A "Systems Thinking" Mindset for FP&A Success - Daniel Gardner
FP&A Today · 2025-08-14 · 52 min
Episode notes
Daniel Gardner is operational finance business partner at FirstGroup Plc, a leading UK-based provider of public transport. Daniel brings a unique perspective shaped by a diverse finance career across iconic consumer brands like L’Oreal, the Body Shop and Hunter Boots, where he led major forecasting overhauls and drove commercial transformation. Now at First Group, he is leading the development of a cloud-based forecasting system for a billion pound division, working with more than 50 stakeholders to deliver scalable real-time insights. In this episode he talks about the power of “systems thinking” in the CFO’s Office as a way of understanding how different parts of an organization (or any complex system) interconnect and influence each other.”If there’s an area, I’d say that FP&A could do with its systems thinking. Structure makes behavior and behavior makes structure.
More from FP&A Today
All episodes →- From Ports to the Deal Table: How FP&A Earned a Seat at Peel Ports67 / 100
- Scaling FP&A at RingCentral: Dan Newman75 / 100
- Transforming FP&A at Fannie Mae into an “enterprise intelligence engine”72 / 100
- Marketing vs FP&A: adventures in business partnering
- Sales vs. Finance: What Great Business Partnership Really Looks Like