Finance as a business partner at Marimekko : Searching for Finance Business Partnering opportunities at a Finnish Design Company

Abstract

Finance Business Partnering is an innovative strategic orientation where the accounting disciplines and business understanding of the finance department are combined to pro-vide analysis and insights to inform and influence decision making and performance man-agement in an organization. To get a practical view on this and its implications, Finance Business Partnering was explored in the context of a company. The aim of my thesis was to explore whether Marimekko, a Finnish design company, could benefit from implement-ing Finance Business Partnering and how this could be done. However, as there is no spe-cific theoretical framework for Finance Business Partnering, to assess Marimekko, a framework was built based on Company studies by Deloitte, IBM, Ernst & Young and KPMG and reports by Managerial Accountancy Institutes ICAEW, CGMA and CIMA. Then, to gather information on the current maturity of the finance department, in relation to Finance Business Partnering, an interview was conducted at the Marimekko HQ with the CFO Elina Aalto. The findings in the interview were then analyzed based on the framework that was prepared. The insights in the interview were then concluded and sug-gestions for Marimekko in terms of Finance Business Partnering made.