We all share a common goal: to become indispensable partners in our companies, guiding each team and department toward success. The question is, how?

Cube's Strategic Finance Hierarchy of Needs outlines a clear path to build a strong financial foundation, essential for any strategic finance leader. As you organize your data and establish reliable models, collaboration within your team naturally improves. This sets the stage for deeper involvement, where your insights from reporting and analytics inform and guide your stakeholders. By the time you reach the planning stage, you're not just prepared—you're actively leading your company as a trusted strategic partner.

Let's take a closer look at how you can use this framework to set your finance function (and your business) up for success.

Happy planning,
Christina

The Strategic Finance Hierarchy of Needs

You're geared up to make strategic moves that will shape your company's future, but instead, you find yourself waist-deep in sorting out messy data. It's frustrating. You entered the finance field to influence key decisions, not to get bogged down by data errors and inconsistencies.

Let's break down each tier of the Strategic Finance Hierarchy of Needs to see how you can climb out of the data trenches and start making the strategic contributions you truly aspire to.

Tier 1: Data integrity

Data integrity is the foundation upon which reliable reporting, insightful analysis, and strategic decision-making are built. It encompasses several key practices, such as:

• Data governance: Is your data correctly structured?
• Data cleansing: Is your data clean and correct?
• Data consolidation: Is your data mapped and tying out?

While ensuring data integrity is essential, it can consume too much of our time—time better spent on strategic efforts that drive growth and innovation. Investing in the right technology can streamline these data processes so they support, rather than hinder, strategic goals. Implementing advanced tools and systems speeds up data handling and frees up your team to focus on higher-level analysis and decision-making, getting you one step closer to strategic influence.

Tier 2: Reporting and analysis

At this stage, the focus is on interpreting the numbers, spotting trends, identifying areas of strength and weakness, and using these insights to guide your business strategy. It involves asking two key questions:

• Reporting: How is the business performing?
• Analysis: What patterns can we find in our data?

Effective reporting translates your financial data into a format that's easy to understand and act upon. It tells you how much revenue you're making, what your expenses are, and where you might be able to cut costs or increase profits. Analysis goes a step further by digging into the 'why' and 'how'—why are sales higher this quarter, and how can we replicate this success in the future?

This stage is all about turning finance teams from reactive to proactive. By sharing clear and actionable data, you become a go-to advisor in your company. Your role involves not just presenting numbers, but interpreting them to influence strategic decisions—from tweaking operations to breaking into new markets. With these insights, you can steer executive discussions, making sure that financial data plays a central role in shaping the company's strategies and driving growth.

Tier 3: Planning and modeling

In this stage, we transition from analyzing past and present data to strategically planning for the company's future, setting financial goals and figuring out the best path to achieve them. This involves creating financial models and conducting what-if scenarios that help steer the company's direction. Your team will seek to answer the following questions:

• Planning: What do we think will happen in the future?
• Modeling: What are the inputs needed to hit our targets?

Since it provides the analytical foundation and foresight needed to guide strategic decisions, align financial goals with business objectives, and navigate the company toward long-term success, the "planning and modeling" tier is where beginning to cultivate a strategic mindset really comes into play.

Tier 4: Strategic finance

Finally, we've reached the pinnacle: strategic finance. At this level, you'll use your expertise to help business leaders and stakeholders answer the all-important question: Are we making the right business decisions?

At this point in the game, you'll have taken all the proper steps to build a strong financial foundation. You'll have trusted data that you can use to offer meaningful, scalable insights to the business. You'll have addressed and found long-term solutions to your team's biggest pains, such as:

• "I can't trust my data."
• "My work takes too long."
• "My spreadsheets/models keep crashing."
• "I'm struggling to work cross-functionally."

In short, you'll have laid down the essential groundwork, freeing up valuable time previously consumed by foundational tasks. This newfound focus allows you to become an indispensable partner in identifying the drivers of success across every team and department. As an advisor, you play a pivotal role in helping them achieve their targets, cementing your position as a key contributor to the company's growth journey.

Want to keep learning about how to strengthen your finance function?

Check out The future of strategic finance for everything you need to ascend to new heights.

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Essential reads: Step into strategy

1. Essential tips and tricks for strategic financial planning

Strategic financial management is necessary for long-term success. So how do you make—and manage—your strategic financial plan? Especially if you still feel bogged down by bad data? This guide contains tips and tricks to help you get there.

2. Top strategies for aligning OKRs & financial planning

As you work your way through each stage of the Strategic Finance Hierarchy of Needs, this guide on OKRs will come in handy. It explains how to connect your financial planning with strategic goals so you can think long-term while keeping everyone on the same page.