"We've clarified the vision so there is no misunderstanding of the role people are expected to play," notes Peter Mondani, GE's manager of financial leadership development. "If all you want to do is analyze numbers, GE isn't the place for you."

Pursuing Consistency
If there is a consensus that finance staffers must become better business partners, there is far less agreement about the kind of training and education staffers need. The case studies, which follow, illustrate three general approaches: (1) building comprehensive programs; (2) filling curriculum gaps after an assessment of finance competencies; and (3) targeting skills that promote cross-functional behaviors. Underlying these approaches is the desire to provide finance with a consistent foundation of skills.

"On-the-job training is not a bad way to learn, but as the company got larger, our concern grew about consistency," says Bill Ashbaugh, who led the design and development of P&G's expansive Finance & Accounting College (see "The Proctor & Gamble Co.: Starting from Scratch," below). "What we have tried to do is provide a consistent learning environment on a worldwide basis. For the first time, all of our people understand the key techniques and the perspectives that management needs."

Others have pursued consistency by evaluating the skills of the current finance people, then developing courses that address specific needs. At Chrysler Corp., the first new course was one on making persuasive presentations. "Finance people must function outside their cubicle" to be business partners, says Dan Cowan, Chrysler's finance training and education manager.

Despite the obvious interest at Chrysler and other companies in fostering cross-functional interactions, rare is the actual classroom experience that brings together finance and nonfinance managers. "We want work to be cross-functional, but training is still functional," observes Anjan Thakor, a finance professor at the University of Michigan Business School. Thakor developed a five-day cross-functional program for The Dana Corp. that includes people from operations as well as finance (see "Custom Delivery," below). "It's hard to do cross-functional training without a cross-functional audience," he says.

What's the ROI?
But how to measure the value of finance's new education initiatives? "We have nothing to show that we are smarter, faster, or make better decisions," admits Terry Carlton, finance director of decision support for Sprint Corp., in Westwood, Kansas. "We're firmly committed to training, but we're not real confident that it's making a difference."

Like Sprint, a number of companies contacted by CFO have had to rely on mostly anecdotal evidence that the educational investment is worth it. Surveys are a popular tool. P&G, for one, talks independently to course participants and their managers to see if the learning has had any impact on job performance.

Other companies simply survey general managers. At Lucent Technologies Inc., in Murray Hill, New Jersey, finance has seen its rating as a strategic business partner jump to 75 percent from a baseline of 50 percent a year ago. Likewise, at TRW Inc., a technical products and services company in Cleveland, finance has seen its scores for business partnering improve dramatically since it began sending its staffers to Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. "Our people do step out of the box and get more involved with other functional areas," observes TRW vice president and corporate controller Tom Connell. "Once you show you're valuable to general managers, they want you around."

Back in 1993, Connell, then-vice president of finance for one of TRW's automotive groups, was among the first group of students to troop to Fuqua for a five-day training seminar called "Creating Strategic Partnerships." The custom-designed curriculum took the 50 or so participants through TRW case studies and elaborate business simulations. For Connell, the highlight came in the woods surrounding the Fuqua campus in Durham, North Carolina. The group was instructed to form teams that had to perform awkward tasks such as removing a can from inside a circle using only a bicycle tube.

"People were stretching the tube across the circle, trying to move the can," Connell says. "It was an example of team problem- solving that was fun. It was a question of trying to be as imaginative as you can."

Is this any way to build a better business partner? Maybe.

The Procter & Gamble Co.: Starting from Scratch

Almost all the business smarts that Erik Nelson has acquired in his 36 years in finance at Procter & Gamble has been on the job. And that approach to learning has served him well. In 1993, he was named CFO of the giant consumer products company. Nevertheless, in the five years since he moved into the top finance spot, Nelson has guided the creation of a global P&G Finance College, complete with three academic tiers and a fourth that will be added this year.

"As finance has become so much more technical and sophisticated, and as we have grown, we've had to elevate our skills and the skills of our line managers," says Nelson. "Learning faster and learning on a consistent basis worldwide is the only way we can succeed."

At P&G, which has a strong promote-from-within culture, the finance curriculum is tailored to the needs of finance staffers at various stages of their careers. College I is for all new hires — about 400 a year. The three-day program focuses on fundamentals and is taught in the same format at P&G locations all over the world. "Particularly in developing countries," observes Nelson, "this helps with acculturation to a common set of principles."

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