WILL YOUR TEAM BECOME
BEST FINANCE TEAM OF THE YEAR 2025?
Financial management is a multifaceted field that goes beyond numbers alone. In an increasingly complex world, it involves more than just bookkeeping, financial flows, and IT processes. It is about the collaboration of people who, as a cohesive team, bring the organization’s strategy and ambitions to life.
It is, after all, the employees—not the figures—who drive professional and efficient financial management. The election of the Best Finance Team of the Year places not the individual but the entire team in the spotlight. We celebrate the collective efforts and craftsmanship of the CFO and their team—well-deserved recognition for those professionals who work in perfect harmony to support the organization’s success.
The Power of a Strong Finance Team
Professional financial management is essential for the growth and prosperity of any company. Our awards go beyond the bottom line; they recognize the impact a finance team makes: from strategic insights and innovative solutions to a robust foundation for efficiency and advancement. These are the building blocks of a forward-thinking organization striving for sustainable growth.
Why Participate?
This election is more than an award; it is a prime opportunity for team building and a motivational boost for your employees. By competing for the title of Best Finance Team of the Year, CFOs show their appreciation for their team’s efforts and acknowledge them as the beating heart of the company. For employees who excel in collaboration and innovation, there is no better recognition.
Recognition for Every Team Member
There is no CFO of the Year, there can only be a finance team of the year. Success is not determined by one person, it is the entire team that makes invisible yet crucial contributions to a project. And even when an achievement is due to a select number of specialists, the strength lies in the collective effort. The election honors these less visible contributions, whether for a long-term project or a complex, strategic initiative.
A Driving Force Behind Innovation and Success
The focus of submitted projects can be broad or specialized, and sometimes it encompasses an evolution spanning several years. The core criterion remains that the team is the driving force behind the innovation and success of the project. We guarantee that participation in the Best Finance Team of the Year competition will motivate and inspire your team to reach new heights together.
Your candidacy in 9 steps
1. Convince yourself.
You have a good team. Fortunately! And you also say that often, right? Great! But your employees deserve some extra recognition occasionally. Rapidly evolving (digital) challenges often cause annoying worries for your finance department. A nomination for the award of Best Finance Team of the Year can make up for a lot.
2. You consult with your team.
You inform your people about your plans and that will evoke strong responses. No wonder. This is quite a compliment you are lavishing on them. The atmosphere in the group is bound to skyrocket. And that will boost productivity.
3. You say yes.
You quickly take action – after all, nothing ever brings you to a stop – and submit your candicacy for the Best Finance Team of the Year award in writing (by e-mail, of course!). Any questions left that you would rather ask in person than in an e-mail? Call Peter De Roeck at 0498 16 02 45 and he will bring you the clarity you need.
4. Take a look at your calendar.
Three dates are important:
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April 10th 2025: Deadline for providing us with all the info
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April 24TH 2025: Meet the jury in Brussels.
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May 15th 2025: Award ceremony with evening programme.
5. Brainstorming within your team.
Schedule some time to figure out with your team which elements you certainly want to feature in the candidacy.
6. Creating your portfolio.
We will help you prepare your portfolio to support your candidacy. We’ll start with a clear template where you can add the main points in bullet form. Once ready, contact our editorial team for an informative and interactive (digital) meeting where you can provide more details orally and answer any questions from our team. Our editor will incorporate this additional information into your document and send it back to you. Review the document carefully, make any necessary corrections or additions, and feel free to attach any extra documents. Together, we’ll ensure that everything is finalized and in our possession by April 10, 2025, at the latest. We will then forward your portfolio to the jury members.
7. Meet the jury.
The members of the jury will expect you and/or (delegates from) your team in Brussels for an informative meeting. You will have no more than 7 slides. You will have half an hour to emphasise certain aspects of your case and to address questions from the jury.
8. Fingers crossed from now on.
Possibly, a photographer and/or video team might stop by at your office. The tension is building.
9. Awardcermony.
May 15th. Le moment suprême. A true joy for finance professionals, an audience of 1000, good food, a unique guest speaker. An evening to remember. There is a genuine chance that you and your team will take one of the awards home with you!
3 awards
1. Large Organisations
2. Small and midsize organisations
In the intricate web of modern businesses, the Finance Department stands as a pillar of stability and a guardian of financial health. It plays a pivotal role in ensuring the long-term success and sustainability of a company. This department is often the unsung hero that enables a company to navigate the complex financial landscape and make informed decisions.
While sometimes hidden in the background, the realisations of the finance team, are very worthwhile to loop back on. The initiatives that finance takes to support the business, to promote efficiency, to navigate in a rapidly changing environment, to implement new technologies and to tackle new challenges, deserve to be mentioned. And the teams who realise those initiatives, are quite deserving of a place in the spotlights.
To compete for the Best Finance Team of the Year awards, is to recognize the efforts made by the finance team and to give them credit for their realisations.
All finance teams can compete for the award: from the smallest to the largest. Based on the submissions, we make a differentiation into two categories and thus hand over two awards. These are the Best Finance Team of the Year – SME Award, and the Best Finance Team of the Year – Large organisations Award.
Assessment criteria
Evaluation of the created solution in its entirety and/or the outlined development and professionalisation of finance. | Was it a team effort or rather an individual consultancy-driven initiative? | If it concerns a multidisciplinary project: Was the finance team initiator and leader? | What is the result of the project in terms of best or advanced practices? | Did the project result in efficiency improvements to the operation of the finance department and/or the entire company? | What is the added value of the project for the entire organisation? | What is the project’s impact on the company’s management? | To what extent did the project take the stakeholders into account (human and market)? | How innovative is the project overall, and also – particularly – in the context of the company (background, complexity, culture, and so on) in which it was achieved? | How are the project’s know-how and knowledge preserved among the team members? | What does the project’s follow-up look like?
3. Belfius ESG Ambition Award
When a company wants to properly answer its sustainability challenges and integrate sustainability into its strategy, the finance team has to meet its role at the table. Not only to ensure compliance with ESG-reporting, but also to translate the decisions into KPI’s, accelerate innovations, assess investement decisions or to think about new concepts for measuring, reporting and creating awareness.
Whoever is driving a company’s sustainable transition, finance teams are always part of this journey. That is precisely why we want to highlight their explicit role with the Belfius ESG Ambition Award. This to recognize and acknowledge their added value, and to inspire other companies to take a step towards a sustainable future.
To compete for the Belfius ESG Ambition Award, the finance department must play a clear role in the organisation’s sustainability initiatives. The specific content of a project can be very broad. All SDGs can serve as a basis for participating.
The professional judges of panel will look for the added value of the finance function in the sustainability initiatives and see what impact it has on the company’s policy. How did the finance function manage to translate all this into KPIs and reporting? To what extent is the finance team an example and source of inspiration for other companies in the sustainability strategy of its company?
How to participate?
As a participant in Best Finance Team of the Year, you can also compete for this Belfius ESG Ambition Award. When developing your case, we will devote a separate chapter to the role of the finance function in your company’s sustainability initiatives. During the jurymeeting, you will have the opportunity to meet the panel members for the Belfius ESG Ambition Award and pitch your case.
Your portfolio
Our editorial team is here to make the creation of your portfolio as smooth and efficient as possible. While your input is crucial, we’re committed to keeping your efforts and time to a minimum.
Here are the steps to complete your dossier:
Complete the Template
To get started, we’ll send you a template as a guide to structure your story. There’s no need for elaborate writing concise sentences and bullet points are all we need to understand the case and its framework.
Collaborative Interview
Once we’ve received your initial document, we’ll schedule an interview to review, clarify, and supplement the content. This will ensure that your dossier is organized, thorough, and clear for the jury members.
Review and Finalize
After we make additions, we’ll send the draft back to you for final approval. Adjust and expand as needed, this is your portfolio. Once we receive the finalized document, we will pass it on to the jury. They’ll review it in advance, allowing you to dive directly into the key points during your presentation.
The deadline to submit your final dossier to us is April 10th, 2025.
The jurymeeting
The jury has the noble task of screening all participating cases and to evaluate them based on a number of criteria. The jury will read a written report on the case in advance (see hereafter). However, the participating teams will also present their case to the jury in person, with ample opportunity to provide additional information. The meeting will take place on Thursday April 24th 2025 in Brussels.
The deliberations of the jury are secret and the winners will only be announced at the award ceremony on Thursday May 15th 2025.
Meet the jury
We invite all teams to illustrate their candidacy to the full jury on Thursday April 24th 2024. This meeting will take place in Brussels. Taking everyone’s busy calendars into account, we will schedule time slots of exactly 30 minutes:
• No more than 10 minutes ex cathedra explanation (using up to 7 slides).
• No more than 20 minutes for questions and answers.
Composition of the jury
The jury’s composition is broad and balanced so that all possible considerations and viewpoints will be part of the evaluation of all cases. The broad support for a decision guarantees that the right selection is made and this adds considerable value to the award. The diversity of the jury safeguards the independence and objectivity of the decision.
Commitments
Overview deadlines
Decision to participate
AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
Submission of completed portfolio
10 APRIL 2025
Submission of your presentation slides jurymeeting
22 APRIL 2025
Jurymeeting
24 APRIL 2025
Award Ceremony
15 MAY 2025
• You will fill in the template and you will free up some time to help our editors compile your portfolio. In practice, that translates into 1 hour for an interview
• You will read the portfolio, correct it, adapt it. The deadline for returning it is: April 10.
• You and your people are prepared to happily say cheese when our photographer asks you to. We will make a short film or animation about your company and your team. You are delighted to cooperate in this effort.
• Your portfolio will not be published, but a one-page summary will be. You will read it and check it before we publish.
• You will step up for a lively conversation with our jury on April 24.
• On May 15th, we will announce the winners during the festive award ceremony (see hereafter), but we hope your full team will be present.
• Your team was honoured with an award? Fantastic! Our editors will have exclusivity, as specialised publication medium, for an in-depth interview with you.
• A true winner will happily cooperate to announce his win to other media, to the extent this is appropriate (newspapers, radio, TV, social media, etc.).
Your presence at the award ceremony
The event around the award ceremony is by far the most important finance community event of the year and is therefore well attended. Of course your team and candidacy are central to the organization and so we hope that you and the whole team will be present at the event.
We want to arrange this as follows:
- The fee for a table (10 participants) at the awardceremony is 2500 euro (excl VAT).
- We offer your team a table (10 participants) with a discount of 25%, so at the price of 1875 euro (excl VAT).
