This article applies to all private sector firms, not just Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and Private Equity (PE) firms. The technique described here can also be used to rank the profitability of five financial planning alternatives to the traditional budget.

‘If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes’, said Albert Einstein.

The current COVID-19 disruption has led to a historical change requiring adaptability and increased visibility for CFO and the executive team. At the First Pan-Australian Digital FP&A Board, the panel of 7 high-profile speakers discussed how financial planning and analysis (FP&A) can adapt to the "New Normal".

The fourth FP&A Board Connect was dedicated to the subject "How to Use Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning for Better Quality Forecast (Janssen Case Study)".

In the first FP&A Board Connect, Takeshi Murakami, Business Manager to CEO/President at Microsoft Japan, a speaker of the second Tokyo FP&A Board, explains how Microsoft achieved remarkable results by using predictive analytics and machine learning in FP&A.

Many of us have heard about promise of predictive analytics (PA) in machine learning (ML). Over 50% of organisations think that data science and ML are critical for success. At the same time, less than 20% of finance teams are deploying data science today. Why did this happen?