In May 2019, the International FP&A Board held the 5th Brussels meeting where 32 senior finance practitioners shared their ideas about what is a new age of Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB).

The 7th Amsterdam FP&A Board was held to discuss and answer questions such as: What is Zero-based budgeting? Who is using it in their day to day practice, and to what extent? What are the benefits and challenges in implementing ZBB?

The democratization of technologies is underway. Tools like machine learning (ML), which were confined to universities, hedge funds or investment banks just until a decade ago, are now finding their way into industry-wide applications. The finance function is set to reap the benefits of this democratization wave.

On the 4th of April, the Stockholm FP&A Board met for the 6th time to discuss what is required for building a winning FP&A team.

There once was a Finance manager who met a fisherman. “Could you please tell me about your life and your work?”, asks the Finance manager. “Well, I am at sea for five months and then I am home for five months”, the fisherman responds. There is a long pause. Our Finance manager is thinking hard. Something is wrong; five plus five is only ten! ”So what are you doing in the two last months?”.

The Hong Kong FP&A Board will meet on the 25th of July 2019 for the second time. The professional debate will be devoted to the subject of FP&A Analytical Transformation. 

Defining what Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) does has always been challenging. Most people place FP&A in the Office of the CFO, which makes sense, for many of us have certainly played the role of CFO a time or two. Still, as business partners, strategists and advisors, that is also not necessarily a perfect fit. This categorisation may change as our roles continue to expand to become the central hub of corporate analytics and reporting.

The crux of the analytics movement is making better decisions and more organizations are moving towards a data-driven culture, but only about a third of organizations surveyed said they would describe their current culture as data-driven. So, where is the disconnect?

The Shanghai FP&A Board was launched on the 2^nd of July 2019.

Senior FP&A leaders from AstraZeneca, Costa Cruise, General Motors, ISS, Kuka Systems, L’Oreal, Medtronic, Nestle Waters, Richemont and other companies attended the events to guide the development and promotion of better practices in global FP&A, identify, and support new trends, skillsets and innovations.

The speakers from Ralph Lauren, Bunzl, AT&S, and others presented their insights and case studies.

Connected Planning is an effective way to unify data, people, and plans on a single platform. Implemented correctly, it can help accelerate better business performance in the modern dynamic market conditions. The question is then, how to use it to achieve desired results? Watch this interactive webinar to find out.