Zero-based budgeting has been the unwanted stepchild of the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) world for decades. Chief Financial Officers would lie to their friends about how they budget and say they do cool things like rolling forecasts, beyond budgeting or at the very least incremental budgeting at cocktail parties but NOT zero-based budgeting which was…
Fresh out after getting my MBA, I went to work for a large management consulting firm doing forensic and litigation consulting work. With the office located in downtown Washington D.C. many of the senior leaders were former Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) employees who had moved to representing various clients in regarding SEC filings. I had…
“BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT RISK TAKING AND MANAGING UNCERTAINTIES AND TURBULENCE.” BY GAUTAM ADANI, BUSINESS TYCOON Late this September, the movie, Deepwater Horizon will appear in theaters. The high level of interest in this release can be recognized, with over five million movie trailer view from YouTube. What could engage so many viewers in this…
It seems like Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) is the jack-of-all-trades and the master of most others. FP&A answers strategic questions, forecasts for the future, ensures a timely accounting close, prepares board reporting packages, preps the executive team, divests a division, analyzes product line profitability, performs due diligence on an acquisitions and oh yeah does…
The Association of Financial Professionals (AFP) recently released a guide to its members entitled, “FP&A Organizational Structure: Trends and Best Practices”. It states the three basic structures of FP&A: Centralized, decentralized and hybrid. With the increased volatility being seen in every market due to the increased pace of change caused by technology, social and demographics…