The 200th landmark meeting organized by the FP&A Trends Group occurred on March 16th in New York. 25 FP&A leaders met to share their experiences and ideas about how to approach building the best-in-class FP&A teams.

In this series of blogs, the author will be providing a comprehensive approach to the design, construction, roll-out and maintenance of a modern analytic driver-based model. He also outlines several necessary requirements for building this model successfully.

The link to strategic planning becomes evident when FP&A is placed within this bigger picture. By translating the strategic intent of the company into business drivers made visible through the ‘use-of-funds’, the execution of the strategy becomes fact-based, transparent and verifiable: ‘talks & figures’. Just think about it, and add value to your role and company. 

In this article, the author outlines how to break structural silos in an organisation with the help of connecting top-down and bottom-up processes. He also considers how to connect strategy to execution in your business. The answer is simple: stop making plans and start making decisions.