The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
Your plans useless but you’re still planning
“Planning in such highly uncertain times must focus on the ability to quickly and flexibly react to fast changing circumstances. Doing so effectively, requires that the company has thoroughly mapped its supply chain, including the physical locations of its suppliers’ plants and warehouses, so it can quickly identify which of its products might be affected by a shutdown at any of the suppliers’ locations.”
COVID-19 Affects on Manufacturers
“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?
“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.”
FP&A Becomes More Visible to Senior Leaders
“FP&A professionals noted that they were taking part in an unending task of analyses and sensitivities; nearly one in three practitioners are producing a reforecast every day. This may sound trivial, but as Jack Alexander noted in his video interview, FP&A needs process discipline when developing and evaluating forecasts and scenarios. There are an infinite number of scenarios and a finite amount of time.”