'Plan to Win' Maps Path Forward for Businesses Aiming to Achieve Agility

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A new book commissioned by Adaptive Insights, a Workday (NASDAQ: WDAY) company, issues an urgent call for organizations to adapt the way they create, plan, and execute operational strategies in response to a rapidly changing business environment. Plan to Win — Achieving business agility in the age of urgency reflects the collected experience gained from working with thousands of companies; incorporates the insights of CFOs, FP&A practitioners, and other thought leaders; and includes extensive research on how planning impacts business performance. The new book publishes today and can be downloaded here.

"Whether they know it or not, many organizations stand at a cliff-edge. In today's fast-paced business climate, they need to be able to move quickly or they'll be left behind," said Tom Bogan, executive vice president, Planning Business Unit, Workday. "Business agility is really about having the right controls to properly manage and measure flexibility, and most of that comes down to how you plan. Plan to Win is a practical guide for making planning a competitive advantage in the age of urgency."

Plan to Win demonstrates how annual, top-down planning within an organization's finance department not only takes up valuable time, but it also can't keep up with today's accelerated, data-driven world. And planning based solely on financial data paints a one-dimensional picture of a business.

"Business agility, at its core, is enabling a broader set of the organization to deploy what they do best while understanding the implication to financial results. That's just not possible with spreadsheets any longer," said Jim Bell, CEO and former CFO of P.F. Chang's, a restaurant chain with more than 500 locations. "We use the best practices in Plan to Win, and it describes exactly how we plan today. We've gone from a static, siloed, top-down planning process to one that engages the people closest to the business. It's transformed our organization."

Written for CEOs/CFOs, finance practitioners, and those involved in business planning, the book offers businesses a new model for planning to achieve true business agility.

"These are disruptive times," said Doug Henschen, vice president and principal analyst, Constellation Research. "Companies not busy innovating are likely doing their best to fend off new competitors. When they're trying to innovate or respond to change, they need visibility into business conditions and solid planning and forecasting. They need what-if analysis to test new business models and gauge the impact of new products and services. They need a new model for planning, as outlined in Plan to Win."

Among the key themes the book explores:

• Static planning: Limitations of legacy planning processes
• Active planning: A new model for agility in the age of urgency
• Company-wide planning: Extending planning beyond finance for holistic planning
• Impacts of AI and machine learning: The impact of what-if scenarios and prediction machines on planning

Plan to Win is available now from Adaptive Insights and through its global partners.

To learn more:

• Read the blog, "Now more than ever, it's about agility"
• Watch the video featuring Tom Bogan on business agility

About Adaptive Insights, a Workday company

Adaptive Insights, a Workday company, is powering a new generation of business planning. Driving business agility in a fast-moving world, Adaptive Insights Business Planning Cloud leads the way for people in companies to collaborate, gain insights, and make smarter decisions faster. Powerful modeling for any size organization, yet so easy for everybody who plans. To learn more, visit www.adaptiveinsights.com.

SOURCE Adaptive Insights

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