Finance as a transformation catalyst: A How-To guide for supply chain finance leaders

When a major supply chain transformation program kicks off—a network redesign, a new ERP, a nearshoring initiative, a supplier consolidation—who is in the room? In most organizations, the answer is operations, IT, procurement and strategy. Finance, if it appears at all, shows up later, asked to validate numbers generated without its input and constrained by decisions it had no hand in making.

This is a strategic error and it is one that supply chain finance leaders have both the standing and the obligation to correct.

Every operational decision in a transformation program has a financial shadow: a network redesign changes inventory positioning and working capital requirements; a supplier consolidation alters payment terms across dozens of relationships; a nearshoring initiative shifts cost structures, currency exposures and financing needs simultaneously. That shadow can be managed proactively or discovered reactively, usually at the worst possible moment.

Drawing on my experience leading supply chain finance within Unilever’s Beauty & Wellbeing North America division, including partnering on programs of significant organizational and financial scale, this article offers a practical five-phase framework for supply chain finance leaders who want to step into a genuine co-authoring role in transformation.

Phase 1: Get in the room before the blueprint is drawn

Finance must be present at program inception, before operating model options are evaluated and before cost-benefit analyses are commissioned. At this stage, the finance leader’s role is not to approve or reject a direction but to map the financial architecture of each scenario under consideration: building working capital models (not just P&Ls) for each option, identifying supplier financing implications, and flagging liquidity or covenant risks that operational modeling will miss.

In practice, this often requires advocating for that seat rather than waiting to be invited. The framing that works: every CFO understands that a transformation program creating unforeseen working capital stress is a program that will underdeliver.

Key actions:

• Request a seat on the program steering committee, not just the finance sign-off workstream
• Build scenario-based working capital models for each transformation option under review
• Map supplier financing relationships that will be affected and assess refinancing risk early
• Establish the financial KPIs the transformation will be held accountable to before the program begins

Phase 2: Design a financial architecture for the new operating model

Once a transformation direction is chosen, finance must design the working capital and supplier financing model that will sustain it—not inherit the one that existed before. Most programs make the mistake of carrying legacy financial structures into a transformed operating model: the same payment terms, the same supplier financing programs, the same cash conversion cycle targets. But a new operating model often requires a fundamentally different financial architecture to function at its intended efficiency.

A shift toward fewer, deeper supplier relationships may create the conditions for a supply chain finance program that was not viable at the prior supplier count. A nearshoring initiative may require renegotiated payment terms that reflect new lead times and inventory profiles. A digitization program may unlock the data transparency needed to introduce risk-tiered supplier financing for the first time.

Key actions:

• Design payment terms and working capital targets specific to the new model, not inherited from the old one
• Assess whether the transformation creates new eligibility for supply chain finance programs (reverse factoring, dynamic discounting, inventory financing)
• Engage banking partners early to structure financing solutions aligned with the new supplier and inventory profile
• Create a financial transition plan that bridges the legacy and target models during the implementation overlap period

Phase 3: Manage financial risk actively through implementation

Implementation is the highest-risk financial period of any transformation. Inventory buffers built ahead of system cutovers, supplier relationships in transition, payment process disruptions, and overlapping working capital models create a period of elevated exposure. This is not a failure of planning—it is an inherent feature of transition. The question is whether finance has anticipated it.

The key is building what I think of as “financial signal towers:” real-time dashboards that track working capital, payables, and supplier financing utilization against transformation milestones. These tools allow finance to distinguish between expected volatility within the plan and unexpected stress requiring intervention, without waiting for month-end close to surface problems that needed attention weeks earlier.

Key actions:

• Build a real-time financial monitoring framework specific to the transformation, separate from standard reporting cadences
• Pre-negotiate liquidity buffers or credit facility headroom before implementation peaks
• Establish clear working capital deviation thresholds that trigger escalation to program leadership
• Protect supplier financing program continuity—disruptions during volatile periods can accelerate supplier financial distress at exactly the wrong moment

Phase 4: Lock in financial value after go-live

Transformation programs frequently declare victory at go-live. Finance must ensure the working capital and supplier financing improvements the program was designed to generate are actually realized—and made permanent. This is where many transformations quietly fail: the operational improvements are real, but within 18 months the working capital profile of the “transformed” organization begins to resemble the one that justified the transformation in the first place. Process disciplines erode. Exceptions accumulate. Value leaks.

Finance’s role here is value custodian: tracking benefits against the business case, identifying where value is leaking, and working with operational leaders to close gaps before they become structural.

Key actions:

• Establish a post-implementation value tracking dashboard aligned directly to the transformation business case
• Set 90-day, 180-day, and 12-month financial benefit milestones and hold program owners accountable to them
• Embed new working capital and payment term disciplines into standard operating procedures—not as temporary program measures
• Report realized vs. projected financial benefits to program sponsors and the CFO at regular intervals for at least 12 months post-go-live

Phase 5: Build capability for continuous transformation

In an era of continuous disruption, the goal should not be to manage one transformation well—it should be to build the organizational capability to manage transformation as a permanent operating condition. This means developing finance teams that are fluent in supply chain operations, building modeling infrastructure that can rapidly scenario-plan new initiatives, and creating the cross-functional relationships that earn finance a seat in strategic conversations rather than requiring it to argue its way in each time.

Key actions:

• Invest in cross-functional training so finance team members can engage credibly with operational and procurement counterparts
• Build modular working capital and supplier financing models that can be rapidly adapted to new transformation scenarios
• Establish a standing transformation finance function within the supply chain finance team, rather than treating it as an ad hoc responsibility

Finance belongs at the center

Supply chain transformation is, at its core, a financial challenge as much as an operational one. A network redesign that creates working capital stress it was never designed to absorb is not a transformation; it is a trade-off that was not fully understood. A supplier consolidation that triggers financing gaps the organization scrambles to cover is not a success; it is a near-miss.

The five-phase framework presented here asks supply chain finance leaders to do something that requires both skill and organizational will: to show up as strategists, architects, risk managers, and value custodians across the full lifecycle of transformation, not just as validators at the end.

The organizations that get this right build supply chains that are not just more efficient, but more resilient and more consistently capable of delivering the outcomes that transformation programs promise. Finance leaders have a central role to play in building that capability. The invitation to step into it is open. The question is whether finance will claim it.

About the author

Masha Chandrasekaran is senior finance leader at Unilever, with experience spanning post-merger integration, value-chain transformation and supply-chain finance across global consumer goods operations. Her work focuses on translating large-scale operational and organizational change into sustainable financial outcomes, particularly in areas where strategy often breaks down during execution and that is what the attached article focuses on.

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