How do leading organisations in Australia and globally address the changing needs of Financial Planning and Analysis professionals? This article summarises key takeaways from the inaugural Brisbane FP&A Board.

A British retailer recently announced plans to close over a hundred stores. Could part of the problem be an FP&A group whose ideas are outdated?  The responsibility of FP&A extends far beyond forecasting and reporting financial numbers, to providing advice and insights into managing, nurturing, protecting and growing intangible assets such as customer and brand loyalty, as though they were tangible assets.

The sixth FP&A Board Meeting was held in Singapore on 9th July 2019. The event brought together over 40 Financial Planning and Analytics specialists to discuss some of the biggest trends in the industry.

The leadership tussle between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt is entering its final throes, but whoever wins will have a series of challenges to face; convincing new EU leaders that a no-deal Brexit is real, getting Parliament to acquiesce and accept that the UK is leaving on the 31st October; avoiding a General Election; and mobilising the nation behind the exit. His most important task, however, based on the opinions of industry leaders, is “the urgent need to restore confidence” in the economy and in political decision-making.

Why does FP&A sometimes fail to deliver value to the business? What do you need to successfully implement machine learning for forecasting in your company? How can you develop skills which are essential to career development? Read the new issue of the FP&A Trends Digest to discover the answers to these questions and more.

Machine Learning provides tremendous insight regarding market trends & business drivers. These factors include market propensity, consumer demand, economic factors, weather, & transportation costs. Many companies take these variables into consideration but provide limited or time-consuming analysis.  This process limits corporate agility. 

In July 2019, the International FP&A Board held the 2nd Perth meeting where 35 senior finance practitioners shared their ideas about FP&A Analytical Transformation.

Collaboration is important, as “goes without saying”: “We must collaborate to solve this problem” or “They don’t collaborate!”, about an unsuccessful team. On one hand it is obvious what collaboration means – working together, duh! However, I came across a phrase which defines collaboration clearly and to the point.

What are the key features of a successful FP&A professional? What are the roles of an FP&A team? How do you achieve team synergy? These are the topics that were discussed at the recent FP&A Board meeting in Kuala Lumpur which was sponsored by Michael Page and AFP.

This article highlights some of the common cognitive biases that the author has come across in his career and how awareness and mitigation of these could lead to our becoming better finance and FP&A business partners.