Interview Guidance To Would-Be Business Partners From A Senior FP&A Manager

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To land a role in a company you need to interview and outshine your competitors. We have all tried this and I bet you wish you could get inside the head of the interviewer asking the questions. Well, today you can as we are talking to Yemi Sanni, Senior Manager, FP&A at LafargeHolcim in Nigeria. 

This part of the interview series “Profiles in Business Partnering” where we speak with senior finance professionals who share their stories about going from being an accountant to a business partner. Today, Yemi shares his experience with hiring processes with us and takes us behind the scenes on his thinking. When he is hiring for business partnering-like roles what does he look for and how can you impress him? Let us turn it over to Yemi for revealing what it takes to get him to hire you… 

The six key factors that Yemi looks at 

Please tell us about your career so far?

I have about 13 years of varied finance experience across various industries (consulting, healthcare, oil and gas, and construction). Throughout my career, I have led corporate initiatives aimed at supporting strategic objectives that delivered business growth while managing risk, driving business efficiency, and implementing process improvements in organizations. 

I started my career in audit in KPMG which helped develop my critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities. In KPMG I learned how to prepare, analyze and interpret financial data, and how business and financial risks affect a business’ financial statements. Subsequently, I worked in GE as an Internal Auditor, conducting audit reviews across select GE sites.

It was when I moved to Swire Oilfield Services that my FP&A journey really kick-started. After 2 years in a Management Accounting role, I became Finance Business Partner for Southern Africa, working directly with the Senior Management Team to support decision-making. This ranged from decision support on CAPEX investments to pricing, tender management, debt recovery, procurement, and cost optimization projects. I have subsequently handled other finance leadership roles in Roche as Finance Manager and presently I work in LafargeHolcim as Senior Manager, FP&A. 

How many people have you recruited so far in your career and how do you approach the recruitment process? 

I have been directly involved in 9 hiring decisions so far in my career. Typically, in approaching the recruitment process, I start with reviewing the CVs of candidates. The CVs that are concise, with a clear layout and well-articulated contributions on current and past roles always stand out for me, and those are the ones I get to shortlist for the interviews. I prefer to interview in a 2 person panel to have a balance of perspectives in the assessment and arrive at a hiring decision at no more than 2 rounds of interviews. 

When you recruit for business partner-like roles what do you specifically look for in candidates? 

The key things I look for in candidates interviewing for these roles are:

• Role understanding: Ensure the candidate understands the role being interviewed for and why the role exists within the team. Why does this matter? They need to show an understanding of what it takes to succeed
• Mindset: Ability to connect the dots and understand how the external and internal (operational) factors affect business performance, and also how the parts of the organization fit together. Also look for candidates that have deep sense of urgency required for fast-paced decision making e.g., pricing, and are able to prioritize amidst conflicting timelines
• Self-management: I assess if the individual is a self-starter and can take initiative to drive multiple activities proactively without having to be instructed every step of the way
• Technical Skills: Ability to deliver on the technical requirements of the role, e.g., prepare a cash flow forecast, or do a scenario analysis of the impact on net income if price drops by 5% and cost of sales increases by 15%
• Collaboration and people skills: Ability to achieve results through working with others, and building informal relationships across the organization for a smooth flow of work
• Communication: Ability to deliver a clear business message via oral or written communication and to present ideas in a concise and logical manner.

What preparation would you wish that candidates do before coming to the interview?

Take time to think through their previous roles and the value they delivered there. This is crucial in selling yourself during the interview process. It is not enough to regurgitate the job description of your current or previous roles; an interviewer is keen to learn about what you did differently asides from just getting your job done. An example may be that you created a semi-automated budget template that helped in tracking departmental spending and gave budget owners more visibility of their spending without having to wait for the month-end reports. You must also be able to quantify the impact on the business. For example, this visibility helped managers prioritize the most critical spending to a 5% reduction in costs year-on-year. 

Candidates should do some research about the company they are interviewing at so they can talk about the business itself and ask informed questions. Demonstrating knowledge of the business is always a good sign of a strong candidate who is a quick learner and that can deliver value quickly in a fast-paced environment. 

What are some common mistakes that you see people make in interviews? 

• Inadequate preparation - evidenced in little or no knowledge of the business you are interviewing in
• Not being able to demonstrate an understanding of the role and what it takes to succeed in the role
• Appearing uninterested or disengaged. It is an interview, not an interrogation! Engage the interviewer, ask questions, and do not be afraid to share your perspective.

What advice would you give to chartered accountants that are interviewing for business partner roles? 

Chartered Accountants interviewing for business partner roles must demonstrate strong operational knowledge and the ability to analyze data to support decision making. Their strong accounting and tax knowledge, and ability to pay attention to details will complement the other soft skills required to excel as a business partner. More importantly, they must demonstrate flexibility in thinking, be willing to make recommendations with limited information (if required to analyze a case study and make recommendations), and keep a strategic big picture view of the questions being asked.

Now you know what it takes to be hired!

In many ways, it is not rocket science to understand what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for when you are interviewing for a role. When interviewing for business partner roles you should always be prepared to talk about your achievements. More importantly, you should describe in detail what your role was in delivering those achievements. That is in my mind the best way to impress in a hiring process for a business partner role! 

Yemi broke it down for us and highlighted six key factors that he looks at when interviewing being role understanding, mindset, self-management, technical skills, collaboration and people skills, and communication. Some of it might feel a little bit fluffy to document yet most of it you present during the interview and the rest you showcase in the way you present. Hence, before going into an interview for a business partner role you should note down how you are going to perform on each of the six factors highlighted by Yemi. 

What experience do you have with interviewing for or hiring for business partner roles? Does your experience compare to Yemi’s or do you see some things differently? Finally, what tips do you have for finance and accounting professionals who want to interview for business partner roles? The hiring process (at least if you do it well) is different for business partners compared to accountants. Do not take it lightly and prepare well. Do that and you will stand-out vs. competition in no time!

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This was the seventh article in the series "Profiles in Business Partnering" and you can read previous articles in the series below. Together with the series "Becoming a Business Partner" there is a lot more content coming. Do not forget to subscribe to this newsletter to avoid missing a beat!

An Audit Officer's Journey Towards Becoming A Business Partner

One Accountants Untraditional Route Through The Business To Business Partnering

What This Accountant Learned From A Stint In The Business

How An FP&A Director Provided Line Of Sight To Millions Of Dollars

A Note To Self From The Future From A Soon To Be Business Partner

Fast-track Your Career Path To Business Partnering Through Mentorship

Here you can read previous articles in the series "Becoming a Business Partner".

The Accountants Journey Towards Becoming A Business Partner Unlocked

Your Career Path From Chartered Accountant To Business Partner Defined

Why Delivering Results Is A Key Priority For Would-Be Business Partners

The Resume That Will Surely Land You A Business Partner Role

The Cover Letter That Lands You The Business Partner Interview

What Senior Finance Leaders Look For In Business Partners

What To Do On Your First Day As A Business Partner

The 100-day Plan For Successful Business Partner

Are There Second Chances In 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 55.000+ followers.