Speaking Topics

Analytics-Based Performance Management

This is my standard PM presentation. The presentation description (abstract) begins with this sentence: "A recent survey by the consulting firm, Accenture, reported that most companies are far from where they want and need to be when it comes to implementing analytics, and are still relying on gut feeling, rather than hard data, when making decisions." The presentation includes how analytics should be embedded in strategy maps, the balanced scorecard, dashboards, activity based costing, customer profitability and value management, driver-based budgeting, business intelligence and analytics – and all these components seamlessly integrated.

Analytics-Based Performance Management in Government

Exclusive for public sector and government. Similar presentation description as above, but also includes these words: "Public sector organizations at all levels and of all types are facing intense pressure to do more with less. Federal, national, provincial, state, county, municipal, and local governments in almost all the countries in the world are feeling some sort of fiscal squeeze. Pressures on governments around the world are forcing them to adopt ‘performance management’ – a focus on accountability for outputs and outcomes, rather than cries for higher inputs (i.e., more budget funding and employees)."

Business Analytics for Decision Making – Making It Work

This is my exclusive analytics presentation. With analytics, organizations gain insights for better and more timely decision making. Business intelligence (BI) reporting consumes stored data that first must be cleansed and integrated from disparate source systems and is then transformed into information. Analytics produces new information. Enterprise performance management (EPM) then leverages and deploys the information. EPM requires BI as a foundation. Predictive analytics are important because organizations are shifting from managing by control and reacting to after-the-fact data toward managing with anticipatory planning so they can be proactive and make adjustments before problems arise.

Managing IT as a Business

Managing IT as a business is now an imperative. No longer can IT be seen as a technology supplier – it must be seen to be adding value to the business and providing corporate strategic capability. IT Business Performance allows IT to change the focus from technology and production to a focus on customers and services. It enables IT to become service oriented, aligning itself with the organization to provide customer driven solutions to business problems. But it is difficult to maximize returns from IT when the products and services appear to be free to customers. (This presentation highlights SAS ITRM, forecast server, project management, and SAS ABM as a bundle.)

The Integration of Enterprise Risk Management and Enterprise Performance Management

There is increasing attention regarding the "overlap" of enterprise risk management (ERM) and enterprise performance management (EPM). The former refers to key risk and control indicators (KRIs and KCIs) and the latter to key performance indicators (KPIs). How do they fit together and produce synergy?

Business Analytics for the Office of Finance

This presentation focuses on how the finance function can leverage analytics, especially predictive ones, embedded in their financial reporting, planning, and decision making.

Customer Value Management

This presentation focuses on how marketing and sales functions can target relatively higher value customers for retention, growth, and acquisition. It emphasizes the importance of measuring current and future potential profitability of products, standard service-lines, channels, and customers. For business to consumer (B2C) industries, it discusses uses of “customer lifetime value (CLV)” metrics.

Driver-Based Budgeting and Rolling Financial Forecasts

This involves the shift from historical reporting to predictive costing such as capacity-sensitive driver-based rolling financial forecasts, what-if analysis, and marginal cost analysis (e.g., pricing).

What Barriers Slow Adopting Analytics-Based Performance Management?

In contrast to my “what is” and “how to” presentations about business analytics and enterprise performance management, this presentation addresses the barriers that have slowed the adoption rate of implementing business analytics and enterprise performance management methodologies.

Top Trends in Management Accounting

Ultimately costing principles, such as the causality principle, must be converted into practical practices with supporting tools. This presentation examines how cost modeling has evolved over the last century. It will describe the trends and obstacles that have helped or delayed developments.  These evolving areas include: The expansion from product to channel and customer profitability analysis. Salesperson compensation = f(customer sales, profits). Debates over costing methods (e.g., lean, TDABC). The shift from historic to predictive accounting. Embedding analytics into profit and cost models. Managing IT as a business (chargebacks, SLAs). Recognition that “change management” is critical.

Supply Chain Profitability and Costing

Logistics and supply chain managers have increasingly realized that the greatest potential to create financial value lies not within a single firm’s four walls but across all the trading partner enterprises comprising a supply chain, particularly at the interface between trading partners.  At the boundaries of their firm – with their suppliers and customers – is where companies can identify mutually beneficial cost saving initiatives plus new and greater opportunities to reduce costs from core processes and to provide higher service levels to their customers. 

Costing Continuum Levels of Maturity

Gary Cokins created a costing continuum stages of maturity framework for the International Federation of Accountants. This presentation describes it and how an organization can assess which stage its organization is at. It can be viewed here.