As corporate executives face global economic and marketenvironments that are perpetually in flux, they understand thattheir organization needs to be agile. It must be prepared torespond when a merger or acquisition opportunity arises, or whenthe competitive landscape shifts, or when political changessomewhere in the world threaten the bottom line. But what doesbecoming agile really mean—what does agility look like?

The Hackett Group recently published a whitepaper titled “TheWorld-Class Performance Advantage: Three Imperatives for GreaterFinance Agility.” The paper suggests that the best way for afinance function to support the company's drive toward innovationand growth, without hampering its ability to adapt quickly tochange, is to build its internal agility. To learn more about howfinance can become more agile, Treasury & Risksat down with Lynne Schneider, senior research director at TheHackett Group, and Rich Cardillo, a principal and leader of thefirm's finance transformation consulting practice.

T&R: Your whitepaper explains themove toward agility within the finance function by describing threeimperatives. Let's talk about imperative #1: 'Strengthen thefoundations to enable agile service execution.' What does this looklike, and how can a finance team get there?