Situation
The Chief of Staff for a C-level executive was responsible for OPEX and resource planning for a $50B+ business unit inside a global enterprise. His team did not have a finance lead to take responsibility for planning and tracking this portion of the budget.
Left without the support of a finance lead or internal analytic capabilities after a hiring freeze, the team lacked the person power for both the next fiscal year’s budget planning and in-quarter budget consumption tracking and insights.
Keenan Reid Strategies was brought in to place a fractional consultant with strategic finance and capital allocation expertise for a 12 week sprint.
Action
The fractional consultant, skilled in forensic financials and non-standard FP&A, quickly determined the root causes of the budget issues. She worked side by side with the finance team and the junior analytics resources on the team to build an assessment framework, develop a list of strategic needs from business unit leaders, and prioritize needs in the context of business strategy.
As a part of this work, we:
- Worked closely with the corporate finance team to build a durable budget structure that eliminated data source errors.
- Simplified the Chief of Staff office budget reconciliation process, establishing a durable rhythm for budget review.
- Escalated the largest sources of budget overrun to the appropriate department leads to find solutions.
Results
The client was left with an OPEX remediation plan and simple monthly governance structure. The consultant trained and transitioned her responsibilities to a junior resource capable of day-to-day budget management.
As a result, budgeting was able to be conducted in the context of strategy and investment choices could be prioritized.