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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 →
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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 →
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Strategic Planning For FP&A: Helpful Strategic Frameworks
Stop being just the FP&A reporting team—lean into strategy. This post shares a practical framework any FP&A leader can apply to sharpen strategic thinking. 🎯 In Good Strategy / Bad Strategy, Richard Rumelt introduces the “kernel of strategy” and breaks it down into three components:• Diagnosis• Guiding Policy• Coherent Actions I’m using this as the →
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Strategic Planning For FP&A: 4 roles That Are Essential
Strategic planning isn’t easy. When multiple teams and diverse skills come together, the process can go off the rails. 🛤️ Based on my past experiences, I have realized that there are four roles that are essential for successful strategic planning. Some people can play multiple roles, and multiple people may help execute a role, but →
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Strategic Planning For FP&A: What Is It? What is FP&A’s Role?
Q2 is when many companies kick off strategic planning, and this process is one of the best opportunities for FP&A to help drive impact. The stakes are high, as bad decisions or lack of action could hurt the company’s growth or focus. Over a series of posts, I’m going to share what I have learned →
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Understanding Long-Term S&P 500 Performance for Investors
I received my first stock investment in the 6th grade when my mom gifted me a single share of Disney. At the time, this included a free trip to Disneyland! 🎢 I’ve basically been invested in the stock market ever since, but it can feel unsettling at times, especially with recent headlines and the volatility. →
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Rethinking ROI in Finance: Key Questions to Ask
“What’s the ROI?” 🤔 This is a fair question that I have often asked during my FP&A career, but it’s not always the right one. To be clear, if the amount is large enough and/or the return is forecastable, then ROI is the right way to go. However, for ‘small-to-medium-sized’ requests with uncertain payoffs, there is a →
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Building Scalable Hiring Processes in Finance
Current and future headcount data is critical for a financial forecast but can become a massive time suck 🌀 for FP&A teams if a scalable workflow is not created from the beginning. Lately, I’ve been working with two clients, one early-stage and one more mature, which has made me reflect on how to build a →
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Follow up to ‘Building an FP&A team from 0 to 5’
Last week, I wrote about growing an FP&A team from 0 to 5, based on my experience. This week, I hand-picked sources, added them to Google’s NotebookLM, and used the software to summarize insights. By selecting the sources myself, I avoid the ‘average answer’ that AI models like ChatGPT might provide. Next, I curated the →
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Building an FP&A team from 0 to 5
Last week, somebody asked me about how I would build an FP&A team from 0 to 5. Here is how I would approach it. 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿Start by hiring someone with a broad skillset who is eager to learn and comfortable taking on everything. Strong financial modeling skills and the ability to build →
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