A paradox which continues to puzzle me is how chief financial officers (CFOs) and controllers can be aware that their managerial accounting data is flawed and misleading, yet not take action to do anything about it.

We live in a world of uncertainty. But in that uncertainty lies a great deal of opportunity for those organisations capable of successfully executing a winning plan. 

A few days ago, I was looking through some blogs on LinkedIn when I came across a comment that suggested the purpose of budgeting was to set stretch targets. A number of people seemed to support this idea, although I personally have to disagree for two key reasons.

“You cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking back”, as Steve Jobs famously quoted. A key challenge to the accountancy profession, well any profession to that matter, is how to look forward and be more proactive, not constantly looking back and reacting.

Numbers may be the prime element within FP&A. FP&A is relied upon to provide numbers like operating income, net cash flows, and earnings per share. Do numbers like these and others mean anything?

These are exciting times for finance. The promise of technology for a sneak peek into the future gives finance a crystal ball on where to steer resources today for an optimal utilization tomorrow. Can the Arabic proverb “he who knows the future lies even if he is proven correct” be overcome?