And why simply renaming a function won’t deliver the value you need

The world of work is changing fast. Global markets are more accessible than ever. Technology has enabled deeper integration, collaboration, and centralisation of services. In this new environment, organisations are being forced to rethink how support functions like Finance, HR, and IT create value. It’s no longer enough to provide transactional support or technical expertise. What organisations really need, urgently and consistently, are commercial and credible business partners.

But here’s the catch. While many organisations have renamed roles and rolled out new operating models, few have made the real mindset and capability shift needed to transform these functions into true value-adding partners. This isn’t just a rebranding exercise. It’s a fundamental evolution in how people in these functions think, behave, and influence.

The shift from support to strategic

Traditionally, central functions like HR and Finance have been positioned as internal service providers. They were there to respond to business needs, process transactions, or deliver advice when asked. While technically proficient, these teams were often perceived as reactive rather than proactive, and disconnected from the commercial heart of the business.

Now, we’re seeing a powerful shift. Organisations are centralising transactional activities into global business service centres. This frees up their skilled professionals to play a more strategic role. But this creates a gap between the function as it was, and the function as it needs to be.

Bridging that gap requires more than structural change. It demands a change in mindset and behaviour. It means building capability in influencing, commercial thinking, using data for insight, storytelling, strategic contracting, and change leadership.

And crucially, it requires the confidence and credibility to operate at pace, at scale, and at the level of senior decision-makers.

Don’t just take our word for it

This isn’t just theory. It’s happening in leading organisations and delivering tangible results.

Take Unilever, for example. Their finance transformation wasn’t just about streamlining operations. It was a strategic decision, led jointly by the CFO and CEO, to reposition the finance team as a genuine strategic partner. They moved from transactional work to global centres of expertise. This enabled finance leaders to focus on decision support, risk management, and value creation. The result? Improved financial performance and stronger alignment with business goals.

McLean & Company took a similar approach in HR. By restructuring the function and establishing clear centres of expertise, they created space for HR leaders to partner directly with the business. Instead of acting as market-specific order takers, they became strategic enablers. This drove measurable improvements in employee engagement, leadership development, and overall workforce performance.

These case studies illustrate a key truth. Strategic partnering isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity for organisations that want to be fit for the future.

What true partnering looks like (and how skills make the difference)

Let’s make this more real with a specific example from our work with Inchcape, the global automotive leader.

A typical finance task for a national finance director might be to reduce sales expenses across their network of car dealerships. Traditionally, this would be treated as a straightforward cost-cutting exercise. But through our business partner development work with Inchcape, we challenged that mindset.

We helped finance leaders overlay sales expense data with individual salesperson performance data. The insight? The top-performing salespeople weren’t spending less. They were spending more. And it was paying off.

So instead of cutting costs across the board, the conversation shifted to identifying the optimal sales expense to drive performance. In some cases, that meant increasing investment, but doing so in a targeted, strategic way.

This is what we mean by commercial and credible partnering. It’s not just about efficiency. It’s about insight, influence, and intelligent trade-offs that drive value.

And this approach applies well beyond Finance. Imagine an HR leader repeatedly filling the same roles due to high attrition. A transactional mindset would accept the brief and move quickly. A strategic mindset would pause and ask: “Why are people leaving?” Digging into the root cause might uncover issues with leadership or culture. Addressing those could reduce recruitment costs, boost retention, and improve performance.

These kinds of contributions don’t happen by accident. They require deliberate capability building. And that’s where we come in.

The business partnering skillset: It’s time to get specific

So what exactly are the skills that take someone from order-taker to strategic partner?

Here are the areas we’re consistently asked to develop:

• Understanding how to be strategic – Knowing what it really means to operate at a strategic level and recognising when and how to contribute to business goals.
• Using data to generate actionable insight – Going beyond reporting numbers to combine and interpret data in a commercially relevant, proactive way.
• The skill of contracting – Setting clear expectations, boundaries, and agreements with stakeholders to ensure alignment and accountability.
• Positive challenge – Asking the difficult questions, holding up a mirror to the business, and influencing decisions constructively.
• Understanding communication preferences – Tailoring how ideas and information are shared to suit different audiences.
• Influencing skills – Building relationships, negotiating outcomes, and gaining buy-in at every level.
• Storytelling and presentation – Bringing data and ideas to life in a way that engages, persuades, and inspires.

This isn’t just a skills upgrade. It’s a behavioural shift. Especially for those who’ve spent years being rewarded for technical expertise and transactional delivery.

That’s why our programmes go deeper. We build mindset, confidence, and credibility. Not just capability.

Our experience with a global organisation

We’ve seen this shift in action across multiple sectors.

In one global organisation, the executive team knew their transformation agenda would stall without elevating the capability and impact of their business partners.

We began by working with the global finance community, supporting a shift from technically focused accountants to strategic advisors. From there, the programme expanded into IT and HR to ensure a consistent approach across all key functions.

Using modular learning, practical tools, and behavioural coaching, we helped their people move from reactive experts to proactive partners. They began creating commercial value, aligning with strategy, and positively influencing their stakeholder communities.

It wasn’t just about structural change. It was a cultural shift. One that gave people the mindset and muscle to operate differently.

So ask yourself…

• Have you truly built the conditions for your business partners to thrive?
• Or have you rolled out a new structure and expected everything to change by osmosis?
• Do your people have the confidence, commerciality, and credibility to sit at the table and stay at the table?
• Have you invested in the development required to move from order-taking to insight-generating?

If the answer is “not yet,” you’re not alone. But you could be leaving real value on the table.

One final thought

We’ve seen finance leaders influence national sales strategies. HR directors reduce attrition and shift culture. IT leaders become catalysts for transformation.

None of that happens by accident.

It happens when organisations stop calling people “business partners” and start building them.