90% of finance roles as we know them today will disappear in the next 10 years. By 2030, 30% of all finance roles will be in FP&A. How will you adapt to the new world?

You need skills that machines can’t replace

First, machines can’t replace human skills, which will be vitally important in the future. On The Next 100 Days Podcast this week, Graham Arrowsmith and I chatted with Renata Sguario. Ren discussed how her company, MaxMe, focuses on developing self-awareness as the foundation for emotional intelligence and human skills training. She emphasises understanding your strengths and weaknesses to maximise your potential and focusing your development on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Listen to the episode here

What FP&A skills do you need?

The GrowCFO FP&A competency framework can help you assess your team’s skills against those needed in FP&A and build development plans to plug the gaps.

The FP&A Team will need to grow

Shifting the focus in your finance team likely means you need to scale FP&A. To do this, you need both the right people and the right tools. Along with Catherine Marks, I’ve been exploring this on the GrowCFO Show over the last 3 weeks. In the first week, we spoke to Jane Riley from Zanda about recruiting and developing the right people. Jane told us that good FP&A people are in short supply and hard to both recruit and retain. Providing the right package, which is about much more than salary, is all important. You will also need to accept that you may not recruit the perfect candidate, so having a good plan to develop skills where gaps are present is vital.

The team needs the right tools

You need to invest in tools as well as people. In the second part of the series, Paul Barnhurst, The FPandA Guy, told us that Excel spreadsheets simply don’t cut the mustard and, instead, you need the latest 3rd generation FP&A tools. He has just published his own guide to all the latest tools on the market. Tools by themselves won’t give you what you need. You also need the right processes. Paul emphasised the need to go back to first principles and define the information you need and streamline the process that produces it before you automate it with a tool.

FP&A in a merger or acquisition

In the final installment, Catherine’s old team from Virgin Media O2 joined us, and we examined the role of FP&A in supporting the merger of those two organisations. Julie Parker , Tom Writer , and Ed Dannan shared lessons from supporting the transaction and from merging two teams into one. Making sure change happens quickly and cultural differences are broken down were big takeaways from the session.

Practical next steps

The GrowCFO FP&A boot camp is a great place to learn all the skills you need. The course goes well beyond textbook learning and embraces the dynamic reality of FP&A, acknowledging that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this.

Experience shows that the best way to develop is through active learning, led by experienced and inspirational course facilitators, and relevant peers who generously share real-life stories. We empower FP&A professionals with practical, real-world strategies to excel in their roles and drive unparalleled success.

Catherine Marks and Christian Wattig share tools and techniques that other companies use to embed best practices, and practical ways to apply these within your business through powerful case studies, role plays, and breakout discussions.