On October 2, ACCIÓ, the Catalan Agency for Business Competitiveness, hosted the workshop “The Finance Function in the Cluster World: Best Practices for Managing a Cluster” at its headquarters. It was aimed at cluster managers, treasurers, chairs, and anyone involved in a cluster’s finances.
The session was led by David Andreu, a partner in addwill‘s Corporate Finance department and a professor of Financial and Management Accounting at ESADE. He has more than 30 years of experience in multinationals, as an auditor at KPMG, and as a CFO. He shared a practical perspective on how to adapt the finance function to the reality of clusters, which often combines business activity, collaborative projects, and grant management.
The workshop covered financial statement analysis, working capital management, and the most useful ratios for tracking performance. Another block focused on reporting and budget control: how to turn numbers into a story, and what a good report needs so that it truly serves management, using strategic KPIs and OKRs as tools.
Participants also dug into the day-to-day issues clusters face: financing and best practices, the roles of the cluster manager, the treasurer, and the chair, accounting for grants, and VAT proration, both general and special.
At addwill, we support cluster management teams by providing practical tools and strategic guidance to help them make financial decisions with confidence and perspective.