From my role as Chocolate Supply CFO for Europe and Eurasia.

Coming from a long experience in emerging markets demand CFOs, setting up business for growth, my mentors always advised me to take a different functional experience in a different market type and culture. I still call this was one of the richest experience as I learned from a finance lenses, how we buy, then make products to our consumers. Understanding this part was more than 50% of the business model and P&L and combining it with demand background was so rewarding and rounding experience that I still enjoy until today. Also, partnering a sales director, GM or a Market leadership team is a skillset that is very different from a commercial VP, IE, Plant director or a supply network VP. The need to live in what got me here would no get me there, pressure tested the learning agility muscle that is needed to provoke creativity on how we partner, looking at past experience cannot resolve the challenge.

There was no playbook, bringing the market experience was good but not enough, I felt powerless and clueless about how to partner Commercial Cocoa buying, how to identify the risk elements and how to face it. Also, I felt massive skills gap in the start, convincing myself to publicly be vulnerable and say I do not know, was so liberating. I needed patience and everyday resilience to learn from the Subject Matter Experts, finding them was a challenge, and then engaging them to help you learn was another one. Joining a different experience at a senior level, comes with expectations to deliver, having no prior early career experience made the functional credibility very hard. I wished if I did supply finance at my early career!

Business curiosity and not looking in inertia has become a muscle that I continue to practice.

Accepting that different challenges need different solutions, have faith and take risks with the new experience, enjoy it and do not blame yourself or the team if it did not work.

Involve key stakeholders, and even external experience in the challenge at the very early stage, I will not go too far if I decide to run alone.

The key to business partnership is collaboration, and the cross functional collaboration is the most powerful. I wished if I started practicing it at the early stage of the career.

Partnering different experience in finance, was critical enabler to transform business, building new business models and provides credibility for next best moves. Enjoy the journey!

In Asia, Mars Wrigley have started navigating through COVID impacts since Jan 2020 (Chinese New Year). Throughout 2020, we have successfully led business to deliver almost Re-plan NCFO (i.e. $60m positive NCFO at just $1m short) in the context of a $75m shortfall in NSV from Re-plan.

Nothing is impossible! Crystal-clear priority setting of business trade-offs, timely and bold decisions, coupled with one-team efforts from all markets / all functions equals miracle.

We have a very complex Supply sourcing cycle as long as 3 months and from 60 factories across globe, therefore when we noticed a big distributor inventory trend in P6, we had only a very limited time window and a really tough decision to make – cut significant NSV (which will hurt even more bottom-line short term) or deal with huge inventory with potential many other issues later on. As a result, the tough but timely NSV cut decision was made, and we managed to get inventory back in control since P10 till year-end, protecting NCFO delivery and the fundamental business health!

I spent most of my time connecting, driving, influencing, rather than working on my own numbers or plans. I listened and worked even more closely with my business partners because I truly believe – the stronger partner S&F can be, the stronger insights and decision support can be delivered, the stronger prioritization / action-planning cohesiveness can be promoted, the stronger business results will come as a result!

I gained this experience in each of my roles at Mars…
– As Wrigley India CFO
– As ITO Lead, MW India
– And in my current role as FP&A and Supply Finance Director for Global Emerging Markets, MW

Innovative business partnering is all about being a trusted finance partner to your line manager or leadership team through providing strong business context, insights & foresights and navigating complex challenges through identifying actions/solutions by working with various stakeholders and doing a strong follow through to land those actions on time and in full, thus driving Value Creation for the business.

While it looks simple, to be an innovative business partner one needs to provide strong business insights coupled with sound financial knowledge to steer business on right path by managing challenges and capitalizing on opportunities to drive Value Creation for the unit/region.

Some of my key learnings in this area have been:
a) Develop a strong understanding of market dynamics (internally & externally)
b) Keep a constant eye/connect on changing external world (Big Data / Digital transformations / Changing business models etc.)
c) Leverage Digital tools to generate insights and foresights and identify challenges/opportunities to steer business ahead with right actions and strong follow through
d) Invest time in connecting with key stakeholders and build trust and transparency in the relationship

The most challenging part of being trusted finance partner is-

You need to constantly evolve in your approach, in your leadership style and in your ability to identify issues and propose solutions as we are living in a real VUCA World where we are faced with constant volatility/uncertainty/complexity and ambiguity and there is no one solution which fits all.

To gain trust of your stakeholder as a trusted finance partner is never easy and working as a business partner over last many years has helped me in:
– Dealing with ambiguity or dealing with change without fear of failure
– Developing a keen sense of curiosity to understand issues or opportunities and bring in business insights to connect the dots and propose solutions/actions
– Being agile and flexible to learn and experiment with new things
– Being digital savvy and using tools and technology to bring in speed in insights/foresights and decision making

I built my experience in Mars Poland, served as support for Marketing and Sales in 2008-2010, followed by Supply Finance manager for the Janaszowek factory 2011-2013 afterwards switching to RC and serving as a CFO for the Polish business in Niepolomice, later in 2017 for the Canadian business in Guelph and most recently (2020) at MWC Canada in Toronto.

Business Insights and Customer Centricity were key areas of focus when supporting sales organization and marketing teams, being able to listen actively, build on their perspective and provide financial expertise to unlock value creation had been the highlights of that experience. Partnering with Plant Leadership Team elevated the need for Process Management and Building Effective Teams in a process of establishing a new site, its strategy and objectives. Finally stepping into the CFO role had created opportunities to strengthen Standing Alone, Dealing with Ambiguity and Problem Solving. Partnering with the GM and leadership teams in setting strategic priorities, driving value creation, empowering Associates and enabling them to show off their engagement and expertise were all rewarding experiences of these assignments.

Making sure that I understand the context, being curious and respectful for what was achieved on the journey so far while having the courage to call out complacency and challenge the status quo. Building trust and a shared perception of opportunity, creating the energy to do things differently.

All these experiences have allowed me to collaborate with very different set of stakeholders, which helped me understand how to appreciate these differences and thought me to flex my style to best serve them. I learned to appreciate the depth of functional knowledge the other functions have and the interdependence we enjoy. I had the privilege to serve with amazing teams, whose engagement and collaboration drove business success all whilst having fun and being aligned to our purpose. Reflecting on this journey I recognize that my paradigm on what constitutes Business Partnering shifted over the years, from being an adviser to the decision maker to being a partner in making the decisions.

Having multiple roles such as brand finance in Turkey, supply finance in Dubai, regional FP&A in AMEA and Finance director in Asia, I have gained great experiences in business partnering in different geographies, cultures and teams and found opportunities to build deeper financial knowledge and business insights.

The key learning from this experience that is as much as you know and understand the business value drivers, you need to know your stakeholders as well. It is very important to communicate in the way it is relevant to them. Simply, you need to know that the data, insights, action and results translated in very diverse stakeholders’ understanding. Finance is a key role for connecting the dots in the all business strategy and value creation through stakeholders alignment.

In the moments that the majority thinks you are wrong, the most challenging part is to have the courage and stand with your data and reasoning. If your data and reasoning are right as a business partner, then this cannot go wrong. In addition, you will leverage your skills to influence them and drive the conversation and ultimately the decision that is always aligned with the Five Principles.

These experiences have shaped me to understand the value you bring as a business partner. This is the power of listening to stakeholders, power of asking the questions and power of impact you are making. Simply: know your business, be curious and challenge the status quo.