The Signs Of A Business Partnering Culture

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It was Kiara’s first day in the office in her new role as a finance business partner at a large manufacturing company. It was three years since Peter had started the business partnering initiative. Now it was no longer an initiative but reality and an embedded part of the culture! 

Kiara had been thoroughly impressed with everything she had seen during the interview process. Their maturity in business partnering was higher than anything she had ever seen before. Could this really be the first company that had cracked the code and created a sustainable behavioral change in the finance function? She was eager to see for herself… 

The business partnering journey has been going on for two decades yet very few companies have successfully created a sustainable change. Even companies that were once in the lead now struggle to succeed with business partnering. A global FMCG not knowing who should be controllers and who should be business partners. A pharma company admitting to becoming lazy in their efforts as they were making too much money. A transportation company going on its third round of business partnering transformation. The stories are plenty and the successes few. 

It is hard to succeed with business partnering, however, it is perhaps also relevant to define when you can claim you are successful. Mostly it is a continuous effort where you always strive to improve. You are never done becoming better at business partnering. Yet, when working as a business partner has become second nature and you are unconsciously competent that is when you know you are on to something. In fact, when it becomes part of your culture to be a business partner you could claim success. 

This is the story about Kiara’s experiences on her first day at work in a company where business partnering is a part of the culture. 

Where is the finance department? 

Kiara got picked up by her new manager Emma and was taken to a room to meet her new colleagues. As they were walking to the room Kiara asked on which floor the finance department was located. Emma smiled before answering. “We don’t have a finance department”, she said. Kiara was clearly confused but Emma assured her it would all make sense soon enough. 

From the moment she stepped into the room to meet her new team she could feel positive energy. The engagement was clearly high in the team who were chatting informally when she arrived. 

“Did you see last month’s results? +33% to target and we have already identified three more initiatives to push it even further” 

“I had my one to one with my senior stakeholder last week and he was so pleased with the support he is getting. I can also feel it because he consults me for all his important decisions!” 

“I attended the town hall with our CEO yesterday and she also mentioned how Finance had been a driving force in delivering outstanding results in the past quarter” 

Kiara was overwhelmed by what she heard. She was not used to Finance being recognized so clearly by other functions. After the official greetings and round the table of introductions she again asked about the finance department. Emma repeated that there was no finance department but then went on to clarify how things worked. 

• Most production of the numbers was automated, and the rest was handled by their Global Business Services that even produced the external annual report
• The Global Business Services also housed a Center of Excellence for reporting and analytics where all standard reports were generated, and general analysis performed
• On-site all finance staff acted as business partners to one or several business stakeholders and consequently were co-located with their stakeholders 

“That is why we have no finance department”, Emma concluded. 

“It does not mean we do not meet our finance colleagues but just that we do not sit together physically. Working as business partners mean we only have one goal. That is to help our stakeholders meet or beat their targets. That is why we come to work and well to have fun while doing it!”

 This was also why Kiara had joined the company. She wanted to drive value creation together with her business stakeholders – not just do reporting and analysis. 

A week in the life of a business partner 

Kiara was eager to learn more about ways of working in this company, so she asked her colleagues. What does a typical week in your work life look like? Not one week is the same they said but here is a typical outline. 

Kiara was amazed by the level of business partnering she could aspire to in this company. There would be no barriers to break through or questioning why Finance should have a seat at the table. Clearly, Finance was an integrated part of everything that was happening in the company and the results were showing. She could not wait to get started! 

Now, look at your own week. How closely does it resemble the week that Kiara was about to embark on? Are you able to solely focus on business partnering in your job or do reporting and analysis still take up a large part of your role? What has been described in this article is not utopia. It could be a reality if you take a serious approach to implement business partnering. 

In this series “Business Partnering Implemented” we have shared with you the building blocks of successful business partnering. We have given examples of how to create a foundation, make it concrete, and make it live in your company. Finally, we have shown how it could look like when it becomes an embedded part of your culture. No matter where you are on the journey it is not too late to start going in the right direction. There are no shortcuts to succeeding with business partnering. Are you ready to put in the work it takes to succeed?

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This was the sixth and final article in the series "Business Partnering Implemented". You can read the previous articles in this series below. For more inspiration on how to succeed with business partnering and creating change in Finance, you can continue reading below.

Finance Is On A Change Journey - Here Is How To Take Charge

The Building Blocks Of Successful Business Partnering

Here Is How To Establish The Foundation For Business Partnering

Why Business Partners Have Got To Break Free

Here Is How To Live And Breathe 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 50.000+ followers.