to me. And something I could help change. Whereas those staff I was working with felt they couldn't.
I became useful to them.
It is why I am a big believer that if you truly want your finance teams out in the business and improving the numbers (rather than reporting them) set them KPIs that force them to do it.
What gets measured gets done.
If you set a KPI for someone and have enough incentive/pain attached to it, that person will find a way to achieve it.?
Their approach will change and their behaviours will change.
Sprinkle a bit of solid guidance over the top and you have a very simple formula for success for any FBP.
Bad Habits That Hold Good People? Back
Got a person you find difficult to deal with?
The answer is yes. We all do.?
Most of it is developed through a reward system for that person that taught them "if I behave like this I will be rewarded"
It could have been through their parents, sports teams, school groups. Anything. Mosty from a young age.
For me I am fiercely independent and want to do things my way and lead. Why, because my childhood I was left to my own devices?with minimal guidance and I was rewarded for working it out myself.
It has its strengths. But a bit too much of it?and it comes at a cost.
And everyone else has their own journey that has conditioned them.
The good news is most peoples behaviour is ground in habits and psychology that once identified you can disable quite easily.
One of the best books I have read for this is a book called "The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back"
This goes through 12 personality types we all see in organisations.
It talks to why those people behave the way they do
And the best bit
How you can respond to it to ensure you can be effective with them.
One such behaviours discussed in the book is "The Rebel". The person who believes they should be doing it their way, often differently, and will be honest in feedback, often brutally under the proviso "Im just being honest".
Hint: This may have been me once upon a time
This behaviour often comes out from an identity crisis where they haven't established their own identify. And accordingly behave like an adolescent who?goes through the same stage in life. Separating themselves from their parents.
They rebel, break rules and are disruptive. Which can work but like most destructive behaviours eventually comes at a cost.
For me that was my teenage years. My father died when I was very young and I was the youngest child in a house where mum tried her hardest but was often very busy. I had to establish my identity and it took a while
The question a person like this needs to answer and lean into - "Who are you really fighting"
Until they work that out and can answer it, it will hold them back against every person they display this behaviour with.
Who was I really fighting with you ask. My sister. So when I see things that take me back there the rebel comes out. But we aren't here to unpack that.
Going forward, every 2nd newsletter I will unpack a great book I have read that I think will help finance folk.
I read a lot. About half of the books are crap and nobody wants to waste time on those.
So I will recommend a book, give you a glimpse and save you the time I spent reading the crap.
This weeks one "The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back" by James Waldroop.
Client News and Wins
February has been?another huge month here at theFBPteam.
Our highest month of approved programs in history?which is awesome. So, who have we secured work with this month....
Large Grocery Retailer
This week we kicked off our first set of workshops for Australia's largest independent retailer, Metcash.
Our kickoff session with the management team highlighted that our first conversation with them was over 4 years ago. Which is a long lead time - it's pretty much the reality of how this works sometimes.
But we are away now working with a great group in their first face to face workshop of our FBP Expert program this week. It's always good to start with a new group and I look forward to working directly with each of them over the coming months.
NSW?Energy Distributor
We have also secured our FBP Expert program with one of NSW largest energy distributors, Essential Energy?
Located in regional NSW we are running this one virtually, just because it's more effective for a geographically disbursed organisation.
Two cohorts of 12 workshops each will keep us busy working with the group up until July.
Large Global Retailer
Through our partnership with Chartered Accountants ANZ we have now secured our FBP Essentials program for one of the world's biggest retailers in the optometry space.
This is a part face to face/part virtual program, which is great to be able to leverage the flexibility of what we do.?
It's awesome to be able to service CAANZs client base again in 2025?
NZ District Council
We have also secured a follow up program with a district council in NZ who we had worked with?over 3 years ago.
Due to turnover in the team we are revisiting again what we did for them a few years back. But this time we are also working with the HR Business Partners.
Looking forward to showcasing our principles across a multi functional team like this one.?
The Leaders Lab
And don't forget for individuals looking to raise their game we kick off The Leaders Lab this month with our inaugural month of sessions.
First workshop in week 2 will be a focus on mindset and the models we find beneficial as you progress to more senior roles.?
And in week 4 we will be focused on Leadership and Lab members own personal brand. What do I stand for and how do I demonstrate it.
Its never too late to enter the lab as it is an ongoing optin/out program. So if you think this is for you just reach out?
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?? I own and run the global finance training company theFBPteam
?? We don’t help finance teams report performance, we help them improve performance
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Because once the robots arrive, the only thing left will be business partnering