AstraZeneca – CIMA Business Partner organisation of the year

How we help our client

• Defined global model for finance business partnering: which business decisions to prioritise; characteristics of great business partners; how to free up time; and what roles and capabilities are needed
• Launched business partnering programme at global finance leaders summit with best practice assessment and gap analysis for 10 countries, including China, Japan, U.S.A.
• ‘Deep-dive’ in Russia to re-design the finance organisation and develop a practical road-map of improvements
• Worked with the finance leadership team to identify the priority finance transformation initiatives to deliver tens of millions of dollars of cost reduction
• Developed a new approach to pricing in Europe and changed the role of finance to deliver business value in pricing
• Created and ran summits to launch finance business partnering in Eastern Europe and Latin America to mobilise finance directors into action

Business outcomes

• Separate finance business partner organisation, distinct from transaction or specialist finance, with clear roles, skills and career paths
• Business partners performing at or close to the top 10% of externally benchmarked peer organisations
• Finance business partners operate as peers on management teams driving strategy and decision making, and managing business performance
• Significant uplift in capabilities through knowledge sharing, targeted education and business briefings
• Awarded Finance Business Partner organisation of the year 2011 by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).