Similar to a conductor of an orchestra, the finance team looks at all different functions, allowing some to grow faster at times but never taking eyes off other functions so that every function in the company always performs as one to achieve the best results possible.

Suppose you were asked to distil your entire business strategy into a single graph or visualisation; how would you choose to show it?

Every FP&A professional has an active role to play in business partnering, supporting the leadership team to aid decision making. To enable this, the FP&A team must be positioned to inform the future impact of decisions that are being made now. This requires understanding what the company’s strategy is, where the company is heading, what part your business unit/function play to get there and what are the KPIs on which they are being measured.

In finance, we’re constantly chasing various financial metrics. But focusing on a narrow set of metrics often causes problems. For example, a Market Share growth strategy sounds great, but it often forces you to discount price or significantly increasing acquisition costs. 

As a result, the strategic outcome is often short-lived and can even result in decreased financial performance. What can be done to prevent bad strategy and why are we so surprised each and every time we repeat these same strategic mistakes?

In this article, we will move to the bottom line of P&L considering how finance can guide management in resource allocation and drive business profitability.

The new rules and uncertainties of business require leaders in FP&A to be far more adaptable and agile in their strategic Capital Planning process. When capital is not managed effectively, organisations can easily miss their growth opportunities and increase their risk exposure significantly.