Strategic Planning For FP&A: Guide to Identifying Key Questions To Answer

As strategic planning starts to pick up for most companies, finance teams should start to zero in on the most important strategic questions facing the company. 🎯 Do you know how to do this?

Here’s a practical guide to identify strategic issues that need to be addressed:

🔍𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲

Strategic questions are often out in the open and come up casually, toward the beginning or end of a meeting. Pay attention to this water cooler talk, as there could be ideas that should be more fully explored.

Also, look at internal work that already exists that can inform the strategy: a competitive analysis from the GTM team, a product roadmap or company goals communicated by the management team.

The above could be messy and disconnected but there is value in synthesizing the internal threads.

📉𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀

Another area to look at is monthly financial results, to see if the trajectory of the business is changing. Are margins tightening? Is customer churn increasing?

If so, there could be an opportunity to raise early warning signs and drive a discussion with senior leaders about what’s happening.

🧩𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗶𝗲𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗴𝗮𝗽𝘀

When faced with scattered insights, strategic frameworks can help bring order.

For example, Rumelt’s “kernel of strategy” can help you assess whether your company has a clear diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent actions.

The Playing to Win framework can help you evaluate whether your company has defined where to play and how to win, along with the other key questions it poses.

(see my recent post for more details on these two frameworks)

These frameworks, and others like them, can help you make sense of internal analyses, identify gaps and help create focus areas for strategic planning.

🌍𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆

Industry and competitor news flow is another area that needs to be incorporated into strategic planning.

For example, if your company imports goods and is now facing tariffs this needs to be considered. FP&A is often well positioned to raise questions that are triggered by external events.

🗓️𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴

Although the process for finding the most important strategic questions is not obvious or clear, there are many avenues of discovery.

Instead of getting buried in day-to-day tasks, book the time on your calendar to look toward the horizon. Then, discuss and debate with your colleagues. This will help with strategic planning but also your career.

👇 Comment below if you have additional tips or insights.