AN INSIDER VIEW

Intertek’s Olga Corbett tackles the

trends and challenges of FP&A

THE PRACTISE BEHIND THE THEORY

A top to bottom examination of all
the key FP&A topics

CFO GUIDE TO
FP&A TRENDS
IN

2019
NAVIGATING UNFAMILIAR WATERS
How the transformational role of FP&A
has affected two companies

ROADMAP TO IMPLEMENTATION
Conclusions, advice, and KPIs
from industry experts
 INTRODUCTION
TO FP&A

Warren Buffett once said, “someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone
planted a tree a long time ago”, and when it comes to financial planning and analysis
(FP&A), this phrase rings loudly for those currently enjoying the shade, while their
competitors struggle in the heat of the sun.

The process that was once a back-office function has been transformed into a vital
strategic advisor and the impact of FP&A is being keenly felt by those companies
that have successfully implemented it.

With that in mind the CFO team have created this Guide to FP&A Trends in 2019
featuring insights, case studies, and reflections from a wide variety of notable industry
figures.

Inside, we speak with members of finance teams from Zipcar, Intertek, Mitsubishi,
and many more, to learn the insider view on trends and challenges that FP&A has
presented, as well as two case studies on its successful implementation.

There’s also a focus on how FP&A can support rapid decision-making and flexible
planning, the impact of data science on the finance function, transforming your FP&A
function with AI, and how FP&A is being transformed from a back-office function to a
strategic advisor.

In addition, readers can also get the latest insights from the world’s leading FP&A
professionals and earn up to 14 CPE course credits.

POSITIVES OF SUCCESSFUL NEGATIVES OF POOR

FP&A IMPLEMENTATION FP&A IMPLEMENTATION

• Ensures financial and operational • Drain on time and money

goals are both achieved • Neither financial nor operational
• Drives business value goals are achieved
• Drives business strategy • Potential for departments to
• Ensures each department is aware work at odds with each other
of achieving strategy • Business strategy will suffer
• Optimal resource allocation
• Aligns strategic and financial
initiatives
 12 STEPS
TOWARDS THE SUCCESSFUL
IMPLEMENTATION OF FP&A

Translate your business strategy Capture individual goals, track

1 7
into actionable plans that should achievement, calculate rewards
support both long- and short-term and hold people accountable for
planning. delivering financial results.

Identify the resources needed to

Capture and track KPIs and hold
meet plan results and integrate them
2 into the budget that also supports the 8 people accountable for delivering
operational results.
use of non-financial data.

Detail how plans will mirror financial

3 9
Develop measures to identify what
progress and keep a track of the
drives success in the business.
progress.

Understand the story behind the Utilise predictive modelling

4 numbers. What are the business
reasons behind the key variances?
10 capability to develop and establish
targets for the drivers.

Don’t be afraid to take action if Establish initiatives and ideas to

you’re falling behind projected goals.
5 Re-forecasting, support scenario 11 help achieve these targets, which
could integrate with a project
planning and what-if analysis can all management system.
be utilised to model key changes.
Ensure extensive reporting

6 Align and capture financial and

operational goals. 12 capabilities are in place to analyse
the end results and integrate them
with company incentives.
 THE PRACTISE
BEHIND THE THEORY

According to a recent survey by business forecasters Prophix, FP&A leaders realize that
they need to work to deliver FP&A excellence at their companies and as many as 79%
of companies reported that an upgrade in FP&A technology would empower them to
deliver better results. 

However, unlocking the true value of FP&A means having the ability to drive a quick
and flexible decision-making process, but surprisingly 40% of companies reported
having only basic or very basic reporting and analytical tools. 

FP&A is transforming, moving from a back-office function to becoming a strategic

advisor, and to unlock this potential there are a minefield of elements and KPIs to
address along the route. To help unpick these key topics, your CFO guide has assembled
a panel of experts to discuss the potentially transformational role of FP&A.

Ryan Wilber Chris Caswell Olga Corbett

Director of Finance CFO & COO Director of Financial
Bed Bath & Beyond Clarks* Planning and Analysis
Intertek
 HOW FP&A CAN SUPPORT RAPID
DECISION-MAKING AND FLEXIBLE PLANNING

How can FP&A drive the outcomes businesses want, rather than just predicting them?

Chris Caswell: One of the things that we did across finance making and flexible planning, as opposed to simply
was we became more of a business partner than a financial counting the books. I think sometimes that we might see
reporting tool, both in accounting and FP&A. One of the that there isn’t enough information, or way too much and
things that we identified was that we had sales organisations then we don’t know what metric we want to use to make
making decisions on returns from wholesale customers and a quick predicting decision. Forward indicators can help us
basically taking back all of the returns, without worrying quickly understand which direction the business is trending
about the cost of those returns. So, to remedy this we were and importantly if it is supporting or violating certain
able to learn the true all-in-cost of returns on our company criteria and detailing which direction the business wants to
versus different additional discounts that we could give proceed.
(end of season) to our wholesale customers to make the
net P&L better. So, to conclude, I think there are three important factors.
A: Making sure that the business understands that FP&A is
Olga Corbett: In my experience – and I know organizations able to make quick decisions. B: It is predicting the focus
are changing – FP&A is still focused on very technical on the technical accounting and more on the what
questions that don’t necessarily require or imply dynamic are the rules of thumb that quickly tell us which way the
changes and dynamic predictions. I think that, in general, business is trending. C: In relation to business and finance
our role should be in our ability to understand the business my experience has been working directly with the business
well and to be able to make quick decisions and partners so that I can understand, fully, the correlation
dynamically predict and evaluate the results without going between finance and business. I also understand first-hand
to technical accounting. the impact of the business as a result and I think that this
has helped me to make quick evaluations.
In general, the way that it is accomplished is the way in
which our role is defined of supporting dynamic decision

How does FP&A, in that instance, identify the problem to ensure that it doesn’t happen
again?
Chris Caswell: It broke down all the different components of cost and revenue and then we were better able to identify
the most beneficial path forward.

[Business forecasters Prophix found that forty-four percent (44%) of companies take longer than five business days to complete a
forecast. The modern driver-based forecasting models that are implemented through flexible systems are essential ingredients for quick
re-forecasting processes. Process simplification is the key and it must be different from the traditional process of detailed planning and
forecasting to the general ledger level. Unfortunately in many companies, the forecasting process continues to be too detailed, static,
judgmental and biased]

TIME TO FORECAST PROCESS

3-4 DAYS 30%
5-10 DAYS 19%
10-20 DAYS 15%
1-2 DAYS 15%
20-30 DAYS 7%
< 1 DAY 7%
N/A 5%
> 30 DAYS 3%
 THE IMPACT OF
DATA SCIENCE ON THE
FINANCE FUNCTION

Data science can help a company stand out from the crowd, but does its implementation
always bring results?

Ryan Wilber: I would say that it does not. I think that in the department. I think that the recognition today is greater
current environment where data is everything, I have run than before.
into situations where data is overanalyzed, or the wrong
pieces of data are analyzed, and it’s analyzed incorrectly. [Business forecasters Prophix found in a recent survey
Data science is an extremely powerful tool, but you have that only 41% of companies report that most decisions
to go back to fundamentals of what the data is trying to tell are based on data. The rest of the organizations are still
you. And, what type of answers are you seeking from it. So, using traditional “judgmental” decision-making processes.
even with all the data in the world you can get the wrong This problem is very much caused by an unwillingness to
conclusions and give the wrong message, and by following change a traditional and engrained culture of target
that misleading data you can really lead a business down settings and budget negotiations]
the wrong path.

Olga Corbett: I think that data science is more technical

in the way in which we analyze the data, as we have DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
more data today and data science than ever before. It
has provided us with better tools to deal with the data in
41%
37%
a more intelligent manner. In fact, I don’t see how FP&A
can continue to be successful and can actually add
value without data science. It’s a combination of both,
of learning the tools that can allow us to more freely and
independently navigate in a big data environment, but it
also provides us with additional tools beyond the simple
step analysis. I think that data science is critical for a
successful FP&A function. It certainly is, in my mind, directly
correlating to what we are brought along to contribute 16%
in an organization. It’s not often we are actually able to

4% 3%
do it, because even if there is an objective for FP&A to do
exactly that, often the confusion is that FP&A should do a
response to an ad-hoc request that day, and it simply does
not give us enough time to develop the platform. It does Most Half Of Moderate Every Very Few
take some time, in the beginning, to develop a platform for Decisions Decisions Amount Of Decision Decisions
Are Data- Data-Based Data-Based Data-Based Data-Based
an organization to understand what the new relationships Based Decisions
are, and in many cases, data science is limited to the IT

Financial specialists often work with semi-structured or unstructured data and it’s a challenge
to process it manually. So, how does data science help extract real intelligence from data?

Ryan Wilber: Absolutely. We use data science every day Chris Caswell: I think that we are still heavily manual, but
as it’s fundamental in our ability to forecast. It also provides I think that we are better at being manual than we were
insights on whatever we’re looking at. We’re crunching two to three years ago, and now we are in the process
hundreds of thousands of rows of data every day to give of identifying how to use automation and the tools more
us outputs that drive decisions on the logistics side of the advantageously. I think that the greatest impact is breaking
house, and we do that across all areas of the business. The down functional communication within the company, and
fact that I can put real, clean, accurate data in the hands by doing so we become part of the strategic conversation
of multiple users within the organization has made our rather than the beginning part of the process, so we are
analytical ability 20 to 30 times better than it was in the past. really part of the business strategic discussions.
The insights that we get from it and our ability to adapt as
a company too issues or opportunities is just mindboggling
today compared to where it was.
 TRANSFORMING FP&A FUNCTION WITH
AI, MACHINE LEARNING AND
ADVANCED PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

Being competitive often means raising engagement through high-quality, personalized

relationships with their customers. How does AI help to achieve this?

Ryan Wilber: We use predictive analytics to look at FX, as we Pakistan and China. We do use AI for macroeconomic
do a lot of manufacturing in Asia. We look at commodity and microeconomic variables and this is where we see
prices, primarily in cotton, which is a main input for us, the trends going, and that can definitely influence our buy
and then we also look at things like labour rates in India, strategy.

Transforming the FP&A function with AI, machine learning and advanced predictive
analytics is a key part of finance transformation. But, to achieve this FP&A must help create
a culture where the finance team spends more time analyzing data than gathering it. How
can this culture shift be achieved seamlessly?

Chris Caswell: Two years ago, when I came into Clarks can support technical functions, but ultimately is more
the culture was one of the first things which we tackled. strategic and more analytical. With a combination of data
We looked at the culture and process, side-by-side, and science and being able to leverage the new information,
we achieved this by thinking about how we are a service it is truly an opportunity for us to deliver. If professionals
provider of the organisation and thinking of ways to help within the organisation can more clearly understand
the sales team or the marketing team, instead of thinking what our purpose is, we are able to successfully focus our
of them as if they report to us, or we report the results to activities. In my experience, usually the groups are very
them. So, how did we help them achieve their goals? As analytical and are dictated by their organization, which
a company, we will succeed or fail together, so first we often doesn’t allow us to deliver the things that we may
needed to stop thinking of ourselves as separate entities have talked about.
instead of something other than one company, as it is a
bad mindset. [A Prophix survey found only 28% of companies report they
are leveraging FP&A analytics to prescribe what actions
Olga Corbett: Throughout my career, I think that on the should be taken to improve company results. The lack
one hand FP&A is considered a luxury in the true sense of investments in modern analytical tools and traditional
of analyzing business, as it’s considered a bit more of a static planning models leave many organizations stuck in
sophisticated, nicer type of function as the day-to-day the 20th century. Transformational change must occur at
activities are gone, such as technical accounting, helping the outset to affect forward-looking analytics]
partners close the books, and understand the variances,
which is a very technical, super myopic focus. That has been
the fundamental problem with FP&A being leveraged, as ANALYTICS MATURITY
understanding the fundamental drivers to the business,
the impact, strategically and transactionally, are the best LEADING
ADVANCED BASIC
solutions for an organization to function.
3%
14% 13%
Nobody can do it for us, it comes back to the finance
group itself, and the leadership team. It’s the CFO usually
who needs to define what role they would like us to
DEVELOPING
play and whether they just want us to be an extension
of accounting or called something else. I have seen this DEFINED

happen, in more successful organisations than those who 42%

have not leveraged FP&A. In addition, there is redundancy 28%
under the organization, as there are a high level of groups
overlapping what they do, and this is a bit of a redundancy
of resource and sometimes can lead to territorial conflict.
So, who does what and who owns what? I think that there
is a lack of activity or understanding or ownership. This goes
back to the definition of what FP&A does and how it still
 HOW FP&A IS BEING TRANSFORMED
FROM A BACK-OFFICE FUNCTION
TO A STRATEGIC ADVISOR

What has been the impact of transforming FP&A from a back-office function to a strategic
advisor?

Ryan Wilber: Up until about four years ago there was no situations where the idea that you must watch every penny
FP&A function on the B2B Concept side of the business. The can strangle a business strategically. You have to spend
guy who started it all before he sold to Bed Bath & Beyond money, sometimes you have to grow and if you’re in a
said to me, “if I could go back in time, one thing I’d have company with a silo mentality and FP&A is not talking to
done early on in my business is hire a finance professional”. sales departments, strategy, sourcing and supply then you
He saw the pros of having analytics and someone analyzing can have a major disconnect between what the FP&A
the company from a numbers perspective. And, I think that team is doing and what is best for the business. Instead, for
really speaks volumes for why FP&A is relevant and why you the process to succeed you have to be engaged in the
need it outside of public traded companies. business; you have to be out there talking to people.

At the end of the day we are shepherds of margin and

we look out for the business in that regard. I have seen

The transformation of taking FP&A from a back-office function to a strategic advisor seems
to be a major upheaval for many organizations big and small. Should we fear?

Chris Caswell: Fear? No, I think that what we have done more decisions are made from the beginning to the middle
well is that we have shown our value through the example and to the end. By delivering value you get invited to a
I gave, as well as some other things and now it is our lot more conversations, so it becomes a lot of momentum
organization, the rest of the business leadership team and moving the organization forward.
from the top down, requesting how to be involved. A lot

How can FP&A ensure that company’s plans have the necessary resources to be executed
properly?

Chris Caswell: I think that it is a matter of communication.

We are continually connected to the business partner.
What we have done poorly a long time ago is that often you
MOST IMPORTANT DRIVER
come in, you give the budget, you give the target then you IMPACTING ANALYTIC MATURITY
go away and then at the end of the month or quarter you

31% 30%
come back in. But, it’s more of a continuous conversation
now and every time that we are about to enter into a big
transaction, or make a quick sale or quick discount, the
finance team is wholly involved in the conversation, so that
we are able to be strategic and thoughtful about how we
20%
do it, when we do it, and if there is a better way to do. As a
result, we are constantly modelling out the impact on our 17%
profit and loss, from the business forward and all aspects,
before we enter into something - so that we are on the
front end.

[Prophix’s survey revealed that when asked what would 3%

type of improvement would have the most impact on
FP&A analytics maturity, 30% of respondents reported Upgrade Increase Process Upgrade Other
upgrading technology, and 30% reported increased Technology Collaboration Improvement Skills
collaboration across departments, which is driven by
accountability]

*Chris Caswell was employed as CFO & COO at Clarks at the time of going to press, but has since moved on to another position.
 AN INSIDER VIEW

As the world of financial planning and analysis continues to move, evolve and
develop with the latest practises and trends, CFOs across the country deal with
a variety of ideas and challenges as they drive the strategic advisor.

Faced with the challenge of transforming of transforming FP&A from a back-

office function into the driving strategic force, interpreting the strategical
innovation and applying it to your business can seem like a challenge, but
Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Intertek, Olga Corbett, believes
she has the answers.

But, how do you harvest the right data for FP&A applications? What qualities do
competent FP&A professionals need? And, what problems has the process’s
implementation thrown up? With all these questions and more on the tip of our
tongue, we caught up with Olga to discover the insider view on the trends and
challenges of implementing FP&A facing so many CFOs.

OLGA CORBETT, DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL PLANNING AND ANALYSIS AT INTERTEK

Olga is currently the Finance Director with Intertek, a multinational inspection, product
testing and certification company headquartered in London. Olga has extensive
experience as a Finance Business Partner supporting many Executive Vice Presidents,
company officers and cross-functional leaders in aspects of financial performance analysis
and business development.

In my mind, the first challenge to address is that business operations and technical data science to help
unlike many other disciplines such as accounting, make sense of short-term and long-term aspects of
engineering, sales or customer service – the FP&A business management. Budgeting, forecasting or long-
role in my experience is not as clearly defined and varies range plan process must transform to take advantage
from traditional accounting to advanced data analytics of the incredible data environment today. The growing
and business consulting. The scope and sophistication problem of having too much data, too many metrics
of the FP&A role certainly is a function of the size and sometimes conflicting with each other, understanding
complexity of a business. How a most relevant and how to leverage this wealth of information intelligently
effective FP&A model is recognized and implemented, is is where FP&A can clearly demonstrate its role for the
in my mind directly related to a CFO or Finance Leader’s business partners and data scientists.
own experience, their ability and commitment to define
the role of the FP&A group within their organization, as well Building a talent pool of competent FP&A professionals is
as a willingness to go against a long-standing structure or now a priority for many companies implementing FP&A,
territorial claims on certain aspects of the role. so harvesting the right data for FP&A applications has
become an increasing priority. Traditionally, we all ask
FP&A demands organizational time and resources and for MBA and desired CPA, a background dealing with
returns a negative ROI, which I think is putting smaller technical accounting, traditional variance analysis,
companies off implementation. And, this is probably budgeting and board presentations. None of these
relevant for larger companies as well. It is still more descriptors are anything more than a type of “need
traditional to view finance as rather technical accounting, to have” to satisfy some rather functional or regulatory
AP/AR, or taxes. This again is about the recognition of requirements and often simply duplicate what traditionally
what FP&A can deliver incrementally besides duplicating accounting or controllers would support. With the
traditional accounting functions. To get our business extensive presence of online career networks, identifying
partners to adopt and recognize what we incrementally candidates with the right skill set is a relatively clear path.
produce is no less than demonstrating that we equally or The most critical prerequisite is defining that skillset which
sometimes more deeply understand and can impact the stems from a finance leader vision of what the most
business, customer/supplier dynamics, technology and effective FP&A team is brought along to deliver as well as
any other factors driving the business. With the continued their ability to look beyond the traditional role postings and
advances of data analytics and deep learning, I believe accepted parameters. Acknowledging FP&A as a critical
FP&A is perfectly positioned to become a liaison between business advisory role in today’s environment requires
a combination of technical finance, data engineering, the point about the big data and enormous number of KPIs
operational analytics and business development for a and perspectives, a much bigger challenge is how these
new value add FP&A organization. various metrics can be tied together and whether we can
identify higher quality forward looking indicators to predict
I have heard suggestion that the FP&A switch from a back- the future rather than continue to rely predominantly on
office function to a strategic advisor means that companies the typical “trend is your friend” school.
are left with employees whose skill set is no longer
relevant, but I don’t think this is necessarily true. I think the To extend the discussion around data science, deep
fundamentals of financial analytics, budgeting and long- learning, or AI (artificial intelligence) is in early stages and
range planning are not going anywhere. If anything, the hopefully on track to gain more adoption in the corporate
increasing complexity of systems and business structures finance world. Like transactional analytics, AI will provide
requires the same highly technical analytical skills. With an extremely powerful way of mining quantitative
the addition of this enormous amount of data, metrics and qualitative data and help improve our models for
and people across an organization all trying to make understanding the relationships between various business
sense out of it and quickly make good decisions. drivers. With the onslaught of data, we all have
This goes back to the definition of the FP&A experienced a great disproportion of time
role in the organization and enterprise spent on data gathering, aggregating
wide recognition of FP&A far more and processing vs time spent
than technical accounting. I don’t analyzing and implementing. While
see the current development to many organizations are still in the
be much of a sea change for early stages of improving the
the FP&A role – but with the data processing platforms,
increasing data complexity, most recognize and are in
I believe there will be an the process of implementing
expansion of professional systems and procedures to
capabilities to make the FP&A free up more time for value
function more productive added analytics. Finally,
and self-sufficient. as a strategic business
advisor, FP&A teams have
What is vital though to the gone beyond simply data
successful implementation of crunching and analysis, and
FP&A is the right business culture. also facilitate the development
I think the biggest challenge of data presentation – from
today still is simply the recognition sleek dashboards to detailed
by our business partners of what reports, aimed to present complex
value we contribute besides creating a information in a most actionable way
lot of reports and metrics. There still is too for their business partners.
much vagueness about the value add besides
technical accounting. This is on the FP&A itself to prove On the other hand, against all the efforts to improve
quickly and consistently our value contribution that can be the value-added activities for FP&A, the aspects of
equally adopted by other organizations. The role of a CFO simply data quality, distractions from earnings releases
in an organization is to help define and drive the adoption calendars, increasing audit activities, non-strategic
of the FP&A as a business advisory leader. The complexity management reporting requests especially those of ad
of the current business and analytical environment are a hoc one-time nature continue to remain a serious factor
perfect context to do that. for FP&A productivity. Additionally, as it relates to new
data driven and AI models, the sheer range of metrics and
One trend that has been in practise for a long time is data has made the adoption of the new data science in
rolling forecasts. I think the popularity has increased day-to-day decision making or even forecasting/
with the increasingly complicated corporate reporting budgeting processes a challenge, despite general
requirements – whether due to stock markets, board acknowledgement for the need of it.
meetings or executive decision making. I think the model
itself is not going anywhere, but it is rather a question about
accuracy and sophistication of these forecasts. Back to
 NAVIGATING UNFAMILIAR
WATERS: A CASE STUDY

The theory behind the successful implementation of FP&A is widely understood, but how it’s applied to
each individual company isn’t always so clear. Understanding the need to translate your business strategy
into actionable plans is the first step in bringing about strategic change, but how is that applied in reality?

The author of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wrote, “it is a capital mistake to theorize before one
has data” and to help offer a rounder picture of the theory behind FP&A, we spoke to two experts to learn
the data behind the theory and discover how the transformational role of FP&A has affected the Director
of Finance at Bed Bath & Beyond and the B2B Concept, Ryan Wilber, and the CFO & COO at Clarks, Chris
Caswell*.

Whether it’s how FP&A can support rapid decision-making and flexible planning, how it is being transformed
from a back-office function to a strategic advisor, or the impact of data science on the finance function,
FP&A has driven positive and dramatic change. Here’s how.

Rapid decision-making and beyond. Ryan Wilber discusses FP&A Solutions at Bed Bath &
Beyond and the B2B Concept.
A lot of what we do at Bed Bath & Beyond is very much the business today, compared to where it may have been
involved with rapid decision making and flexible planning. 10 years ago.
The best example I can provide is when we look at our
logistics, as moving product is a huge piece of our business, This has inevitably led to something of a culture shift in
especially in the world of e-commerce. So, what we have our workforce. I think the shift for us has been having to
done from an FP&A platform - besides just setting understand the process and understanding the
targets - is to set up real-time metrics. We set nomenclature, as when my team are in
up some data feeds from our partners at meetings I always tell them that they’re
FedEx and UPS where we can look on a not dealing with accountants or
daily basis as to what’s moved where financial professionals, so they need
and how that compares to our plan. to speak their language and have
And, when we talk about rapid a common understanding. Finance
decision-making, one of the points is not a complicated concept, as
we can talk about is expeditated you make money and you spend
freight exceptions. This could be money, but speaking in a way
air freight and the different modes you can have a non-finance
we’re using in relation to the end professional understand what
user, and where we’re going to you’re talking about is absolutely
deliver the product against the essential. And, that’s where you
closest warehouses that we can really start to see the dividends
ship from. That’s all controlled by of FP&A’s involvement in these
FP&A and run using real time metrics. different areas as it helps non-finance
staff understand what they’re working
However, I think the true value of having on, and what their actions mean to the
an FP&A team is in the boardroom, in the company financially. As a result, I have
meetings, interacting with business partners, found that these different business leaders tend
and how that translates into financial performance. I’m to have more of a sense of ownership around the projects
of the mindset that every single decision that is made in they’re working on. That’s really been the shift, as being
a business can be reflected in the financial statements. able to speak a universal business language has helped
That’s really the biggest piece in the puzzle when I think of bring about significant change.
culture at Bed Bath & Beyond and where FP&A sits within
Ensuring non-financial managers take ownership of their “what trade shows are we going to?” “what products are
budget has been another vital part of the process at Bed we developing?” It generates the same results as a harder
Bath & Beyond. This requires a lot of education. I have found approach, but it’s presented in a very different way, and
that when you talk about educating and influencing staff, through that process we’re able to educate the Bed Bath
that takes longer. This means that you’re more of a business & Beyond team on how that translates into profitability.
partner than an authoritarian, as you’re not enforcing Then they can all become the owners of their work.
something upon them. When you do this, and you work
with them to show them how you are a benefit to their work Another tool we use to promote understanding is Tableau,
and how they should be viewing things in a bit of a financial which business intelligence software that helps our team
light, then they tend to take ownership of it more when it’s see and understand their data. It’s a great visualization
not forced on them, which is a real positive. So, if I’m going and analytical tool that helps make FP&A something that
to the marketing team, instead of coming with a travel everyone can understand through the use of colors, charts
and expenses budget and a marketing spend budget, and easily digestible graphs.
I’ll come with questions like “where’s the team going?”

If the shoe fits. Chris Caswell explains the impact of FP&A as a strategic advisor at Clarks.
For me, the biggest impact of taking FP&A from a back- they don’t understand we go deeper to provide a greater
office function to a strategic advisor at Clarks is that the understanding. We work with them and with that we have
leadership team really want finance to be engaged. There frequent transparent reporting, so that every member
is a lot of thought and concern when you are pushing back of the Clarks team knows where they stand. In order to
on the business and resist any change, but in fact I have achieve this, we always need to communicate, both with
found that the leadership team really want the finance the president and the leadership, on a monthly basis so
team to be involved because they can see a great deal that they can see where they are trending.
of value in being able to understand the potential impact
of the decisions before they make them. And, now that we At Clarks I believe it has been less about the implementation
have proven the value of FP&A they want us to be at the of FP&A, as it’s really been more of a transformation. To me
table all the time! it’s not really just about the change that FP&A has brought,
as at Clarks we really transformed the overall finance
In my experience though it’s not all about function by breaking down, within finance, the
implementing process and cold hard functional silos. Finance is one team, which
facts, as people have to first trust in the in our world at FP&A encompasses FP&A,
process and believe what they are accounting, business partnering,
doing is right. We’re dealing with strategy, tax, treasury, and
industry professionals who have procurement, and from there we
built a career doing things a move the process forward and
certain way. So, building trust is also incorporate some more
a vital part of the process, as traditional operations such
the reason that they want us as inventory, merchandising
at the table is because they planning, supply chain,
trust what we are going to logistics etc. - but to the front
say. Our experience at Clarks facing business. We are out
exaggerates this, as if we had front of the business as ideas
given the team an answer are discussed and my teams
that proved to be wrong then are on different scenarios of
I probably wouldn’t have the likely outcomes before we make
same answer here. final decisions. When doing this it’s
important to remember that we are
Communication is another not a department that know, rather
personable skill that is a great asset, we are a more of a thoughtful business
particularly when trying to ensure that partner who is trying to think strategically
all Financial Managers take ownership of with the rest of leadership team and bring
their budgets. The easiest way - at least in my forward ideas. Once we get to that point it is okay
experience - that a Finance Manager will try to avoid a for us to say no, and I often do, however a bit of us needs
budget is by claiming, “that’s not mine”! They can try to to know that we are working with them to find solutions. We
disassociate themselves from the numbers and claim, “I try to find solutions with them and offer solutions, not just
don’t understand where the numbers are coming from” so shooting things down, which has been very a constructive
communication and transparent reporting helps solve this. part of the process.

To ensure we’re on the right track, the team works with the
different sales channel teams and other budget holding
teams, then I sit with the leader of the department, and if

*Chris Caswell was employed as CFO & COO at Clarks at the time of going to press, but has since moved on to another position.
 YOUR ROADMAP TO
IMPLEMENTATION
Having read the views, opinions, and insights from a selection of FP&A industry
figures, the challenge, benefits, and trends of implementation have become
a little clearer.

However, the wealth of information isn’t always immediately digestible, so with

that in mind our experts have offered bite-size advice and reflections to get
you started on the road to a transformational business strategy.

ADVICE

Olga Corbett, Nick Fisher, Ryan Wilber, Chris Caswell,

Director of Financial CFO, Betteridge Director of Finance, Bed CFO & COO, Clarks*
Planning and Analysis, Bath & Beyond
Intertek

Have a clear vision of the Not to under-invest in Make sure that you It is the culture of the
FP&A role and their mission FP&A by assuming the understand change team and constant
in the organization. Go accounting and FP&A management. communication as you
beyond your experience functions are the same Communicate everything go forward so that people
which for some of us thing. FP&A can’t exist that’s going on within stay aligned. At the very
may have been limited without accounting, and the organization. I think beginning there is general
to financial accounting. although they work hand- that you are going to alignment, everyone
Don’t be afraid to claim in-hand, they serve very experience push-back agrees to the budget,
formally a role as a distinct roles within the from some people that everyone understand their
strategic business advisor organization. might view FP&A as a piece. And constantly
and demand an adoption watchdog and you do giving updates throughout
by your business partners. not want everyone’s the process so that people
Before going on this first experience with feel engaged. Finance
campaign, have a clear the FP&A team to be needs to be connected
understanding what skillset that, as they need to to the results. The sales
and systems you need to understand that they’re and marketing and other
be relevant quickly and a business partner. And leaders/owners need
stay relevant, and be able that the communication to feel accountable
to deliver consistently solid and overall message is and part of the actual
actionable wins. one of real positivity and numbers.
that everyone’s going to
benefit from it.

*Chris Caswell was employed as CFO & COO at Clarks at the time of going to press, but has since moved on to another position.
 PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Measure actionable and transferrable decision points the FP&A team has developed
for your business partners in the last 30 days that they can implement to deliver
incremental revenue or profits.
Olga Corbett

Whether or not the business unit and functional leaders are inviting their FP&A
counterparts to a seat at the table when making key decisions. The currency of an
FP&A professional is influence, which is built on credibility. A seat at the table is one very
important indicator to ensure the FP&A capability is being valued in the organization. 
Nick Fisher

The operating process or the net income.

Chris Caswell

CONCLUSIONS

Olga Corbett

A successful FP&A adoption requires a clear vision by the finance leader as well as
the organization of what the FP&A role is designed to provide. It requires converting
disbelievers by demonstrating our ability to provide incremental actionable results
beyond just closing the books or stating the obvious with a typical variance analysis.
In our current phase of big data and AI adoption, FP&A has a unique opportunity
to demonstrate a superior capability of analyzing the data and developing forward
looking prediction and business management tools, easy and effective for their
business partners to rely on. This will also allow our function to expand and attract
professionals far beyond traditional finance and help both groups expand their
skillset on the job.

Nick Fisher

A well-developed FP&A capability is what enables a CFO to become an organizational

catalyst and strategic partner.  It focuses and aligns the organization around enterprise
priorities, instils accountability through regular measurement of performance, and
enhances decision making through the power of data, information and insight.

*Chris Caswell was employed as CFO & COO at Clarks at the time of going to press, but has since moved on to another position.
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