FP&A Process Improvement

Best-practice financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams are looking for ways to venture beyond the traditional job scope. Previously, the typical FP&A team spent the bulk of its time reporting on how well the organization had performed during a given period versus pre-set targets. The team may have also helped to develop contingency plans in the wake of performance short-falls. Today, more FP&A teams want to do more than keep score. They want to engage in predictive analysis, which anticipates fluctuations in customer demand, revenue flows, and costs over the course of upcoming periods. They also want to support decision makers with analysis-driven contingency plans that can be implemented if and when conditions in the marketplace shift.

Leave a commentFinance, FP&A, Resources, White Papers

Having A Strategy, Being Strategic

Tom Kindem of BAE Systems presented a more traditional look at strategy by way of a military analogy (as would befit a defense contractor), the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE between Alexander the Great and Darius of Persia. But I still kept Clarence’s point of view in mind as Tom described Alexander’s “strategy” for defeating chariots – The Mouse Trap.

The execution of the Mouse Trap involves the center of the line raising their spears to vertical and retreating somewhat. The chariot horses will not charge a lowered spear, but will instead enter the U-shaped indentation in the front line, at which moment the spears will be lowered and ranks closed in from both sides, trapping the helpless charioteer.

2 CommentsBiz Intelligence, Finance

The Role of BI / Performance Management Systems

Many organizations are confused as to the difference between BI and Performance Management and how the two fit together. This is made worse as Performance Management has become synonymous with planning, budgeting and forecasting systems, while BI is seen as systems that provide detailed analyses. Gartner introduced the term Corporate Performance Management (CPM), which they defined as “… the processes, methodologies, metrics and systems used to monitor and manage an enterprise’s business performance”. The promise of CPM was to improve decision-making and provide more effective control over organizational activity.

Leave a commentCareers, Finance, FP&A, Management, White Papers

The Missing Link: Budgeting and Execution

There are two primary purposes of budgeting. The one most people think of first is to put a cap spending. But that’s only one reason why organizations (and people) budget.

The other reason why organizations budget is to ensure what’s important gets done. And let’s face it, just because something is important doesn’t mean it will get done. Unless it’s properly resourced and funded, it won’t happen. So let’s examine that crucial link between budgeting and execution.

4 CommentsFinance

10 Reasons You’re Not Reaching Your Goals; Or, What I Learned From Writing A Really Crappy Novel

I hit a big goal of mine – finally – just before 2011 ended. I finished writing the novel I began five or so years ago. When I say finished, however, what I mean is that the very first, very rough draft is complete, ringing in at just under 80,000 words.

Know how that novel got written? One single, small word at a time, with lots of mistakes along the way. I learned what not to do, and through that, I learned what works.

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Putting the “A” Back in FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis)

People who perform the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) function in the finance organization put together and update the budgets and forecasts. In many companies, the “A” portion of this activity gets short shrift. That’s because the mechanical process of pulling together and collating the data takes up so much time that very little remains for analysis. The result is that planning and budgeting is a less useful business tool than it could be. Improving FP&A can give executives and managers more insightful analytics and easier access to analytical tools that support more accurate and timely planning and budgeting.

Leave a commentFinance, FP&A

10 Rules for Highly Effective BPM: A Manifesto for the New Economic Reality

In October 2008, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheim commented that “visibility is low and forecasting is challenging,” which seemed to be a polite way of saying “We have absolutely no idea what will happen tomorrow.”

In June 2010, UPS CFO Kurt Kuehn reported that “normally we are very obsessive about building good and accurate plans, but as the recession dragged on we realized that trying to build a forecast was almost a waste of time.”

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