Strategic Planning For FP&A: How To Nail The Kickoff Meeting

You’re in FP&A and the CFO suddenly asks you to lead strategic planning out of the blue. You just joined a few weeks ago.⚡Do you know where to start?

There is a lot to consider, but one of the first steps is a kickoff meeting with senior leaders. Here are some practical questions (not exhaustive) to cover in that first meeting:

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
• What are the key roles and responsibilities?
• What are the key deliverables and milestones? [more on this below]
• What is the timeline?

𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆
• What strategic context needs to be considered about the present?
• What assumptions are we making about the future?
• Are there obvious strategic questions that need to be addressed?
• If not, how will we decide which strategic questions we need to address?
• What strategic frameworks will we use?
• What is the decision-making process for prioritizing trade-offs and finalizing the choices?
• How do we achieve alignment around strategic choices?

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹
• How are we performing so far this year?
• How much money do we have to deploy (or save) this year?
• Are there any other financial guardrails that need to be explicitly mentioned?
• What is the range of financial scenarios that might play out in 5+ years and how do we reach the optimal outcome?
• How do we evaluate ROI across competing priorities?
• How do we make sure that the financial model and strategic choices in sync?

𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
• For each strategic choice to be made, how will we track progress in the coming quarters?
• How will we capture metrics (OKRs, KPIs, etc.) for the strategic choices?
• Who owns the follow up?
• When will we follow up and consider course corrections?
• How does strategic planning fit within the operating cadence of the company?
• How and when will budgeting follow strategic planning?
• How and when will the plan be communicated?

These questions are just the start. In my next post, coming tomorrow, I will walk through how to zero in on the most important strategic questions facing the company.

In the meantime, comment below if I missed a question. 👇