Bite-sized Takeaways from FP&A Week 2023, Day 1

FYI: Watch the full session recording.

Grab those golden nuggets of wisdom from FP&A Week Day 1, in 500 words or less.

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Forgo “number-cruncher” mindset to retain top FP&A talent

A career path, expansion, and promotion opportunities will help to retain talented employees; exposing them to other parts of the company, helping them understand their career goals and offering access to senior leadership can also help close experience gap

"With how quickly things pivot and priorities change, we're constantly recalibrating with stakeholders to allocate our teams' time most effectively." - Sheleeza Maass, VP Corporate Strategy, Planning & Analysis at Netflix

FYI: 61% of CFOs we surveyed in our CFO State of the Market, 2023 Report stated that hiring top talent with increased compensation and perks is a priority. Access the report here.

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Develop a routine to protect yourself and the team

Finance leaders — create new habits and routines to protect yourselves and your teams from the stress of the job. This includes defining personal vs work hours, setting boundaries, and openly discussing mental health. Finance leaders should manage expectations, timelines, and focus on high impact work while ensuring bandwidth is properly allocated.

“In Finance, the “comfortable space” is behind numbers, stats, and business goals. But managing people is equally important — making sure our teams are taking care of themselves as well. It’s important to set boundaries of when you’re working and not, so that you’re performing your best.” - Michelle Solomon, CFO at Education First

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The pandemic and uncertainty changed everything

The modern finance team has had to evolve and acquire new skills with the onset of the pandemic. FP&A needed to adjust their financial plans in response to uncertainty. Overall, most organizations faced significant disruption but strategic forecasting and modeling allowed them to retain business and prepare for a return to demand.

“It was really an opportunity for FP&A to move quickly, draft replans for our stakeholders, and ultimately drive the changes that have led to a more disciplined P&L. And we've seen the appreciation of our business partners on how valuable that FP&A transformation has been." - Sheleeza Maass, VP Corporate Strategy, Planning & Analysis at Netflix

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Diverse Finance teams win!

There is an increasing appreciation and need for finance professionals that have a versatile skill set, proven expertise in both finances and operations, with a trusted advisor mindset, unbiased advice and confidence in their recommendations.

“Recruit specialists that share their knowledge with the rest of the team — upskilling is not just one person, but developing diverse skills across the team.” - Joe Moran, Former CFO at Looker

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The big question: remote work vs in-person?

Managing company culture for remote first teams can be difficult, but there are measures that can be taken to help. These include: having broader team meetings and highlighting individual projects; having team members talk to their peers; and budgeting for in-person meetings, which can help create more productivity. That being said, there are inherent rewards to a remote-first culture:

“The flexibility [remote work] gives to people and the ability for them to manage their home life has led to us being able to source a greater variety of people. And the retention has been far better than what was experienced at the company prior to COVID happening.” - Joe Moran, Former CFO at Looker

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Read takeaways from Day 2.

Want more? Watch the full session recording.