The Small Business CFO As A Business Partner

Most often when discussing functional excellence in the finance function the starting point is large companies with global reach and a shared service center. However, most companies are not i.e. they are small or medium (SME) sized enterprises often without the opportunity to go for a large shared service center and many different teams within the finance function. In fact, most of the people in the finance function in SMEs will wear multiple hats and have to balance between the areas compliance, control, and advisory when reporting to company management. On the other hand, being in an SME also means that even if you work in a support function like Finance you’re still very close to the business. Perhaps one could even argue that there are no support functions in SME as everyone has to take part in running the business. This old Philip Kotler quote will explain why the life of the small business CFO is different from that of the large company CFO.

“The sales department isn’t the whole company, but the whole company better be the sales department.”

This should place the small business CFO at the center of the business and in a prime position to act as a business partner to the CEO and the other CXOs if the company even has such a formalized management board. However, the way to do it might differ from how a large company finance business partner would go about it.

How to be a Finance Business Partner in an SME?

Most likely the role “Finance Business Partner” doesn’t exist in most SMEs but that doesn’t mean that some of the elements of the role aren't carried out. In fact, they probably all are but by different people and by people who also deals with compliance and control elements. To put more structure on this work and perhaps make it more outspoken that the finance function helps the company in this way here are some focus areas that the small business CFO should keep in mind for further development.

• Implement the Finance Business Partner Mindset meaning that your people should have a purpose for coming to work, act as if the company money was their own, take care of issues when they see them instead of deferring them to others, and last but not least, they should always think of the customer first in whatever work they do.
• Do the right things and do them right meaning that even in SMEs the finance function should operate in an efficient manner and constantly take out waste. The freed up time can then be used for more value adding tasks such as helping a sales person prepare for a sales meeting or the company plant manager find efficiencies in the plant operations.
• Be conscious about how to balance the different roles meaning that it’s likely that more often than in large companies you will be seen as a nuisance because you have to deal with compliance matters which doesn’t necessarily improve the business. So you need to figure out how to maintain good relations with your business stakeholders when saying “NO”. This essentially boils down to your business partners trusting your “YES” as much as your “NO”.
• Integrate yourself as part of the business meaning that you and your team take part in all relevant meetings with the business where business performance and strategy is being discussed. Once part of these meetings you have an excellent chance to bring insights based on numbers and analysis to the table

All of the above can be done in any company regardless of the size and to some extent should be even easier as a small business CFO due to the close proximity to the business.

You wear many hats and are expected to wear them all well

Life as a small business CFO is not an easy one when you don’t have a large team or a grand scale ERP system and at the same time is expected to perform all aspects of Finance well. On the other hand, you do have more freedom to make changes and less red tape to go through to make an impact on the business. It’s about making the most of what you have available and by investing in some of the focus areas listed in this article you can still become a great business partner to the other functions and help them drive value creation. As always, let me know what you think of the article by liking, commenting and sharing! You can follow me on Twitter for continuous updates about what’s happening in the finance function and continue reading below for additional insights about finance business partnering.

I encourage you to take a tour of my old posts on finance transformation and not least “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” which is really that starting point for the transformation. Last but not least, you should join my Finance Business Partner Forum where we will continue to discuss this topic.

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You’re A Finance Business Partner, Now What?

Case Study: Becoming A Finance Business Partner

The New Career Path For Finance Professionals

Why We Need Business Partnering Transformation

How Finance Can Help When Business Is Bad

How Finance Can Become An Analytics Powerhouse

How Finance Business Partners Improve Company Performance

There Is A New Kind Of CFO Needed In Town

Anders Liu-Lindberg is the Head of Global Finance PMO for Maersk Transport & Logistics and is working with the transformation of Finance and business on a daily basis. I have participated in several transformation processes such as a (business) finance transformation at Maersk Line, going Beyond Budgeting at Maersk Drilling and transformed a finance team from Bean-counters to Business Partners. I would love the chance to collaborate with you on your own transformation processes to help you stay out of disruption. Don’t be shy! Let’s get in touch and start helping each other.