How To Revolutionize The FP&A Professional?

This article is co-written by Itamar Ahrenbeck and Anders Liu-Lindberg

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The CFO has made FP&A a top priority as previously described wanting significant more value from the investments made in the function. To achieve this FP&A must also do things differently otherwise we cannot expect different outcomes.

To do something differently new skills are needed. You could say we need to revolutionize the FP&A professional. The question is then into what? We know the purpose of FP&A which is… 

“…to drive the right strategic choices in the company” 

This must be enabled by adopting a new mindset based on the 4Cs (Curiosity, Courage, Crystal Ball, and Clarity). Therefore, what we must build is a skills model that enhance the mindset and enable us to deliver on the purpose.

Only then can we make a concrete ask to FP&A professionals about what they must do differently in the future to deliver better outcomes and train their skills where gaps are identified. 

A radically different skills model 

In the past what made you a successful FP&A professional was like your technical skills like Excel modeling and ability to analyze data. To some extent that will always be the backbone of FP&A yet they are not the determinants for your future success.  

Instead we must build a different kind of skills model that doesn’t try to capture all skills needed but only those that are critical to success. The model will be built around the mindset attributes with the purpose in mind. 

The individual skills will be further described in a later follow-up article in order to do a proper deep dive on each. Instead we will now try to understand this new model from a practitioner’s point of view. To do that I’ve enlisted Itamar Ahrenbeck who shares his views on the model and what it would take to revolutionize the FP&A professional below. 

The main issue that FP&A professionals have faced so far is structural. Meaning: their time was mostly dedicated to “back-office” activities (closing, reporting).

However, now that automation of those tasks is well under way, FP&A must allocate their time to gaining the skills needed to bring concrete value and get closer to the business. 

How can we build these skills? 

We first need to differentiate between the soft and hard skills that are needed for the new-age FP&A professional.

The hard skills like modelling and technology can be gained with periodical training, with an emphasis being put on automating and making it as easy to replicate as possible. 

The hybrid skill of business understanding will be best gained with direct exposure to the other departments of the company. That can be in the form of on-the-ground visits to production plants, workshops on the current initiatives that marketing is working on, or just grabbing a coffee with people from sales to understand their challenges. 

Finally, one way to improve soft skills such as influencing, and communication is via a mentorship program, where ideally the mentors come from both Finance and non-Finance backgrounds. That way they can guide FP&A on how to work with teams that may have a different decision and thought process as the one they’re used to. 

How do you start changing then? 

Start off by analyzing where you and your team stand: what skills you believe are your strengths and which ones you should work on. Meet with your colleagues from other departments to understand what their challenges are, how you could gain more exposure to their work initiatives, and what they would expect from you to have a greater impact going forward.  

Most importantly though is acknowledging that this must take place and that to develop these skills it requires stepping out of your comfort zone. For too long has FP&A professionals remained within their comfort zone as this is likely the most dominant reason for the lackluster returns FP&A has provided to the CFO. 

What are you going to do to develop these skills? What barriers do you see for effectively developing them? Of course, if it was easy everyone would have probably done it by now and we recognize that this is hard. However, better to accept the challenge than be left behind. We must revolutionize the FP&A professional now for the function to transform and start yielding the ROI that the CFO expects. Do you accept the challenge?

About this series:

This is a collaborative series of articles that will draw on expertise from around the world to cover multiple crucial topics around the theme of the changing FP&A practices:

• The Future of FP&A – Two Ways To Take the Reins?
• Building A Framework For The FP&A Department
• Here's Why FP&A Professionals Need A Strategic Mindset
• How Technology Will Change FP&A Forever
• It's Time To Re-Invent Your FP&A Processes And Move To The Future
• How To Revolutionize The FP&A Professional?
• The FP&A Transformation Plan
• An Open Letter To The CFO: Are You Ready To Transform FP&A? 

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.

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)

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

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 more than 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 29.000+ followers.