4.3 Strategic partnering for value (level 2) & Strategic leadership of the finance team (level 1)

Question 1

Strategic partnering for value (level 2) involves:

Answer 1

• communicating insight to influence users
• business partnering

Question 2

Communicating insight to influence users:

Answer 2

• Finance operations (level 4) will generate info and preliminary insight
• the FF (level 3) will work with specialists to provide further insight to decision makers
• at level 2 these insights will be passed on to finance professionals working as strategic partners

Question 3

Strategic partners will

Answer 3

• interpret and use FS along with other data to communicate this insight:
  
  • in an appropriate format
  • and at required frequency
  • to internal and external stakeholders
• to influence users of this info in their decision making and implementation and control activities
• FF must develop new competencies

Question 4

Business partnering:

Answer 4

• The FF will act as a bus partner influencing decisions to achieve the desired impact
• It involves:
  *strategy formulation, implementation and communication
  
  • commercial decision making and negotiations
  • leading on business analysis
  • being a sounding board, trusted advisor and facilitator of productive bus decisions

Question 5

The focus of the FF work is shifting from:

Answer 5

• reporting historic performance to challenging managements thinking and driving decision making to influence future performance
• role will include helping to align work of analytics team with bus priorities and help leaders understand the implication of their data

Question 6

Business partnering services may be provided by:

Answer 6

• individual FF employees deployed to work alongside departmental managers
• a multi-disciplinary team in a centre of excellence
• a mix of both with some local support but also an expert team tackling a particular problem or guiding a major initiative

Question 7

Success in the role of business partnering requires a mix of

Answer 7

• commercial acumen, analytical skills, an ability to build relationships, to communicate effectively and persuade

Question 8

The head of the finance function is the

Answer 8

CFO and they are responsible for leading the finance team to achieved the desired impact

Question 9

Strategic leadership involves (responsibilities of CFO):

Answer 9

• lead the finance team to achieve the desired org impact
• lead key initiatives to support org goals
• liasing effectively with internal and external stakeholders

Question 10

To do this the CFO will need to put

Answer 10

a team in place that has the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to effectively execute all the FF activities

Question 11

CFO’s are increasingly taking a more

Answer 11

active leadership role working alongside the CEO as a copilot in the success of the bus

Question 12

Today’s CFO needs a wider skill set;

Answer 12

• possessing strong analytical and communication skills
• and mastering of areas outside of finance such as regulation, risk management, bus transformation, supply chain management and IT

Question 13

The CFO is increasingly relying on

Answer 13

automation of key bus processes and relying more on technology to transform data into actionable insights that can influence and impact the org achievement of it’s goals