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Creating a World-Class Finance Function

Business Intelligence
July 1, 2005
264 Pages - SKU: BTAI1363069

Abstract Table of Contents Related Reports

Making Finance's Contribution Count

Use this strategic report to:

Transform finance into a valued business partner
Develop the five core capabilities of world-class finance functions
Manage the trade offs between business partnering and corporate governance
Set targets for improving finance’s business value
Implement innovative budgeting, forecasting and planning methods
Cut the costs of financial services and improve their effectiveness
Identify the new skills and talents needed for world-class finance

Every organisation expects more from finance. Boards look to finance directors to increase shareholder value, manage financial risk, control costs and ensure compliance with more exacting governance regulations. Managers want more timely and relevant input to improve the quality of their decisions. They also want better methods of planning, managing and monitoring performance.

These rising expectations impose new pressures for finance. But they also represent a huge opportunity. This authoritative, strategic Report tells you exactly what this entails and how finance can transform itself to play a more strategic, value-adding role in the business.

Creating a world-class finance function explains what constitutes world-class finance, why leading companies strive to achieve this status, how to successfully negotiate the transformational process and carve out a more effective, influential role for finance in the organisation.

This management report will enable you to:

Transform finance into a valued business partner
Develop the five core capabilities of world-class finance functions
Manage the trade-offs between business partnering and corporate governance
Set targets for improving finance’s business value
Implement innovative budgeting, forecasting and planning methods
Cut the costs of finance services and improve their effectiveness
Identify the new skills and talents needed for world-class finance

Chapter 1: World-Class Finance: The Capability Challenge: World-class capabilities: an evolving concept; How predicted changes in finance’s role played out; Hallmarks of a superior finance organization; Board Challenges and Finance’s Role; Governance: the emerging capability; Expert advisors define world-class finance
Chapter 2: Capability 1 - Strategic and Business Partners: Reasons for resistance; Finance change programmes; Acceptance of finance as business partners; Business partnering and corporate compliance; Finance capability gap; Finance and the fear of strategic partnering; Change management: an integral part of the transformation process
Chapter 3: Capability 2 - Custodians of Corporate: Performance Management, Budgeting and Planning; The need for new processes and practices; Balanced performance management frameworks; Overhauling the budgeting process; The growing popularity of rolling forecasts
Chapter 4: Capability 3 - Custodians and Champions of the Governance Process: The rapid increase in compliance regulations; The main reforms and their implications for finance; Effectiveness of corporate governance reforms; Compliance: the impact on roles and responsibilities; Business partnering and governance; Managing organizational risk; Booz Allen study of compliance issues; External reporting and non-financial information
Chapter 5: Capability 4 - Masters of Flawless Delivery of: Transactional Processing Activities; Strategies for achieving flawless transaction delivery; Combining service delivery excellence with cost reduction; Transactional processing: a risk profile; Finance’s cautious approach to outsourcing; The growing attraction of offshoring; Shared services win more converts; Aggressive standardization and centralization; Process improvement: the enabling power of technology
Chapter 6: Capability 5 - Masters of Talent Management: The changing profile of finance professionals; Talent management as the core capability; The evolution of finance skills to date; Recruitment strategies for finding the smartest talent; The characteristics of a world-class CFO; Expert commentators define a world-class CFO; Top talent development questions
Chapter 7: Measuring the Performance of Finance: Internal finance metrics; Finance scorecards and how they are used; Transaction processing metrics; Data for budgeting and forecasting; Compliance metrics; Benchmarking practices
Chapter 8: Conclusion: Finance futures; Twenty questions reflecting main lessons.
Chapter 9: World-Class Finance Case Studies: Alcoa; Barclays; Carlson Companies; Easynet; GlaxoSmithKline; Purolator; Reuters; Whirlpool

Creating a World-Class Finance Function

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