Budgeting, Forecasting and Planning In Uncertain Times

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PLANNING FUNDAMENTALS

Planning in today’s volatile business environment is very different from what it was ten years ago. Creating effective plans requires organisations to understand the things they can control, acknowledge the things they cannot control, and create a planning process that makes sense.

WHAT IS PLANNING?

Bloodhound SSC (www.bloodhoundssc.com) is a project that makes most boys’ (as well as men and some girls) hearts race. Their mission is ‘to confront and overcome the impossible using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics’. This statement may not be that interesting, but the way they plan to achieve their goal is: to create a car that will travel at over 1,000 miles per hour.

1,000 mph cars are not easy to build. At that speed the drag on the car is over 20 tons, the force on the wheel rims is greater than 50,000g. Everything is conspiring to destroy the car or make it take off like a rocket, both of which are undesirable. To achieve that vision the team is using a Rolls Royce EJ200 jet engine coupled with a Falcon rocket engine, which together produces over 135,000 HP, which is 25,000 HP more than the Queen Elizabeth 2 ship liner.

So how does the small team based in England go about this seemingly impossible task? Well it is down to managing three factors, each of which are controllable. First are the business processes that bring different members of the team together to plan and create the car. Second are the outcomes generated by those business ...