Monthly Archives: April 2022
Harvard Business Review: 3 Stumbling Blocks that Get in the Way of Strategic Planning
“But there’s a paradox, as Adrian outlined. Budgeting takes place within the context set by the strategic plan. The point at which the budget is set is the same point at which executive and shareholder expectations are put in place. Now circumstances change. And in a flexible planning environment so too does the strategic plan. […]
CFO Magazine: 3 CFO Priorities for An Unstable Time
“CFOs are asking their crews to sail across the ocean without a map. Finance chiefs need to step up their focus on reliable demand forecasting. Technology can be a major help. Has your company’s finance group started using digital tools such as predictive analytics and business visualization applications? These tools improve management’s understanding of business […]
CFO Journal: The CFO Agenda
“Although weekly reforecasting or monthly scenario planning may wane as the pandemic does, CFOs are not likely to revert to their prior ways of doing things. As a result, CFOs will likely have to demonstrate their own agility as leaders, equipping the enterprise with what it may need most: insight on what drives its value […]
Supply Chain Dive: ‘One thing after another’: More Disruption Looms Over Semiconductor Market
“The cascading supply threats come amid record demand from semiconductor customers, as they increasingly incorporate chips into phones, automobiles and appliances. And semiconductor stock levels have dropped 43% in the past two years to reach the lowest point in over a decade, according to an Avnet report.” Read More at Supply Chain Dive >
CFO Dive: CFOs Cling to Spreadsheets Despite Their Limits as FP&A Tool
“The biggest complaint among spreadsheet users is the time required by manual processes to complete even basic tasks, such as budget preparation. “With so much time spent on manual processes, the analysis part of Financial Planning and Analysis gets lost,” the report says. It takes between four weeks and three months for the typical organization […]
FP&A Trends: The Evolving Role of Zero-Based Budgeting
“What is new in ZBB? ZBB is not a cost-cutting exercise. It is part of every line of the planning process. It is also a method to identify key drivers, so it is linked to driver-based planning. It is a rethinking of the traditional budgeting process. It is improving Business Partnering due to collaborations and the use of modern technology.” Read More at FP&A […]
Harvard Business Review: When to Change Your Company’s P&L Responsibilities
“Changing an organization’s primary dimension, i.e., making a different choice of which verticals have full P&L responsibility, is not something to get into lightly. But don’t do it belatedly either, when your degrees of freedom and the time to handle it carefully are severely limited.” Read More at Harvard Business Review >
CFO Journal: Pandemic Sharpens Government Focus on Data
“Maintain the emphasis on data technology and relationships established in response to COVID-19. The value generated by these technologies and relationships is too great to let them falter. A data-centric approach provides greater value to constituents while improving performance. And when the next crisis comes, data could play a valuable role.” Read More at The […]
CFO Magazine: Why Does Excel Survive in Finance Departments?
“Business processes can be complex, and data can be messy, McIlheran said. Cloud-based financial applications enable finance departments to move away from manual processes in Excel. “Because of its flexibility, Excel can be the glue that binds imperfect systems and processes together,” McIlheran said. “It can be a crutch to bring organizational processes or reporting […]