The explosion in computing and data processing power has led to an exponential increase in data available to the business. Paradoxically, this has led to business leaders becoming more uncertain about what to do with this data. Hence, business is scrambling to put the appropriate “analytics” capability in place. This generates a lot of friction and tension because business leaders and managers, who have been brought up in a very different world, have to scramble to learn new languages and redress their relationship with data.

Integrated business planning (IBP) is not a new concept. Yet it’s still hard to find organisations that have fully embraced it, because their efforts have been hampered by the proliferation of legacy systems and data silos. IBP is characterised by aligned planning processes and calendars, full integration of cross-functional data, and cross-functional and business collaboration.

This blog discusses the importance of improving your digital IQ, a term used by PWC for corporates but something that I believe should also be applied to individuals. Your digital IQ (your knowledge of technology and its impacts) is in effect a ‘gateway’ or an ‘enabler’ to the future role of any commercial finance/ FP&A individual.

This article will focus on is the modeling of a company as a whole, its consolidated future financial positions, incomes, growth and risks, as opposed to the detailed budgeting of one specific aspect of a company’s business, such as how to increase contract to sales conversion rate. 

One of the characteristics people use to describe me is well-read which is appropriate because I enjoy reading material that covers a variety of fields.  One of the fields I cover is sports because it provides connections to finance. While covering sports I found material that represents a connection to budgets and the connection is the leadership style of a football manager, Jurgen Klopp.

A Deloitte survey of 600 global finance leaders, as highlighted in CFO.COM, found that: "companies spent nearly half their time creating and updating reports, and just a fraction of that time devoted to uncovering insights in the data — insights that could prove vital to the business”.