Developing our Base

To help our clients and finance professionals, we want to gain and share insights. By understanding how Finance functions work, we help change and improve them.

We want to substantiate the insights with research and evidence-based studies. That is our base. We do this with an approach that is based on already known scientific work, development via a scientifically accepted approach and testing against practical experiences of financials. In this way we want to make experiences workable and manageable for the practice of financials.

Our Base = bundling of insights of our studies

The backbone is the HPO research (290 international studies, survey with more than 1500 organizations) by André de Waal. We applied that research to and made it specific for the Finance function. We then regularly conduct a study or research that completes the base. This base consists of various studies and investigations since 2016:

• Framework. What factors determine the performance of the finance function?
• Obstacles. What are the most obstacles to high performance?
• Internal customer satisfaction. How do internal customers rate the finance function?
• Budget for the HPFF transformation. How do you get budget for the HPFF transformation?
• Future proofing. How should a finance function deal with megatrends and disruptors?
• Digital transformation. How does the finance function deal with the digitalization transformation obstacles?

Roughly speaking, a study or research looks like this:

• We start with a literature study from the scientific libraries.
• We contribute practical experiences via the Delphi method. A Delphi study (named after the oracle of Delphi) is a research method that seeks the opinions of a large number of experts on a subject on which there is no consensus. By (anonymously) feeding back the answers of the other experts, an attempt is made to reach a consensus in a number of rounds.
• We write down the results and publish them in articles in professional journals and preferably also in a scientific publication (with extensive justification and bibliography) and/or we bundle the insights in a book.
• We put the insights on our website and LinkedIn and talk about it during lectures, masterclasses and heat days.
  

Case Studies and Best Ideas

In addition, various practical cases and best ideas are also described.

Case studies are stories of finance professionals from the field who tell about their journey towards high performance. In our books we describe in full the challenges and developments from the practice of a financial function that are going through or have gone through a change.

A best idea is an idea from a finance professional who has applied an idea that works well for her/him in the practice of transforming the finance function. A best idea cannot necessarily be copied, because every context is different, but it can make you think as a professional. Can this idea also work for us, modified or not? Does this idea perhaps give me an even better idea?