From Business Partner To Working Within The Business

We’re sharing stories about finance professionals having success with business partnering and in the past couple of weeks we have been talking to Vildon Foo. Vildon is a Commercial Director in Global Sales at HTC. He started as an accountant, made it to business partner and now we will learn about how he got to work in the business.

Not to say that this should be the aim of all business partners but it’s important to understand what it takes both to lure business people into Finance and conversely, how Finance people can make the jump to the business. 

Temporary business role turns permanent 

One great way for business partners to become better is to work in temporary roles in the business. Think when someone from your business stakeholders team leaves then you work in the role until it gets filled again. That’s exactly what happened to Vildon. 

“…there was an opportunity for someone to Account Manage the Distributor/Retail business. My Country Manager thought I could fill the position temporarily. Little did he expect that my disciplined approach to sales (constant follow ups), understanding the numbers and value retention was highly valuable. Within 6 months in the role, I had tripled the sales in both revenue and numbers.” 

“Following on my success in smartphone sales, HTC launched the 1st premium Virtual Reality Headset as the VR industry entered the market in 2015. I was presented with the opportunity to represent my Country Manager and the Australian & NZ business to introduce our VIVE product to the market by working with new Distributors and Channel partners. As I was already adept with the end-to-end Sales/Operations/Finance process, the whole market execution was a success.”

Quite an achievement by Vildon but it also highlights the potential of combining an analytical approach which finance people bring to the table with business acumen.

We might not be the greatest sales people, but we can surely manage the performance of a sales force and use insights to deploy it most effectively. That’s also how Vildon sees it as he reflects on how he landed his next Director of Commercial Finance APAC role. 

“I believe one of the main reasons I was considered for this position. was because I was one of the few Finance personnel within the Global company who managed to balance the needs of achieving sales outcomes with good finance practices.... I also believe that my strong partnership with my Country Manager, who was numbers responsible, made a dramatic difference in my elevation in my professional career. He taught me to, “Never be ashamed to sell high, if you truly believe the value you are providing to your customers is high”; it just depends on how you package the offer to your customers. Naturally, our HQ in HTC noticed our success and invited me to replicate what we have done in Australia onto the rest of APAC.”

It is amazing how one’s achievement down under in Australia does not go unnoticed at the Global level. It also highlights how important it is to continue to quietly deliver good quality work.

The below caps off Vildon’s career move into business, becoming a Commercial Director in Global Sales through merging Finance, Sales, Operations and Business Partnering into one role. 

“Within a few months of relocating to Taipei, I wasted no time in ensuring I was helpful to the APAC business. In the process, I met our VP of Global Sales who was trying to implement some of his sales discipline and ideology onto the rest of the Global Sales team. As his workload increased, I offered to help him in setting up some of the processes to achieve his goal. Some people wondered why I was willing to be “used” by him when they noticed my emails often coming through during midnights, but I responded, “you can only be USED, if you are USEFUL”. Besides, I really enjoyed learning from him. Eventually he left the business to take on another role. However, due to his gratitude for my help, and in recognition of my abilities; he recommended to the CEO that I take on the Commercial Director, Global Sales role.

What can we learn from this story?

Vildon obviously has quite a nice story to tell but what does it mean for you? You’re not Vildon and your situation is not the same. Yet, I still think there are several takeaways you can use to fuel your own career whether you want to go down the finance or business route. Here is Vildon’s take on taking on a role in the business. 

“It may be uncomfortable for finance professionals who has never ventured there before, but there is always a first time. It just requires a little faith in your abilities to learn. If one is willing to be uncomfortable, apply oneself beyond the requirements of your daily finance tasks; do not hesitate to volunteer your services when an opportunity arises.” 

What Vildon is saying is that you need to step out of your comfort zone which is not surprising since Finance is your comfort zone. But that is how we learn and I’m sure you will grow tremendously from taking the opportunity of working at least for some time in the business. By taking the risk, the rewards can be significant as Vildon shares. 

“Ultimately, if one does decide to venture into business, I can assure them that it is an exciting opportunity. Not only can you still control the numbers of the business, you are also able to help use the numbers to drive business outcomes. Rather than being a passenger, why not be the driver?” 

Going into the business might not be for everyone and we certainly also need good people in Finance. However, I do encourage you to try it if you get the opportunity. Some might ask, “Why me?”. I respond, “Why not?”. 

This is the final article in the interview with Vildon Foo, Commercial Director in Global Sales at HTC. I hope you have enjoyed Vildon’s story and have taken a few lessons for yourself as to how you should develop in your career.

You can read the previous two articles below and if you’re now encouraged to share your story too then do not hesitate to reach out. Just send me a message or write a comment on the article. 

Here's Why You Should Come Work In Finance!

How Can We Attract Business People To Finance?

Thinking Of Changing Careers? Then Read Alissa's Story!

How Finance People Should Apply A Business Partner Mindset

The Challenges Of Learning To Be A Business Partner

I also encourage you to take a tour of my past articles on finance transformation, finance business partnering and not least “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” which is really the starting point for the transformation. You should join our Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic and you can click here to follow him on Twitter.

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Do You Have A Finance Business Partner Mindset?

How To Become A Finance Business Partner

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You’re A Finance Business Partner, Now What?

Building A Team Of Finance Business Partners

Anders Liu-Lindberg is a Senior Finance Business Partner at Maersk supporting our largest product and I have more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. I am also the co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with close to 7,000 members. My main goal at Maersk is to show how to be successful with business partnering and drive value creation as a trusted partner. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 25.000+ followers.