A business partner's tale
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
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Once there was a controller named Sarah. She focused on ensuring that her company was compliant with rules and regulations and that performance was in line with the budget. One day her manager came to her desk and said, “Hi Sarah, I want you to meet your new colleague, Jerry. He’s a robot and will be taking over many of your compliance and controlling tasks”.?
Sarah took a moment to let the message sink in and asked, “Does that mean I’m out of a job now?”. Her manager quickly replied, “No, not at all. In fact, I have a much more interesting job for you!”. “What’s that?”, Sarah replied. Her manager proudly stated, “I want you to be a business partner and support some of our senior leaders to make better decisions”. Conversation stops.?
Does this sound like a familiar story? It’s at least one we have heard many times over in the past decade. However, things are starting to change. Finance leaders and finance functions in general now recognize that to become a business partner it’s not enough to simply swap your controller title. It takes a lot more than that!?
The raison d’être of BPI?
This is also the reason we founded Business Partnering Institute. We had all experienced this story. Being told to be business partners but with no real guidance on how to do it. Once the guidance came though we saw the impact that business partnering can have on a business. Most finance teams have tried the “without guidance” route. The pandemic dealt the last blow to this route. Finance is going down a different path now.?
It's a global movement too! We get contacted by teams across the world wanting to go down a different path. They see being good at business partnering as a competitive advantage for their company and the careers of their team members. What’s more interesting is that it’s giving a human side to finance. No longer are we purely “numbers people”. Now we are “people people”. Or at least that’s what we need to become.?
This is the sunshine story but there are clouds looming in the sky. I don’t have a total number of people that need to transition from accountants and controllers to business partners. There are 10,000,000 accountants and controllers in my LinkedIn search. Add financial analysts and other FP&A and business finance roles that likely need some training too and you get the idea. This is a massive undertaking!?
At BPI we’re growing fast to meet this demand, but we need more good people to join the change. We’ve also started the creation of the world's best learning program for finance professionals. This will enhance our digital offering and make it easier for trainers around the world to tap into the BPI concept. If you’re in Denmark though why not swing by our office for a coffee and a chat about the opportunities, we can offer at BPI??
Are you ready to help Sarah??
There are thousands of Sarah’s out there. They need help managing the change from being a controller to a business partner or simply becoming better business partners. We want to help as many as possible and hope that you see this as your cue to jump in and help too.?
We know that many finance leaders are trying to do the right thing. Sometimes all they need is a helpful perspective to progress with their business partnering efforts. That’s also why we’re very pleased to speed up the publishing of the latest perspectives in business partnering and FP&A. In the last quarter, we published “Inside-Out Business Partnering” and “FP&A Transformation Talks”. In the coming quarter, we will publish “Planning (as we know it) is dead” and hopefully also “The Unfair Advantage of Finance”. Each eBook has its piece of the business partner's tale to tell. If you want a copy of any of these eBooks, then give us a shout-out in the comments or send me a message.?
We want to help the Sarah’s of the world and are running more learning journeys than ever before. In 2021 alone we gathered more than double the customer feedback forms compared to all the three prior years of BPI's existence. This year we’ll beat that number one more time! On some clients, we’re booked as far as 2024. Now is the time to join us and help Sarah. What’s stopping you??
What’s the latest on LinkedIn??
It was a new record quarter for my activities on LinkedIn. 3.5 million total views on LinkedIn and 730K for the blog alone. Followers got a significant boost with the highest absolute increase ever adding 6.7K followers (not counting connections) in the quarter. See below stats taken from Shield Analytics.
I also landed myself a feature in Chief Editor at LinkedIn, Dan Roth’s weekly newsletter. You can read my thoughts on the b2b creator economy on LinkedIn here. I think this is a great opportunity for many creators on LinkedIn if only they realize this as a possibility. I will at least continue to explore what’s possible in this space and don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to discuss a collaboration!
If you would like to read more about social media and how to get the most out of LinkedIn you can continue reading below.
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Anders Liu-Lindberg?is the co-founder and a partner at the?Business Partnering Institute?and the owner of the largest?group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering?on LinkedIn with more than 10,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company?Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a?long-time Finance Blogger?on LinkedIn with 70.000+ followers and 150.000+ subscribers to my blog. Recently I became an advisory board member at?Born Capital?to help identify and grow the next big thing in #CFOTech.
Procurement and Contract Management
2 年Inspirational story, grateful to take part
Business Controller / Finance Business Partner / Change Agent / Digital Transformation
2 年Keen to get more involved - Anders lets chat