Business transformation initiatives often succeed or fail based on how effectively organizations coordinate across functions during execution. Strategic priorities may be well defined, but implementation can weaken when finance, operations, commercial leadership, supply chain teams, and corporate strategy groups operate with different timelines or competing objectives. Anubhav Mittal, VP and Global Head of Business Development and M&A at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Chicago, Illinois, has spent more than two decades working across finance leadership, corporate development, restructuring initiatives, and enterprise M&A within global public companies.
Experience spanning ADM, Kellogg Company, and Booz & Company has given Anubhav Mittal direct exposure to the operational coordination required to manage transformation programs inside complex organizations. Across leadership roles involving CFO oversight, investment governance, and enterprise strategy, the work has consistently involved aligning financial priorities with operational execution across multiple business functions.
Why Organizational Alignment Shapes Transformation Outcomes
Large transformation programs rarely fail because strategic objectives are unclear. More often, execution weakens when organizations struggle to maintain alignment between teams responsible for implementation. Finance groups may focus on margin discipline while commercial teams prioritize customer continuity. Operations leaders may emphasize supply-chain stability while restructuring programs require changes to operating models and resource allocation.
Those tensions become more visible during restructuring initiatives, acquisitions, portfolio shifts, and enterprise modernization efforts. Even organizations with strong strategic plans can experience delays or fragmented execution when accountability structures do not remain coordinated across functions.
Anubhav Mittal’s perspective on cross-functional leadership reflects the importance of connecting strategic planning with operational accountability early in the transformation process. In practice, transformation efforts are more sustainable when leadership teams establish shared performance expectations across finance, operations, commercial management, and corporate strategy functions rather than allowing each group to operate independently.
Coordination challenges also increase in multinational organizations operating across different regions, business segments, and market conditions. Enterprise-wide initiatives may require local adjustments depending on customer dynamics, supply-chain structures, regulatory environments, or operating priorities within individual business units.
Cross-functional leadership therefore becomes less about broad organizational consensus and more about maintaining execution alignment while priorities evolve during implementation.
How CFO Leadership Expanded Enterprise Coordination
Leadership roles involving CFO oversight often require broad operational engagement beyond financial reporting responsibilities alone. As CFO of ADM’s Nutrition business unit and VP Finance and CFO of ADM Global Pet Solutions, Anubhav Mittal worked across commercial finance, FP&A, controlling, operations finance, and strategic planning responsibilities within large global businesses.
Finance leadership in those environments depends heavily on coordination between functions. Revenue forecasting requires commercial input, working capital performance depends on supply-chain execution, and operational efficiency metrics often require collaboration between finance, manufacturing, procurement, and logistics teams.
The cross-functional operating approach developed by Anubhav Mittal reflects how financial leadership becomes more effective when financial analysis remains connected to operational conditions inside the business. Cost structures, productivity initiatives, and investment priorities can rarely be evaluated accurately without understanding the operational drivers affecting business performance.
The CFO role also introduces governance responsibilities that extend across organizational boundaries. Reporting processes, investment planning, and performance management systems often require leadership teams to resolve inconsistencies between operational assumptions and financial expectations before recommendations reach executive leadership or investment committees.
Transformation programs tend to expose those inconsistencies more directly because operational changes can affect multiple parts of the organization simultaneously. Maintaining alignment during periods of change generally requires ongoing communication between leadership teams responsible for execution, planning, and performance oversight.
Corporate Development and Stakeholder Integration at Kellogg
Corporate Development and Strategy roles at Kellogg Company introduced another dimension of enterprise coordination through work involving portfolio management, investment priorities, and restructuring initiatives across a global consumer products organization. Corporate development environments often require leadership teams to evaluate decisions affecting multiple operating units with different market conditions and performance expectations.
Acquisitions, divestitures, restructuring programs, and strategic partnerships can create competing pressures across business segments with varying operational priorities. Leadership teams managing those initiatives frequently need to balance enterprise-level objectives with the realities facing individual business units and regional leadership groups.
Anubhav Mittal worked within environments where strategic recommendations required coordination across finance leadership, legal teams, operational management, commercial organizations, and external advisors. In those settings, maintaining alignment often depended on the ability to translate financial analysis into operational implications while also explaining operational constraints within broader strategic discussions.
The experience at Kellogg also reinforced how stakeholder coordination influences transformation outcomes over time. Strategic initiatives may begin with broad organizational support, but implementation can weaken if accountability systems, reporting structures, or operational priorities diverge during execution.
Cross-functional leadership therefore depends not only on analytical capability, but also on maintaining coordination between teams operating under different performance pressures, timelines, and business objectives.
Analytical Training and Integrative Decision-Making
Cross-functional leadership often develops through exposure to multiple disciplines rather than specialization within a single function. Anubhav Mittal earned an MBA from Harvard Business School with concentrations in Finance and Strategy, along with a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, where graduation occurred in the top 5% of the class.
The Harvard Business School case method emphasizes evaluating business issues from several perspectives simultaneously, including finance, operations, organizational behavior, and strategic positioning. That type of analytical training can become particularly valuable during transformation initiatives where leadership teams must evaluate operational tradeoffs under time pressure and incomplete information.
Professional designations including CFA and CMA further reinforced expertise across valuation analysis, management accounting, financial performance evaluation, and investment governance. Those disciplines support leadership environments where operational decisions, strategic initiatives, and capital allocation priorities must remain connected through measurable financial outcomes.
Earlier consulting experience at Booz & Company also contributed exposure to executive-level decision-making across multiple industries and organizational structures. Consulting environments frequently require concise communication with leadership teams managing operational complexity, organizational change, and strategic planning under compressed timelines.
Cross-Functional Leadership in Enterprise M&A
In the current role as VP and Global Head of Business Development and M&A at ADM, cross-functional leadership remains central to transaction execution and portfolio management. Large-scale acquisitions, divestitures, carve-outs, and strategic partnerships typically involve coordination across finance, legal, operations, compliance, commercial leadership, and regional management teams.
Transaction environments often place pressure on organizations to maintain execution discipline while managing multiple workstreams simultaneously. Even transactions with strong strategic rationale can encounter operational difficulties if communication weakens between leadership groups responsible for integration planning, governance oversight, and post-close execution.
The enterprise transformation approach associated with Anubhav Mittal reflects how business transformation and organizational coordination remain closely connected inside multinational companies managing complex investment portfolios. Responsibilities involving approximately $10 billion in transactions and strategic investments have included acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, carve-outs, and strategic partnerships across international markets.
Those environments frequently require balancing enterprise-wide strategic priorities with operational realities at the business-unit level. Integration planning, accountability systems, and governance structures often need adjustment to reflect differences across operating models, geographic regions, and market conditions.
Cross-Functional Leadership as an Execution Discipline
Business transformation programs often reveal the gap between strategic planning and operational execution. Organizations may identify the correct priorities yet still struggle to sustain results if leadership teams cannot maintain coordination across functions responsible for implementation.
The most effective transformation efforts are generally those where finance, operations, strategy, and commercial leadership remain connected through consistent accountability structures and measurable performance expectations. Sustaining that alignment requires ongoing coordination rather than isolated decision-making during individual phases of transformation.
Across leadership roles involving corporate development, CFO oversight, restructuring initiatives, and enterprise M&A execution, the consistent focus has remained on connecting financial discipline with coordinated operational execution inside complex global organizations.
About Anubhav Mittal
Anubhav Mittal is a senior finance, corporate development, and M&A executive with more than two decades of experience across global public companies. He currently serves as VP and Global Head of Business Development and M&A at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Chicago, Illinois. Previous leadership roles include CFO of ADM’s Nutrition business unit, VP Finance and CFO of ADM Global Pet Solutions, and senior corporate development and strategy positions at Kellogg Company and Booz & Company. Areas of expertise include business transformation, cross-functional leadership, enterprise capital allocation, restructuring, and large-scale M&A execution. Additional background can be found through the professional profile of Anubhav Mittal.
