Here’s To The New Look FP&A Professional!

If you’ve been following this newsletter since the beginning of the year you would know that I’m a big advocate for starting a transformation of FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis). Essentially this is trying to answer the call of the CFO that (s)he’s not satisfied with the progress we’ve made over the past ten years in FP&A.

If you ask me the main driver of this is that the CFO has approved investments in new systems and software that was supposed to make everything better. At least that’s what the vendors promised. However, in all this, there was something forgotten. PEOPLE!

Finance transformation is (and has always been) about people. I wrote this in one of my earliest blogs on this platform (read here). People are also an essential part of the transformation plan I laid out together with other practitioners, consultants, and academics earlier this year. You can read our open letter to the CFO here. 

How to revolutionize the FP&A professional? 

That was the title of the article that centred around people. In that article, I introduced a new competency model with skills that FP&A professionals need to succeed in the future. You can see all the skills below.

Some said these are not new. Other’s recognized the need for these skills but were frustrated that no training was provided. Yet others were curious to learn more. So I made a pledge to do a deep-dive on these skills and that deep-dive starts now!

I’ve once again teamed up with 12 professionals across FP&A and Finance to tell you exactly what these skills are all about and why you need them to succeed. We’ll also share some perspectives on how you can improve these skills. Here’s the outline of the series. 

• Forget Numbers, Start Building People Relationships
• First Step In Solving Any Problem Is Recognizing There Is One
• Hello, Are You Listening, Or?
• EQ Trumps IQ Any Day And It’s Time We Make It Count
• Are You An Influencer Or Do You Take A Backseat?
• Do You Dare To Say No To The Business?
• Model Me This. Model Me That. Finance Can Model Anything
• Don’t Be A Techie – Be A Techknow
• Let’s Talk Value Creation 101
• Blah, Blah, Blah, And Then No One Listened
• Once Upon A Time In Financeland
• I Dare You To Give Me Ten Ideas To Solve The Problem

As always constructive feedback is welcomed even if you think different skills should be on the list!

The importance is that we recognize that to succeed tomorrow we need to do something different than what we’re doing today. That always comes with a skills gap and only by articulating this can we start a constructive discussion about how to bridge the gap.

This is a collaborative piece and it remains to be so even after publication of the individual articles. All your feedback will be recorded and used to improve the model. Are you ready to get started on revolutionizing the FP&A professional?

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.

4 Steps For Business Partners To Make An Immediate Impact (part of an eight-article series where I share lessons from the business partner trenches)

Why Did You Become A Business Partner - Ranu Sharma

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 a Senior Finance Business Partner at Maersk supporting our largest product and I have more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. I am also the co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with almost 8,000 members. My main goal at Maersk is to show how to be successful with business partnering and drive value creation as a trusted partner. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 37.000+ followers.