Our story starts with our own experiences in the finance function. Jacques and Eelco have been working in the finance function throughout their careers in roles as controller, project leader, finance manager & control, coach or process improver. André has a great affinity with Finance: he has been researching trends in the Finance Function for years, was associated with the Beyond Budgeting Round Table, in 2006 he already wrote about ‘the manager of the 21st century’ and taught Finance & Control courses on several Dutch universities.
In our work we regularly ask ourselves how things can be improved. Like many professionals. André’s research into the high performance organization (HPO) gave Jacques and Eelco the question: ‘what does high performance mean for the Finance Function?’ How can the Finance Function perform better, deliver more added value, and really become the business partner it has claimed for years to be? We posed this question to André, which resulted in an investigation into which factors need to be worked on in order to take steps forward as a Finance Function. Keeping in mind the HPO philosophy, we have called this the High Performance Finance Function, the HPFF.
The research left us wanting more. In 2017 we founded the Finance Function R& D Center (FFR&D for short). As a research and consultancy firm for the Finance Function, we focus on diagnosis, improvement and transformation advice for finance leaders and finance professionals who want to contribute. To this end, we conduct our own research and verify this with finance experts from the field. In this way we want to make insights practical. We want to use this to inspire finance professionals to subsequently improve their function and organization together with them, in such a way that the path to high performance is a continuous process of the financial function.
With our own research and consultancy firm, we broadly deploy our expertise for other organizations. We provide some organizations with inspiration and building blocks for organizing the transformation of the financial function. Those organizations then take care of it themselves. For other organizations, we guide the transformation together with HPFF ambassadors from the financial function, who ultimately take on all facilitating activities. For some organizations we fulfill the role of change driver, transformation manager or transition program manager on an interim basis. Towards high performance is what we call that. We jump in where the financial function needs help. That pays off a lot. A clear strategy for the financial department, a targeted change process and more time for added value activities. But also more partnership with your internal customers, enthusiastic employees and attracting new employees. With our guidance, we achieve a professional result together.
