Here Is How To Establish The Foundation For Business Partnering

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It had been a long and eventful morning for Peter and his leadership team. Peter, a CFO at a large manufacturing company, had presented his new ambition for the finance function. They were to go from being a cost center to a profit center. The means? Business Partnering! Peter had introduced his building blocks for successful business partnering and the team was ready to go to work after lunch. 

To create the foundation, they needed to work on five levers being… 

• …creating a framework,
• …agreeing what capabilities were needed,
• …designing a new operating model,
• …establishing the benefit case, and
• …getting the leadership team aligned 

The team thought they already had many of these items covered. To challenge them Peter asked a series of questions.

This is when the team realized that they were in for a long journey. To do this well was not just a three-month effort as simply establishing the foundation could take six-12 months. 

The first steps on the journey 

To take the first steps on the journey Peter created four groups that were to make the first draft of a framework, capability model, operating model, and benefit case. They were asked to work on this most of the afternoon and present it back to each other at the end of the day. The presentations, reactions, and feedback would determine how much work needed to be done on getting leadership alignment. Below you can see the workings that each of the groups came up with. 

Group 1 – Framework 

The group had defined business partnering as “Insights X Influence = Impact” and made the first attempt to define the next level. It looked like this.

To realize this, they also stated a clear ambition of what to do less of and do more of. They made a crude assessment of how people were spending their time today and a vivid ambition for how to spend it in the future. Here is the ambition they came up with.

They knew there would be dependencies to the capability and operating model and that it was an ambitious goal. Still, they all felt excited about this and wanted to push in this direction. 

Group 2 – Capability model 

The group felt that to succeed with business partnering they needed to add capabilities on top of their professional toolbox. It was clear that simply the term Finance Business Partnering would dictate the needed capabilities. This is the first draft model they came up with.

The group outlined that business partnering was foremost a mindset for everyone in the function. They all needed the value mindset to start thinking like merchants. That said they had also identified four critical skills that needed to be developed in those people who were working closely with business stakeholders. 

They also knew that these new skills were going to feel like stretch requirements to most in the finance function. They needed to be developed so that gaps could be closed. Without passing judgment the group suggested running a capability assessment of each team member though. The results would determine the further work needed. 

Group 3 – Operating model 

The group saw a clear split between producing the numbers and using the numbers. These had to be clearly separated and optimized. Only then could time and energy be freed to focus on business partnering. The group had then drawn up a simple new operating model for the finance function.

Production of numbers would be done by Finance Operations which would almost fully be offshored to their Global Business Services organization. This work had been undergoing for a few years already and now it would get renewed energy. 

The corporate function and business finance would focus on using the numbers. This is where the majority of the upskilling would take place. While the corporate functions would remain largely unchanged a big change needed to happen in business finance, not least in their operating entities around the world. 

To supplement the new operating model, they also come up with a suggestion a new business partner role description. They called it Finance Business Partnering 2.0. Here are the main responsibilities they had outlined.

This represented a significant difference from what people were doing today but the group figured this would be exciting to most people in their finance function. 

Group 4 – Benefit case 

The last group struggled a bit with defining the benefit case. However, they eventually landed on three critical parameters that they wanted to use to measure the success of business partnering.

Better business results would in simplicity be measured as business stakeholders meeting or beating their targets. Customer satisfaction would be measured as an NPS score by asking stakeholders twice a year in anonymous surveys. Lastly, the value log would be created based on documented cases from teams or individuals across the finance function. 

Peter wrapped up following each group’s presentation. He was thoroughly impressed with the work they had done. Without a doubt, the team had bought into the change he wanted to create. It was also clear though that there was a lot of change ahead of them. The hardest part of the change? That they all needed to become better role models for their teams and the wider function! 

From thought to action on business partnering 

It was the end of the first day of the offsite. Everyone had left all their energy in the room but knew that the next day they had to press on. They needed to create the implementation plan. For now, we will let Peter and the team get some rest. How would you answer all the questions that Peter posed to his team? Would you build a similar foundation or something different? 

A foundation is not built in a day and will require focus and attention from senior leaders in your finance function. Essentially, they need to lead from the front and visibly sponsor any initiative you want to run. If you do not establish a proper foundation your business partnering initiative will be much less effective. Perhaps you can now take a starting point in the work done by Peter and his team?

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This was the third article in the series "Business Partnering Implemented". You can read the previous articles in this series below. For more inspiration on how to succeed with business partnering and creating change in Finance, you can continue reading below.

Finance Is On A Change Journey - Here Is How To Take Charge

The Building Blocks Of Successful Business Partnering

If you want to become a better business partner you should consider taking our online course "Business Partnering Explained - Value Creation Unlocked" to get a better handle on the role. It's accredited for 5.5 CPD hours.

You can read a lot more articles about FP&A, Business Partnering, and Finance Transformation below. It all start's with “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” where you set the ambition for your transformation. You should join the 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 me on Twitter.

All Successful Business Partners Are "Leaders" (the last article in the series about our new capability model)

Should We Keep Talking About Business Partnering? (part of a 17-article series where we deep-dive on the WHY, WHAT, and HOW of business partnering by putting it on a formula)

Your Journey To Successful Business Partnering Explained

How To Create Value Through Business Partnering

Everyone Can Adopt A Business Partnering Mindset (part of a six-article series about FP&A Business Partnering)

From Business Partner To Working Within The Business (part of an article series where I interview finance professionals about their careers in FP&A and Business Partnering)

Is Your Product Optimized For Value Creation? (part of a toolbox series where we look at what tools FP&A professionals should leverage to drive value creation)

How Business Partners Turn Analysis To Insight (part of case study series where I interview business partners about how they drive value creation using real cases)

The Future Of FP&A: Two Ways To Take The Reins

What Is The Accounting Profession Paradox?

What Defines A Finance Master?

The New Career Path For Finance Professionals

How Finance People Can Be More Successful

The CFOs Roadmap To Transforming Finance

How To Become A Finance Business Partner

Financial Analyst vs. Finance Business Partner

Finance Business Partner Is A Bullshit Job

How Business Partners Keep A Plan On Track

Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder, COO (Chief Operating Officer), and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 9,000 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 50.000+ followers.