Running a company, among other things, requires dealing with ambiguity. How this is done depends on the people – some are more open to embrace the challenges, while others prefer to continue with the past practices, thinking that the change is not going to last. The behavior is not exclusive to a specific industry, it is primarily to do with the management style of people leading the company.

Generally, certified accountants have not had a reputation for deep involvement with operations, marketing, and sales management nor being a strategic advisor to their executive team, although articles by the media, consulting firms, and IT analysts have been claiming this is a trend and direction for them.

The strength of those working in FP&A often comes when they worked in different industries or with BU’s from different countries. They learned a little bit more about the impact management can have on the numbers under different circumstances. To develop a long-range forecast, financials need to look beyond current events and steer away from business plans based on extrapolation.

A question frequently asked by businesses of all sizes is what should my Key-Performance-Indicators (KPIs) be and how many should I have? They often look to other companies in their industry including suppliers and customers to see what they may use to run their business. Frequently, they are fraught with frustration by the lack of data in the public domain.