A Report From Entrepreneur Land In The Middle Of A Global Crisis

Today it’s two months since I joined Business Partnering Institute full time and what a journey it has been so far! Some might call it a rollercoaster ride since I landed myself in the middle of a global health crisis that has shut down most economic activity. Still, the customer dialogues I’ve had so far, the strength of our team, and the great feedback we’ve received from customers only confirm that I’ve made the right choice! 

Just look at the kind of companies that showed strong interest in teaming up with us to make their finance teams better business partners: a global logistics company, a well-known airline, a leading global beverage company, a large European parcel delivery group, and those are just my dialogues. Of course, everyone is challenged now but that will allow us to focus on different projects while we wait for the crisis the pass. Today I want to share stories from my first two months with you so you can get a look under the hood of BPI and our team. 

Products, hires, training, virtual life, and more 

We’re a purpose-driven company that wants to crack the code on successful business partnering. We believe we’ve come far on cracking the code, however, one thing is theory and another is actual delivery. We’ve spent quite some time sharpening our strategy (creating three product pillars of learning and development, advisory, and interim), expanding the product portfolio to clearly define our L&D offering, outline what we want to do in interim and separate advisory from the two. Essentially, it looks like this.

We still have work to do here yet with a clearer product portfolio in hand it’s time to start telling the world about our view on business partnering and what it takes to succeed. Of course, I’ve been doing this for years, but we need to professionalize our efforts. That’s why we’re now working on our new marketing strategy.

In doing this work we also had to admit that we are kind of amateurs when it comes to marketing. One thing is to make noise about what we do and share our point of view. Another thing is to do it in a professional manner and with purpose. Could we answer the questions of… 

• …what’s our winning aspiration when it comes to marketing?
• …what channels will we play in and with what kind of content?
• …how will we win in those channels by being different or better than the competition?
• …what capabilities do we need to succeed with such a strategy?
• …how would we know if we’re winning and what targets would we set? 

To help us with those efforts we were so happy that we could welcome Borbála Kisvári (or Bori) to BPI as our new Marketing and Communication Manager. Bori is a student in Brand and Communications Management at Copenhagen Business School and comes with the professional foundation that we were all lacking. Here’s Bori. 

With Bori onboard, we’re halfway with our marketing strategy already and you should start to see the impact of this in late April/start May. Like with almost all other activities we’re getting this done virtually. Our team is currently split across three countries (Denmark, Sweden, and Hungary) but we’ve known all along that we could get as much done virtually as we could physically. Basically, I only saw my partners physically a handful of times since I joined as they’ve been so busy with delivering to our customers. 

Speaking of virtual we’ve already delivered many of our training modules virtually before COVID-19 shut down worldwide travel. Just this past Monday, Michael and I had more than 30 participants join virtually on the final module of a six months learning journey we’ve run with a Finnish company.

While it was a trying experience running a 4,5 hours virtual training session both Michael and I left the session full of so much energy! I at least felt like I could supply all of Copenhagen with energy for one night! 

Despite the trials of working virtually, we get so much energy from everything we do together as a team and for what we deliver to our customers! We feel a strong urge to do even more to help companies get back on track after this crisis. We want to empower you and your teams to come up with ideas that can recover margins and restore shareholder value and more importantly get buy-in and acceptance for those ideas from senior business stakeholders. This is no easy task indeed, but we believe that in two days we can get you most of the way. Watch this space to learn more about how or feel free to reach out directly. 

Learning how to master the storm 

A global storm is raging, and we don’t know when it will end. Some countries are starting to see clearer skies, but most are still suffering from strong winds and heavy rain. Everyone is trying to learn how to master the storm and it’s no different for BPI. We keep our promise to our customers and deliver according to plan. We build a stronger foundation for our company. We keep talking to potential customers to learn about how we can help them not just in the long-run but also in concrete terms in the short-run.

Now, more than ever is the time for business partners to show their worth and show that they can help their companies navigate safely through the crisis. At BPI we’re rooting for all of you and are ready to help should you need it! So far, all is well in entrepreneur land and we’re as excited as ever to help you and your team become better business partners! 

The social media metrics are going through the roof! 

Ever since I started blogging in May 2014, I’ve been writing quarterly posts about how my blogging activities are doing. In simple terms, I take stock on views, likes, comments, and followers every quarter. I’ll continue that after joining BPI and I tell you the past two quarters have been crazy! In total in Q1 2020 more than 200,000 people viewed one of my blog posts. For comparison, it took me more than three years to reach the first 200,000 views, a bit more than a year for the next 200,000, a bit less than a year for the next, and now it’s been almost 400,000 in less a year.

This is all powered by the Newsletter functionality on LinkedIn that I’ve had access to for 1,5 years now. My two channels have 34,000 and 10,000 subscribers respectively and especially the big one is growing substantially. These have become my main channels replacing standard posts in the feed which are still a go-to platform with my #tuesdayassist, Weekly Sunday Reflections, and more. Below you can see the wild development.

50% growth in views over Q4 2019 and now more than 8,000 views on average every time I post a blog (this counts also views on older blog posts). The engagement metrics are still lacking though also attributed to that many now read the blog post directly in their e-mail and never make it to LinkedIn to engage.

Another thing to highlight is the continued follower growth not least in pure followers. +100% vs. a year ago and 13% in the last quarter. Lastly, I’d note that it’s certain now that I’ll cross a million all-time views on the blog during April or May.

This feels unreal when I think back to posting my first blog post years back. I remember sitting in my office refreshing LinkedIn multiple times per day to see if anything exciting was happening with the post. The view count went something like this… 152… 155… 156… 157… 161… It was like watching paint dry! What has made the difference then? One thing only. Consistency! Every. Single. Week. A new article was published (and two since February 2019). Even when the metrics take a dip there’s nothing to do but keep going.

Let that be the final message. I won’t say slow and steady wins the race, but consistency definitely does. How are you consistently showing up on LinkedIn?

If you would like to read more about social media and how to get the most out of LinkedIn you can continue reading below.

Let Me Help You Be Successful In Your Finance Career!

Behind The Blogging Scenes Of 500,00 Views

Am I Influencing Your Finance Career Decisions?

How I Will Try To Double My Following In 2019

Keeping Up With The Trends In Finance & Accounting

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7 Lessons From Connecting With 9,000 People

How To Hack Your LinkedIn Post To Go Viral

If You Lost Everything How Would You Reboot?

SoMe The Numbers: 2016 Lessons, 2017 Advice

How To Live Off A Social Media Bestseller

How To Master Your Personal Brand

What If I Had Never Pressed Publish?

Have You Gone Viral Yet? If Not, Read This!

How To Rock LinkedIn In 2016

How To Use Social Media For Career Building

Personal Branding Is Like Building A Business

7 Steps To Improve Your Personal Brand

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 8,000 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 with 40.000+ followers.?