The Problem – The planning process took too long and couldn’t respond to changes. Annual plans took months to develop and required weeks of time by managers. The roll up of the components usually fell short of our top level income targets. Plans were difficult to explain to the corporate office. Significant changes were invariably […]
Analysis
My experience includes over twenty years of planning, including annual budgets, long-range strategic plans, project planning and organizational planning. The best business solutions and systems designs come when issues are understood on a conceptual level and then reduced to their simplest elements. Projects illustrating this approach are presented in this section. The same approach can bring new insights and value to your business. Examples include:
A goal alignment format I conceived and developed to improve the effectiveness of annual management meetings.
A model-based approach to annual planning that allowed department managers to eliminate weeks of tedious budget preparation and focus instead on just critical changes.
Strategic planning that was drilled down to the department level to increase cohesiveness and buy in.
Business modeling
My blend of analytic and technical skills with seasoned business experience that allows me to create excellent models for planning, decision analysis and sales support. On the sale of my last company, I created a strategic growth business model to facilitate the analysis and valuation of the company by prospective buyers. The model was described […]
Account Analysis
The Problem: Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) can be costly yet ineffective In a survey by CFO Magazine, 70% of CFO’s said that the costs of Sarbanes Oxley outweighed its benefits. Once you have a mound of control objectives, narratives and flow charts, is there really any guarantee that you won’t still have exposure for financial statement […]
Inventory accuracy
The Problem – Inventory adjustments Physical inventory results had wild swings, leading corporate management to have no confidence in financial controls. Even in those situations where the adjustments were minor, there was no confidence that it was not the result of luck or that the results would be repeated the next period. The Solution – […]
Forensic Accounting
The Problem – Purchasing irregularities An employee noticed an unusual purchase. The Solution – Investigative analysis with strong systems support Working with I/T, system data over a number of years was reconstructed. A variety of query criteria were developed to uncover patterns for potential irregularities. In the process, three additional vendors were uncovered with unusual […]
Salary Planning
The Problem – Inconsistent application of salary guidelines by different managers The company salary planning guidelines were so loose that they provided very little direction to managers in establishing increases. As a result, the size of increases were often dependent on who you worked for and pay increases were inconsistent and not always commensurate with […]
Job evaluations
The Problem – Complicated compensation systems The Hay System provides a superb methodology to develop compensation ranges based on factors relevant to each unique job. Unfortunately, the calculation process itself uses four different charts, each with its own calculations, which made the application of the system incredibly time-consuming and error prone and frustrating to all […]
Strategic Planning
The Problem – Top level strategic plans not tied to departmental objectives Strategic plans were prepared by top management but were not well linked to departmental objectives The Solution – Strategic departmental planning We carried the strategic planning process down to individual departments, using the following elements: Departmental mission statement supporting the company mission statement. […]
Annual Meeting
The Problem – Lack of alignment and one way communication in annual management meetings The annual management meeting was an important tradition and opportunity for communication, but was often little more than a collection of uncoordinated presentations from each of the functional heads, and with little input from meeting attendees.. The Solution – Goal alignment […]
