#174 Scaling FP&A 1 Building Your FP&A Team with Jane Riley and Catherine Marks

In the first of a 3 part series on scaling your FP&A capabilities, we’re looking at developing the FP&A team. GrowCFO Show host Kevin Appleby is joined by Jane Riley, Director at executive recruitment specialist Zanda, and Catherine Marks FP&A lead at GrowCFO.

Catherine and Jane discuss building a scalable FP&A team to support rapid business growth.

The first hire is important. Bringing in a dedicated FP&A professional is a luxury few will be able to afford, so the initial hire will likely be a generalist adapting to changes, says Catherine. Priorities for early-stage companies include cash flow, forecasting, and analyzing financial decisions.

Team size and structure should align with business strategy and support functions, potentially including geography for larger companies. Recruiting the right skills and mindset is challenging, as FP&A requires a wide range of abilities.

Jane highlights the competitive nature of the recruitment market. Offering variety, progression opportunities, and competitive benefits is key to attracting top talent. Employee turnover needs to be minimised, and Jane brings some great insights around why people leave organisations.

Developing both people and culture is important. Direct learning, training, and broadening skills are ways to develop abilities, according to Catherine. Maintaining a strong finance culture and investing in employees can address organizational challenges.

Links

• Catherine Marks on LinkedIn
• Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn
• Jane Riley on LinkedIn
• Zanda
• Episode 175 Scaling FP&A 2 Choosing the right FP&A tools with Paul Barnhurst and Catherine Marks
• Episode 176 Scaling FP&A 3 Navigating an Acquisition with the Virgin Media O2 FP&A Team
• GrowCFO FP&A Competency Framework
• GrowCFO FP&A Bootcamp

Timestamps

Introducing Jane Riley. (0:11)

Hiring a dedicated FP&A person for a growing business. (4:03)

Hiring challenges in finance and accounting roles. (12:02)

FP&A skills and culture. (19:08)

Developing FPGA skills and becoming a great leader. (22:23)

Factors leading to FPN leader turnover and career progression. (27:37)

Building and maintaining a finance team in a growing organization. (33:26)

Scaling businesses with DNA from a people perspective. (35:09)

Find out more about GrowCFO

If you enjoyed this podcast, you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google Podcasts, Spotify and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way, you never miss an episode.

GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. Join GrowCFO as a free member today and participate in our regular networking events and webinars. 

Premium members can also access our extensive training centre and CFO Digital Toolkit. You can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes here. 

You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Podcast: Play in new window | Download