If Only It Was Enough For Finance To Be Right

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It is close to 10 AM on a Monday morning and it is almost time for the weekly management meeting. Numbers have shown a downwards trend for a long time. The finance manager is ready with the insights to turn the situation around and is prepared to run the meeting.  

The meeting begins and the finance manager shares the latest performance numbers. She clearly states that action is needed. Sales reps must increase their productivity to boost the sales pipeline, service delivery must be improved to turn around the negative trend in customer satisfaction, and staff costs must be cut by 5%.  

After a 30 minutes review, where the finance manager did most of the talking and the managing director sat quietly nodding, there is silence in the room when the finance manager concludes, “so we all understand what must be done now go get it fixed!” Silence is consent, right? A week later the numbers look even worse and the finance manager is puzzled to understand what went wrong? 

The finance manager had all the right insights into what was needed to change the situation, yet no action was taken, and the answer is clear. The finance manager had no influence with the management team, who saw the weekly meeting as just another pain to get through.  

Finance must realize that it is not enough to be right. We must gain buy-in and acceptance for our recommendations before they can turn into actions. That is what we will dig deeper into in the coming month when we look at what it takes for Finance to influence decisions. 

To influence we must change perspectives 

Finance has been too occupied with financial outcomes in the past. Not that they are not important, however, once you see them in the report, it is too late to do anything about them. Finance has on the flipside been too little occupied with driving business outcomes which are leading indicators for financial outcomes. 

Therefore, we must change perspectives and ask how we can help drive successful business outcomes. Our finance manager in the intro was too concerned with improving some numbers in a report. She did not involve herself in improving the business outcomes that were clearly lacking behind. That is why no action was taken on her rightful recommendations. 

To do drive successful business outcomes we must succeed on these three parameters. 

• Build trusted relationships through taking joint ownership of business outcomes
• Develop business acumen and go experience the business where it is happening
• Be assertive in our communication by not only caring about getting our own message across but just as much about how it is received and will help the business stakeholder 

All three parameters help us to show a genuine interest in the business. If they do not think we are there to help them they will not act on our recommendations either. 

Breaking the barrier to a group of Operations Managers 

Situation

Back in 2014, a global shipping company was running a cost-saving initiative with great success. It was called the Joint Cost Plan as it involved many stakeholders across the organization. The plan had high savings targets but the year ended with a great result that everyone could be proud of. 

Complication

However, in 2015 the team of Operations Managers that had been the primary drivers of the plan were again asked to deliver a high amount of savings. At the time they were getting frustrated as the part of the regional organization they belonged had a clear commercial focus and did not take much of an interest in their work to save costs. 

Resolution

That is when a business partner from the region stepped up and started to invest time in building a relationship with the Operations Managers while getting to know their business, and communicating in a language they could understand and on their behalf with senior management. 

The business partner made it a clear priority to go visit as many of the Operations Managers as possible and participate in their workshops that aimed to generate more ideas for savings. Not only did this help the business partner develop stronger relationships but also helped him gain a deeper business understanding. You can see just how close he got to the business during one of his visits.  

Impact

At the end of 2015, it all came together, and the Operations Managers had once again delivered significant savings to the tune of USD 38mn. Without the business partner investing in building influence with this group, the result would likely have been lower. 

Building influence is a long-haul game 

You will not be able to build influence overnight, but must invest time in having multiple touchpoints with your stakeholders. You must show that you have a genuine interest in them succeeding in achieving their goals. Building influence with your stakeholders is not about you and your interest but about how you can help them achieve theirs. 

Building influence can feel very ungrateful and the trust you might have built over months can be lost in an instance because you brought the wrong numbers or lost your temper in a meeting. Moreover, it feels like you must do all the work to build the influence, however, it is indeed a two-way street. Once you have taken the first step you will see that your stakeholders will start to show more interest in the priorities that you need to deliver on.  

Everyone can be influenced though if you just take the right approach and we look forward to unfolding these steps over the coming weeks. Remember Rome was not built in one day so you must take microsteps over a longer period to build influence. The potential of influencing your stakeholders to make better decisions is significant and you just need to unlock it! 

How do you influence your stakeholders? Can you tell about some concrete steps you took to build a relationship, better understand the business, or become a better communicator? Share your story with us and we would be happy to feature your case in the upcoming articles. 

Business Partnering Institute can help you become better at influencing your stakeholders and communicate in a way that it is easy for them to say “YES”. You can reach us today at [email protected] or get directly in touch with Anders on +45 2926 6410.

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This was the ninth article in the series "Business Partnering On A Formula". You can read past articles in the series below.

This Is How We Succeed With Business Partnering

Business Partnering On A Formula

This Is How Business Partners Have Impact And Drive Value Creation

Here's Why You Want A Business Partner At The Table

Decision ≠ Action - But What Can Finance Do About It?

How Do Business Partners Generate Insights?

A Business Partner Is Like A Mechanic, Always Looking To Optimize The Engine Room

Performance Management Done Right Is A Gold Mine Of Insight

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.

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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)

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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 8,500 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 45.000+ followers.