WHAT!?! Are you serious? You’re always advocating for how great business partnering is and how much value it could add to the company bottom-line? That’s right but the key word here is “COULD” because in most cases it doesn’t!

Why is that? Mainly because too much time is spent on correcting data, producing reports, and analyzing numbers to death. These activities are not business partnering. They are enablers of business partnering. That means most business partners are only enabling business partnering and not actually doing it. That, of course, must change because we need to realize the value potential of the finance function so that it becomes a driver of value creation. Let’s explore how we can create that change. 

What’s a “bullshit job” and how do I make sure mine if not one of them? 

A bullshit job is a job that essentially is meaningless. Its work that leads to no real impact and becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic where work gives self-worth. The term was coined by David Graeber in his book from 2018 “Bullshit Jobs”.

How is this relevant to business partnering? Let’s explore that further. 

• For one when your job is to do business partnering but most if not all of what you is not business partnering. In that way your job becomes meaningless.
• One could also argue that despite data, reports, and analysis is supposed to enable business partnering those tasks in themselves rarely lead to any tangible outcome. Why is that?

o  You might make the data cleaner but it’s never perfect

o  Your reports only show what business stakeholders already know

o  Your analysis goes on forever and ever without producing a single piece of insight

• Moreover, as a business partner, you're told that your mindset should be about more than getting paid at the end of the day. You’re told that you’re going to get a very meaningful job that’ll impact the value creation in the company. Unfortunately, you find out that rarely does this hold true and your situation becomes destructive and you might go down with stress.

But this is not how business partnering is supposed to be, right? Well, not if you ask me. However, the reality is as described above in many companies and many business partner roles. Does the real question become if we’re truly ready for business partnering? Because if we’re not ready and I’m sorry to say then there’s no way around landing in a bullshit job! 

How can I tell if my company is ready? 

Here are the questions I would ask your manager or hiring manager if you’re interviewing for a business partner role. 

• Does your/the company have a defined framework for what business partnering is?
• Have people been selected based on their fit with this framework?
• Has your/the company provided training to people to become better business partners?
• Do leaders devote considerable time to observing business partners in action and give them feedback and coaching on how to become better?

If the answer to all questions above is positive then I would confident that you’re going to do genuine business partnering work. However, if they cannot be answered properly then it should raise some serious question marks about the company’s business partnering approach. So, let this be the test of whether you’re going to land in a bullshit business partnering job or not. At least now you’re equipped with a way of protecting yourself from landing in this situation.

If you think your business partner role is bullshit then don’t hesitate to reach out for a talk about how we can help make things better for you!

You can read a lot more articles about FP&A, Business Partnering, and Finance Transformation below. It all start's with “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” where you set the ambition for your transformation. You should join the Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic and you can click here to follow me on Twitter.

Your Journey To Successful Business Partnering Explained

How To Create Value Through Business Partnering

Everyone Can Adopt A Business Partnering Mindset (part of a six-article series about FP&A Business Partnering)

From Business Partner To Working Within The Business (part of an article series where I interview finance professionals about their careers in FP&A and Business Partnering)

Is Your Product Optimized For Value Creation? (part of a toolbox series where we look at what tools FP&A professionals should leverage to drive value creation)

How Business Partners Turn Analysis To Insight (part of case study series where I interview business partners about how they drive value creation using real cases)

The Future Of FP&A: Two Ways To Take The Reins

What Is The Accounting Profession Paradox?

What Defines A Finance Master?

The New Career Path For Finance Professionals

How Finance People Can Be More Successful

The CFOs Roadmap To Transforming Finance

How To Become A Finance Business Partner

Financial Analyst vs. Finance Business Partner

You’re A Finance Business Partner, Now What?

Building A Team Of Finance Business Partners

Anders Liu-Lindberg is a Senior Finance Business Partner at Maersk supporting our largest product and I have more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. I am also the co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 7,000 members. My main goal at Maersk is to show how to be successful with business partnering and drive value creation as a trusted partner. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 33.000+ followers.