Finance Controller of the Future Become a Strategic, Data-Driven Business Partner
Vlerick Business School
Accounting & Finance
About Programme
#1
in Open Executive Education in the Benelux
132
former participants
4.4/5
for Learning Impact
To drive value in today’s fast-changing world, finance professionals must transition from the role of “controller” to strategic business partner - and know how to reap the benefits of digitisation and AI.
If you’re ready to make this transition, this five-day programme is for you. You’ll live and learn how to drive growth across your whole organisation – and be a sounding board, communications specialist and data analyst, all rolled into one. And you’ll leave with the tools to leap into tackling the challenges facing cross-functional teams.
Programme Content
This five-day programme is made up of two modules, each offering a powerful mix of theory and practice.
Module 1: Strategic performance management (3 days + intro webinar)
Understand the performance measurement framework
Discover how to link organisational structure to financial performance measurement and incentive schemes
Dive into strategy mapping and balanced scorecards
Explore strategic cost management and the role of activity-based costing
Dive into traditional costing systems and performance analysis
Learn how cost-to-serve models can help you make better marketing and sales decisions
Understand time-driven activity-based costing and its impact on capacity
Discover or deepen your knowledge of the theory of constraints
Module 2: Business Intelligence and Analytics for Controllers (2 days + intro webinar) – 2,895 Euro (excl. VAT)
Discover the potential benefits of controllership analytics
Learn various budgeting and variance analysis techniques - and the methodologies for automating them
Learn how to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques for predictive modelling, forecasting and KPI dashboarding
Learn about agentic AI and how it can be integrated into workflows
Explore advanced analytics in an applied way, and use data to diagnose problems and predict the future
Become more data-driven by using case studies to work with complex data sets and data visualisation tools
If you only need to brush up on your digitisation skills, you can take module 2 on its own. Simply tick the box on the registration form.
Programme Audience
Professionals who are already in, or are transitioning to, a financial business partner role
Finance controllers and managers who want to become strategic partners to the leadership team or C-suite
Professionals who want to work with non-finance colleagues to create value in their organisation
In previous editions, we had the pleasure of welcoming participants from companies like:
Programme Benefits
Track and measure the progress of your corporate strategy
Develop and implement systems for corporate finance management
Get a toolkit of ready-to-use performance models and techniques
Develop a business partner mindset that will help you drive, measure and communicate value creation across your organisation
Explore the application of AI tools and controllership
Testimonials
"In finance, we sometimes speak a different language to the rest of the business – the programme emphasised the need to translate models into clear messages. For me, a real highlight was our analysis of metric models for decision-making, because of the strong focus on actionable outcomes."