Shorter innovation and production cycles, accelerated communication, and real-time KPI tracking: corporate planning and management must be able to keep up with these and other challenges. Technologically, this is not a problem; suitable business intelligence applications are available. However, a company's primary management tool must not only achieve an optimal maturity level in processes and IT systems but also contribute to the organization's future viability.

This can be achieved if several key factors are considered. A critical prerequisite is a continuous process from strategic to financial and operational planning and management. At every level, planning serves as the central element for setting goals, communicating them, and developing a shared understanding. This ensures that everyone knows what is expected of them—across all organizational units and down to individual employees. This alignment enables everyone to work toward the same objectives, operationalize strategies, and realize visions.

However, there is no single “best practice” approach or ready-made solution that can be transferred 1:1 or with minimal adjustments to different corporate contexts. Planning and management depend on the organization's products, processes, and, not least, its leadership. Tailored solutions that meet specific needs while remaining adaptable to changes are ideal. This flexibility of systems is one of the essential new requirements for today’s corporate planning and management. Other key requirements include:

• Executing planning cycles in a fraction of the time and effort
• Conducting plans more frequently and, if necessary, outside regular schedules
• Algorithm- and simulation-based optimization of operational processes
• Real-time reporting across all levels of aggregation
• Delivering recipient-specific information at the right time

How can companies meet these demands for corporate management? The following five success factors are crucial:

1. Integrated Rolling Corporate Planning

All sub-plans can be consolidated into a planning balance sheet and P&L statement and, if needed, into a group result. Rolling planning adjusts these plans at regular intervals to reflect new conditions, ensuring that planning remains continuously up-to-date. This approach transforms planning and management into a continuous activity rather than a once-a-year event. While the budget (annual plan) remains as a baseline, variance analysis and appropriate measures help maximize steering effectiveness.

2. Planning Templates That Incorporate Strategic Goals and Measures

To create plans quickly, lengthy processes must be avoided—for example, bottom-up planning. This method starts with operational units, which aggregate their inputs into an overall plan that is then iteratively adjusted until it meets management expectations.

An ideal approach begins with aligning goals derived from the strategy and trends at the start of the planning process. These are then digitally distributed as model-based planning templates to individual units. Units can adjust templates, e.g., to plan stronger growth for specific products or customers. If no adjustments are made, all required plan values are still available. This enables planning cycles to be completed rapidly with minimal resources while improving quality and ambition levels. The results are also current since the planning cycle duration is reduced from several months to just a few weeks.

3. Using Simple Driver Models and Complex Optimization Models

To support the alignment of shared goals, driver models are recommended. These allow the impact of changes on key objectives to be projected—examples include fluctuations in raw material prices, exchange rates, tariffs, or demand. Driver models should be simple tools for calculating the influence of individual drivers on business goals.

For optimizing operational processes, more complex models are often required. For instance, an entire value chain can be modeled and continuously optimized through real-time comparisons and simulations. Products, employees, suppliers, machines, locations, transport routes, processes, and sales channels can all be analyzed and compared. Intelligent algorithms can also adjust parameters without actual data, enabling model-based determination of the optimal combination of production factors for inclusion in the planning process.

4. Defining a Simple and Consistent Management Concept

A management concept defines the KPIs, dimensions, and objects used to manage the company, independent of the process. These are the "guidelines" that apply to all employees. The focus should be on key influencing factors, which must be defined and documented uniformly company-wide.

Dimensions are various characteristics used for data analysis, such as product groups, customer segments, or organizational units. This enables analysis of the impact of individual products on revenue or profit.

5. Leveraging Fully Integrated Business Intelligence Systems

New technologies today allow decision-makers to access required information in real time, in the best possible format and level of detail. The complexity of large, unstructured datasets becomes “Data-to-Wisdom”—insights from analyses generate actionable knowledge that can provide a competitive advantage. These systems also support processes with workflow functionalities, ensuring all process participants are automatically notified of the input they need to deliver and by when.

With in-memory data storage, information can be provided much faster. Fully integrated solutions eliminate redundant data storage, bringing companies closer to the single point of truth and avoiding time-consuming loading, control, and reconciliation processes.

Management Cockpits, Digital Boardrooms, and Dashboards visually condense information and make it intuitively understandable. Instructions for detailed analyses from various perspectives can already be issued via voice commands. Using threshold values is recommended to automatically notify responsible parties when defined events occur, goals are achieved, or targets are missed.

With the new opportunities provided by digitalization, social media, and disruptive digital business models, the future has already begun. Now is the time to adapt—and where better to start than with your own corporate planning and management?