Empower Finance Operations to Drive Success

Bjorn Dumortier, Director of Finance Operations, Zalando

Building Operational Excellence in Finance Operations

As the Director of Finance Operations at Zalando, I spearhead a dynamic team of around 150 professionals based at our Berlin headquarters. This team is pivotal in managing our operational finance activities, encompassing (i) comprehensive transactional processes such as purchase to pay, order to cash, record to report, master data management, and contact management, (ii) driving operational excellence through continuous process optimization, and (iii) overseeing global process ownership.

As an operations team, it is crucial to bring agility and flexibility to constantly meet the new requirements and initiatives initiated through our Zalando Group Strategy, which builds on the vision to be the ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce across two growth vectors, B2B and B2C.

“In any transformation and change journey, it’s the people who will make the difference, enabled through process and technology”

To establish robust business processes, the ESSA model—Eliminate, Standardize, Simplify, and Automate— is fundamental. Effective implementation of this model requires dedicated resources and the appropriate suite of tools and solutions. Cultivating a team-wide culture of operational excellence is equally crucial, ensuring that problem statements consistently undergo Root Cause Analysis. In order to enable and build such a culture, I believe it’s crucial to work with an in-house team of experts who understand the business, the technology, and the change management aspects within such a culture.

Maximizing Technology, Processes and People

It is important to stay up to date with the technology landscape; however, it is also crucial to fully utilize the tools and systems that are available. Building bolt-on solutions to systems always requires interfacing and maintenance. Secondly, Global Process Owners are important to bridge the potential gap between process and technology. Lastly, every employee at a shared service center should get trained on Operational Excellence. Remember though that in any transformation and change journey it’s the people who will make the difference, enabled through process and technology.

As previously mentioned, automation is implemented only after the initial steps of the ESSA framework, thereby preventing the automation of flawed processes. It is also prudent to fully leverage existing capabilities before developing an intricate technological and tool infrastructure. Finally, prioritizing software with established use cases is recommended, as these platforms often drive advancements within their own product offerings.

Try out new things. In any shared service organization it’s important to constantly learn new skills. Seize opportunities as they arise, whether they involve contributing to M&A activities requiring additional support or participating in specialized audits or something along those lines. These supplementary projects serve as significant catalysts for career advancement.