Those who follow developments in FP&A closely have proclaimed a New Age of Zero-Based Budgeting. So what exactly does this mean? What do organisations find so appealing about this alternative to traditional budgeting, and how can we best implement it?

Scenario Planning is a technique used in FP&A to help guide companies through considerable uncertainty, contemplating various paths of possibilities. Despite our best attempts, our forecasts will have inherent errors; actual results deviating from the figures we had anticipated hitting.

The world is changing, the business environment is changing, and finance needs to re-imagine itself as well. ZBB mindset supports finance teams on this journey by pushing them to deeply understand the business and connect the dots, build relevant insights based on available data, and use a new set of skills to influence the future direction.

Strategy execution means core competencies support a realistic strategy and that the plan can be achieved, on time, on budget, and with the intended results. In all honesty, there is no good strategy and failed execution. If an organisation is unaware of its core capabilities and limitations and moves forward anyway, the strategy is flawed.