Finance Enterprise Partner

Q1: What industry are you in?

A: I currently work as a Finance Enterprise Partner in a Switzerland biotechnology research and healthcare company based in Hong Kong. The company specialises in providing patients with in-vitro diagnostics. In-vitro diagnostics refers to medical devices and tests that are performed on human body samples, such as blood or tissue. These tests are conducted outside the body (in vitro) to help healthcare professionals diagnose, monitor, and treat various medical conditions.

Q2: Can you tell us about your personal work background and career path?

A: I graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Accounting and Finance from the UK and began my career at one of the Big 4 auditing firms in Hong Kong. After obtaining my CPA qualification, I went on to take on various in-house finance roles, including financial controlling, planning and analysis, reporting, and capital investment*, working across the engineering and retail sectors.

Driven to further expand my expertise, I also completed a research-based Master's degree specializing in real estate and urban planning. My dissertation explored the impact of transportation improvements on real estate prices, while other projects involved projecting future investment property cash flows based on historical operating statements and industry research, as well as analyzing the financial feasibility of real estate investment opportunities. This MSc degree allowed me to deepen my knowledge of the real estate industry, which ultimately helped me secure my current role focused on capital investment.

*Financial Controlling:
I am responsible for a range of accounting-related controls. This includes preparing forecasts for the current year and budgets for the next 3-5 years, while closely monitoring the company's performance against these approved projections. I also review the financial reports generated by the accounting team, analyze each cost center, and conduct variance analyses to identify potential areas for cost optimization or increased spending. Companies typically require a few years of audit or accounting experience before transitioning to a financial controlling position.

Reporting, Planning, and Analysis:
My reporting responsibilities cover daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual financial performance reporting, encompassing profit and loss statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and relevant financial KPIs.

In the planning domain, I focus on the preparation of forecasts and budgets, similar to the financial controlling function.
On the analysis front, I have tackled a wide range of business-critical issues, providing deep-dive insights to support management decision-making. Examples include analyzing historical sales trends, evaluating the split between online and offline sales, and assessing the profitability of the company's store portfolio.

Capital Investment:
It involves a company allocating funds towards long-term assets to drive future benefits, such as increased revenue, reduced costs, or improved productivity. In my previous retail industry role, I reviewed potential shopping mall sites for new store openings. This process entailed evaluating lease terms, assessing landlord credibility, analyzing the growth potential of target markets, and benchmarking the historical performance of nearby stores to estimate the profitability of the proposed investment. Ultimately, I highlighted the key risks and opportunities to inform the Investment Committee's decision-making.

Q3: What are the responsibilities of your current role, and what do you enjoy about it?

A: Right now, I am working as a finance enterprise partner, supporting various commercial functions including sales, marketing, and business excellence.

Mission and Purpose:
I enjoy my current job a lot as my company develops diagnostic products to address patients' needs at an early stage to prevent, monitor and treat diseases.

Financial Modeling and Investment Valuation:
I enjoy developing financial models and performing investment valuations. This process involves gathering historical data, projecting future sales and expenses, and simulating various scenarios - from best case to worst case - based on a set of financial assumptions. Through this analysis, I am able to derive key metrics such as the return on investment (ROI), which measures the net profit generated per dollar invested, as well as the payback period, indicating how quickly the initial investment could be recouped. These analyses are crucial in building a comprehensive investment case to support the leadership team's decision-making.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:
I enjoy communicating with different stakeholders such as sales, marketing, HR, general manager, business development team and service engineers to know more about the business needs, and hence, support the company in every possible way to maximise the company profitability.

Q4: Could you share a memorable professional experience?

A: The most memorable career experience happened during my first year of work at one of the Big 4 accounting firms. I was assigned to visit four Chinese cities on my own to collect bank audit confirmations from external parties, in order to verify our client's bank balances with their company's books. My company did not provide me with any detailed plans for this business trip; I was only given a timeframe of one working week to complete the task.

As a result, I made use of my organizational and time management skills to book all the flights and trains, and I closely communicated with the clients in each city to ensure that I could collect the required verification documents. Ultimately, my first ever solo business trip was successfully completed.

Q5: What personality traits are well-suited for this profession?

A:

• Open-minded and possessing strong business acumen

• With a detailed and analytical mindset, as a finance professional must be accurate in analysis to support the company's decision-making process

• Skilled in negotiation and influencing, with a true entrepreneurial mindset, allowing you to go beyond merely working on reporting and contribute insights gained from the data

• Proactive and willing to communicate effectively with stakeholders

• Strong sense of accountability for your own work, and a deep understanding of your company's business

Q6: Are there any considerations or limitations in this profession?
A:

• During busy seasons, I often work extended hours.
  (As auditor, I sometimes worked until 3 AM or later, for around 1 month per audit project. Auditors typically have 2-3 such high-intensity engagements per year. For in-house finance roles, the annual budgeting process can also be demanding, requiring work until 10 PM for 2-3 days leading up to the submission deadline, which occurs once a year.)

• Quick turnaround time to provide the leadership with your analysis could be stressful

• The working environment is ever-changing, and we need to have continuous learning in different areas, including but not limited to sharpening our digital technology skills to work even more efficiently, keeping ourselves up-to-date with accounting regulations and government legislation, and many more. But learning also helps your personal career growth.

Q7: How can someone enter this profession, and what are the promotion opportunities?

A:

• Entering the world of auditing can be one of the quickest routes to better pay and quicker promotion, provided one possesses a professional certification such as CPA, CIMA, or ACCA. From my experience, motivated individuals will have a steep career curve and usually can promote to manager level in 5 years time.

• Starting your career as an in-house finance role is another way where you can have hands-on experiences on different functions including controlling, reporting, accounting, tax, treasury and many more. Through rotations across these diverse domains, aspiring finance professionals can accumulate a comprehensive skillset, positioning themselves for advancement to a managerial position in 2-3 years.

Some work-related photos below

On-site visit to understand how engineers supports the maintenance service

Factory visit in China to understand their distribution process

HK corporate event to showcase the newest digital products

By Fion, a Finance Enterprise Partner in a Switzerland biotechnology research and healthcare company based in Hong Kong

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