Connected Planning

Ron Dimon’s thought-leading second edition of the book originally entitled Enterprise Performance Management Done Right, published in 2012, is a practical roadmap for using Connected Planning to develop an agile organization and to navigate the complex Enterprise Performance Management landscape.

According to esteemed author, researcher, and Management professor Dr. Christopher Neck, “In the same way that one needs to be self-leading to finish a grueling marathon, an organization must be self-leading in order to execute on its plans in an efficient and effective manner. What drives self-leadership at all levels in an organization? The people within the organization of course—and those people must be involved in the planning occurring in an organization. Without a plan, an organization has no direction.”

Since 2012, much has changed in the world of connecting strategy with improved performance: new, cloud-based, in-memory technologies have been adopted by the largest organizations in the world. This book is for CFOs, CIOs, their direct reports, and any organizational visionary or aspiring leader who wants to ‘‘bring it all together’’ and create an actionable vision and plan for improving readiness, resilience, and performance.

Foreword: Christopher Neck xi

Foreword from the First Edition: Gebhard Rainer xii

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xxiii

Chapter 1 What’s Broken and What’s Possible? 1

Strategy-Execution Gap 1

Buckets of Pain 5

Impact 6

Notes 7

Chapter 2 Connected Planning 9

Chapter 3 A Planning Operating System 13

Context 14

Impact 15

Responsibility 15

The Planning Operating System 16

Macro and Micro 25

The Middle 26

Summary 27

Notes 28

Chapter 4 Debate: What Can We Do and What Should We Do? 29

People 31

The Process 33

Scenarios 35

Resilience 38

Drivers: What Moves the Needle? 39

Debate Management 41

Enabling Technologies 44

Potential Quick Wins 44

Summary 45

Note 46

Chapter 5 Commit: Who Will Deliver What, by When? 47

Accountability 50

Gaming the System 53

Enterprise Planning and Forecasting 54

Enabling Technologies 58

Ingredients for Your EPM Roadmap 58

Potential Quick Wins 58

Summary 59

Notes 60

Chapter 6 Visualize: Where Are We, Right Now? 61

Management by Exception 63

Your Point of View 65

Information Qualities 68

Information Delivery 70

Management and Statutory Reporting 74

Sustainability Reporting 77

Enabling Technologies 81

Rationalization 83

Potential Quick Wins 83

Summary 84

Notes 84

Chapter 7 Understand: Why Did We Get the Results We Got? 85

Business Questions 86

Patterns and New Insights 90

Big Data and Predictive Analytics 99

Data Visualization 101

Enabling Technologies 102

Components for Your Connected Planning Roadmap 102

Potential Quick Wins 103

Summary 104

Notes 104

Chapter 8 Execute: From Insights to Actions to Results 105

The 10-Step Insight Process 105

Everything Is Connected 108

Sales Performance Management 110

Sales Operations Performance 111

Order-to-Cash Performance Management 113

Supply Chain Performance Management 115

Marketing Performance Management 121

Summary 124

Notes 126

Chapter 9 Strategy: Everyone Aligned to the Right Outcomes 127

The Language of Strategy 127

Functional Value Maps 128

Optics: Line of Sight 130

Metrics Equal Focus 132

Profitability 134

Strategic Flexibility 135

Closing the Gap 136

Summary 138

Notes 138

Chapter 10 Digital Planning 139

Cloud Computing 140

Blockchain 141

Robotic Process Automation 142

Cognitive Technologies 143

Predictive Analytics 145

Cybersecurity 146

Notes 147

Chapter 11 Bringing It All Together 149

Alignment 150

A Common Business Language 157

Maturity Is in the Arrows 159

Return on Investment and Total Cost of Ownership 162

Standard Architecture 164

Your Connected Planning Roadmap 166

Organizational Readiness: The Connected Planning Center of Excellence 169

Paralyzed by Feuds? 170

Connected Planning and Incentive Plans 171

How Do You Get Started? 172

Summary 173

Notes 176

Appendix: An EPM maturity model 177

Bibliography 183

About the author 187

Index 189

RON DIMON has over thirty years of experience in helping clients get value out of their reporting, analytics, modeling, and planning processes and technology investments. A former Deloitte Managing Director, Ron has served organizations including Google, Microsoft, Oracle, ADM, Hyatt, Kraft Heinz, GE, Cisco, Manulife, the U.S. Navy, and many others.

Today’s organizations have enormous amounts of data and lots of technology but, continually, decisions are being made without the benefit of either of those tools. Executives require a structured framework for gathering, analyzing, and “what-iffing” the best ways to deploy people, capital, and time.

In Connected Planning: A Playbook for Agile Decision Making, accomplished consultant and author Ron Dimon delivers a practical and actionable framework for implementing and managing next generation planning functionality for better insight, focus, and alignment. This book demonstrates that connected planning and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) can have a positive impact on revenue growth, operating margin, asset utilization, and cash cycle efficiency, but that an effective and cohesive blueprint must first be employed.

This reliable resource expands upon and refines the central framework that first appeared in the author’s previous work, Enterprise Performance Management Done Right. It contains significantly updated technology references and new use cases of a connected planning platform, along with a new chapter on finance in a digital world that addresses technologies currently disrupting the nature of planning.

Extensive discussions of industry-shaping technologies, like the cloud, shape the book’s central argument of having a single, cohesive financial and operational plan to maximize growth and profit. You’ll learn about using integrated business planning as a cornerstone of enterprise performance management and discover what the future holds for connected planning.

Perfect for executives, especially CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, managers, and business leaders, Connected Planning: A Playbook for Agile Decision Making will also earn a place in the libraries of IT managers and other technology professionals who seek to get the most out of their data and reporting systems.

An insightful fusion of IT, finance, strategy, and operations in a digestible blueprint for performance management and agile decision making

Enterprise performance management (EPM) has seen dramatic growth in the last decade, as predictive analytics and cloud-based solutions transform the technological landscape for organizations in a wide array of industries and sectors. Connected planning is a new category that goes beyond traditional integrated business planning to every kind of planning and modeling done in an organization. Yet at the same time, vision, thought leadership, and value creation is lacking, and technological solutions are often put in place without any thought to developing a coherent plan or strategy for the organization as a whole.

In this book, you’ll discover a practical roadmap to developing an agile organization that can properly navigate this new connected planning landscape. You’ll also find a cohesive blueprint for establishing a direct and positive impact on revenue growth, operating margin, asset utilization, and cash cycle efficiency. Finally, you’ll find an effective framework for implementing and managing next generation functionality for better decision making, accountability, and alignment.

Ideal for executives and senior managers in mid-sized and large organizations, Connected Planning: A Playbook for Agile Decision Making is an invaluable guide for any leader who hopes to “bring it all together” and create an actionable vision and plan for improving organizational readiness, resilience, and performance.