How to Become A Better Finance Business Partner

For the second episode of Hub of Finance Transformation;s CFO Leadership series I had the incredible pleasure to interview Mohamed ELRouby

Mohamed ELRouby started his career as a management accountant in a oil and gas company. Then he worked in various senior finance roles as financial controller, regional head of finance, and head of finance. Across various organizations like J&J, Novartis and Energizer. Presently, he is the Middle East and Africa region CFO at Pharmacovia and also leads global commercial finance.

We discussed the topic of how finance business partners can add more value to an organization. We covered three aspects:

• The mindset required to be a finance business partner,
• The skill sets required for FBPs.
• Followed by a case study of how finance business partners can create value for their companies.

The Mindset

Changing one's mindset is key to becoming a true business partner. There are several areas where this shift is necessary.

These include changing the focus from process to building relationships. From telling people what to do to selling ideas. From complexity to simplicity, from challenging to coaching, and from presenting data to presenting business insights.

In order to be an effective business partner, finance professionals need to learn how to build strong relationships with their business partners. This requires a shift in mindset from focusing on systems and processes to focusing on building relationships. It is important to learn how to sell ideas, rather than simply telling people what to do. To do this, finance professionals need to learn how to use influence and persuasion techniques to change people's minds.

Furthermore, finance professionals tend to overcomplicate things, and it's important to learn how to simplify their message. This can be achieved by presenting information in a clear and easy-to-understand way, which will help to build trust and influence business partners.

Lastly, finance professionals should adopt a coaching mindset rather than a challenging one. We should work as a coach, asking the right questions and guiding people in the right direction, instead of just putting them in defensive mode.

The Skillset

Next we discussed the skill sets required for finance business partners to add value to an organization. We discuss several important skills, including building relationships, business acumen, turning data into insights, storytelling, strategic thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

Finance professionals cannot influence others without having strong relationships with them. Business acumen is critical for finance business partners. This is to understand the business in order to ask the right questions, provide business insights, and design effective decision-supporting tools.

Ability to turn data into insights, and to tell the story behind the numbers. It is important for finance professionals to be able to use visualization and storytelling to communicate their message clearly and effectively.

We need to have a strategic thinking and forward-looking view, and be able to solve business problems by providing actionable insights. Another important skill is good communication to influence and persuade business partners. Lastly, having a strong understanding of data analytics, as well as predictive and prescriptive analytics to be able to support decision-making and improve the business.

In summary, it is important to first shift the mindset. Building relationships, selling ideas, simplifying messages, adopting a coaching mindset, and focusing on providing business insights rather than just data. Also,the importance of understanding the business, turning data into insights, storytelling. Strategic thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication are important to add value to the organization as a finance business partner.

Next we talked about the Hub of Finance Transformation's flagship The Next Generaration CFO Leadership Program.

What is The Next-Generation CFO Leadership Program?

The Next-generation CFO Leadership program is?Hub of Finance Transformation's flagship program.?This was developed after a lot of research and efforts from industry CFOs and finance leaders.?All of these elements of this strategic finance leadership framework are included in the Hub of Finance Transformation's flagship program.

It includes modules on finance business partnering, leadership, digital transformation, and data analytics. With a focus on practical examples and case studies. The program aims to prepare CFOs for leadership roles by covering topics such as building a strong team, leveraging technology, and using data analytics effectively.

In this program,?Steve Rosvold, founder of CFO University, serves as the CFO coach. He works one-on-one with every participant to construct their?Personal Development Plan (PDP). This helps participants find their strengths, limitations, and areas of weakness. He works with them to create a strategy and step by step roadmap for the next six to twelve months.

Who is the Next-Generation CFO Leadership Program for?

Professionals in finance at the mid- to senior-level should apply, including the Finance Managers, the Controllers, Senior financial analysts, the Head of Accounting and Finance, the Head of FP&A. Also, this program is apt for CFOs who want to bring in change and emerging digital technology, or wish to transform their finance function.

Check out the link and enroll in the next cohort of the?Next-Generation CFO Leadership Program here.

This article was originally published at?www.fpnaprofessionals.com

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