The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
Tag Archives: Analytics
CFO Dive: Data analytics, RPA top list of 2021 digital priorities, survey finds
November 20, 2020
“CFOs should primarily focus on identifying the investments that will drive positive business outcomes and enhance employee performance within new hybrid working models, the researchers wrote. CFOs will also need to reassess how they measure business performance while also encouraging new business models that support digital growth.”
SF Magazine: Considerations in Data Analytics Problem Structuring
November 2, 2020
There are three key elements that should be in place before kicking off a data analytics project – understand the real need, understand the users, and understand the problem complexity.
SF Magazine: A Data-Driven Approach to the Pandemic
October 29, 2020
“It has never been more urgent for businesses to adopt data analytics. Insights from data analytics are required to surpass, or, in some instances, merely remain on par with, competitors. Companies leveraging data analytics in response to the pandemic have already progressed along the path to digitization by establishing a data ecosystem—the infrastructure, applications, and analytics needed to drive business intelligence, generate insights, and inform strategic decision making.”
WSJ: Anticipate, Test ‘What If’ Scenarios With Analytics
October 12, 2020
“As organizations navigate the many issues they’ve had to address in recent months, some may be capturing and documenting their decisions and actions so the information can be leveraged as part of future continuity planning. Indeed, the insights gained through the pandemic can be helpful in preparing for other events or scenarios, whether in isolation or in combination with others, where the consequences are significant, but the likelihood is low. However, there may be more organizations can do to build their resilience and prepare for possible future disruptors.”
Modeling Through the Current Crisis
May 14, 2020
“Creating financial and operating models is critical to creating alignment across the enterprise, and FP&A professionals are making numerous scenarios to understand actions, impacts and options. FP&A professionals have a sober view of the duration of this crisis, with 66% creating financial models that assume the crisis will last for three quarters or more. This was consistent across companies of all revenue sizes.”
CFOs Need Models to Understand How Shifting Customer Needs Affects Resources
April 13, 2020
“One of the quirks of the downturn in retail has been an increase in shirt sales while pant sales have dropped, presumably because people participating in video conferences while working from home are paying more attention to their appearance from the waist up. Whatever the reason behind the trend, CFOs can model that kind of change to justify a shift in how resources are allocated within the business. But to pay off, the modeling has to be done in as close to real time as possible. ”
How CEOs Can Lead a Data-Driven Culture
March 23, 2020
“In companies with strong data cultures, important decisions are informed by data and analytics and executives act on analytically derived insights rather than intuition or experience. While digital-native companies like Amazon and Alibaba have strong digital cultures, many traditional companies are struggling to make progress. That’s mostly because few undertake initiatives directly aimed at achieving the desired culture change.”
The Relationship Between Accounting and FP&A
February 24, 2020
Many people in the finance and accounting industries would agree that accountants know finance, but not all finance personnel understand accounting. Granted, both functions have different skill sets and responsibilities. It may be an oversimplification, but accounting departments are focused on what has happened, whereas FP&A uses the information provided by the accounting department to posit what might happen.
When You Have Too Much Tech
February 21, 2020
Surveys show CFOs generally see the need to incorporate technology to help them improve their finance and accounting functions. But knowing which technology is right for their operations and which isn’t — and also when the time is right — is the “opportunity and the curse,” says Bryan Lapidus, FP&A, director of the FP&A practice at the Association for Financial Professionals. “Until you look at your needs and take an honest look at where your team is culturally, he suggested, the CFO might be better served resisting the addition of new tech for its own sake.”
