What makes a successful Finance Business Partner?

Is ‘business partnering’ a consciously chosen career path, or more like a role you discover? When considering a career in finance, it’s important to understand the requirements of the profession and how to build a successful career upon foundational skills, abilities and competencies. Here we look at 10 ways to become a successful and effective Finance Business Partner:

1. Act as a neutral mediator between sales and operations

This is not as straightforward as it sounds. Both functions have very different agendas, priorities and points of focus within a business. The finance business partner (FBP) is often acting as the ‘referee’ between the two departments, reconciling and compiling both viewpoints on the future for executive decision making. 

Business performance ideally needs to be tracked against a single set of metrics (I’ve learned from experience that this is not always the case). For this reason, FBPs are often process owners for corporate sales and operations planning (S&OP).

2. Educate your customer base

Know how to explain your role and build an agreed upon vision for your purpose and function as an FBP. I recall a humorous moment where one of my senior internal customers welcomed me into the organization by saying ‘you are welcome to police our activities at any time’. After politely pointing out that I was a ‘business partner’ and not a ‘policewoman’, I went on to explain the agreed vision for my role. Thankfully we were on the same page.

3. Lead from the ‘middle’ of the organization

FBPs are often required to make recommendations that may influence the decisions of stakeholders at the Executive level. They need to be comfortable in managing change as well as managing complexity. What lies at the heart of this dual role is a constant need to ‘provide the numbers’ in the shortest time possible to minimize risk in decision making. This in turn frees up resources and increases the opportunity to ‘think beyond the numbers’ and maximize commercial opportunity.

4.  Divide functions for greater focus

It is challenging to wear a hat as both a full-time ‘Controller’ and a full-time ‘Business Partner’. Progressive and forward looking pharmaceutical firms have got it right by having a separate decision support function, allowing managers and analysts to focus purely on helping move the business forward, attending to the more traditional accounting duties at the year-end, to ensure a minimal financial exposure to the company.

5.  Build strong relationships

The other business and support functions (Sales, Marketing, IT, Supply Chain, etc.) need to partner with a Finance professional to whom they can relate. Strong people and communication skills are critical. Showing interest followed by more detailed knowledge in the business separates the ‘Partners’ from the ‘Processors’.
                                                             







6. Buy-in from management

If the concept of business partnering is new to your organization, ensure that the President/GM has bought into the philosophy right from the start. Even in a culture where partnering is well established, it’s important to align what you think are critical objectives with those of the business leadership. I have been in meeting where there was a lack of agreement amongst the executive on their number one priority. This is especially common in dual reporting situations. Ensure everyone is on the same page and understands the vision and strategy.

7. Buy-in from the head of finance

A challenging situation can arise when the head of the finance function has come from a different professional background and has not been exposed to business partnering. Business partnering is not about ‘cracking the compliance whip’; it is about building relationships and confidence in your personal abilities to change the impossible to the possible. Diplomacy, tact and professional integrity are needed in abundance. It’s important to be seen as a business planning and decision support specialist who ‘looks beyond the numbers’.

8. Buy-in from the business

During an assignment it came to my attention that there was a high level of concern expressed by the executive team regarding the levels of annual product warranty spend in the business. This was an recurring business problem which required urgent attention.

Presenting him with a PowerPoint deck, detailing warranty spend to date, analyzed by various dimensions including customer, product SKU, customer location, etc., quickly changed historic perceptions of the value-add role of finance. This also enabled a management review and introduction of new steps to the sales and customer management processes.

9. Self-confidence and professional credibility

Be confident in establishing boundaries. Business partnering can often feel like trying to ‘capture a cloud. Say what you are going to do and do what you say.

10. Identifying and delivering quick wins

The best way to find success is to look at the small wins you achieve every day. Use them as momentum to push yourself forward to your next goal.