50% of your job needs to be finance transformation: Anders Liu-Lindberg
Anders Liu-Lindberg discusses why finance transformations fail despite significant investment, arguing that CFOs must dedicate 50% of their time to transformation success and that change management is chronically underinvested in. He emphasizes that the core issue isn't strategy or tools, but rather adoption, visible sponsorship, and sustained commitment over multiple years.
Summary
The episode explores the paradox that while over half of CFOs report finance transformation as a priority for 2026, only two-thirds feel confident it will actually land. Anders Liu-Lindberg, a partner at Implement Consulting Group with two decades of finance experience, attributes this disconnect to systemic failures in how transformations are executed rather than their fundamental strategy.
Liu-Lindberg argues that finance transformations fail for reasons that have persisted for 20 years, despite being well-diagnosed. The core issue isn't that transformation strategies are flawed—most consulting plans are sound—but rather that organizations chronically underinvest in change management and adoption. He points out that consultants often deliver elaborate transformation blueprints, then leave companies to implement them without sustained support. When new CFOs arrive, they frequently undo previous initiatives or restart entirely, creating cyclical failure patterns.
A critical insight from Liu-Lindberg is that CFOs must dedicate approximately 50% of their time to transformation for it to succeed. This means visible sponsorship through town halls, direct involvement in implementation, communication about progress, and demonstrating personal commitment to new systems and processes. Without this, teams feel abandoned and default to old ways of working.
The discussion reveals that successful transformations share common characteristics: people actually use new systems and processes as designed, teams understand how changes connect to business outcomes, and organizations sequence initiatives rather than implementing everything simultaneously. Unsuccessful transformations typically involve poor timing (new systems and processes launched together with minimal training), leadership that appears absent after initial announcements, and momentum loss when results aren't immediately visible.
Liu-Lindberg emphasizes that finance must fund its own transformation through efficiency gains rather than requesting large budget allocations from CEOs. This requires identifying inefficiencies—often through labor cost analysis or process bottlenecks—to free up resources for transformation work. Once efficiency improvements are realized, the finance function gains credibility to tackle broader strategic initiatives.
Regarding specific tools, he takes a pragmatic stance: Excel isn't inherently problematic, but shouldn't prevent adoption of better systems when available. AI and modern software have created more flexibility than existed previously. However, he cautions against over-relying on AI for tasks practitioners don't understand, as this creates unqualifiable risk.
On the question of whether finance will achieve its business partnering potential in the next 5-10 years, Liu-Lindberg expresses cautious pessimism, noting that 'business partner' has been a stated CFO objective for 20 years without widespread achievement. He attributes this to the fact that many finance professionals haven't adequately honed the skills or mindset required, making it difficult to explain business partnering value even to peers outside finance.
About this episode
Top FP&A business consultant Anders Liu-Lindberg joins FP&A Today four years after his first appearance on the show to talk about the radical changes in FP&A and CFO transformation over that period. In the time since, Anders has cemented his reputation as one of the most in-demand consultants for finance transformation, sharing his practical, on-the-ground experience. 4 years on: what's changed in FP&A transformation How career-minded FP&A professionals are enjoying the best era ever A real example of a finance transformation that didn't land 3 metrics to measure the impact of business partnering Why CFOs should obsess over value If you would like to earn CPE credit for listening to the show, visit earmarkcpe.com/fpna. Download the app, take a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate. Further reading/listening Communicating Financials to Executives: by Anders Liu-Lindberg (Author), Christian Frantz Hansen FP&A Today: More than 12 ERP implementations later…Cindy Vindasius
Key Insights
- Liu-Lindberg claims that finance transformation strategies have remained largely unchanged for 20 years despite repeated failures, suggesting the problem is not strategic planning but execution and adoption.
- He argues that CFOs must dedicate approximately 50% of their working time to transformation initiatives for them to succeed, requiring visible sponsorship and direct personal involvement beyond steering committee attendance.
- Liu-Lindberg identifies that consultants deliver comprehensive transformation blueprints then depart, leaving implementation to organizations unprepared and unsupported, after which new leadership often restarts the entire cycle.
- He contends that successful transformations require sequencing initiatives to avoid simultaneous system and process changes, extended implementation periods (multiple cycles) before declaring completion, and demonstrated value through quick wins to maintain momentum.
- Liu-Lindberg argues finance functions must fund their own transformations through identified inefficiencies and cost reductions rather than requesting new budget allocations, as CEOs rarely provide transformation funding without proof of current ROI.
- He claims that transformation failure occurs not because strategies are wrong but because people revert to old processes and systems, indicating that adoption and change management are the actual failure points.
- Liu-Lindberg states that CFO tenure trending downward and CFO role expansion contribute to transformation failure because consistency in leadership over 3-5 years is required to drive meaningful change.
- He argues that most monthly management reports (approximately 95%) are not useful for business decision-making and should be completely redesigned around business priorities through conversation with stakeholders first.
- Liu-Lindberg contends that training programs on finance business partnering can generate 10-50x return on investment when participants apply learning to solve actual business problems, funding the entire program cost.
- He claims that finance professionals cannot explain their value to those outside the industry because the field has not adequately honed storytelling around what modern business partnering actually entails.
- Liu-Lindberg argues that in large organizations, processes and systems cannot depend on individual people without creating critical risk, whereas small companies must accept this concentration and manage it through documentation and cross-training.
- He contends that annual budgets should not be eliminated but rather reformed to be faster processes that serve as strategic anchors rather than forecasts, with the first-year budget equaling the long-range plan's first year.
Topics
Transcript
If you would like to earn CPE credit for listening to the show, visit earmarkcpe.com slash FP&A. Download the app, take a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate. And if you enjoy listening to FP&A Today, please leave a rating and review. And now, on to the show. From Data Reels, this is FP&A Today. Okay, so here's what I know. Deloitte recently asked 200 CFOs what was on their agenda for 2026. Over half of them stated finance transformation. Gartner then asked a similar group how confident those CFOs were of finance transformation actually landing. A third of them said they were not confident at all. So what I gather from that landscape is the money is flowing…
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