CFO Strategy: Optimizing the Finance Organization

Challenge

After adopting a new strategy focused on acquisitions, a mid-market healthcare company needed to prepare itself for significant growth and complex changes. Rapid acquisition of new and unfamiliar lines of business would mean organizational and alignment challenges. How would they deal with overlapping operations and competing technologies? Global expansion would only amplify the complexity of transformation, not to mention the pressure of cost synergy commitments to “the street.” Ultimately it would come down to creating a scalable and sustainable platform for continued growth.

Approach: Think + Do

We collaborated with the CFO’s organization to identify and act on several strategic priorities. We developed the means to effectively scale the organization without adding significant cost, and built the operational flexibility to service new lines of business. We initiated a cultural shift and established competency in cost management. For each of these initiatives, we facilitated the progress and overall direction of cross-functional teams comprised of members from newly acquired businesses and functional departments.

Results

We established a Procurement organization, realizing 12% savings and a 25% increase of spend under management in year one. We launched a new Finance shared services department to accommodate Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable for the various businesses. We developed a comprehensive technology roadmap for Finance. We developed a cost conscious culture within the organization, and fostered a culture of information sharing and cross-functional teaming among the new businesses. In the end, we aligned the technology and tools the Finance department needed to integrate new businesses and successfully transform the organization.