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Hello Reader 👋

Sometimes, you're in a situation where there is a communication breakdown.

You don't really know what others expect of you because their request is not 100% clear.

Or maybe the other thinks you don't understand their simple request because of your skills.

All of that because there is a misunderstanding.

Let's take an example (virtual) and see what finance leaders think of it.

So take a coffee, sit down and read FP&A Stories just like 22k other readers

This week in FP&A Stories

💬 Let's analyse a Whatsapp Group

Last week, I posted on Linkedin (see post here) the following "virtual" conversation between

• a CEO
• a CFO
• and an analyst

This conversation was about the quarterly earnings that were supposed to be presented the day after and the CEO had a question about them

What was funny is that, originally, my only point was to show that executives do not expect to have a raw report as an answer to their questions.

But seeing my audience's reactions, many more problems were identified in this conversation.

Let's see them 1-by-1

• The communication channel: Many consider WhatsApp not professional (on that side, I'm more flexible) but also not secure for sharing financial information. I totally agree with this last point: do not share confidential information through WhatsApp.
• Hour of messaging: Honestly, I didn't expect that one. I prepared this visual in the evening but didn't think that it made a difference. But IT DOES! If you contact your teams, please consider the hour and if really necessary, don't act like it's normal. Your staff will definitely be more willing to work if they see a special consideration for this extra effort.
• The tone of the requests: both CEO and CFO speak in telegraphic style and in writing (as well as in oral), this can be taken negatively by the receiver. Of course, messaging must be efficient and this alone is not a big deal, but if you sum up all the other issues, that becomes a lot.
• The lack of coaching from the CFO: this is a bit cultural here. In some countries, dealing with remarks in public is not an issue. In others, we do that privately to preserve the honor. But internationally, we can agree that instead of blaming the analyst, it would be more efficient to coach him.
• The lack of insights: until here, the blaming was all on the executive side but the analyst could do better. When you get requests like that from an executive, you will communicate what they should know, not throwing a dump of data in Excel. Being able to extract the signal from the noise is the true differentiator between those who succeed and those who don't.

Let me just tell you one thing, considering all the items above.

Although we can rant about the hour, the channel, the lack of coaching etc... we can't do much about that.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure these have happened more than once in your company (or maybe I worked for the wrong companies)

But what you can change and have an influence on is what you share as information.

It doesn't matter if you're an analyst, a finance business partner or an FP&A manager: if you're requested to provide insights, include your analysis and thoughts.

If you just send an Excel file, in some months or years, your job will probably be replaced by AI or automation tools.

But where you still have relevance is by providing context and already have a look at the next step.

So next time you get such a request, just think of it that way

• what are the main root causes of the analysis?
• what are the consequences of said root causes?
• what can we do about that?

Basically, what I repeat, over and over again: the 3 What

What, So What, Now What

As simple as that

And you, what do you consider wrong in that conversation?

🌉 CFO/FP&A Summit in London

Last week, I was in London for the CFO/FP&A Summit organised by the Finance Alliance to participate in a panel titled "Transforming finance partnering: Leveraging AI for scalable decision support"

Before I share what I talked about, you know how keen I am to go to such events.

It's the perfect setup to share thoughts with other finance leaders and also to meet in real life people I discovered through Linkedin.

This was also the case as I met people like

• ​Richard Nero: Excel MVP
• ​Zatul Yusoh: Fractional CFO
• ​Dani Martins: Thought Leader on FP&A
• ​Adam Shilton: The Software Guy
• ​Tejas Parikh: Finance Transformation Specialist
• and many many others

Coming back to the panel, it was a very technical discussion about how we, in finance, can free up some time to become better business partners.

While my other co-panellists were speaking mostly about implementing tools, I preferred to talk about how you, as a human being, could find ways to implement new roles in your team.

One of them is the storyteller and for this, even if AI can help, you'll have to work seriously on your behavioural skills to reach a high level.

Have a look at one of my interventions here

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🤖 AI for Finance Summit in Brussels

Next week, I'll be speaking at AI for Finance in Brussels, organised by FD Magazine.

That's special for me because I was on stage in Amsterdam, in Singapore, in London and even in Paris but never in my own country.

And also a first time for me, I'll speak of "AI-Enhanced Storytelling" or how to make the most human skill even more efficient with AI.

If you don't want to miss that, there are still tickets available.

So if you're in Brussels and want to learn from me and other experts in AI for Finance, go to FD Magazine's website​

That's a wrap for this week

See you next week!​

PS: Whenever you're ready to develop your financial storytelling skills and become the visible face of finance, join the Financial Storytelling Program​