According to a McKinsey study, during the pandemic, about 50 percent of the companies in their research, "the outperformers", took advantage of the crisis, significantly increasing performance. At the same time, 50 percent saw no meaningful change. This article discusses what factors lead companies to outperformance and how Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) can help.

FP&A is expected to be more agile, more insight-oriented, and more data-driven. How can FP&A become a trusted business advisor and help organisations navigate through uncertainty? There are five things to keep in mind.

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?

At the recent FP&A Trends Webinar, senior finance professionals from diverse backgrounds and experience shared their views on the subject of Skills of the Future and How to Build Best-in-Class FP&A Teams.

To deal with the resulting uncertainty, FP&A teams have had to demonstrate agility and analytical rigour, as well as flexibility. The organisational disruption, impact on business performance and changing supply chain demands have required FP&A teams to respond with rapidly changing forecasts, budgets and investment plans. 

Traditionally, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) teams were made of analysts. Today, in this incredible environment of constant change and uncertainties, the synergistic teams have to be multi-skilled. What are those emerging roles that we have to play in order to be successful in planning and forecasting?