A few days ago, I was looking through some blogs on LinkedIn when I came across a comment that suggested the purpose of budgeting was to set stretch targets. A number of people seemed to support this idea, although I personally have to disagree for two key reasons.
Michael Coveney
Michael Coveney spent 40+ years in the software analytic business with a focus on transforming the planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting processes. He has considerable experience in the design and implementation of Business Analytic systems with major organisations throughout the world. He is a gifted conference speaker and author where his latest book ‘Budgeting, Forecasting and Planning In Uncertain Times’is published by J Wiley. His articles have also appeared on www.fpa-trends.com, that encourages innovation in FP&A departments.
Author's Articles
In this article we will look at the different methods an organization can use to set direction. Planning involves many kinds of methods that help managers make decisions.
In this article, I want to make the case for data-driven planning to describe the 7 key FP&A models that every organisation needs to plan, resource and monitor business performance. From a planning and review perspective, there are 7 key things that management needs to know about its business processes, each of which can be assessed in a range of analytical models.
There is no point on aimlessly analysing data in the hope that something will jump out at you. It won’t and all that you will do is waste vast quantities of time and effort. Like any search, there must be an objective and a plan to reach that objective. This is where a mature approach to analytics comes in. The author reveals a mature approach to data analysis that includes 4 stages.