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Disciplined Forward Forecasting

Aug 12, 2013 by Jack O'Riley 0 Comments

Disciplined forward forecasting

The High-Involvement Method for Improving Financial Performance

Assuring that the time and money spent on Forward Forecasting yields greatly improved financial performance is certainly one of the primary results expected from this process.  A key element of financial Forecasting success is the involvement of the right people regardless of functional area, organizational position or geography.

Learn More About High-Involvement Planning

Here are four tips that will help make your Huddling process “financially” effective:

  1. Create Huddling rhythms that meet the needs of the organization.  Careful attention to the design of the Huddling process will help yield the most favorable results.  The Huddle must be at the right time in the business cycle, involve the correct participants, have access to accurate information and should spend 80% or more of the effort looking forward.
  2. Strategically configured “pre Huddles” and “post Huddles” not only create broader involvement but assure that the primary forecasting Huddle is equipped with relevant, up-to-date forecasting information.
  3. Although the Huddles should spend the vast majority of the time talking about the future, the process is a very good place to report and record important performance data from the prior week (overtime hours, tons produced, sales calls made, etc.).

Learn More About Huddles

A key point to remember is that although “ready, fire, aim” is the preferred way to get the forecast Huddling process going, over time the whole effort needs to be constantly reviewed and altered to meet the changing needs of both the attendees and the organization.

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Topics: Financial Forecasting

Jack O'Riley
Written by Jack O'Riley

Jack O’Riley is a coach for The Great Game of Business, Inc. where he uses his 40+ years of business experience to help open-book companies implement The Great Game of Business. Jack has a career of diverse business experience working for both privately held and Fortune 100 organizations. He has held positions from chairman of the board to engineer. He was introduced to the Great Game of Business when president of an information technology consulting company. Beginning coaching in 2008, he has provided services to a wide range of organizations with sales from $1MM to over $100MM. Markets served by these clients include manufactured products, technology services, software, agriculture and ag equipment, printing, disaster recovery, oil and gas transportation, electrical generation, consulting services and construction. Jack’s education is in industrial engineering. He and his wife, Sue, live in central Illinois, and have five grown children.

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Our approach to running a company was developed to help close one of the biggest gaps in business: the gap between managers and employees. We call our open-book approach The Great Game of Business. What lies at the heart of The Game is a very simple proposition: The best, most efficient, most profitable way to operate a business is to give everybody in the company a voice in saying how the company is run and a stake in the outcome. Let us teach you how to develop a culture of ownership, where employees think, act and feel like owners.