Navigating business control in the era of digital transformation - Finance and change management within the digital & IT organization at a Swedish manufacturing corporation

Abstract

This thesis explores how the Digital & IT organization at a Swedish manufacturing corporation going through a digital transformation can adapt the way of working of the business control function. A case study is performed at Company X which is moving toward a product-centric organization, implementing the agile practice of stable teams and have an increasing need for IT capacity, resulting in a need to adapt the finance and business controller function. Two research questions are created to explore this: 1. How will the work of business control and their collaboration with business leaders, change amidst Company X’s digital transformation process? 2. What challenges and opportunities might come from these changes to the ways of working and how should Company X mitigate or enhance them? Data is collected through interviews with five business controllers and six business leaders, which are head managers of the business operations functions. The collected data is analyzed through a thematic analysis and frequency analysis and combined with a literature review. From this, four areas of changed ways of working for busi- ness controllers and their collaboration with business leaders are identified. These four areas of change consist of financial model, relationships, measurements and ca- pabilities, which all lead to challenges as well as opportunities for Company X. The financial model leads to the agile paradox challenge, relationships and measurements lead to the mindset challenge, capabilities leads to the upskilling challenge, while simultaneously all areas lead to an efficiency opportunity. For each challenge a way to mitigate is suggested and for the opportunity a way to enhance it is suggested.