IBP Collaborative

About the Study

The IBP Collaborative is undertaking a research study that focuses on how global manufacturers plan, manage and govern their business.  The hypothesis is that manufacturers have difficulty managing complexity because they have not fully integrated their (strategic, financial and operational) planning and performance management (P&PM) processes.  As a result, we expect to find that they experience similar:

• • • Strategy execution difficulties
    • Management challenges
    • Forms of value erosion

By participating in this research study, manufacturers will gain an understanding of:

• • • The maturity of their P&PM processes, relative to fully integrated ones
    • Key capability gaps in these P&PM processes
    • How these gaps are destroying value
    • How they can address these gaps

This research study is the first of its kind.  Rather than focusing on strategic, financial and operational P&PM processes individually, it looks at integration more holistically.  To support this research, a maturity model was developed that brings together traditional P&PM methods and software, examples of which are provided below.

The maturity model is described in detail here.  By examining maturity through this holistic lens, manufacturers will gain valuable insight into why they are struggling to address key managing challenges, like those shown below.

These challenges dominate the results of strategic, financial and operational research studies.  However, one factor is not always acknowledged in these research studies.  In global manufacturers, strategic, financial and operational stakeholders cannot address these challenges on their own.

Cash flow forecasting (CFF) provides a classic example of this.  In complex manufacturers, CFF remains one of the most problematic challenges for Treasurers and CFOs, despite using leading financial planning and budgeting software and treasury workstations.  What’s not always appreciated is that the models required for supply chain planning are the same ones required for mature cash flow forecasting, especially since cash optimization should be an output of scenario planning.