As corporate executives face global economic and market environments that are perpetually in flux, they understand that their organization needs to be agile. It must be prepared to respond when a merger or acquisition opportunity arises, or when the competitive landscape shifts, or when political changes somewhere in the world threaten the bottom line. But what does becoming agile really mean—what does agility look like?

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

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