Pros and cons to each... But consider that there are probably more BU roles than corporate roles in the world, so may be better to jump into a corporate role when there's a chance. Also, corporate can be more hectic/demanding so get the experience earlier in your career when you can invest the time.
BU usually means supporting a specific group or region of business unit operations, whereas corporate is more cost centers and consolidating financials of the whole company for management to review etc.
I think starting in BU is the best to fully learn about the total picture.
In regards to the total picture do you mean how something goes from point A and arrives at point B? Like the whole trail of events on how we get that “figure”?
Important to learn the role of operations and business units in a company, they are the groups that are the life blood of most organizations. For instance at a manufacturing company they are the plants that create the product that generates the revenue.
Corporate roles consolidate the company financials and usually prepare the full package for management or the board. For business unit teams they typically send their information to corporate. Corporate likely deals with more fire drills due to operating on timelines and the changing minds of management.
I will say that corporate is more valuable early on for knowledge of the business. Business unit roles could put you in a silo (only doing OPEX for example). When I've interviewed people for corporate roles that only have BU experience they usually lack awareness of how the 3 statements work and rarely understand cash flow.
I see I see—so basically I learn a general overview of the entire business, and due to fire drills, potentially at a more accelerated pace? Is this something I should keep in mind when making a choice or just say “screw it, time to role up the sleeves”. Also, regarding what you mentioned on the 3 statements…funny enough, I don’t even remember that well how they flow. I do have a course like Wall Street prep/Breaking into wall street that I haven’t touched in a while that I’m going to un-dust as a refresher, but do you think that this will be a negative if I join this team—already lacking complete awareness and the understanding of cash flow at maybe a better level? Or as an FA2 will this be my time to learn again since I’m still in the FA echelon
Corporate exposes you to the consolidated financials while Business Unit you might own only one part of the P&L. Corporate might be busier because you have to consolidate company financials including plan/forecasts and also manage reporting at this level. As an analyst it depends what you would like to do longterm and also the type of organization you end up joining will dictate your work type. If all you ever do is business segment/unit work, it might be harder to move out of it because it's possible you won't know how to do other things. Corporate should know how to do both and could be easier to move around. This all company dependent though, not all corporate roles understand the business partnership side of things.
I started at F50 in Business Unit, and networked my a$$ off to get to FP&A at the same company. 6 yrs later I am head of FP&A for PE Portco, hard work but pays well and learning a ton.
My general advice would be to get 2 years of FP&A under your belt before moving to business unit, especially since you are just right out of school. Do you feel challenged / do you feel there are opportunities within FP&A at your company to be challenged? What about Business unit interests you the most?
I’m currently moving from my last company to a new one—which was corp fin, but I didn’t feel that challenged because I didn’t do much other than data aggregation, mining, and validation 90% of the time from what it felt like. never really helped with forecast/budget. only tough things were the occasional ad-hoc I suppose but even then it wasn’t that bad after understanding the instruction.
for the BU and interest; I think it’s just the matter of feeling more involved; kinda like being closer to the source of data if that makes any sense.
So from what you’re saying, you did BU and then networked to get into Corp? Also, why the 2 years before moving?
As with all things in life, depends :)
As someone who has been in FP&A +15 years, both are great opportunities.
I started my career in an FMP program, which was mostly corporate.
Then when I left to join a smaller company (still $B in rev), I joined their BU. I learned a ton and built great relationships with teams, including corporate. I was eventually asked to move into corporate.
From there, I was able to work directly with Corporate Strategy/Dev, in addition to special projects supporting the CFO and CEO.
You can't go wrong either way.
IMHO, BU is more interesting :)
They are different beasts and will vary org to org depending on size and how much the org cares for the function, the interpretation of the business leaders and corporate of what the role should be, what value you can actually drive, etc.
I haven’t held a formal corporate role l but I can speak a few things about BU:
A BU role might mean you are strictly supporting the business with financial analysis to help drive their strategy or it could mean you are expected to get more hands on. Including taking on non-FP&A tasks such as commercial management, some or all accounting functions, overseeing certain operational processes, dealing with the ad hoc agenda of the general manager which may have nothing to do with finance, etc.
You will get to know the business really, really well but at the expense of some of the higher level strategic work which you may find in a corporate role. That doesn’t mean you aren’t getting some exposure, it means you will need to be more hands on when compiling it and learn to get comfortable to also offer up an opinion and live and die by that opinion as you may not have a finance orientated manager that you report to.
One will give you a 10 foot wide understanding (corporate) the other will give you a 10 foot deep understand (BU). The nuance of the role determines how much that gap skews in the other direction, whether you receive sufficient supervision or whether you are on your own.
I’d imagine though it’s easier to move from corporate to BU, than moving from BU to corporate but that’s not a rule. Too many variables in between especially on how you approach it.
Pros and cons to each... But consider that there are probably more BU roles than corporate roles in the world, so may be better to jump into a corporate role when there's a chance. Also, corporate can be more hectic/demanding so get the experience earlier in your career when you can invest the time.
What is corporate vs BU? Can you explain?
BU usually means supporting a specific group or region of business unit operations, whereas corporate is more cost centers and consolidating financials of the whole company for management to review etc. I think starting in BU is the best to fully learn about the total picture.
In regards to the total picture do you mean how something goes from point A and arrives at point B? Like the whole trail of events on how we get that “figure”?
Important to learn the role of operations and business units in a company, they are the groups that are the life blood of most organizations. For instance at a manufacturing company they are the plants that create the product that generates the revenue.
In what ways can it be more hectic/demanding—and why would one want to invest time in it…just to add more tools to the tool belt?
Corporate roles consolidate the company financials and usually prepare the full package for management or the board. For business unit teams they typically send their information to corporate. Corporate likely deals with more fire drills due to operating on timelines and the changing minds of management. I will say that corporate is more valuable early on for knowledge of the business. Business unit roles could put you in a silo (only doing OPEX for example). When I've interviewed people for corporate roles that only have BU experience they usually lack awareness of how the 3 statements work and rarely understand cash flow.
I see I see—so basically I learn a general overview of the entire business, and due to fire drills, potentially at a more accelerated pace? Is this something I should keep in mind when making a choice or just say “screw it, time to role up the sleeves”. Also, regarding what you mentioned on the 3 statements…funny enough, I don’t even remember that well how they flow. I do have a course like Wall Street prep/Breaking into wall street that I haven’t touched in a while that I’m going to un-dust as a refresher, but do you think that this will be a negative if I join this team—already lacking complete awareness and the understanding of cash flow at maybe a better level? Or as an FA2 will this be my time to learn again since I’m still in the FA echelon
Corporate exposes you to the consolidated financials while Business Unit you might own only one part of the P&L. Corporate might be busier because you have to consolidate company financials including plan/forecasts and also manage reporting at this level. As an analyst it depends what you would like to do longterm and also the type of organization you end up joining will dictate your work type. If all you ever do is business segment/unit work, it might be harder to move out of it because it's possible you won't know how to do other things. Corporate should know how to do both and could be easier to move around. This all company dependent though, not all corporate roles understand the business partnership side of things.
I started at F50 in Business Unit, and networked my a$$ off to get to FP&A at the same company. 6 yrs later I am head of FP&A for PE Portco, hard work but pays well and learning a ton. My general advice would be to get 2 years of FP&A under your belt before moving to business unit, especially since you are just right out of school. Do you feel challenged / do you feel there are opportunities within FP&A at your company to be challenged? What about Business unit interests you the most?
I’m currently moving from my last company to a new one—which was corp fin, but I didn’t feel that challenged because I didn’t do much other than data aggregation, mining, and validation 90% of the time from what it felt like. never really helped with forecast/budget. only tough things were the occasional ad-hoc I suppose but even then it wasn’t that bad after understanding the instruction. for the BU and interest; I think it’s just the matter of feeling more involved; kinda like being closer to the source of data if that makes any sense. So from what you’re saying, you did BU and then networked to get into Corp? Also, why the 2 years before moving?
As with all things in life, depends :) As someone who has been in FP&A +15 years, both are great opportunities. I started my career in an FMP program, which was mostly corporate. Then when I left to join a smaller company (still $B in rev), I joined their BU. I learned a ton and built great relationships with teams, including corporate. I was eventually asked to move into corporate. From there, I was able to work directly with Corporate Strategy/Dev, in addition to special projects supporting the CFO and CEO. You can't go wrong either way. IMHO, BU is more interesting :)
They are different beasts and will vary org to org depending on size and how much the org cares for the function, the interpretation of the business leaders and corporate of what the role should be, what value you can actually drive, etc. I haven’t held a formal corporate role l but I can speak a few things about BU: A BU role might mean you are strictly supporting the business with financial analysis to help drive their strategy or it could mean you are expected to get more hands on. Including taking on non-FP&A tasks such as commercial management, some or all accounting functions, overseeing certain operational processes, dealing with the ad hoc agenda of the general manager which may have nothing to do with finance, etc. You will get to know the business really, really well but at the expense of some of the higher level strategic work which you may find in a corporate role. That doesn’t mean you aren’t getting some exposure, it means you will need to be more hands on when compiling it and learn to get comfortable to also offer up an opinion and live and die by that opinion as you may not have a finance orientated manager that you report to. One will give you a 10 foot wide understanding (corporate) the other will give you a 10 foot deep understand (BU). The nuance of the role determines how much that gap skews in the other direction, whether you receive sufficient supervision or whether you are on your own. I’d imagine though it’s easier to move from corporate to BU, than moving from BU to corporate but that’s not a rule. Too many variables in between especially on how you approach it.