The FP&A Trends Webinar: Mastering Analytical Transformation with FP&A Trends Maturity Model
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The FP&A Trends Webinar: Mastering Analytical Transformation with FP&A Trends Maturity Model
Click here to view details and register
By Harish Maheshwari, Director Business Finance at Mobileum India
As was famously proclaimed by Pericles, the powerful politician of ancient Greece: “The key is not to predict the future but to prepare for it.”
In an ever-changing environment, dynamic and data-driven Scenario Planning is of critical importance. That means moving from traditional methods to an agile FP&A process, which can help organisations to navigate successfully through uncertainty. At the FP&A Trends Webinar, the panel of three high-profile speakers discussed the transition to agile FP&A, examining a particularly insightful case study.
The first presentation was given by discussion facilitator Larysa Melnychuk, MD at FP&A Trends Group. Larysa emphasised that agile FP&A allows organisations to adapt quickly to market changes. It also enables them to manage and maintain their shareholder value using seven key building blocks: Analytical Business Culture, Driver Based Model, Collaborative Platform, Integrated FP&A, Rapid Scenario Planning, Continuous Planning, and Decision-Making Framework (Figure 1).
Following Larysa, attendees heard from Philip Galvan, Senior Manager at EY. Philip began by reviewing some emerging business trends from an ROI perspective:
Example: In an organisation, you may be dealing with certain dependencies i.e. source systems, change management, different types of adaptability, however that doesn't mean you shouldn't start a program. So pivoting from large, complex, multi-year transformations to delivering value as fast as possible. But as you deliver that value, make sure you have a connected strategy with a continuous improvement mindset.
Philip described a three-step process for agile, performance-driving FP&A ( Figure 2):
To receive audience feedback, a poll was conducted, asking attendees: “Where is your FP&A organisation in the agile planning journey?” The majority answered that they ‘haven’t started’, which is in line with the market benchmark. (Figure 3).
After the poll, the webinar turned to Junaid Ahmed, Corporate Vice President, Finance, at Applied Materials. Junaid began by introducing his organisation, an iconic semiconductor company that helped establish Silicon Valley. With 50 years of innovation, they have 21.6B revenue and over 26,000 employees across 19 countries.
Applied Materials set up agile finance to achieve three strategic goals:
The company achieved these goals by targeting key transformation levers. They upskilled the finance function on Automation, Data & Analytics, and speed and quality of Decision Support. While they did not seek to become IT professionals, with whom they were partnered, finance professionals needed higher levels of digital proficiency. The process is certainly about extensive automation, but it is also about process effectiveness. The processor needs to deliver real-time business performance and the decision-making that the enterprise needs.
The above levers ensured holistic thinking across the organisation. But Applied Materials also set up a Six Transformation Themes framework to guarantee end-to-end thinking, and to upskill finance to become the trusted business advisors. (Figure 4)
Next, Junaid provided three pillars for Agile FP&A for Applied Finance (Figure 5):
The key takeaways from the Applied Materials case study:
Junaid told the audience: “As a company, we were able to implement the entire new portfolio of digital applications for finance that we established in 18 months. Now, since this summer, it's been all about change management, training, adoption, and getting our business processes around this new digital infrastructure to steady state. And we're very much on target to hit the first 2022 goals, which is very, very exciting indeed.”
The future competitiveness of real-time business relies on more accurate forecast planning and analysis. Not only is this important in the short term, it is also critical to the decisions upon which long-term digital transformation will be based. Organisations that struggled the most were those relying on traditional principles for financial planning and analysis. It was the companies that were most reluctant to embrace new technology, new business models, and digitisation of their organisation. Now is the time for FP&A to become more agile.
We would like to thank our global sponsors and partners Anaplan for their great support. We also thank our participants and, of course, our amazing panel. We are very grateful that you have shared your practical experience with us.
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