If the last year has taught us anything, traditional financial planning and analysis approaches did not work (or at least proved suboptimal) when navigating through uncharted landscapes. The pandemic forced FP&A practitioners to reassess and adapt our approach to planning, forecasting, and bringing to the forefront the importance of scenario planning. 

Annual Operating Planning is an important activity in many organisations.  Some refer to it as budget season and every organisation has its own nomenclature such as AOP, OB, LRBP, etc. This article covers best practices for a successful planning season, explains what best-in-class organisations do to create a solid annual operating plan and answers three burning questions.

Analysis is only as good as the decisions that result from it. In the uncertain business environment, organisations that provide people with the intelligence to make better decisions will outperform their competitors.

CEOs that are more strategically oriented and less numbers-oriented tend to want to partner with a CFO who has a strong command of the numbers. When that's not the case, and we have CEOs or leadership teams that are focused on their matrix, it can be challenging for the finance organisation. In the new article, Joao Almeida and Rich Feldman discuss some of the current challenges facing leaders in finance, and the role of capital planning in a time of increased uncertainty.

What could Beyond Budgeting mean for your enterprise — and what benefits are available if you move past traditional command-and-control approaches to finance? With the right technology, companies will be better equipped to operate in a more agile way and achieve their financial goals.

“If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.” (c) Jack Welch