Agenda at a Glance

Summit Agenda

March 22, 2012

8:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:30 Keynote Address and Opening Remarks by Summit Chairman

A New Approach to Performance Management: Creating an Effective Budgeting & Forecasting Process

     An overwhelming number of professionals experience high levels of frustration regarding the duration, inaccuracies, and inadequacies of their budgeting process. The inability to establish this process as the foundation for performance management significantly inhibits the effectiveness of operational plans and creates an organizational rigidity that renders them incapable of adapting to frequent environmental changes. So, what constitutes an effective budgeting & forecasting process? What attributes do high performing organizations exhibit?  Our keynote presenter will examine common pain points and identify, based on new research, the good habits of an effective budgeting & forecasting process.
Mitch Max – CEO, Virtual Profit Solutions, ASMI Sr. Fellow

9:40 Break & Refreshments

9:50 Panel Discussion

Finding a Balance between Target Setting and the Alignment of Incentives to Performance
 
     Does your target setting create a culture of “sandbagging” or performance optimization? Traditional budgeting practices typically establish inflexible targets that results in managers “protecting their turf” and earning a bonus as opposed to focusing on the performance of the organization. In order to optimize performance,
companies must develop a more adaptive method to determining managers’ contribution to the organization. Doing so will help to eliminate the conflict of interest between goal setting and individual rewards. During this panel discussion, you will have the opportunity to discuss the following key issues:

     • Aligning incentives to metrics that show the value created
     • How to establish relative targets to avoid pitfalls created by fixed targets
     • Transforming goals from arbitrary financial numbers to more operational objectives
     • The relative performance indicators that can be used to gauge and evaluate managers’ contributions
     • Increasing accountability and transparency for everyone’s impact on performance

11:00 Break & Refreshments

11:50 Achieve Superior Performance through Driver Based Budgeting and Planning

     • Gain better insight on future performance and make more accurate, value-added decisions
     • Identify cause and effect relationships to assume corrective action for negative performance
     • Rapidly assess the financial impact of different business scenarios 
     • Experience reduced time and cost in reforecasting— turning more focus to acting on forecast data

12:15 Networking & Lunch Break

1:15 Employ Best Practices for Rolling Forecast Design and Implementation

    • Determine the level of detail to compare forecasts to actuals
    • Decide on reforecast frequency and how to far to look into the future 
    • Use continuous rolling forecasts to gain visibility and coordination aligned with operation cycles
    • Identify and use key business drivers for better forecasting data and results 
    • Continuously update operational plans to account for changing business conditions
Sid Ghatak –President, Rolling Forecast International, Ltd.

2:15 Break & Refreshments

2:20 The Planning Maturity Curve: Where Are You? Where Do You Want to Be?

     In this fast paced and often humorous workshop, Rand and Ben analyzed the five levels of planning maturity—no planning, seat of the pants, budgeting, forecasting and agile planning. The presentation is based on Alight’s adaptation of the Capability Maturity Model first developed at Carnegie Mellon University. Not surprisingly, the goals, processes and requirements for each type of planning vary including effectiveness in resource planning and impact on decision making.

     The workshop includes a company case study of Agile PlanningTM, a new methodology for real time collaboration and scenario analysis now being used by many organizations for overhauling their stagnant and over-politicized planning processes. Also, Rand and Ben will perform a fun simulation of a real time agile planning session.
Rand Heer – CEO, Alight Planning
Ben Lamorte – VP of Marketing, Alight Planning

4:20  Day 1 Adjourns

4:30 Networking Reception

March 23, 2012

8:15 Summit Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:50 Opening Remarks by Summit Chairman
Mitch Max – CEO, Virtual Profit Solutions, ASMI Senior Fellow

8:55  Keynote Address

Designing a World Class FP&A Operating Model for Business Transformation

     Finance is emerging as a pivotal function that acts as a promising lever for business transformation. The concept of finance transformation focuses on leveraging financial capabilities to improve performance and create a greater impact on strategy formulation and execution. A strong operating model for financial planning and analysis ensures that strategy effectively translates into action. Developing this model requires that finance be understood as a steward, operator, strategist, and catalyst to company performance.  Today’s keynote speaker will share with you the importance of aligning strategic, operational, and financial decisions and how to put together an FP&A operating model that achieves world-class performance.
Jim Robertson, Director FP&A, IES

10:00 Break & Refreshments

10:05 Performance Optimization: Identify and Establish the Right Metrics to Align Strategic, Operational, and Financial Plans
     • Establish the most relevant and telling KPI’s to gauge performance
     • Apply metrics that address both short- and long-term strategic objectives across each major CPM function
     • Utilize performance measurement to allocate resources to high-value initiatives

11:05 Break & Refreshments

11:10 Leverage Financial Dashboards for Improved Insight and Decision-Making

     • Easily monitor, analyze and drill down into financial data to identify trends
     • Make quicker decisions about financial performance with clear metrics and data
     • Seamlessly execute financial reports despite the broadening of metrics used to determine financial success

12:10 Networking & Lunch Break

1:10 Apply Cost and Profitability Analytics to Support Effective Planning and Forecasting

     • Is your business strategy based on appropriate Cost and Profitability Analytics?
     • Examine emerging best practices in developing and using cost and profitability analysis
     • Analyze profitability to create action in performance improvement
     • Leverage budgeting and forecasting to drive efficient resource allocation
Mitch Max – CEO, Virtual Profit Solutions, ASMI Sr. Fellow

2:10 Break & Refreshments

2:15 Communication, Understanding, and Change Management—Keys to Success

     • Develop a change road map to identify change agents and inhibitors (Interactive Exercise)
     • Communicate and create the business case for such a change to foster buy-in
     • Identify the change initiative most vital to performance improvement  and leverage it to broaden the change effort
Sid Ghatak –President, Rolling Forecast International, Ltd.

3:20 Wrap-Up: Practical Applications for Improved Performance Management
Mitch Max – CEO, Virtual Profit Solutions, ASMI Sr. Fellow

3:30 Summit Adjourns

Pre-Summit Workshop

March 21, 2012

     Pre-Summit Workshops are practical, supplementary application sessions that incorporate tools, techniques, and methods that will be reinforced during the event. Participants will obtain a further understanding of how to use newly acquired tools and cutting-edge strategies to improve strategic planning and financial management performance. Through group exercises and scenario-based learning, you’ll walk away with the expertise and resources needed for immediate and practical application. Enrollment space is limited, so registered today to reserve your place.

8:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00  Developing Effective Rolling Forecast Capability 

     Being able to forecast financial information over time will help your organization identify previously unseen trends and predict fluctuations. With the right tools, key business drivers such as market conditions, performance measurements, customer demographics, and marketing activities can be tracked to help uncover these trends and to recognize what to look for. Developing measurements and metrics for various business factors can be incorporated into your forecasting models for improving results. In this dynamic, hands-on workshop, you will gain information on how to:

     • Develop a vision for budgeting and forecasting as a key capability 
     • Analyze performance gaps in your current process
     • Design an effective planning and forecasting process that meets the strategic goals of your company
     • Build a driver-based approach to forecasting and planning
     • Manage changes in the forecast
Mitch Max – CEO, Virtual Profit Solutions, ASMI Sr. Fellow

3:00 Workshop Adjourns

Who Should Attend

Who Should Attend:

Budgeting & Forecasting is designed for senior level managers and team leaders who need up-to-date tools, practices, and techniques to address today’s business issues. This program is applicable for the following functions:

• Chief Executive Officers
• Chief Financial Officers
• Managing Directors
• General Managers
• Financial Accountants & Controllers
• Management Accountants
• Finance Directors & Managers
• Business Analysts & Managers (FP&A, SP&F)
• Budgeting Managers

Venue and Hotel

VENUE & HOTEL:

The Budgeting & Forecasting Summit 2011 will be held at The Renaissance Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas. 

A limited number of rooms have been reserved at The Renaissance Dallas Hotel at the prevailing rate of $113. This rate is based on the Government Per Diem and the discounted rate is only secured up until 3 weeks prior to the start of the event. Therefore, please call the hotel 3 weeks prior to secure the rate. When calling the hotel please reference The American Strategic Management Institute and the name of the event “Budgeting & Forecasting” when making reservations to get the discounted rate.

Renaissance Dallas Hotel
2222 Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, TX 75207
Phone number: 1-214-631-2222

To reserve lodging accommodations on Renaissance's secure online reservations portal, please click here.

Group Discounts

For more information on group discounts for the Budgeting & Forecasting Summit please contact Andrea DiRaddo at (202) 739-9601 email him at Andrea.DiRaddo@ASMIweb.com.

Accreditation

Delivery Method: Group-live       
Program Level: Intermediate
Prerequisites: None              
Advanced Preparation: None
CPE Credits: Conference: 14 Credits     Workshop: 6 Credits
Sponsor Organization Name and Sponsor ID Number: Thompson Media Group 109435

Thompson Media Group is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37219-2417. Website: www.nasba.org.