Ep. 249: Ahmed Hassan - The Evolving Role of Financial Leadership

Join Adam Larson on the Count Me In Podcast as he sits down with the insightful Ahmed Hassan to explore how financial leadership has shot into a new era. Ahmed, an esteemed finance executive and IMA Global board member, shares how the roles in finance have shifted from traditional number-crunching to proactive, strategic business partnering.

Listen in as they discuss the impact of digital tech, COVID-19, and sustainability on financial strategies, the importance of people skills, and the rise of data analytics in decision-making. Ahmed backs up the talk with his journey in embracing change, leveraging automation for insightful analysis, and his advocacy for continuous learning through the IMA.

This episode offers a treasure trove of knowledge for finance professionals looking to adapt to the evolving demands of the industry. If you're curious about the future of financial strategy or keen on understanding the shifting focus in finance, this conversation is your must-listen. So sit back, tune in, and get inspired to take on the financial world with a fresh, informed perspective!

Full Episode Transcript:
 < Intro >

Adam:            Hello, and welcome to Count Me In. I'm Adam Larson, and today I'm joined by a distinguished guest, Ahmed Hassan, Head of Decision Support at Vodafone, Global Board Director & Middle East Committee Chair at IMA. In this episode, we'll dive into how financial leaders are expanding their influence beyond traditional roles, and embracing strategic, data-driven decision-making amidst global changes and technological advancements.

Staying ahead of the curve and fostering continuous learning have been key to navigating the landscape of finance. A world now permeated by AI, automation, and the need for dynamic skill sets. So, without further ado, let's welcome Ahmed, to share his valuable insights with us here on Count Me In.

 < Music >

Ahmed, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We're really excited to have you today, talking about FP&A, and the roles, and your experience. And to start off, I thought we could start with how has the role of financial leadership evolved, as you look over the past decades. And what are the driving forces behind those changes, in the financial leadership?

Ahmed:          So, thank you, Adam. First of all, thank you for having me today. I'm very looking forward for a very engaging and exciting discussion, so thank you for that. Thank you for the question to start with, this is a very in-time question. So as the finance roles are evoluting, and it's not only on the last decade. So I think finance roles are evoluting since almost 20 years, as we speak. So it's undergoing significant changes that is taking place in the finance role as we speak. 

This is turning the finance function from the one responsible for financial reporting, and forecasting, and the normal finance roles that used to be. To the one co-driving organizations to achieve their goals and targets. So, currently, finance leaders spend more than 50% of their time on value-adding, business partnering activities. Rather than a typical finance department role and what they used to do, a few years ago.

So now we give more focus on casting a wider net for new efficiency opportunities, as we go. Boosting finance roles in managing data, strengthening decision-making process, through widespread adoption of data visualization and data analytics.

So this is how we look into how we use that data that we have, as we speak. It's mainly for putting a very solid ground into the decision-making and driving business, as we go. And the role of finance leadership is evoluting as well as this is evoluting. So the finance leadership has been influenced by several global forces, as we speak.

So definitely with all what happened in the past few years, in terms of COVID, where we will touch base a lot on the impact of COVID and how this evoluted. The overall changes that took place in organizations and then zooming into finance in specific. And also all the changes that is taking place in the world, either from a geopolitical viewpoint, economical, and all other changes.

So there are several global forces that are impacting the finance role evolution, including the growth of digital technologies. All the changes that I just mentioned. The importance of sustainability, changing demographics, complexities that are taking place in the geopolitics, as I mentioned, and all the dependencies that are making transformation or structural transformation a must, during these times.

All these forces actually led to all the evolution that is taking place in the finance role and in the finance leadership role, as a result, as well. So this all led to a greater focus on collaboration and people-oriented leadership. As well as the need for managers to take important decisions, with input from their teams based on a very robust data analytics that is generated from the finance functions.

Adam:            I think that's a really good overview in the evolution of the finance leadership, and how the team is changing as the environment changes. And when you think about the environment changing, and the term a lot of people use is business partner. And, so, in order to do that transformation that you just talked about, you have to become that business partner.

And, so, are there key strategies that people should consider when they're trying to, "Hey, I want to become that business partner. I don't think I'm there, yet." What are some strategies that they can apply in their own roles, so that they can make sure they're becoming that? 

Ahmed:          Okay, so transitioning, which comes also as a result of what we mentioned, the evolution that took place in finance. So finance, as we speak, in different roles, are business partners. And this is not only in a function that is named business partner or decision support in finance. I think this is across all finance roles. So this will take place in FP&A, as an evolution of the role.

Definitely in all decision support roles and finance business partnering roles, in different areas of finance operations, treasury, tax, supply chain. So this is all different types of business partnering in finance. If we need to focus on what are the key skills or developments, that a finance guy should adopt to be a business partner. We can start focusing on some points. So building a strategic engagement with the business. So this is a key thing that has to take place in a finance role.

Building strong relationships with all stakeholders, is fundamental to effective engagement with different business functions. Spending time to know your stakeholders, understanding their priorities, and be ready to challenge points they may not have considered, or maybe it's not a focal point for them. While actually it's something risky that you need to highlight.

Ensuring that analysis and reporting provided is aligning to the key strategic directions that the stakeholders need to see, and not only what is accessible and meaningful to finance specific. So it's that perfect merge between finance and all the other business requirements ...