What’s New at CFI | Economic Analysis for FP&A

Meeyeon (00:00)
Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of What’s New at CFI. Today, I’m joined by Mimi Hu, who has co-authored our latest course called Economic Analysis for FP&A. And we’re just going to jump right into it and talk about why we created this course. Now, I have my perspective on why we created this course, but I’m going to let Mimi go first.

Mimi (00:23)
Yeah, so i wanted to create this course with Meeyeon because i felt that we wanted to really create a course for the learner where we took an industry that was most tangible everyone on their day-to-day they understand what a retail store does as well as really open up the world of FP&A and show people like what it actually is because there’s always questions about

what does an FP&A professional do? So I think through this course and through the examples that we take the learner through, it really shows all of the logical thinking skills, the critical analysis, the business perspectives that you have to take, as well as a super important skill that I think any job would require is those communication skills and telling a story with the numbers, in terms of

other reasons why we did this course. I think, yeah, just practicality. We just wanted to make a course that was super practical for the learner to engage with. And I think we’ve done a really good job of that in setting up our course in the luxury retail industry and also with our three examples that are super relevant to the retail space as well as current economic conditions as well.

Meeyeon (01:54)
Okay, I’m gonna go out of order here, because I think this makes logical sense to go into next. And so I think a big reason behind creating this course was without giving away our age. When we graduated university, there weren’t a lot of resources like this. A lot of them tended to be physical books.

Did you have any resources similar to this when you were starting off your career in FP&A?

Mimi (02:24)
Nope, I had nothing similar to this. lot of my FP&A… a lot, I mean all of it, all of my FP&A experience was really learned on the job. A lot of trial and error, just practice, practice, practice. So no, the answer is no.

Meeyeon (02:44)
Yeah, and just given all of the insights that we put into this course, I feel like we created it really to make tangible everything that’s talked about when people talk about what a career in FP&A is like, because oftentimes the buzzwords and the sound bites that you get are, it’s partnering with businesses and taking a company’s financial data, bringing it to life,

making it so that it informs strategic business decisions. But if I say that to you, as a learner, don’t know if you’re pursuing a career in this field or if you’re trying to get promoted into the next senior level of your FP&A career, I don’t know if that actually helps you. And so when Mimi and I were putting this course together, we were really intentional and thoughtful about making a course that kind of serves you at whichever point you are

in your FP&A career. So, for example, the type of analysis that we put together is all case-based. It’s all in the luxury retail space. Now not everybody likes luxury retail, but everyone has to participate in retail. For example, you have to buy groceries, for example. All the consumer staples allow you to understand the business model generally because you have participated in it. So you don’t have to learn anything about the…

the context that we’re putting FP&A in, so you don’t have to learn an industry. All we’re trying to show you is that from day one of your job, this is the type of analysis that you’re going to start putting together, an example of a type of analysis. And at the beginning of your career, you might be just helping get together the data to actually analyze. As you grow, you might be the one responsible

for putting together the analysis. Further on in your career, you might be responsible for reviewing the analysis. And as you reach the kind of top of that pyramid, it might be you are responsible for presenting that data to a CFO. Maybe you become the CFO, you’re presenting it to a board of directors, but it gives you that real full circle type of experience on the type of

work that would be done day to day, and what your role might be depending on what part of your career you’re in. And with all that said, what do you, if you were to just have a couple of points that you want learners to take away from this course, maybe just like one or two, what would it be?

Mimi (05:30)
Yeah, I think I would love learners to really understand what FP&A does within a company. Alluding to your earlier comment about FP&A is you think strategically, you partner with the business partners. Those all sound great, but…

I think what I would love the learner to take from this course is how do you actually do that? How do you actually partner with a business partner? What are you showing them? What are you looking at in their business? And what are you sort of thinking strategically and communicating strategically in order to provide value to your business partner? Secondly, I think I would really like the learner to understand how

the economics of the larger economy actually impact decisions in FP&A. So our example regarding the tariff analysis, super relevant to our current times, really want the learner to understand how external decisions have big impacts on our business in terms of retail, as well as…

One thing that I found throughout my career that was a really important skill to develop is that storytelling. So I would love the learner to take away those storytelling skills, get a jumpstart at really thinking about how to present slides and communicate to executives because I’d say that is a large part of what an FP&A professional does.

Meeyeon (07:16)
And if you were to if you were to have had access to this course within your first year of being in an FP&A, how do you think that would have impacted your day-to-day being? And I’m talking like this course specifically everything that we teach in it. How do you think it would have helped and impacted you when you were just starting out?

Mimi (07:38)
Yeah, I think it would have given me definitely like some competitive advantage because you, with all the context and the background and the course, you really understand what the role of an FP&A person or team in an organization is supposed to deliver. So, I think I would probably get a competitive edge by understanding that strategic decision making,

always approaching decisions through like scenario analysis, making sure that those financials are presented in a digestible manner to hire up executives and really being more polished in terms of presentation skills.

Meeyeon (08:26)
Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned throughout my career is it’s so simple, but it’s just the more you see, the better you’ll do. Especially when it comes to the age of, know, like data is everything. We have so much data to work off. Whereas people in their career, you know, like 20, 30 years ago did not have nearly the access to data that we do today. And when you’re in any sort of role in finance.

So much of it relies on your data analysis and presentation skills. And the only way to improve, I think, is to continue to see. See more examples of what is bad, what is good, what is exceptional, and then being able to take all of your experience and then put your own spin on things. And I think that is what is so important about, I think, having access to a course like this, is being able to use it to your advantage. For example, I don’t know if…

if this is the same for you, but when I started out my career, I was an off-cycle investment banking analyst and I didn’t have the training that would prepare me to succeed for my role until six months down the line because you had to be physically present for this course and it was only offered, it was a two-week crash course and it was only offered to the analyst group every six months or so. having access to something like this where

I’m being given the actual tasks that are kind of done day to day. I get to see the grounds up technical analysis and also be told that, okay, after you do the analysis, it has to be presented first of all. And like, are some good examples of it. I think that’s extremely helpful. And it would have prevented me from the way that I learned was basically someone telling me, Hey, you’re doing it wrong. Or like, I don’t like the way that you’re doing it. At least I would have had a, I think a better starting point.

But all that to say, everybody has to learn somehow. And I think that the course that we put together certainly enables people to start from a position where they’re a bit more confident. And that’s what I people take away.

Mimi (10:34)
Yeah, I think one more point to add to that. I also feel like this course is very relevant for wherever you are in your experience or career journey because it really tests your thinking, those critical thinking skills, and

your presentation skills because whether you’re an analyst one year in, you’re to have to present your data or your analysis to your boss. And whether you’re presenting to a CFO, it’s sort of those same skill sets that you’re going to have to be practicing over and over again throughout your career.

Meeyeon (11:15)
And with that said, I hope that we have piqued your interest if you haven’t taken this course yet. And if you have, we hope you’ve enjoyed it. And until next time, we’ll see you in our next episode.