Communicating Financials to Executives

Preface: Our Experience With Financial Communication

It was a cold January day in 2017 on a ship in the port of Rotterdam, which had been converted into a hotel and conference facility. Anders had gotten up at 3:30 am to fly in from Copenhagen to participate in a training program for finance business partners. Christian was already there as a part of the consulting team that delivered the training. It was the first time Anders and Christian met, and while they did not know it then, it was the start of a relationship that would lead to them eventually joining forces as partners at Business Partnering Institute.

Here, we help finance teams become more influential and business-oriented to create value. That was also the training topic in January 2017, where areas like influencing skills, problem-solving and structured communication were part of the agenda. Why had Anders’ company decided to invest in elevating these skills in their finance business partners? It was because they did not have enough impact. They primarily generated financial reports filled with information but little insight and no recommendations for actions to drive better business outcomes.

This is not unique to Anders’ former company but a general observation we have made working with clients worldwide. Finance professionals have been used to working with compliance and control responsibilities and not communicating their insights to business leaders. We often ask, when conducting training sessions, how important ...