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CFO Program Online Course

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  1. Module 1: Embed finance across the company
    5 Lessons
  2. Module 2: Identify profit and cash initiatives
    7 Lessons
  3. Module 3: Oversee and drive business change
    13 Lessons
  4. Module 4: Deliver data-driven strategic insights
    6 Lessons
  5. Module 5: Challenge your Board and influence strategy
    9 Lessons
  6. Module 6: Drive key decision-making
    11 Lessons
  7. Module 7: Represent your business externally
    6 Lessons
  8. Module 8: Become a critical and influential voice
    5 Lessons
  9. Module 9: Deliver the business plan
    7 Lessons
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Collaboration between finance teams and the wider business is essential for any successful company. By working together, different teams can better understand their individual roles and how they contribute to the overall success of the organization.

This helps businesses to improve efficiency and make better decisions that will benefit the entire organisation.

In this lesson, we will explore the benefits of collaboration and discuss how finance teams can work with other departments to achieve common goals. We will also look at some tips for effective communication and ways to build trust between different teams.

Business collaboration

Benefits

Finance teams cannot operate in a silo and must collaborate with other departments to be successful. This requires you to communicate effectively with different teams, for example by attending team meetings, sharing written reports and actively listening to their biggest problems. Spending time walking through their key processes and identifying issues is also a great way to properly get to know one another.

One of the advantages of collaboration is that it allows different teams to share their expertise and knowledge. For example, the marketing team may have valuable insights into customer behaviour, while the sales team may know which products are selling well. By sharing this information, finance teams can make more informed decisions about where to allocate resources.

Another benefit of collaboration is that it can help to improve communication between different departments. When different teams work together closely, they can get to know each other better and build trust. This can help to prevent misunderstandings and conflict between different departments.

A mentor’s perspective

During the following video, professional mentor and experienced CFO Helene Brichet shares insights and examples regarding how a CFO can collaborate with other departments to benefit the whole business:

Encouraging collaboration

There are many things that finance teams can do to encourage collaboration with other departments.

First, finance leaders should make an effort to meet with other team leaders on a regular basis. This will help to build relationships and ensure that everyone is on the same page. For example, by meeting up with department heads and organising social engagements together outside of work.

Finance teams should try to be open and transparent about their work. Other departments may not understand the financial jargon, so it is important to explain things in simple terms. Educating non-finance people about finance matters will really help to drive forward your finance agenda and build more respect between each team.

Leaders should encourage their teams to build trusted relationships with their peer equivalents in other departments. A popular approach is to get people talking about their biggest challenges and brainstorming how they can work together to solve them. This provides many benefits to both the individuals concerned and the overall business.

Finally, finance teams should always be willing to lend a helping hand when needed. For example, if another department is having trouble meeting its targets, then the finance team can offer advice or assistance. Your finance team is likely to have the best working knowledge of your company’s performance data and is very well placed to generate reports and analyse data to identify current trends, predict future outcomes and suggest value-enhancing solutions.

Summary

Collaboration between finance teams and the wider business is essential for any successful company. By working together, businesses can improve efficiency and make better decisions that will benefit the entire organization. With these tips, you can encourage collaboration and build trust between different departments.