accenture - cfo roundtable meeting · 2013. 11. 26. · the spotlight on real-time reporting...

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CONFIDENTIAL

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Accenture - CFO Roundtable Meeting

How AXA Belgium redefined its Financial function within

the organization ?

Sonja ROTTIERS Brussels – 21st November 2013

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  The role of Finance is evolving…

  … to become a real Business Partner…

  To do so, AXA Finance department redefined its mission & vision and reorganized itself accordingly…

  … but this change of mind-set necessitates a long term engagement.

Agenda

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Today

The role of the Finance function continues to evolve…

Decision support for value creation

Financial control to protect value

Transactional processing Transactional processing



Today Tomorrow 100%

New Finance function is characterized by more analytical and value adding activities and a higher level of shared processes…

Mid 00’

  With globalization, Finance activities evolved from pure transactional & book keeping to financial statement preparation & cash flow management…

  However, responsibilities stay limited to providing top management with financial data….

  With “financialization” of the global economy, the CFO spectrum enlarge from a controller to an advisor and increase participation in strategic formulation of the organization's overall goals & objectives…

  Finance department acts now as a medium through which business plans are prepared based on Financial forecasts…

  Recent crisis and its flow of new regulations, accelerate the importance of managing resources and capital.

  The CFO becomes a strategic business partner and develops a central role in wealth creation activities.

Mar

ket

AX

A

Creation of the Head of Strategy function in Finance and a team in charge of Strategic projects selection & follow-up.

Creation of the Performance Management function. Rebuilding accountant profiles. Strong implication of Risk Management in Business Decision making.

Finance prepares the first IFRS financial reports…

90’s / Early 00’

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…in order to adapt to new regulations and to meet the expectations of the business…

Drivers for Change Challenges  The CFO is increasingly expected to help drive the business strategy which should be aligned with the investment decisions.

Business Partnering and

decision Support Too much time is spent on data mining and transaction processing, A more experienced talent pool is often required for genuine business support.

 To drive value discipline across the organization, a clear linkage between strategy and bottom up budgeting is required.

Integrated Performance Management

Planning, budgeting and forecasting is often piecemeal with no clear link into the overall corporate and Finance strategy.

-  The spotlight on real-time reporting requires a more streamlined automated close and consolidation. Close, Consolidate

and Report Simplify core processes and systems to reduce manual intervention and streamline the monthly close.

 Recent regulations (e.g. Solvency II) encourage synergies between Finance and Risk functions.

Risk and Capital Governance structures often limit the ability for Risk and Finance to work together.

 Recent increases in funding for Finance systems (to support IFRS / SOX / Basel II) puts the spotlight on Finance to add real value to the business.

Governance and Controls

The cost and upheaval of global regulation continues to increase, and realizable benefits are slow to materialize.

 The move towards offshore and shared service facilities is driving down the costs of Finance ‘production’ activities. Transaction

Processing Autonomous and decentralized departments inhibit the ability to harmonize Finance processes and generate value through shared services and offshoring.

Finance Functional

Areas

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… and to focus on efficiency and to create value for the company.

The CFO has to ensure that the biases of individuals weight less in the final decision than the facts…

  Over the past years the CFOs had to concentrate on various new regulatory and legal requirements such as IFRS, Solvency II and SOX

  Despite the fact that the CFO always faces challenges with regards to time and speed of the financial and management reporting and despite the fact that some tremendous efforts have been undertaken to improve the reporting, these two dimensions had to step back slightly more into the background

  Clearly, the current prime focus is on: •  To do the things right (efficiency) •  To do the right things (value generation)

  This necessitates to transform Finance from a number crunching organization into a trusted business partner.



Transactional processing

Today Tomorrow

Today‘s CFO Agenda

25% 30% 45%

Financial Control

Transaction Processing 30% 30% 40%

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Agenda

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Key roles of Finance are the Execution, the Control, the Performance and the Efficiency…

The mission of the CFO is evolving towards the “Strategist” and “Catalyst” roles, reinforcing the need to review the Controlling function towards Business partnership and Strategic support

Catalyst Stimulate behaviors across the

organization to achieve strategic & financial objectives

Challenges:   Create a dynamic Finance Planning

capability supporting business plan development, communication, execution and review.

  Align qualitative & quantitative ambition of business while creating a transversal view.

Steward Preserve the assets of the Company, assuring compliance with financial reporting and control requirements

Challenges:

 Comply with new regulations and KPI’s that will drive business in the future (IFRS, Solvency II, MiFid,…)  Meet the growing reporting / information requests from the Group, the Shareholders and the Business

Strategist

Operator

Leverage financial perspective to improve risk-awarded strategic

decision making Challenges :   Partner effectively with the Business to

support decision and participate actively in value creation

  Ensure proper translation of LT strategic ambitions into a coherent plan and budget with appropriate project selection, in alignment with market trends

Implement and run operating model to fulfill the Finance organization’s

responsibilities

Challenges:

 Organize Finance in a Business-oriented way to better understand its needs and bring appropriate solution.  Comply with Group’s programs.

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AXA reorganized its financial functions creating functions oriented toward its (internal) clients …

  The different divisions have seen responsibilities enhancement from pure operational to analytical and strategic tasks.

  Skills required evolved to build and maintain solid and sustainable relationships with Business Units, acting as strategist thinkers, informed challengers, analytical controllers and then effectively support in business decision making and in value creation.

Strategy and Performance

Management Office

Strategic Planning SCPM

(Strategic Cost & Portfolio Management)

Performance Management Corporate BI

Accounting & Reporting Others Others Others

CFO

Financial Controlling

Teams created/ enhanced with new

responsibilities

Limited impact by TOM

As a Strategist & Catalyst, the department supports the CFO in his role of positioning Finance as a valuable and trustworthy Business Partner.

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.. to take into account AXA’s new challenges and constrains of a multinational insurance player…

New role of the finance

function

Key actor in supporting the definition and the follow-up of the

Strategy

Support the business in its performance and the

achievements

New regulations and KPIs requirements which will drive business like Solvency, IFRS,

MiFid,…

Defend external stakeholders interests by acting as an informed

challenger.

Growing reporting requests from the Group, the Shareholders and

the Businesses

Group strategic programs impacts and their organizational prerequisites: e.g. Accounting &

Reporting

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Agenda

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To redefining Finance we started from our Vision, our stakeholders needs and takes into account or values…

Our vision

Be the best in class partner in

value creation

Our stakeholders (Clients)

Shareholders Final customers

Management & Business Employees

External Authorities

Our values

Mission By leveraging its resources as business partners,

accountants, centers of excellence and support, Finance defends external stakeholders interests by acting as an

informed challenger and support the business for superior decision making towards value creation.

Integrity, Quality Trust, Team Spirit

Innovation, Diversity Professionalism

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More than 18 month has been necessary until the implementation of the the Finance function…

  Roles and Responsibilities with adapted processes and governance.   Agile and business designed organization: Life, Non Life, Bank, Investments.   Talent and people - Investing on the talent and people dimension to offer long term

career opportunities (the right person at the right place).   Interaction between shared tools (Business Intelligence) to increase the finance

ability to answer clients requests.

Phase 1: Diagnostic Phase 2 : Detailed Design

•  From As-Is to To-Be, draw the final TOM including:

  Vision & Mission per teams   Detailed Roles &

Responsibilities   Process Split   Governance definition   Updated Organization chart

Phase 3 : Implement

•  Understand the new environment and define the role of Finance:

  Vision & Mission   Roles & Responsibilities   Customer offer   Organization principles   High level process and

interaction with other dpt.

• Implement the new Operating model while focusing on change management

• Communicating to stakeholders and build the momentum

Finance leadership has launched a dedicated exercise, the Definition of a Target Operating Model (TOM)

Key dimensions are :

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  … but this change of mind-set necessitates a long term engagement…

Agenda

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Key lessons learned after our reorganization… (1/2)

  Get a strong mandate as CFO   AXA is a financial driven organization which has to comply with increasingly

more regulations while facing a global financial market crisis. In this context, it’s easier to position the role of the CFO as a Business Partner.

  Need time : the implementation of the TOM takes more than 18 months…   Be persistent : this is not only an operational transformation but also a change

of mind-set at the company level. Therefore a lot of energy and time are needed.

  The new functions created have to prove they could bring added value to the business units.

  Have the right people :   To manage the project,   BAU mode : It is of utmost importance to have highly talented and strong

profiles that understands the business opportunities and threats in order to build a relation of trust.

Mandate

Time

People

Be persistent have a strong mandate and leverage talented people which are involved in this long term project…

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Key lessons learned after our reorganization… (2/2)

  Processes simplification and vision on the capacity planning   Strategic Planning team developed a capacity planning tool which manage the

global process for transversal and strategic deliverables and their key milestones.

  Ensure the communication within the different teams and its continuous improvement.

  Manage the information thanks to interaction between shared tools (BI)   There is an increasing amount of information available within the organization

due to historical IT legacy, new regulatory constrains or new internal reporting.   Therefore, Business Intelligence team contributes to the standardization and

automation of those reports.

  Continuous improvement and better support toward the support functions…   There is still a lot to do together with other support functions such as HR and IT

departments. Key role of Finance is to help them with figures, project portfolio or selection and costs optimization.

  Rationalized financial actors in the Business Units   Identify the persons with a function of “cost controlling” but which work for the

Business Units and link them to Finance cost controlling team (Direct line and doted Line).

Planning

Information

Next steps…

Leverage BI to simplify the BAU processes & reporting and manage the deliverables and communication thanks to a Strategic Planning tool…

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Thank you for your attention

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The Evolving Role of the CFO High Performance Finance through Business Partnering CFO Roundtable Meeting

accenture - cfo roundtable meeting · 2013. 11. 26. · the spotlight on real-time reporting...

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