The financial manager must accept that if the plan goes well and is considered excellent, credit goes to the boss. If it goes badly, then the no-decision manager blames the financial manager. The no-decision boss will present the plan as though it is their own and will never reveal that it was prepared by someone else.

2020 was a year of major disruptions for the business world. But whether your organisation suffered or thrived, the COVID-19 pandemic was a chance to add value to your business.

The organisation used to spend over 52 weeks on planning, but with an accuracy of only 92% -- low when compared with the resources allocated.

It is commonly agreed that the traditional budgeting process is time-consuming and costly. It rarely focuses on strategy and adds little value. Although traditional budgets have evolved over the years, they hardly meet the challenges of the modern economic and business environment. 

Corporate Performance Management (CPM) has long consisted in breaking the company’s strategy down into operational objectives and indicators, measuring the achievement of these objectives against operational entities' budget or forecast and take action on that basis. This approach was effective in a stable business environment, with slow and controlled changes.

The New Normal means that planning is no longer an extrapolation of the past. Similarly, business drivers that worked last year may no longer be relevant for the future. The reality is that organizations face multiple possible futures. Each one can be triggered by a crisis or an unforeseen event that will require the company to adjust or even change course.

So how should FP&A adapt to this New Normal?