What’s the latest you’ve learned about what’s possible in Finance?
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
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How many things do you learn about that you go and try right away? We’ve all participated in training that led to no change whatsoever afterward. The lead time for adults to make changes to their habits, their normal way of working, is typically very long. We’ve forgotten that as kids when we learned to do addition and subtraction we set to work straight away and practiced constantly through the school year, to ensure we knew how to do it and could apply it.
If we are to change perspectives on how we do things in the finance function we must shorten the lead time from learning about something to practicing and applying it. We can’t afford to forget the things that we learn about, even those that don’t seem relevant straight away. It may feel as if technologies such as blockchain or artificial intelligence (AI) are a long way in our future, but they will be here before you know it.
That’s why in this week’s article on changing perspectives on finance, we’ll ask one simple question. “What’s the latest you’ve learned about what’s possible in finance?”.
Can AI run the finance function?
Let me give you an example of what I mean. In March 2018 I was speaking to a consultant from The Hackett Group. He told me he had discussed the future of the finance function with one of the brightest thinkers the world can offer within AI. He said specifically about the finance function at a large oil major:?
“If you give me five billion dollars I can run their whole finance function on AI.”
That’s likely a thousand times more than what the function costs today but it means it’s possible to run the whole finance function on AI. Of course, I had no opportunity to validate the claim, and even the guy making the statement could be using very loose estimates. Still, it means I should’ve started experimenting with AI in my finance function right away. I didn’t, and now it’s just a story I tell.
Other finance functions are doing this, though. At one large Danish pharmaceutical company, the whole commercial forecast is run through machine learning (ML). Of course, ML is not full AI, but when most people talk about AI they really mean ML, using algorithms and data to continually refine repetitive tasks.
That same company has also created the “management report that writes itself.” This comes from experimenting with what you know is possible and applying it in real life. If you need more examples just check out what Microsoft is doing with their 800 to 2 (number of people involved in forecasting) and 10 to 10 (from minutes to seconds it takes to look up a debtor balance). The potential is massive!
What’s stopping you from experimenting?
That’s the real question, isn’t it? Maybe you’re afraid of making mistakes or destroying value. Maybe you’re concerned about the changes this will mean to the roles within the finance function. Maybe you simply don’t know where to start.
Here’s one way to get moving. Take a look at Gartner’s hype curves for emerging technology from five years ago. How many of the strange, futuristic ideas are part of normal life now? Blockchain sits under major supply chains and central banks are experimenting with digital currency. Commercial drones are in the skies, and quantum computers are proliferating. Augmented reality and virtual reality helped conferences and training programs to carry on under lockdown. Connected homes are commonplace and deliver streamlined, reliable, real-time information to each supplier’s finance function.?
The future arrives much faster than you think. Don’t wait for someone else to come and show you what’s possible because that may only happen when that person is taking your job away.?
So next time you learn something new about what’s possible, grab it right away and see how it can make a difference for you and your finance function. Do we have a deal? Good. See you in the future, now.
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This was the third article in my new series on how to change perspectives on Finance. You can read the previous article(s) below.
If you want to learn about the changes that are happening in Finance and Accounting these years then I have few recent articles for you that you might find relevant. Check them out below!
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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.
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)
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)
Anders Liu-Lindberg ?is the co-founder and a partner at the?Business Partnering Institute ?and owner of the largest?group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering ?on LinkedIn with close to 10,000 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 60.000+ followers and 140.000+ subscribers to my blog. Recently I became an advisory board member at?Born Capital ?to help identify and grow the next big thing in #CFOTech.
Director - LMS Advisory, Advising SME's on Growth, Strategic Planning, Maximising Profit & Cashflow. Financial enabler. AI/Tech enthusiast | LMS | KeepMyBooks | WihseFP |Cerebiz |
3 年Great theme Anders Liu-Lindberg . Share what you know to improve the finance function, embrace the tools! I especially like this concept 10 to 10 (from minutes to seconds it takes to look up a debtor balance). I'd love to know more, the tools I use for Business Advisory and Automation in my practice allow this but I've never heard it described this way. Hope to see 10 to 10 explored in a future article
Helping Finance Managers of ‘busy’ SMEs improve profits | Turnaround 'busy' loss-makers | Improve profits of the already profitable | A proven step-by-step process | 90-day projects | Training & Coaching throughout |
3 年Where Accounting professionals can add real value - today and in the future - is not by competing with AI or machine learning - but in the interaction with the people/the managers in their organisation (people skills). 'Robots' aren't (yet) much good at that. And if we're not already good at it (or don't feel we are), we've got to get better.