Episode 50: End-to-end Integrated Planning Processes at Chemtura

Guest: Jessica Quiles

Everyone is talking about Extended Planning and Analysis – or xP&A – these days. On paper, it is easy to appreciate the benefits of integrating planning across finance and operational functions, which include making it easier to get everyone working together towards consistent strategic goals, wasting less energy on reconciling stand-alone plans and forecasts, and increasing forecast accuracy by removing biases.

In reality xP&A is difficult. The challenges range from the political, to the practical. The three critical requirements are (1) developing a vision for what integrated planning looks like (while still supporting the special needs of each function in terms of detail, data and cadences), (2) a willingness to transform business processes to enable the vision, and (3) adoption of suitable technology to support it all.

This week’s guest, Jessica Quiles, will talk about her early-career experiences at Chemtura which fifteen years ago (!) had already successfully integrated Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) with Financial Planning (FP&A), using the IBM Planning Analytics technology (then known as TM1). She has since taken those lessons on The Art of the Possible, to develop her career as a finance leader and to help other companies reap the benefits of moving towards xP&A.