Open Password – Wednesday April 13, 2022
#1054
Steep templates for corporate success – Marc Berenbeck – Knowledge Manager – Ready to Use – Strategic Decisions – Information Broker – Kearney – Ralf Hennemann – GBI Genios – Top Sport – Urs Siegenthaler – Teams – Consultants – Orientation Phase – Junior – Internal Networks – External Networks – Senior – Training – Orchestration of teams – Brainstorming – Information processing – Information transfer – Documentation – Courage – Personality – Motivation – Enthusiasm – Skills – Silos – Role model – Authenticity – Internal public – Consultants – Sebastian Matthes – Unstructured data – Outsourcing – External expert networks – Quick and dirty – Artificial intelligence
Financial planning and analysis – Automation – Cross-departmental collaboration – Digital transformation – Merging data – Innovations are becoming easier – Artificial intelligence – Machine learning – Company performance – Christoph Ahr – Pandemic – McKinsey – Real-time reactions – Forecasts – Best practices – PWC – Data preparation – Simulations – Public Cloud Services – Corporate Cloud – Jedox
- Title
Steep assists for corporate success in 2021
Marc Berenbeck: Knowledge manager in a global management consultancy – With “Ready to Use” analyzes and elaborations as a basis for strategic decisions in customer companies – By Willi Bredemeier
- Financial planning and analysis
Automation, collaboration, transformation, merging data, innovations are becoming easier, AI and MI are “mainstream” – and the cloud – By Christoph Ahr
Steep assists for corporate success in 2021
Marc Berenbeck: Knowledge manager in
a global management consultancy
With “Ready to Use” analyzes and elaborations
as a basis for strategic decisions in customer companies
See also the interview with Marc Berenbeck, Strategic Corporate Decisions: The information broker, more than a data provider – information professionals have a future, they are even indispensable. But how do they do that?, in: Open Password, September 13, 2021
There has to be enthusiasm in sport as well as in a global management consultancy:
Marc Berenbeck from Kearney
By Willi Bredemeier
Marc Berenbeck from Kearney spoke at the “Steilvorlagen 2021” in Frankfurt about “Knowledge Manager: in a Global Management Consulting”. In his introduction, Ralf Hennemann from GBI-Genios recalled that Berenbeck had won the German roller hockey championship several times and was also the coach of the German national roller hockey team. He hoped that Berenbeck would be able to combine the somewhat brittle world of information and knowledge with the highly emotional world of top-class sport. This wish was also obvious because “Steilvorlagen”, as the title suggests, has always had a special affinity with (top-class) sport (see, for example, the keynote speech at the time by Urs Siegenthaler, tactics advisor to the German national football team).
Berenbeck happily picked up the ball hit by Hennemann, appeared emotional and highly motivated in InfoPro contexts and found common ground in both spheres: You have to define your own role in the team, know what roles the other members of the team have to play, being able to rely on others and always being aware that it is the team and not the individual player that wins the game.
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From beginners to senior experts and orchestrating teams.
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The speaker, who was asked about a possible lecture six months ago, spontaneously agreed, but at the same time realized that he would have made a different decision four years ago. In the meantime, Berenbeck said, he became aware of the impact his work and the work of other information professionals had and what their contribution was to the overall success of the company. He summarized his assessment in two statements: “The information broker is more than a data provider. Mostly acting in the background and often an underestimated employee, the knowledge expert forms the backbone of successful teams and projects.” Behrenbeck emphasized the core term “backbone” once again.
However, information professionals are not born as such. Rather, they go through several difficult phases in their learning process, some of which can last years. What all phases have in common is that the InfoPros generate knowledge and expand their own knowledge every day. Berenbeck described his current end point as follows: “After twenty years of professional experience, I am now a discussion partner for our consultants.” He divided the phases that Berenbeck went through as follows:
- Beginners: Orientation phase in conveying information – getting to know the methods – what is expected of me?
- Junior: General research without a focus – gaining initial experiences – falling and always getting up again…
- More experienced: developing your own techniques – setting priorities – building an internal network
- Expert: Contact person for subject- or industry-specific topics and questions – building an external network
- Senior: Thought leader and building a team – knowledge transfer and training Young talent – own network.
As a senior, Berenbeck is responsible for the global pharmaceutical, medical technology and healthcare market. The speaker emphasized: “Learning and building knowledge or expanding knowledge do not end with seniority.”
Berenbeck then described the steps in his professional life a second time, this time from the perspective of the team. He chose the metaphor of a mountain hike to emphasize: “Becoming an expert is a long and persistent journey.” He had a recommendation for the mountain guide: “As knowledge experts, we encourage and challenge our team to reach the summit together.” He characterized the intermediate stops on the way to the summit as follows:
- Ready to climb? “When we are at the beginning, we don’t know whether we will reach the goal or what obstacles await us. But we should still be as prepared as possible.”
- In the first interim camp: “What went well in the first part and what needs to be improved in the second part?” Have I managed my resources well?”
- In the second interim camp: “Motivation for the last section and summary of the route already covered. What is needed for the remaining path? Was I able to keep those around me by my side for as long as possible?”
- At the summit: “When you have reached your goal, you should thank the people who accompanied you the entire route or part of the way.”
Here Berenbeck thanked the many colleagues and other people who had supported, encouraged and accompanied him on his professional path and without whom he would not be where he has reached today. He appeared to be highly motivated to “give back” to the young people and up-and-coming talent what he had received through his own support. Berenbeck is now a trainer in the area of “office management” and sees his tasks and those of other senior experts in the “orchestration” of teams, which are often put together across departments, or in the control of many individual, interrelated processes. As there are in detail:
- Question/task: The aim of the analysis influences the question or task.
- Brainstorming: exchange with colleagues
- Process information: evaluation/assessment & analysis
- Research: Break new ground, get out of the silos
- Communication processes: Presentation of the core messages and other statements
- Documentation: Archiving of results.
One of the attributes that make a good InfoPro and that Berenbeck tries to promote in young talent is the courage and willingness to break new ground. So he keeps saying: “Be brave.” “Express your opinion.” “Hey, I have a more nuanced opinion here.” The InfoPros often work in the background, but, says Berenbeck, “they don’t need to hide.”
As a knowledge manager, he has to serve as a role model, Berenbeck also said, naming three areas that are particularly important to him:
- “Personality: What do I bring with me?
Interest. Interest in the industry or the topics makes everyday working life easier and promotes understanding.
Motivation. Being intrinsically motivated promotes passion and helps generate innovative ideas and methods.
Enthusiasm . Interest and motivation help to engage those around you and get them excited about topics.
- Competence: What professional skills do I have?
Basics. Knowledge and application of methods and sources are the tools of the trade.
Knowledge. I have to continually expand and expand industry-specific or thematic knowledge. It is not a weakness to ask others for advice.
Silos. Thinking and acting in silos inhibits every idea and blocks innovative action. Go outside the box in new technical or thematic directions.
- Role Model: How do I position myself?
Team. Acting as a team player and keeping your elbows close to your body creates lasting success and trust.
Be authentic. Stand up for a cause or topic convincingly, honestly and openly, be credible.
Do good and talk about it. Don’t adorn yourself with someone else’s pen, but publicize your own achievements confidently and realistically. Always publicize the support and cooperation of colleagues.”
Marc Berenbeck
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The real value creation for customers are “ready-to-use” recommendations.
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At this point, Berenbeck paused and asked about the unique selling point, the output or added value that Kearney’s teams deliver to their customers. He recalled the previous interview with Handelsblatt’s editor-in-chief, Sebastian Matthes, who explained that numbers, data and facts are the core of a story, but the crucial thing that Handelsblatt adds is analysis. The same applies to Kearney.
Yes, a knowledge expert or the team must also obtain and evaluate raw data, prepare the data appropriately, for example know how to use Excel tables, be able to lend their expertise and carry out analyses. This is all important and indispensable. But at the end there should be “ready to use” recommendations, i.e. condensed statements that are relatively directly suitable for preparing, making and implementing strategic company decisions.
Before the corona pandemic, Berenbeck imagined his customers as ICE travelers who absorbed short but meaningful memos during the journey. The decision-makers at the customer companies were now working from home. But they still need “ready to use” because their time is still very limited and they still have to make quick if not ad hoc decisions. One can only be amazed, said the speaker, at how quickly these decision-makers can acquire central information. But in order to do this, they would first have to get this information in a form they can manage.
Berenbeck summarized: “Our differentiator is the knowledge and the way it is conveyed. … Our development goes far beyond pure data delivery – we contribute to overall success through our expertise. … “Ready-to-use” analyzes and elaborations create added value for our clients and customers – internally and externally.”
The “customers” of the information professionals are often not the actual customer companies, but rather Kearney’s consultants: “As experts, we provide the consultants with crucial knowledge for developing offers and implementing projects.” Nevertheless, “We provide the basis for strategic ones Decisions” (of the customer company).
Berenbeck gave this example of the successful completion of an order: He was asked to find out the market size of the “Addressable Online Market for Prescription Drugs”. Here Berenbeck could have made it easy for himself and said: “Analysts 1, 2 and 3 unanimously come to a total turnover of 49 billion euros in various studies.” But then he would not have taken into account that there are many drug groups that cannot be addressed and are not suitable for shipping. After Berenbeck deducted the sales figures for patient-specific medicines, some of the medicines that require a cold cell, medicines that are delivered directly to hospitals, and medicines for acute care (here the sales figures had to be determined, among other things, through expert interviews). the total sales volume for the “Addressable Online Market for Prescription Drugs” was little more than a third of the originally assumed sales volume.
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Unstructured data, outsourcing, quick-and-dirty research and artificial intelligence.
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There were several questions that the plenum asked Berenbeck and that Ralf Hennemann passed on to the speaker: How important is unstructured data compared to sophisticated sources? Unstructured data can also be sophisticated sources, for example articles in the Handelsblatt. You also have to be able to bring them in and deal with them, even if it takes more time.
Do InfoPros source some of their orders? This does not occur in Berenbeck’s area of responsibility. But for the international consulting group as a whole, this cannot be ruled out, especially in regions where regional expertise and local language skills are required.
And the external expert networks (see the discussion on the “Steilvorlagen 2020”)? Yes, there is little public information for certain topics and questions. This applies, for example, to many questions regarding medium-sized businesses. Then you actually have to resort to interviews with external experts.
Does it happen that orders are completed “quick and dirty”? This does indeed happen, especially when a response is needed the same day. Then Berenbeck does what he can in the time given to him and gives the client tips on how to help himself. But Berenbeck also made it clear where his heart lies, namely the result that can be used for decisions, enriched with a lot of expertise.
Is artificial intelligence helpful? This will be the case and will make the work of the information professional easier. But at the end of an order there is the InfoPro, who has orchestrated the interaction of the processes and decides on the “Ready to Use”. There is no cutthroat competition between information professionals and the machine.
Edit this to insert text.
The 7 top trends
for financial planning and analysis
Automation, collaboration, transformation, data consolidation, innovation is becoming easier,
AI and MI are “mainstream” – and the cloud
- The automation of financial processes is becoming a central factor.
- Cross-departmental collaboration is more necessary than ever.
- Focus on data fusion, artificial intelligence, machine learning and use of the cloud.
- A company’s performance depends on its willingness to optimize financial planning and analysis via new and user-friendly technologies.
By Christoph Ahr*
Christoph Ahr
According to Gartner, 70% of all new financial planning and analysis (FP&A) projects by 2024 will be extended planning and analysis (xP&A) projects. This means that the finance department will expand collaboration with other areas of the company using new tools and better cross-departmental data management. The core of traditional financial planning and analysis was planning, budgeting, forecasting and performance management. The challenges of the last two years have shown how important it is to take advantage of the opportunities presented by digital transformation and to integrate cross-departmental planning and analysis.
Even as the world struggles to recover from the hardships of the pandemic, there is reason for hope. This forward-looking attitude underlies the seven FP&A top trends for 2022.
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Trend 1: Automation.
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More and more manual and repetitive processes are being replaced by automated processes. Automation offers employees the opportunity to expand their skills and free up valuable time and resources to focus more on strategic tasks and activities with added value. According to a recent McKinsey report, automation and AI-based solutions lead to higher productivity and improved business performance, but at the same time require new skills.
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Trend 2: Cross-departmental collaboration.
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In 2022, expansions of cooperation will come into greater focus. Until now, the financial sector has mainly been about transactions: budgets, debits and credits were the focus – without taking your eyes off the spreadsheets. While these tasks are still very important, the rapidly changing digital world requires more than Excel spreadsheets. Technology-based collaboration provides a comprehensive overview of all business areas in real time and enables more agile and flexible implementation of plan changes. When measurable changes occur, the finance department can respond immediately.
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Trend 3: Digital transformation.
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For many years, the finance department had little or nothing to do with digital transformation. Today this is a corporate goal that affects all business areas and requires them to be interconnected. Far-sighted FP&A professionals are viewing digital transformation as part of their overall strategy for 2022. They are leveraging transformative tools to make meaningful predictions that have been extremely difficult, if possible, to achieve in the past. On the basis of such forecasts, areas can be identified for which a strategic change of course has become necessary.
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Trend 4: Merging the data.
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Developing AI-based forecasts requires bringing together data that was previously isolated from each other in data silos. However, the amount of data that companies generate and process multiplies every minute. In the next five years, three times as much data will be produced worldwide than in the past five years. The ratio of unique (first created and recorded) data to replicated (copied and received) data is approximately 1:9. There is a trend towards even more replicated data.
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Trend 5: Innovations are becoming easier
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Access to modern tools will become easier and little or no coding or programming effort will be required. This means modernization and innovation will become even easier for companies. Hybrid jobs are increasingly being created that are particularly dependent on digital tools. Artificial intelligence and machine learning contribute significantly to making workflows smoother.
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Trend 6: Increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (MI).
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Artificial intelligence is spreading and gaining importance. It is becoming an essential tool for FP&A professionals. Just like digital transformation, AI is no longer classified as “science fiction”. It is more accessible and offers concrete, measurable benefits not just for finance, but for the entire company. Financial planning and analysis teams generate best practices and drive advances in digital transformation with powerful AI. According to a recent study by PWC, 86% of decision makers surveyed now consider AI to be a “mainstream” technology. Those who use AI and ML solutions in the areas of data preparation, forecasting and simulation in 2022 will have higher sales than those who continue to rely on manual processes. _____________________________________________________
Trend 7: Accelerated adoption of cloud solutions.
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According to Gartner, spending on public cloud services will grow by double digits in 2022. Companies then spend more than 45% of their IT spending on public cloud services – in 2021 it was less than 17%. The private (internal company) cloud is also becoming more widespread. Cloud security is becoming more of a focus.
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Conclusion.
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Companies that embrace these trends can expect better “financial health” and strong long-term business performance.
* Christoph Ahr is Chief Financial Officer at Jedox.
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