Rafi Wadan gave a presentation on the impact of digitization on the role of FP&A (finance, planning, and analysis). Digitization is driving changes to FP&A tasks and processes through automation, use of big data and advanced analytics. It is also enabling new business models that require changes to traditional FP&A roles. The presentation analyzed trends in job advertisements, skills requirements, and tasks to show how FP&A roles are evolving to require stronger technical, analytical and soft skills as the function shifts from data processing to business partnering, decision support and helping shape digital transformation.

1. 1Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and the change in FP&A

2. 2Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Agenda
Presentation objectives
The objective of this talk is to answer following questions:
1. What is the general impact of digitization on FP&A?
2. How are tasks in FP&A evolving?
3. How is the role of FP&A analysts changing in the future?

3. 3Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Academic foundations:
• Doctorate at the chair "Corporate Accounting and
Controlling" at the TU Chemnitz about "Influence of
digitization on the role of FP&A".
• Master of Science in Business Administration at the
University of Goettingen Focus: Corporate Management
and Controlling
• Bachelor of Science in Business Administration University
of Hamburg Focus: Corporate Management
Industry experience:
• CEO & Co-Founder – Stargazr
(Hamburg)
• Financial Analyst – Lufthansa Technik
(Los Angeles)
• Controller – Beiersdorf (Hamburg)
Rafi Wadan

4. 4Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
AI-powered software for FP&A

5. 5Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
AI powered software for FP&A
Value Driver Model &
Sentiment Analytics
Predictive and Prescriptive
Analytics
Collaboration Feed
Analysis Forecasting Reporting

6. 6Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
What is the digital transformation?

7. 7Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
Definition of digital transformation
Quote from G. Kane (Professor for information
systems) from „Achieving digital maturity“ (2017)
“Perhaps the most common understanding –that
digital transformation is about the implementation
and use cutting-edge technologies is likely the
most misguided […] The best understanding of
digital transformation is adopting business
processes and practices to help the organization
compete effectively in an increasingly digital
world.”
Quote from Freistühler and Kempkes from
„Controller and data scientist in practice“ (2019)
“The objective is not so much to replace the data
scientist in his function as a technology expert, but
rather to promote long term cooperation through a
common understanding of the possibilities of
modern data analysis.”

8. 8Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
Finance and FP&A plays an increasing role within the digital transformation ...
Digital transformation:
The CFO´s role
McKinsey & Company (2019)
“In the future we don’t need
any controller more”
Weber & Schäffer (2015)
CFO - Fox or hedgehog?
Enzenhöfer & Reimer (2020)
Source: McKinsey,
2018, etc.

9. 9Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
... but what impact does it have for finance and FP&A?
New Opportunities for existing processes New business models
Monthly
Reporting
High amount
of repetitive
Work
High amount
of automized
Work
Monthly
Reporting
• High assets
• High production
cost
• Fast revenue
approach
• No assets
• Low production cost
• Slow revenue
approach
Room booking/
Car production
Room sharing/
Car sharing

10. 10Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
FP&A is forcing the transformation from two main areas
Optimization of processes and tasks New Business Model
New services and new
products
Changes of current
business model
Improvements of Tasks
Improvements of
Processes

11. 11Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
Improvement of processes and tasks
+ internal and external
data

12. 12Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
New business models
Source: Volkswagen, 2019

13. 13Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
“Industry 4.0” is the increasing digitization and automation of production systems from humans and
machines as well as their networking among themselves (Kagermann et al., 2013)

14. 14Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
Source: McKinsey, 2018
Big Data
RPA
Cloud Computing
Machine Learning
Deep Learning
Predictive Analytics
Pricing model
New competitors
New customers
Technical perspective Strategic perspective

15. 15Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Digitization and FP&A
Car is turning into Computer
due to Digitization

16. 16Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Evolving Tasks in FP&A
Source: McKinsey, 2018
What tasks are
affected by
digitization?

17. 17Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Evolving Tasks in FP&A
Source: McKinsey, 2018
What tasks are
affected by
digitization?

18. 18Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Evolving Tasks in FP&A
1980
Analyzing
Data
Crunching
Reporting Storytelling
Presentation
Planning
• Interface between the finance function and management
• “Bean counters” à Support in Decision-making
• Preparing financial statements
• Measuring company's performance
• Providing decision related information (Cokins, 2013).
1990 2000 2010 2020

19. 19Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Evolving Tasks in FP&A
Time
Analyzing
Data
Crunching
Reporting Storytelling
Presentation
Planning
• Interface between the finance function and management
• “Bean counters” à Support in Decision-making
Impact of Digitization

20. 20Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Evolving Tasks in FP&A
Trends of big data reduces time for analysis processes ...
administrative work (1h)
lunch (0.75h)
data handling (5h)
analysis (1.25h)
Before big data
administrative work (1h)
lunch (0.75h)
data handling (6h)
analysis (0.25h)
After big data

21. 21Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Evolving Tasks in FP&A
... ideally new tools could change the function of controllers towards business partnering
administrative work (1h)
lunch (0.75h)
data handling (3h)
analysis (1.25h)
business partnering,
experiments (2h)

22. 22Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
Statements from Prof. Weber & Schäfer:
• Controllers need to develop their skills
profile!
• Controllers must master the analysis of
Big Data
• Possibly, Data Scientist will be enough as
interface between management and
companies data

23. 23Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
Analysis Method
Exploratory job advertisement analysis for the DAX30 companies
• N=75,455 à 1923 positions (2,55%) articulate FP&A Analysts/ Management Accunting positions
• Results analyzed in relation to total job advertisement between Jun 2014 – Jul 2017 of
German Dax 30 Companies
• Correlation analysis was carried out in order to derive answers

24. 24Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
0,00%
0,50%
1,00%
1,50%
2,00%
2,50%
3,00%
3,50%
4,00%
6.2014
7.2014
8.2014
9.201410.201411.201412.2014
1.2015
2.2015
3.2015
4.2015
5.2015
6.2015
7.2015
8.2015
9.201510.201511.201512.2015
1.2016
2.2016
3.2016
4.2016
5.2016
6.2016
7.2016
8.2016
9.201610.201611.201612.2016
1.2017
2.2017
3.2017
4.2017
5.2017
6.2017
7.2017

25. 25Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
Decision-makers faced with the problem of the amount of information in the reports

26. 26Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
FP&A analysts are facing impact on three competency/skill areas (Schäffer and Weber, 2015)
IT Competences
Technical and
methodological
competences
Soft Skills

27. 27Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
24,2%
13,9%
8,7%
5,0%
1,9% 1,3% 0,9%
23,5%
15,3%
7,5% 6,8%
2,2% 2,3% 1,1%
SAP MS Excel SAP ERP|R/3 MS
PowerPoint
MS Access Visual Basic,
VBA
SQL
IT Competencies of MAs
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017
100
519
44 22
292
978
105 78
python java php ruby
Programming Languages
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017
50
336
120
34
10 24
74
354
115
54 52 49
R MATLAB SAS SPSS Tableau Qlikview
Statistical Software Programs
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017
IT Competences

28. 28Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
IT Competences
54
11 8
45
9
67
9
20
72
165
64
17
79
20
108 106
hadoop hive mapreduce pig cassandra spring mongodb nosql
Big Data Technologies
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017
7
25
42
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017
Automation
1
14
42
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017
Digitization

29. 29Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
16,0%
15,0%
9,0%
6,9%
5,6% 5,2%
4,1% 4,0% 3,9% 4,0%
3,1%
2,1% 1,7%
8,9%
10,3%
15,3%
14,1%
8,4%
7,7%
6,6%
5,0%
4,2% 4,1% 4,1% 3,8%
3,0%
2,2% 2,0%
9,3%
10,1%
Analysing Planning Reporting Budget Decision Deviation Forecast KPI Financial
Statements
Investment CalculationProfitability Predicting Costs Control
Aufgaben Controller
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017
Methodological
competences Tasks FP&A

30. 30Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
Methodological
competences
16,0% 15,0%
9,0%
6,9%
5,6%
15,3%
14,1%
8,4%
7,7%
6,6%
Analysing Planning Reporting Budget Decision
Aufgaben Controller
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017
Tasks FP&A

31. 31Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
Soft Skills
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Job
Experience
EnglishSkills
AnalyticalThinking
Team
orientation
Com
m
itm
entFlexibility
Com
m
unication
Load-bearingcapacity
Presentation
Skills
Assertiveness
Readinessforaction
M
otivation
Self-confidence
Own
responsibility
Senseofresponsibility
Independence
Perception
SocialCom
petenceCreativity
Custom
erorientation
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017

32. 32Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts
Soft Skills
5,8%
2,9%
4,9%
6,7%
3,5% 3,6%
Communication Presentation Skills Resilience
8.2014-7.2015 8.2015-7.2016 7.2016-6.2017

33. 33Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Changing Role of FP&A Analysts

34. 34Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Lesson Learned
FP&A is strongly impacted by the digitization
• Older business models are affected à rethinking of FP&A à help shape digital transformation
• Questioning the business model, resource allocation and culture
• Automation potential in corporate management
• Capabilities must expand: The importance of social skills in terms of communication and presentation skills
is increasing
• FP&A must strengthen the analytical potential of their company!

35. 35Rafi Wadan | Digitization and change of FP&A
Thank you for listening!
Hamburg, Germany
+49 40 35564907
rafi.wadan@stargazr.ai
www.stargazr.ai