Biggest Challenges Faced By A Senior Manager FP&A At The Bouqs Company
Alice's biggest challenges as a Senior Manager in FP&A at The Bouqs Company revolve around interpersonal dynamics when delivering "bad news" like budget cuts, requiring them to be approachable and emphasize that they're "here to work with them, not against them," along with the difficulty of obtaining necessary data from other teams, often leading to reliance on assumptions that require research and collaboration.
Financial Planning & Analysis, Budget Management, Data Analysis, Communication Skills, Stakeholder Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Alice Choi
Senior Manager, FP&A
The Bouqs Company
Occidental College
UCLA Anderson MBA
Economics
Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)
Finance
Honors Student, Immigrant
Video Highlights
1. Delivering difficult financial news (budget cuts, finding savings) to business partners and working to maintain a collaborative relationship instead of being seen as the "bad guy."
2. Difficulty in accessing necessary data for analysis, requiring collaboration with data and engineering teams, and sometimes necessitating making informed assumptions due to data unavailability.
3. The importance of being approachable and reinforcing the message to business partners that finance is there to collaborate and support them, not to hinder their work.
Transcript
Q6: Biggest challenge in your role?
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
My biggest challenge is, even though I like working with people, it's also sometimes a challenge just working with people, especially when you have to deliver bad news as a finance person. This could be about cutting the budget or finding savings.
That's always news that business partners are scared to hear from us, and delivering that message is difficult. Then, working with them to try not to be seen as the bad guy is a challenge.
So, trying to come across as approachable and reminding our business partners that we're here to work with them, not against them, is super crucial.
Another challenge, and it's related to getting the data to analyze. Sometimes you need to ask the data team for specific numbers, but sometimes they're not available. You have to work with the data or engineering team to get that data. That's definitely a challenge.
Often, we can't get the data at a reasonable time, or there's just no way to get it. So, you have to essentially make assumptions. A lot of our job is making smart assumptions.
Sometimes you can figure that out yourself, or you have to do research online, or talk to your business partners. But yeah, those are the biggest challenges.