with all respondents from France, Germany, Italy and Spain in it. This also extends to larger investments in the supply continuing to operate around a more traditional model. In the chain, which might include M&A transactions. In particular, UK, however, business partnering is well established. business partner CFOs help to set the right growth priorities and pace of growth; they support and challenge the rationale Analytics can be a powerful tool to drive a stronger for new investment, and they apply data analytics to support business partnering relationship and challenge business decisions. They also ensure that tax is Asked whether data and analytics present CFOs with a considered as part of operational decisions. significant opportunity to drive a more collaborative, business partnering relationship with the supply chain, an overwhelming 3. Monitoring and enhancing performance: the CFO’s 85% of business partners agree. Robust information and insight perspective across the whole organization, and their position are central to any business partnering relationship. CFOs’ access as a trusted advisor, enable them to play a vital role in helping to financial information from across the business allows them to to standardize the language, measurement, tools and key create a credible “single version of the truth” to drive decisions performance indicators (KPIs) across the organization. and performance measurement. However, many finance leaders admit that they need to do more to align KPIs and ensure that they are driving behavior Four key opportunities to business partner that meets the needs of the broader organization, not just the We identify four focus areas where the CFO has an opportunity specific function. to enhance performance through business partnering with the supply chain: 4. Managing risk and business continuity: business partner CFOs take a strategic, long-term approach to 1. Creating consistency across the supply chain, the risk management, which involves not only direct suppliers, business and corporate strategy: companies where a but also secondary and tertiary suppliers. The CFO also has business partnering relationship between the CFO and supply the opportunity to work with procurement and treasury to chain leader is in place report much stronger alignment determine the extent to which risk is owned and managed between the supply chain and broader strategy. They also by the company, and to what extent it is pushed further report better end-to-end visibility across the supply chain. down the supply chain. This is crucial to a company’s ability to plan, align manufacturing capacity with demand, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations, and fine-tune the supply The typical business partner chain operations as a whole. CFOs and supply chain leaders are most likely to take a business partnering approach if they’ve been in their role for less than 2. Supporting and challenging investment choices: business five years. They are also most likely to be found in the US, in a partner CFOs support and challenge investment choices technology company with over US$1b revenue, and EBITDA throughout the cycle, from idea formulation through to growth of 5%–10% in the last year. managing an asset’s performance, retiring it or reinvesting Partnering for performance Part 1: the CFO and the supply chain 5