Interim Director of FP&A automates financials of publicly traded retailer facing staffing shortages
Through the leadership of an interim FP&A director with expertise in Adaptive, a $1 billion retail company automated its financial reporting infrastructure within weeks, overcoming unexpected staff losses and tight deadlines.
Challenge
Facing critical month-end and quarter-end closes, a $1B publicly traded retailer urgently sought to automate its financial reporting infrastructure using the Adaptive enterprise performance management system. A company reduction in force earlier in the year coupled with unforeseen staff resignations posed a significant challenge. With only four weeks until key financial events, including earnings calls and board meetings, the senior vice president of finance needed an experienced director-level FP&A professional to quickly fill the experience gap and ensure timely reporting.
Solution
Introduced by Highspring, the interim director of FP&A brought over 15 years of finance experience, including leadership roles in FP&A with several public retailers. As a former Marine, they were equipped to thrive in a high-stress, tight-deadline environment.
Leveraging their extensive proficiency in Adaptive, the interim director swiftly led and executed the system’s implementation. This enabled the client to meet critical reporting deadlines and establish a scalable financial reporting infrastructure, positioning the company for future growth.
Outcomes
Utilizing their expertise in Adaptive, the interim director of FP&A initiated system enhancements that aligned with organizational scaling objectives despite resource constraints. They successfully persuaded a skeptical leadership team to increase investment in the system, ultimately delivering on their commitment to rebuild the financial reporting infrastructure ahead of the next earnings call.
Throughout the implementation process, the interim director provided mentorship to existing employees and new hires, expanding their proficiency in Adaptive and FP&A practices. This resulted in the team dedicating more time to strategic tasks, such as generating more accurate forecasting trends.
Additional outcomes included:
- Established top-to-bottom P&L integrity
- Automated daily finance KPIs
- Enhanced reporting granularity
- Provision of a roadmap for future Adaptive enhancements
I can’t thank Focus Search Partners or their interim director of FP&A enough for the transformation they afforded our finance team. We are now able to achieve more with fewer resources, and in much less time. Beyond that, the director maintained an incredibly gracious attitude while being asked to drink from the fire hose before our earnings call. I couldn’t have gotten through this challenging time without this incredible team of extended resources.
Senior VP Finance$1B publicly-traded retail company
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