How to make the most of your Integrated Business Planning process during and after business reorganisation
07 Oct 2025
Blog
This blog covers:
- Why implementing an Integrated Business Planning process after a business reorganisation creates expensive co-ordination collapse
- How to preserve the cross-functional collaboration that emerges naturally during restructuring
- The competitive advantages gained by companies that embed Integrated Business Planning during reorganisation rather than afterwards
Let's be honest: most business reorganisations fail spectacularly, sooner rather than later. Typically, the leadership announces sweeping structural changes, invests heavily in new technologies, and then discovers that old problems have returned: departments still operate in isolation while AI systems struggle with fragmented data.
An all-too-common approach treats the Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process as something to implement after reorganisation is completed. This backwards sequencing explains why so many improvement initiatives deliver expensive disappointment rather than competitive advantage.
Companies achieve co-ordination during reorganisation, then systematically destroy those capabilities before attempting to implement IBP, or something similar. For instance, they disband cross-functional teams, revert to siloed information systems, and fragment decision-making authority, precisely when they need integration most.
Forward-thinking companies — many of our clients — do the opposite. They recognise reorganisation co-ordination as their future operating model and implement an IBP process to power and preserve it permanently. While competitors struggle with co-ordination collapse, these organisations maintain unified data access and cross-functional transparency that makes both AI and structural change effective.
Business reorganisation statistics prove the urgency: 501 mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies in Q2 2025 alone, with deal values increasing 160% in 2024. Meanwhile, recent MIT research reveals 95% of AI pilots are failing due to integration challenges.
The scale of change creates both opportunity and risk. Companies that implement IBP during reorganisation gain sustained co-ordination capabilities. Those attempting to overlay IBP afterwards discover that the cross-functional collaboration essential for success has already vanished.
Through conversations with executives across industries, I've observed this pattern repeatedly. The timing of an IBP process implementation determines whether the reorganisation delivers a competitive advantage or expensive process theatre.
While people reorganise, they're also redefining their strategy. When this isn't implemented in an integrated way, silos develop and deploy the strategy in ways that often harm the initial intent and benefits.
Capturing co-ordination while it exists
During major restructuring, organisations naturally develop remarkable co-ordination capabilities. Cross-functional teams form spontaneously. Information flows freely between departments, and decisions get made quickly with clear accountability. Everyone works toward shared objectives with unusual urgency.
Smart companies recognise this co-ordination as their future operating model and implement IBP to preserve it permanently. They understand that reorganisation reveals how effective collaboration actually works, then use the IBP process to embed those practices into ongoing operations.
One technology company I know well co-ordinated their major acquisition beautifully. Cross-functional teams met daily, shared real-time performance data, and made pricing decisions within hours rather than weeks. Rather than dismantling these mechanisms when restructuring was "completed", they evolved them into a permanent Integrated Business Planning capability.
Three years later, they co-ordinate product launches significantly faster than competitors while maintaining the cross-functional transparency that delivered acquisition success. Their quarterly planning cycles require days rather than weeks because co-ordination remains embedded in their operating rhythm.
Among Oliver Wight's clients using an IBP process, success varies dramatically based on implementation timing. Those embedding IBP during reorganisation report substantial performance gains and sustained competitive advantage. Those treating IBP as separate from restructuring see limited impact despite sophisticated planning processes.
Integrated Business Planning as reorganisation enabler
Companies that achieve lasting results implement Integrated Business Planning as their co-ordination architecture, rather than a planning methodology. The IBP process provides what we call Method to Meaning™: the systematic translation of temporary project co-ordination into permanent operational capability.
This approach draws from our experience helping organisations integrate finance into IBP processes.
Rather than treating planning as separate from operational execution, successful companies create unified approaches that align strategic ambitions with operational realities while maintaining appropriate stretch targets.
The key lies in building connectors between different business functions. For example, finance professionals understand operational constraints and opportunities, enabling them to make meaningful contributions to discussions aimed at closing gaps. Elsewhere, marketing teams co-ordinate campaign timing with supply chain capacity, and innovation pipelines connect with business strategy rather than operating independently.
Most importantly, this integration becomes embedded into the organisation's DNA rather than remaining a project methodology. As our Method to Meaning™ framework demonstrates, lasting impact comes not just from implementing processes but from making those processes "meaningful, integrated, adopted and sustained".
Competitive advantage through co-ordinated execution
Current reorganisation pressures create unprecedented opportunity for companies implementing an Integrated Business Planning process during restructuring. While competitors struggle with co-ordination collapse after reorganisation, these organisations maintain decision speed and cross-functional transparency that modern markets demand.
The advantages compound over time. Companies with an embedded IBP process report faster implementation of strategic decisions, improved cross-functional project delivery, and higher success rates for technology adoption, including AI deployment. When AI is deployed correctly and integrated with IBP, it facilitates informed decision-making and reduces operational noise. Most significantly, they redirect resources from reconciling competing plans toward identifying new market opportunities.
Machine learning implementation reinforces this advantage. While most AI pilots fail due to integration gaps, companies with IBP foundations enjoy dramatically higher implementation success rates. The co-ordination capability that makes reorganisation successful also makes technology adoption effective.
Our experience shows that organisations implementing the IBP process during reorganisation consistently outperform those treating integration as a separate initiative. They achieve meaningful change management that extends beyond structural adjustment to deliver sustained competitive advantage through non-siloed working.
The choice facing leadership teams becomes clearer with each reorganisation wave. Implement the Integrated Business Planning process while co-ordination capabilities are at their peak, or attempt to recreate what organisational restructuring has already dismantled.
Companies that choose the former will join a growing group that gains a lasting competitive advantage through co-ordinated execution. Those opting for the latter will learn why timing determines whether reorganisation delivers breakthrough performance or merely costly reorganisation theatre.
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