Evolution

The same can be said of many, if not all, businesses. Taking this a little further let us consider how well your finance function has kept pace with the evolution of the rest of the business. You need to ask yourself: Is it still structured as it was a few years ago? Is it producing the same information in the same was as it used to do? Is that information still relevant to today’s and tomorrow’s needs? Does the finance function add value to the business, through the provision of timely, accurate and above all relevant information, or simply record what has happened? Does the finance function process data in the same way as it used to do? Has the evolution of the processes kept pace with the evolution of the business and volumes of data? Is this a well-oiled and fine-tuned part of the business or struggling from lack of maintenance and simply running fast on a ‘treadmill’?

Adaptation

Those who know the book ‘Who Moved My Cheese’ by Dr Spencer Johnson will understand that just as we as individuals have to adapt to change so too do functions in the business. Our experience is that very often it is the key support functions that are late to change and find themselves well ‘behind the curve’. Unfortunately those running the function are often too busy and close to the action to stand back and objectively look at what is going on much as they may want to. That implies no criticism of them as individuals; simply a reflection of how things are. Often they need an understanding ear who understands their frustrations. Add to the mix the fact that there is unlikely to be anyone else in the organisation who has the experience of running a finance function to review this objectively.