Enhanced Corporate Planning
The fourth most cited technique for enhancing corporate value was changing the approach to corporate financial/strategic planning; 48% said this was the most effective tactic.
One of the main ways to make overall planning more effective is to improve top-down guidance and to get everyone involved. This helps ensure buy-in. “We involved all the executive staff as well as key sales personnel, business unit corporate directors, and finance,” says the controller of a 700-employee health care information firm. “The CEO established overall objectives. The general managers brought to the meeting their first draft as to how those objectives would be achieved financially. The team spent two days discussing and prioritizing key objectives. We used an interactive financial model to test different scenarios suggested by the group to arrive at the target. The final step of the process was to ensure everyone who participated agreed and bought in to the plan.”
As with the budget process, empowering business units can go a long way in improving the corporate planning process. “We turned our divisions into semi-independent businesses, giving them more control over marketing, sales, and collections decisions. So far it is working rather well,” says an accounting manager at a financial services firm (2,500 employees).
