Many companies are getting back to the office (or never left), some have already decided to remain fully remote, yet others are trying out a hybrid mode. The only thing in common between them is no one is sure of the best set-up yet. 

Are we missing the opportunity to think broader and bolder? Could we use the learnings we gained so far with remote work to address a well-known problem: the lack of FP&A professionals in the job market?

Starting a business and sustaining one are two very different things that are both essential in their own way. Your accounting team handles the current data of your business while Financial Planning and Analysis enable your foresight and wisdom for what can be done ahead.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said that "the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." The origin of this sentence can be traced to Theodore Parker who was a Unitarian minister and prominent American Transcendentalist born in 1810. Parker called for the abolition of slavery in the USA in an 1853 collection of “Ten Sermons of Religion”.

So, what does this have to do with the mission of the Profitability Center of Excellence (PACE)? Plenty.

The current debate around Return To Office (RTO) likely heralds the biggest shift in the workplace since the emergence of the assembly line in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Is this relevant for an FP&A audience though? I’d argue it is fundamentally relevant for a number of reasons, not least because it is one of the biggest impacts of Covid-19 on the global business environment. This is a debate that, from a financial planning and analysis perspective, we cannot sit out. 

This paper, based on our interviews with 25 top FP&A practitioners and thought leaders along with case studies from the largest global network of FP&A people, captures the best practices and new ideas coming out of this fast-growing area.

Continuous Planning replaces the traditional static and calendar-driven process. It is a dynamic and open-ended planning approach that responds to internal and external events as they occur. In addition, the use of technology facilitates planning agility and flexibility through real-time analytics and automation.