Scenario management plays a vital role in a world of irrelevant budgets and inaccurate forecasts.

In recent years, organisations all over the world have been undergoing a rapid digital transformation. New tools and technologies are opening up the possibility of more collaborative business processes, including planning.

In this incredible business environment of high uncertainty and risk, many organisations have found themselves in the realm of “Unknown Unknowns".

So how we can plan for Unknown? How can we achieve flexible and dynamic Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) processes that support decision-making under uncertainty?

Budgeting and planning activities within companies are often time-consuming and quickly outdated in their significance. Methods like driver-based planning or even Beyond Budgeting represent attempts to increase efficiency, but the approach remains old-fashioned. However, the developments in the field of AI/ML are now opening up completely new possibilities. In the near future, it will be possible to calculate and compare a wide variety of planning scenarios within minutes.

In my day-to-day job, I interact with many Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) organisations implementing predictive planning to improve their budgeting and forecasting processes. 

Fortunately, an increasing number of organisations have come to embrace what IFP&A can offer. These people ‘step outside the box' and create solutions that are both innovative and that help management to improve organisational performance.