Transforming Finance: Your Mindset, Not Digitalization Is The Real Threat To Your Job

Professions are transforming alongside technological development, and Finance is not different. The pressure to change comes from the outside through a rapidly evolving world. It also comes from the inside from a CEO who expects more of Finance. What you should be seeing now is a massively burning platform to change yourself too!

However, that’s not how most view it. They expect someone else to take care of the transition and then be told what to do. I can guarantee you that if you keep leaving this up to your boss to figure out the change then sooner or later, you’re the one being changed!

Please don’t shoot the messenger (and don’t shoot your boss either). The only thing that’s being shot is you shooting yourself in the foot if you don’t start the change from within. Don’t worry though because I will try to help you change. 

How do I know what and how to change? 

Before we get into what and how to change let’s just consider one example that I also tackled in a previous article “Why The Digital Revolution Hasn’t Caught Onto Finance Yet”. In the previous article, we looked at Excel as being the prohibiting system for going digital in Finance.

This time it´s the person working in Excel i.e. YOU (if you have moved on from Excel then please do accept my apologies). Many finance professionals still work a lot in Excel every day and it’s not because alternatives are not provided. PowerBI is a good example of that which can be connected directly to your database without Excel as an intermediator. No, it’s because we like to work in Excel and it’s within our comfort zone.

Well, if you don’t expand your comfort zone when everything is moving around you then it’s fastly getting uncomfortable within your comfort zone. I’m sure most of you can relate to this so we must start the transformation today!

However, it’s understandable if you don’t know what and how to change. Simply just starting to use new tools and applications seems to simple. Going into a completely different profession seems too dramatic. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Consider asking yourself these two questions. 

1. What do I enjoy doing (ideally in a professional context)?
2. Why do I enjoy doing it? 

The first question goes to your passion and the second to your purpose. You need to really challenge yourself to answer the questions. Maybe ask yourself 5 X WHY to get to the bottom of why you enjoy doing something. Maybe do a brainstorm of WHAT you enjoy doing so you get many ideas on the board. Shallow answers won’t get you anywhere! 

Then all you must do is act 

Once you know the answers, of course, you also need to act on them. Let’s say you’ve decided to specialize in one area and we could go back to the Excel example. If you truly want to specialize in Excel, you need to make sure you’re in the top 0.1% globally of Excel users or maybe even 0.01%. If you’re not a global expert, then don’t bother. Why? Because most systems will close the simple to advanced gaps to Excel sooner rather than later. So, this is not where you can change something.

If you want to go more general say to become a finance business partner, then likely you have a capability gap to close. Seek out training to close them. Seek out different challenges within your organization that exposes you to business partner type of organizations. Read up on literature that explains how to be a successful business partner.

Don’t wait for your boss to come and hand you a business card that says you’re now a business partner. If that happens it’s already too late for you because there’s a high risk, you will fail. Why? Because you haven’t closed the capability gap in time.

In other words, it’s up to you to act and it’s not that difficult. Yes, it will push you out of your comfort zone but that’s also the only place we learn new things.

So, buckle up and take yourself for a ride. Don’t be a passenger in your boss’ car because s/he might drop you off at the next bus stop! Or even worse your boss’ boss might simply just buy a new car your boss doesn’t know how to drive. Then you’re both finding yourself taking the bus!

Will you get started on transforming Finance or continue to be a passenger? The choice is yours and you better choose now!

Continue reading below for more articles about how digital is impacting Finance.

Inevitable Retraining Of Finance Professionals Is On The Horizon

Why The Digital Revolution Hasn’t Caught Onto Finance Yet

Tech vs. People. Where Should Finance Invest?

A Digital Reality Check Of The Finance Function

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Anders Liu-Lindberg is a Senior Finance Business Partner at Maersk supporting our largest product and I have more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. I am also the co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 8,000 members. My main goal at Maersk is to show how to be successful with business partnering and drive value creation as a trusted partner. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 40.000+ followers.