"Should Finance own pricing?", asked Paul Barnhurst a few days ago. My clear answer was NO...

...however, a staggering 61% of the almost 500 votes say "YES"! This is a huge problem in my opinion. Why?

Because it signals that we do not have faith in our commercial organization to run its business. Likely we also say yes because we like to have control over the process.

Here is why I say no...

Finance cannot both own pricing and control it. It is a fundamental breach of the governance we bring to the company.

If you want to make the decisions then move into the functions that own them and out of Finance!

It does not mean we should not influence the pricing decisions for the better. This is a critical task of a business partner!

To influence these decisions I wanted to highlight a great new report just released by IMA | Institute of Management Accountants.

The profitability analytics framework is jam-packed with ideas as to how you can analyze the profitability (including pricing) of your company.

Use it to develop insights you can bring to your stakeholders to help them make better decisions. This is the purpose of Finance - not to call all the shots.

What do you think? Should Finance call all the shots in the company?

#finance
#accountingandaccountants
#financemaster