What does it take to become a successful Business Partner?

In my previous article I touched on three of the basic areas finance must address in order to commence building a business partnership function: getting the numbers consistently correct; finding “what” decisions are to be influenced; and establishing the correct structure in line with the business.

Here I will explore a little more about the Business Partner (BP) role and how this impacts on technology, recruitment and talent management.

Knowing the role

The role of the business partner should be a pure one – to reiterate my brief description, it is to identify, support and influence decision making.

By definition, therefore, there are certain tasks which are not performed within the Business Partner role. Notably this includes production of standard reports, accounting adjustments and other financial accounting processes. These may be performed within a “commercial finance” or “manufacturing finance” team (as examples), or these may form part of a broader role of an individual, but the role of the partner themselves should not be focused on this.

The skill base is one of analysis, stakeholder management, story-telling and influence

This is not to say that the BP is not part of finance, but experience suggests that those who are most capable of performing a BP role are not necessarily those best suited to daily “accounting” activities. The BP is the finance voice in decision making processes and the skill base is therefore one of analysis, stakeholder management, story-telling and influence.

 

 

Making the most of your existing tools

Technologically, the BP should have readily available data and reporting tools in order to maximise the opportunity. This can be a challenge within both small and large organisations. SMEs may not have the investment capacity for this, whilst the challenge of multiple sources of data and consistency hits larger business hard.

However, the investment in technology does not have to be significant. Excel remains the most used analysis and reporting tool amongst finance professionals and is capable of manipulating most data in the right hands. I encourage investment in the collation and reconciliation of data as a first step, rather than complex reporting suites.

Have you got the skills required?

The role is an attractive one, but it is not an easy one

When it comes to recruitment, the focus must be on commercial, analytical and influencing skills. Fundamentally, a BP must have a deep interest in the business, and a strong desire to improve business performance. The role is an attractive one, but it is not an “easy” one. Let’s face it not all accountants are cut out to play an active role in parts of the business led by “big personalities” or take part in the company politics which inevitably go with the territory.

Some may argue that finance BPs do not need to be qualified accountants and a marketing or sales background is sufficient. However, unless there are suitably qualified staff within the team this does not work. The role is to provide a financial input to decisions – not just to support the decision process. A blend may work for some businesses but the risk of losing a finance perspective must be closely monitored.

I have alluded to the skill base many times and this not only impacts on recruitment, but on talent management inside the organisation. Training will need to cover both technical and soft skills. If recruitment into the team has been effective, then this should be a coaching environment to refine the skills already present, but where the team lacks these basics the training challenge is greater and requires significant investment of time to ensure the function becomes effective.

Training will need to cover both technical and soft skills

Training by itself will not retain the best talent, however, and a clear path to progression should be available. “The best” may see themselves progressing outside of finance and discussing their career path openly can only assist in the “retention” challenge in today’s job rich environment.

 

Bringing it all together

Business partners, therefore, must have a strong working knowledge of both how business works commercially and operationally, the ability to “translate” finance information into these languages, and tools to assist. The most influential business partners have often spent a portion of their career working outside finance. This may mean that they are further into their career and slightly more expensive – but the return will be much greater than placing an inexperienced person in the bear pit of business decision making.

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in my (necessarily brief) articles in more depth please contact me on [email protected].

The next article will discuss the role of the business in achieving partnership with finance.

I hope you found the above information interesting and useful  – please see below for links to other financial markets blogs which may be of interest to you and your teams:

• The basics of business partner functions
• Business partners should be seen, and heard
• Too much pessimism clouds silver lining for China’s economy
• Digital destruction: Could Fintech kill banking jobs?
• Intrapreneurship and labs: How banks are fostering innovation
• China stock market jitters: Keep calm and carry on
• Marty McFly, Twitter & better Investor Relations
• How banks are changing old ways to attract Millennials