The road to succession planning is fraught with pitfalls. Most short-sighted businesses view it as merely a “nice trend” to follow and cannot grasp the true nature of succession planning. Others give up getting buy-ins from members of the Board and top-level management. Some lack adequate tools to streamline the process.

A budget is a quantified version of your strategic goals. Therefore, having a sound budget in place is instrumental in driving your profitability and also in averting any number of adverse consequences that may arise as your business grows.  

Dominic Barton, global managing partner emeritus of McKinsey once commented on the importance of having a well laid out succession planning in an interview with Forbes: “There’s never been a more important time for leadership because of the volatility in the world today.” Yet, many businesses continue to ignore its importance and choose to march on without any formal succession plan in place.   

Great leaders are the backbone of any organisation; but at some point these key incumbents will depart and leave behind vacant critical-mission positions that need to be filled. That is why succession planning is of utmost importance. By honing your talent to their full potential beforehand, you build a leadership bench strength that is ready for coping with any challenge and responsibility. 

It is safe to say most businesses would resort to cost cutting initiatives in a time of tight margins and high risks. However, a research by McKinsey shows that only 26% of those cost-reduction programs, still yield effective results after four years. CFOs, therefore, are increasingly turning to zero-based budgeting, ZBB, as a more sustainable approach to cost reduction.  

In their pursuit to meet the ever-rising expectation of travellers, the hospitality industry is increasingly adopting new IT technologies. Some daring brands even venture into the realm of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things to quench the thirst for a "truly unique guest experience." Nevertheless, none of the "next-gen solutions" out there would work without an agile yet robust IT infrastructure. This is where managed IT services come into play. 

For forward-looking retailers, the path of becoming an omnichannel business has just begun, with many more changes and investments are to be made. The leaders of the retail industry have already set the bar for high-quality services and true omnichannel experiences. For example, the scan-and-go store concept from Amazon has broken the norm of brick-and-mortar retailing and given new meaning to the omnichannel retail experiences. 

In a global survey conducted by KPMG¹ in 2016, over two-thirds of respondents, who are all senior executives, said they have some forms of rolling forecast in place. In order to thrive in this VUCA world, accurate forecasting seems more imperative than ever. Rolling forecasting, as a means to achieve that, is now a universal practice thanks to its proven capabilities. 

A poor succession plan costed Blackberry 4,500 employees and nearly $1 billion. While the absence of a succession plan is detrimental to the future growth of any business, rushing to draft one up without a deep understanding and careful consideration of all aspects involved can lead to unforeseen consequences. So, what are the tell-tale signs of succession planning failures?

Budgeting plays a vital part in any organisation regardless of size. For some, the process of building a budget is downright tedious, time-consuming, and challenging. What's more, businesses have to worry about not only short-term budgets but also long-term ones.