Looking for inspiration for your goals? We asked members of our global FP&A Advisory Councils to share with us some of their professional goals for 2025.

As they exit 2024 and prepare for 2025, what’s top of mind? Let’s find out!

Start With a Dose of Optimism

Reda Shousha, a newly appointed CFO from Saudi Arabia, is entering 2025 with an optimistic outlook. “For me, 2025 will be a year of growth, both personally and professionally,” said Shousha. “My primary focus will be enhancing my technical expertise and strategic capabilities to become a more effective and impactful finance leader. By focusing on both technical and strategic development, I aim to elevate the role of the CFO and contribute significantly to the company's long-term success. I am excited to embrace the challenges and opportunities that 2025 will bring.”

Improve Finance Processes

“Change people’s fears into excitement!” said Connagh Hopkins, Head of Function, Business Planning and Reporting, from Australia. She plans to do this first through a cost optimization plan that will target the processes and behaviors that are driving inefficiency for specific activities, e.g., vegetation management. Second, she plans to further embed rolling forecasts. Third, she plans to integrate the strategic workforce plan and operational delivery strategy into her company’s 10-year business outlook process.

Sometimes, it really is about the money. A small company CFO laid out goals for finance and business improvements: “It is my goal to secure additional capital through debt or equity financing while driving internal operational excellence to improve margins. Ultimately, this will support aggressive growth initiatives, including expansion into new markets.”

Another council member, who took on a newly created role, plans to enhance FP&A’s role as a business partner by providing valuable insights: “One of my priorities is to build effective KPIs for our business units based on the organization’s long-term plan.”

A third council member is focused on process improvement and efficiency across the organization. Their plan has six action points:

1. Establish an organization-wide community of practice between all BI development groups.
2. Establish unified internal development guidelines with a roadmap.
3. Align processes across the enterprise and eliminate redundancies.
4. Simplify operational activities and reporting to drive efficiency.
5. Streamline workflows with automation to enhance colleague experience.
6. Deliver smart reporting solutions that integrate disparate data sources to improve insights.

For his multi-layer plan for the year, Shousha is looking to prioritize risk management by implementing robust risk assessment and mitigation strategies: “By proactively identifying and addressing potential risks, I will help safeguard the company's financial health and reputation.”

Tap Into Technology

Given the tremendous role technology is playing in finance and how quickly technology evolves, it only makes sense that it would be a top priority for many FP&A professionals. “I plan to upgrade and implement more modern/automated financial systems,” said one council member, while another has plans to “streamline reporting using Power BI.”

Danny K Shiu, FPAC, CTP, a Sr. Financial Analyst in Hong Kong, said he would like to “help my company enhance the process of allocating actual P&Ls into the product/customer database in Anaplan, the financial system my company uses.”

Shousha’s plan for technology is to “champion the adoption of advanced technologies and automation tools to streamline processes, improve efficiency and enhance data-driven decision-making,” he said. “This will enable the finance team to focus on higher-value activities, such as strategic analysis and business partnering.”

Raymond Cheung, Regional FP&A Transformation Lead from Hong Kong, is interested in exploring the capabilities of ChatGPT in regard to FP&A tasks. “The existing use cases are very limited,” he said. “I plan to continue exploring how it can help in everyday FP&A work. I also want to delve into system tools development (i.e., business intelligence tools like SAP Analytics SAC) in the market and different approaches for implementation. I’m primarily interested in how the new approaches reduce the implementation timeframe and related costs (lower ROI), as well as how they integrate with ChatGPT technology.”

Hopkins has two technology-related goals for 2025: She plans to increase the automation of transactional and routine tasks, e.g., journals, and implement a new payroll and time & attendance system. Her team will support the selection of the vendor, articulate the business case benefit to the organization, and support the implementation and roll-out (testing and report building).

Actively Supporting Our People

Lee Iacocca, former head of Chrysler and Ford, once said, “In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.” Here’s what a couple of our council members have in mind for goals to support their people.

“A skilled and motivated finance team is essential to achieving our organizational goals,” said Shousha. That is why “I will invest in the development of my team members by providing opportunities for training, mentoring and career advancement,” he said.

Shousha added, “I also plan to strengthen my partnership with the CEO and other executive leaders to align the finance function with the company's overall strategic goals. By understanding the business's strategic direction, I can proactively identify opportunities and mitigate risks.”

Hopkins has set two people goals for herself in 2025: attract more digital talent to finance and develop decision support capability.

Personal Growth Through Education and Life Balance

“I plan to be more efficient with my time management in order to maintain a proper work-life balance, with the goal of giving my family more of my attention,” said one council member. They also plan to enhance their financial skills by studying for and becoming professionally certified (e.g., FPAC, CTP).

Additionally, they said, “I am keen to read more books and articles related to finance, business and other topics of interest to me. I want to expand my knowledge base and obtain new information and ideas.”

Power BI has become widely used in Shiu’s company, so he plans to enhance his skills in that area. He added, “I plan to pass my mid-level Portuguese exam.”

Next Steps to Toward Your Goals

Once you set a goal, here are some things you can do to take the next step:

• Reflect on your lessons in 2024 and apply what you’ve learned to 2025.
• Commit to growing this year and invest in your professional development. For finance professionals, AFP has a variety of resources to help you grow, including the CTP certification and FPAC certification, live webinars and on-demand learning, and world-class events like AFP 2025 and the AFP FP&A Forum.
• Get support from your network. Talking to family, friends or trusted colleagues can help create accountability as you work toward your goal. If you’re looking to meet more finance peers, join AFP and grow your network.