Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Impact p.10
The transformation journey and the improvements that are achieved
along the way can provide fuel to ignite a renewed culture within the
Finance organization—a culture where continuous improvement and
excellence is embraced.
Situation: Despite a multitude of complexities
and challenges, transforming Finance
to support current and future business
requirements is an organizational imperative.
To succeed, companies must radically
rethink their Finance organization strategy
to address changing priorities and escalating
stakeholder requirements.
Surprisingly, after all these years and despite all the available
knowledge and experience in the marketplace, Finance
Transformation efforts have achieved only limited success.
Causes for this vary, but often stem from the lack of an
organization-wide shared vision for the future of Finance. Other
contributing causes include under-investing in planning and
resources, taking short-term rather than long-term approaches,
and failing to understand and manage key drivers of change
within Finance. Given these complexities and challenges, it’s
no wonder that Finance Transformation initiatives can take
companies years to accomplish. It’s an ongoing journey, not a
sprint. But, despite all the complexities and challenges, Finance
Transformation remains an organizational imperative. Consider it
a call to action for CFOs and other executives, together with their
boards, to radically rethink their Finance organization strategy to
address changing priorities and stakeholder requirements.
PricewaterhouseCoopers | 1
Our Perspective: Finance must act as a
proactive strategic business partner and
redefine itself as a service-oriented business
focused on providing customers with value-
adding, cost-effective services. To implement
an effective service-delivery strategy that
supports the needs of the business in
a cost effective manner, Finance must
first understand the requirements of their
stakeholder groups and align their operating
model accordingly. Much can be gained
from emulating the better practices and
considering the lessons learned from others
who have traveled a similar journey.
2 | PricewaterhouseCoopers
The future-state vision
PricewaterhouseCoopers | 3
While the practices of leading companies are varied and are
constantly evolving, the following examples illustrate some
key characteristics that “world-class” Finance organizations
tend to share:
4 | PricewaterhouseCoopers
While the concept of “world-class” may suggest the highest
level of achievement in any particular area, companies that
are generally accepted as demonstrating “world-class”
performance are actually those that have been successful
in achieving high levels of performance balanced across
effectiveness and efficiency measures. As companies undertake
Finance Transformation efforts, they must adopt strategies
and solutions that result in measurable improvements across
both—effectiveness (doing the right things) and efficiency (doing
things the right way).
One size does not fit all. For a successful Finance Transformation
effort to occur, every company must carefully determine its own
future-state vision and goals to determine the right level and
mix of better practices—one that complements the strategy of
the overall company and meets the requirements of Finance
stakeholders. While not every company desires or needs to be
“world class”, the “world-class” concept has proven its value
in providing an overall benchmark or profile of what some
companies have achieved.
PricewaterhouseCoopers | 5
Achieving Finance Transformation goals
6 | PricewaterhouseCoopers
Embarking on the journey: lessons from the road
PricewaterhouseCoopers | 7
questions as they progress through their transformation plans to
maintain focus on the goals and objectives of the transformation
initiative and to ensure they are appropriately addressing
change across the key levers of process, organization, people
and technology.
8 | PricewaterhouseCoopers
business cases as a communication instrument. The business
case should be a live document that is updated in response to
changing circumstances throughout the transformation journey.
If used properly, the business case will keep the goals and
objectives of the project in plain sight of the transformation team
and key stakeholders.
PricewaterhouseCoopers | 9
Impact: The transformation journey and
the improvements that are achieved along
the way can provide fuel to ignite a renewed
culture within the Finance organization—a
culture where continuous improvement and
excellence is embraced.
10 | PricewaterhouseCoopers
For further information, please contact:
Mike Boyle
Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers
617.530.5933
mike.boyle@us.pwc.com
Paul Gaynor
Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers
408.817.5704
paul.m.gaynor@us.pwc.com
John Klee
Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers
646.471.2828
john.klee@us.pwc.com
Dave Pittman
Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers
312.298.2114
dave.pittman@us.pwc.com
Or visit:
www.pwc.com/us/advisory
pwc.com
© 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights
reserved. “PricewaterhouseCoopers” refers
to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware
limited liability partnership, or, as the context
requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global
network or other member firms of the network,
each of which is a separate and independent
legal entity. This document is for general
information purposes only, and should not
be used as a substitute for consultation with
professional advisors. NY-10-0473