Finance Business Partners: Channel Your Inner Chewbacca

Finance can be a lot more than just the keeper of budgets. A good finance leader is like Chewbacca, the esteemed co-pilot to Han Solo. Chewie doesn't seek status and is happy to play a support role. As the finance co-pilot of your company, you won't get to call the shots on strategy, sales tactics, marketing campaigns, or HR policies. But you can be a finance business partner, providing data-driven insights to make sure your co-pilots are maximising their potential.

And then, when it matters most, you'll have already established your credibility and gained the trust of your co-pilots. Speaking of which, let's meet your teammates on this journey!

Partnering with the CEO (Princess Leia)

As a finance business partner, you should always come prepared for the CEO. A good metric to evaluate if you're doing this correctly is the number of times your CEO is surprised when you deliver updates. The goal is to give the CEO the info they need to make informed, timely decisions. If they're always playing catchup to reality, you're not enabling them to make proactive moves.

Of course, not all outcomes are known in advance. This is why it's good to have a quick and easy way to forecast different scenarios so that you can present a range of likely outcomes. It lets you show the impact different growth strategies will have on the company. Doing so can help uncover some risks and opportunities in advance and minimise surprises down the road. Remember, the crisper and more condensed the story accompanying your analysis, the easier it'll be for your CEO to discuss it with your board.

Acquisitions

You can show your CEO how your company would look if it pursued a particular acquisition or merger. To explain the broader financial implications, you can analyse the cross-selling, headcount redundancies, and sales cannibalisation. This can be invaluable when negotiating terms with potential partners.

Read the full article at FP&A Trends here.