Recent changes in market conditions have placed unprecedented new planning demands on the strategic finance function. What used to be monthly or quarterly reporting and reforecasting is now needed on a weekly, if not daily basis. Fortunately, a combination of agile processes and readily available technologies can help you rise to these new demands.
A long-time advocate of integrated business planning and tearing down departmental data silos, Vena CFO Darrell Cox knows how to put those tools and processes into action to plan with confidence for today and tomorrow.
Join Darrell as he shares his insights in the CPE-accredited, on-demand video, Plan for Today and Tomorrow, at PlanToGrow.com, a digital learning platform for business leaders and finance and operations professionals.
Over his nearly three-decade career in finance, one lesson Darrell learned repeatedly was how even the best business plans are going to be wrong at some point. And as he explains, more important than a plan itself is an underlying, agile planning process; one that’s guided by an organization’s objectives and designed to pivot
quickly to adapt to changes in market conditions or business performance.
“Having a plan is important, but having a planning process even more so. A well-functioning process will mitigate risks and keep your plan relevant so your business can transform through change.”
— Darrell Cox
Drawing on real-life examples, Darrell illustrates how agile planning processes have helped some of the world’s most recognized companies thrive, while others ignored the principles of agile planning at their peril. Hear how companies like Buick and Netflix are household names today not because they started with great plans, but precisely because agility and alignment were fundamental to their planning processes.
Throughout his career, Darrell has also been a consistent innovator, always seeking out new tools, technologies and processes to enable more agile, finance-led planning—elevating the role of the finance function in the process. Discover the essential technologies and processes that should be at the top of the toolbox of any modern finance team, including:
- Adopting agile forecasting in place of the traditional static budget.
- Adjusting your reforecasting frequency depending on the need, from sales to cash flow.
- Using every new uncertainty as an opportunity for scenario modeling and reforecasting.
- Telling the full story behind your numbers by integrating financial and non-financial data sources.
- Treating integrated planning as an ongoing, iterative process of persistence.
From agile forecasting to scenario modeling, from identifying KPIs to the CFO’s role as chief storytelling officer, learn what makes a successful plan and—again, more importantly—an effective planning process.
Watch Darrell’s presentation for additional key takeaways including:
- How to instill a continuous improvement, finance-led planning culture in the face of any business scenario.
- The value of recognizing and learning from feedback loops in your budgeting and forecasting processes from across the business.
- How and when to engage business managers for faster, data-driven decision making.
- The roles of scenario modeling, agile forecasting and an iterative mindset as best practices in times of uncertainty or otherwise.
- How the people, process and technologies behind your integrated planning are as important as the plan itself—which, at some point, is always going to be wrong.
See Darrell’s full presentation on demand at PlanToGrow.com to learn more about the essential elements of planning for today and tomorrow.
Thought Leader Bio
Darrell Cox: Chief Financial Officer, Vena Solutions
Before becoming Vena’s CFO, Darrell Cox spent most of his career in FP&A, seeing what planning processes worked for some companies that thrived, and what proved costly for others. He has long advocated for agile, integrated business planning and tearing down data silos between finance and operations departments.