The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
The Steel Industry Needs Real-Time Cost Visibility to Thrive
November 8, 2017
Steel companies everywhere are facing a slow growing business environment as a result of continued volatility and dynamics in the world economies, driven in part by the end of China’s rapid economic growth cycle as well as changes in commodity prices and increasing regulations. In today’s increasingly competitive markets it is also critical that steel companies have a firm grasp on their real cost-to-serve customers. Often companies lack a systematic management process around their annual budgetary calculation of production costs; therefore, the insights gained from variance analyses using standard costs are not consistent across business units and only allow limited insights into past business performance. A structured approach to product costing can help steel businesses better navigate the challenges facing them.
CFOs- Strategists and Storytellers
November 7, 2017
Financial analysts strive to build accurate models that simplify yet reflect the complex adaptive systems in scope. With dynamic, real-time planning and consolidation systems now available, finance can incorporate feedback into models based on new information and rerun the updated forecast at any time during the month. CFOs are driving analytics into the finance organization to not only improve the accuracy of the financial plan, but also to provide real-time visibility into the ever-changing forecast.
Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >
Your Strategy Could Be Missing a Key Element
November 6, 2017
Your strategy identifies what your company should be doing differently, but often times it does not provide insight into how to build the skills, knowledge and processes needed to carry out and sustain any necessary changes. Capabilities lie at the heart an organization’s ability to achieve results, so it’s hardly a surprise that different results require different capabilities. Many strategic planners and senior executives don’t build capability development into their strategies because they assume their strategy is logical enough for people to figure out what to do. However, capability development is a real and tangible part of your organization’s growth.
Read More at The Harvard Business Review >
The Best Practices of FP&A
November 2, 2017
“No other process managed by Finance has as much potential to create or destroy business value as FP&A.” Because of this, the practice of FP&A should be a priority to business leaders. There are 12 principles that some of the best-run organizations follow to be successful in their FP&A. These principles are fundamental concepts that can be adapted and adopted for FP&A practices across any industry in organizations of any type or size. They are meant to provide a framework and guidance; how you apply them to the specific circumstances of your company or institution will vary depending on your starting point.
Read More at Strategic Finance Magazine >
