The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
Tag Archives: finance analytics
CFO Journal: At Genpact Strategy Teams With Finance to Adapt to Market Shifts
November 18, 2020
“Pre-pandemic, there was a lot of customer interest in new ERP implementations and full-scale digital transformations. Now, with resources constrained by the crisis, our client conversations are more about services that layer on top of existing ERP and on outsourcing different pieces of finance that they don’t view as core to running their business. These shifts have meant significantly changing how we go to market.”
SF Magazine: Financial Reporting During the Pandemic
October 26, 2020
It’s valuable for financial reporting professionals to reconsider not only the information needed for these projections, but also to reconsider their reliance on the existing patchwork of solutions and spreadsheets that slow down the process. Systems improvements can facilitate the development of critical estimates and create the supporting documentation, an evidentiary trail of review and oversight by senior management, audit committees, and auditors.
Employ Strategies to Turn Around Business Performance
June 10, 2020
“Explore strategic options under a “no-constraint rule”. Many finance business partners were not able to get the best ideas out of their key internal stakeholders because many gave strategic options vis-à-vis the resources the business had. Suggestions for turning around the operations become constrained by the resources these stakeholders thought they had or could deploy at their disposal. It’s important to encourage key stakeholders to “free their mind” and consider the turnaround strategy as if there were no resource constraints. This encourages them to think beyond the company’s financial position at that moment.” C.F. Wong, ACMA, CGMA
Digital transformation programs need the right talent to success
June 1, 2020
“Success [for digital transformation programs] requires bringing together and coordinating a far greater range of effort than most leaders appreciate. A poor showing in any one of four inter-related domains — technology, data, process, or organizational change capability — can scuttle an otherwise well-conceived transformation. The really important stuff, from creating and communicating a compelling vision, to crafting a plan and adjusting it on the fly, to slogging through the details, is all about people.”
COVID-19 Affects on Manufacturers
May 23, 2020
“We learned that some manufacturers wish they had put more thought and effort into the digital transformation prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. But many of these companies have since adapted and are now adding new digital technologies and digitally enabled solutions as opportunities arise. The ability to readily share and analyze operations and supply chain data remotely, for example, has been critical in some industries, since those data and analyses can now be used to enable collaboration and help make the best data-based production and supply chain decisions quickly, even in real time. Most companies, even those with solid contingency plans in place, are operating and making changes and policy updates daily on the fly.”
Are You Really Data-Driven?
May 22, 2020
“Being a data-driven organization takes more than great technology and quality data. Like other aspects of digital transformation, it requires the right internal processes and culture — where the business properly guides incentives and takes steps to ensure that data is driving decisions appropriately. Failing to do this can lead to data misuse, which can be costly and hard to identify.”
Modeling Through the Current Crisis
May 14, 2020
“Creating financial and operating models is critical to creating alignment across the enterprise, and FP&A professionals are making numerous scenarios to understand actions, impacts and options. FP&A professionals have a sober view of the duration of this crisis, with 66% creating financial models that assume the crisis will last for three quarters or more. This was consistent across companies of all revenue sizes.”
Six Considerations for CFOs Managing Through COVID-19
April 30, 2020
“Downturns and recessions are challenging, but some businesses are not only able to come out intact, they are also able to seize opportunities to outdistance their competition and position themselves for future growth. Still, the speed at which the COVID-19 crisis is unfolding may likely require CFOs to use new tools — virtualization and scenario-based forecasting, for example — in addition to the traditional levers they have used to act swiftly and reasonably. Still, the speed at which the COVID-19 crisis is unfolding may likely require CFOs to use new tools — virtualization and scenario-based forecasting, for example — in addition to the traditional levers they have used to act swiftly and reasonably.”
CFOs Need Models to Understand How Shifting Customer Needs Affects Resources
April 13, 2020
“One of the quirks of the downturn in retail has been an increase in shirt sales while pant sales have dropped, presumably because people participating in video conferences while working from home are paying more attention to their appearance from the waist up. Whatever the reason behind the trend, CFOs can model that kind of change to justify a shift in how resources are allocated within the business. But to pay off, the modeling has to be done in as close to real time as possible. ”
