Oliver Wight hosts webinar for international business leaders

On March 27 2017 leading business transformation consultants, Oliver Wight, hosted a webinar called Benchmark your Integrated Business Planning Process. Business leaders from all over the globe participated in a series of live polls which enabled them to position their Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process against what a “good” IBP process looks like.

Through a series of thought-provoking questions about the characteristics of their IBP process, executives were left with an indication of how much they need to improve to get the most value out of their process. The participants spanned a range of industries including pharmaceutical, construction, chemical, FMCG, engineering, manufacturing, food & beverage and electrical.

A surprising majority of participants (67 per cent) admitted their IBP process was not achieving deployment of strategy, delivery of the budget or driven improvement across their business. Only six per cent confirmed they were achieving those goals, while the remainder were unclear.

46 per cent of participants revealed that the accuracy of their demand plan was still volatile and clear bias existed within the plan. In addition, whilst traditionally the IBP planning horizon is 24 months plus, 18 per cent confirmed they only plan for the current year and a startling 69 per cent admitted that although they have plans in place beyond the current year, they do not rigorously review them.

“The findings from the polls reflect that simply deploying Integrated Business Planning does not transform business performance,” comments Oliver Wight EAME associate Paul Archer. He continues, “Mandatory reviews, integrated collaboration on all levels and firm objectives for the long term must be put in place to achieve tangible improvement and to unleash the full potential of a business.”

Oliver Wight EAME has released a full report assessing the key issues and dissatisfaction amongst international business leaders, taking the results of this webinar into account (download a copy here).