Enter the new paradigm for planning
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
This is the newsletter "Here's the Future of FP&A and Business Partnering" which has more than 30,000 subscribers. You can subscribe as well to receive new articles straight in your inbox every Monday and the occasional Saturday.
Do you want to get notified whenever I post on LinkedIn? Then go to my profile and click the small bell icon below the front page banner on the right-hand side.
To follow my entrepreneur journey you can over to my Instagram account.
If you want shorter snippets of the future of finance and accounting then check out my Twitter account.
Step back in time to the military strategy of Sun Tzu. The lessons for corporate strategy are laid bare for all to see. Unfortunately, true strategic thinking has become secondary to the act of planning, the hype of transformation, and the management of siloed projects.
In the worst cases, we have seen organizations so driven by projects, not a strategy, that they are unable to react to new opportunities or changes in the operating environment until their project has been completed, commissioned, then scrapped.
Planning is the foundation of corporate strategy, and planning itself begins with making the right strategic choices. It has to be an organization-wide process, not hidden away in the finance function, with full engagement and understanding from each seat at the decision-making table.
Our new paradigm for planning considers the whole organization and its strategic needs. The methodologies will differ according to the business, not in line with the latest fashions, and need to be refined to ensure that planning is a value-added activity in itself.
Finance as a driver of strategy
The CFO’s seat at the table has never been more important. Planning in the "next normal" becomes not a drain on value creation, but an opportunity for effective business partnering. The importance of strategic thinking must be cascaded into the organization, taking the focus from the planning framework to what it is intended to deliver.
Staying in the comfort zone of traditional budgeting is unlikely to be an effective planning strategy in our rapidly changing, "next normal" world. The purpose of a budget and its application in operations, has to be revisited. For example, if it is used as a tool for performance management and incentive structures, then this is one of the strategic drivers of planning.
FP&A steps up to help define the incentives that will motivate the right behaviors to align with corporate strategy. They can then define the benchmarks to be set in the corporate planning process that will give their peers an effective tool for performance management.
This process can be replicated across every function of the organization. Resource management can be addressed with techniques from driver-based forecasting, enabling granular sensitivity analysis, and an agile response to changes in the operating environment. A tailored planning approach for the organization provides the foundations of a successful strategy.
The key is that planning is linked to strategy and the strategic choices made. This is best done using driver-based methodologies linked to the assumptions of our strategy. If we know what would have to be true for our strategy to be a good strategy we can track those assumptions in near real-time and build our planning model on the same assumptions. Only then will we know before it's too late if we're on track with the strategy or we need to course-correct.
FP&A in the next normal
The traditional budget cycle remains relevant when taking a strategic approach to planning, but we have reached another watershed in its history, a paradigm shift for the next normal. Planning is nothing without an effective feedback loop to analyze, refine, and recast where necessary.
FP&A is responsible for designing the feedback loop, and here choices need to be made too. What is the most effective way of managing the plan as strategy is executed? We need to consider the best use of resources to deliver value to the business, rather than the finance silo. We have to identify the best tools available to us, from process automation to artificial intelligence, in order to deliver on the promise of effective strategic planning.
In the final article in this series, we’ll pull together all our findings and define the steps to a planning approach for the "next normal". What does your organization need to form a new paradigm for planning? Let us know in the comments.
This was the fourth article in the series "Planning as we know it is dead". You can read the previous articles in the series below.
While you await future articles why not read our latest series "FP&A Transformation Talks" below.
Recommended by LinkedIn
You can read a lot more articles about FP&A, Business Partnering, and Finance Transformation below. It all start's with “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” where you set the ambition for your transformation. You should join the Finance Business Partner Forum, which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community.
How Finance should use its seat at the table (the last article in a series about the "Unfair Advantage" of Finance)
The ultimate guide to decision-making for finance professionals (the last article in a series about the decision-making process and how Finance should impact it).
The Mindset Change Checklist For Finance Professionals (the last article in a series about the mindset change that finance and accounting professionals should make to become business partners)
It's Time To Decide If You Want To Be A Business Partner (the last article in a series about the personality traits of business partners)
All Successful Business Partners Are "Leaders" (the last article in the series about our new capability model)
Should We Keep Talking About Business Partnering? (part of a 17-article series where we deep-dive on the WHY, WHAT, and HOW of business partnering by putting it on a formula)
Everyone Can Adopt A Business Partnering Mindset (part of a six-article series about FP&A Business Partnering)
From Business Partner To Working Within The Business (part of an article series where I interview finance professionals about their careers in FP&A and Business Partnering)
Is Your Product Optimized For Value Creation? (part of a toolbox series where we look at what tools FP&A professionals should leverage to drive value creation)
How Business Partners Turn Analysis To Insight (part of case study series where I interview business partners about how they drive value creation using real cases)
Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder and a partner at the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 10,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger on LinkedIn with 70,000+ followers and 150,000+ subscribers to my blog. I am also an advisory board member at Born Capital where I help identify and grow the next big thing in #CFOTech.
Corporate Controller | FP&A Director| M&A Consultant| Aerospace, Consumer Product Manufacturing, Gaming, Entertainment, High Tech, Financial Services, Public and Private multinationals, PE-owned companies.🚀💼📈
2yThanks for sharing
Business Consultant : Finance Business Partner : Forex Trader
2ySun tzu was a warrior 2500 years ago ....he was not concerned with month end or selling mobile phones or indeed influencing people on LinkedIn ....
Finance Transformation Program Leader and EPM Subject Matter Advisor
2yLove this…been preaching this for some time now!
Growth Strategist | Scaling Startups, Shared Services & Global Capability Centre Operations | Financial Strategy | Operational Excellence | Digital Transformation & Automation | Change Management | Leadership | Parent |
2yChanging times, changing scenarios requires changing thinking. What worked yesterday, doesn't work today and that is how the dynamics of business have changed in recent times. Re-thinking strategy to include planning in totality, planning to match the changing dynamics and be adaptable to changing environment, is the need of the hour. How earlier long term of 3-4 or more years has become 1-2 years or less calls for CFOs organisation to be on toes more often than not, in the current times. Now planning is more inclusive to include both internal and external environments, majorly driven by more of uncontrollable external events than by controllable internal ones. #planning #businessdynamics #longterm
On a Mission to Help 1M Finance pros Master FP&A skills | Author of All About FP&A and From Accounting to FP&A | Udemy Instructor | FP&A Trainer
2yReminds me of Jack Welch's Beyond Budgeting. For many companies, budgeting is a long bottoms - up exercise that runs for several months. To add to that, gaming (budgets that are constructed to ensure rewards come easy on meeting it) rather than stretch behavior kills its ultimate purpose. The problem is, companies have survived on the above approaches and delivered, so why change? However, the truth is companies could have done much better. Thank you for sharing Anders