Want a seat at the table? Learn these business skills
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
Teaser: In the modern finance function, you need to speak the language of business. Learn how to think strategically and develop your business modeling and risk management skills with these three tools and frameworks.
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In this series, we're looking at the tools you need to succeed as a finance professional in the Modern Finance Function.
Last week I introduced some extremely useful frameworks to help you analyze and solve problems quickly and in a repeatable manner. Today, we're going to zoom out even further and look at the "meta-skills" you need to succeed not only in Finance but in business at large.
Speak the language
As Finance becomes a cross-functional discipline, it's becoming ever more important for us to speak the right language.
Today, if you only speak the language of Finance, you will find yourself siloed within that function - with disastrous results for both your career and the impact you are able to have within your organization.
As well as mastering technical language and skills, you also need to be able to communicate on a strategic level. You must speak the language of business goals, operating models, and risk matrices. And, most importantly, you need to be able to tie these threads together to tell a compelling story about your work and how it fits into the broader narrative.
Start here
To illustrate this point, here are three useful tools, frameworks, and models that you can use to think strategically and make yourself understood quickly and easily.
Playing to Win. The Playing to Win framework is an extremely popular set of tools to encourage and facilitate clear strategic thinking. The idea behind Playing to Win is that by crafting a strong winning aspiration and how we intend to realize the aspiration, we can take the complexity out of strategy.
The framework works on the basis of constant improvement, with an endless feedback loop in which learnings are incorporated into the strategy, which is itself constantly evolving. Playing to Win is devised by a leading management thinker and a legendary CEO of Procter & Gamble, so it is fully battle-tested.
Business model canvas. Business models can appear mystifying to those without a strategic background. The business model canvas is a simple tool that adds a visual layer to the modeling process, encouraging us to see how different elements interact. It gives a series of "buckets" in which you detail partners, activities, value propositions, and more. When the canvas is full, you will have a complete business model.
Risk management matrix. Risk management isn't restricted to a single function. Instead, it should be embedded within every process - and, indeed, it should be at the heart of almost every business decision. A simple risk management matrix can help you identify, mitigate, and anticipate risk in a productive manner.
Strategic thinking means better outcomes
Of those three tools, let's look at one in particular as an illustration of the importance of strategic thinking.
There is a common misconception that Finance is always risk-averse. This isn't the case - or, at least, it shouldn't be. Instead, as with every other function and discipline, Finance should approach risk in a clear-eyed manner that is built on a foundation of preparedness. Risk is the core of growth; the question is not how to avoid it, but how to manage it.
Risk management matrices are a fundamental tool to help us do this in a sustainable and productive way. They help us to think beyond the boundaries of our (often very conservative) training, and instead adopt a strategic mindset. Rather than being constantly lost in the weeds of Finance, we need to look up and outwards. Let's expand Finance's horizons!
Read this next...
Want even more resources to help you win with strategy? Try these in-depth explainers on the tools I've introduced here:
This was the fourth article in our new series "Future-proofing the finance professional". You can the previous article below.
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Also, check out our latest series "The Finance Function of the Future". You can read all the articles below.
Continue reading below for more articles about trends in finance and accounting.
Anders Liu-Lindberg?is the co-founder and a partner at?Business Partnering Institute?and the owner of the largest?group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering?on LinkedIn with more than 11,000 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 140,000+ followers and more than 220,000 subscribers to my blog. I am also an advisory board member at?Born Capital?where I help identify and grow the next big thing in?#CFOTech. Finally, I'm a member of the board of directors at?PACE - Profitability Analytics Center of Excellence?where I support the development of new analytics frameworks that can improve profitability in companies around the world.
Advance Your Finance/Data Career ?? with English Communication Skills ?? | Specialist English Communication Skills Coach
2 年Some thoughtful points, Anders. Certainly on finance professionals learning to communicate the language of the business to enable them to have greater impact. I will have a look at the business model canvas resource, thanks for sharing!
Ex Siemens - Chief Operating Officer at House of Kutti & Nathan | Driving Organizational Success through Process setting and P&L Management | Commercial Project Management Expert | ERP Implementation Expert
2 年Finance function is now more of an enabling function, as correctly pointed out. It is very important to speak the right language in order to remain a best partner and influence the business to be clean, profitable, and growing. I would also like to add that the finance function must be able to clearly see the Opportunities in Risk and Risks in Opportunities (as both organization and business are important). My takeaway is that "finance should approach risk in a clear-eyed manner that is built on a foundation of preparedness." This is the foundation for making sound business decisions. Thank you for your insights.
CFO | Finance Director | FP&A Director | Technology | Information | SaaS | Media | Internet
2 年Importance of building relationship with the business, talking, understanding and experiencing the operations at all levels. Not something you can learned in education though so curiosity, openness, and dialogue