In this special edition episode of CFO Leader, we record a live expert panel of CFO's discussing the ins and outs of managing an operating plan. We cover three main areas of discussion:

Part 1: Operating Plan Foundation  (15 minutes) 

• Planning 
• Preparation: 
  • What is the role of the CFO vs other executives in the operating plan process? (Kevin McKenzie) 
  • How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your prior year’s operating plan? (Elliot Smith) 
  • Relationship between the Operating Plan, Forecast and Fundraise Strategy (Ray Langhaim)
  • How to determine the appropriate amount of complexity for your operating plan? (Kevin McKenzie)
  • What is the timeline for your Operating Plan Timing, from Start to Board Approval? (Elliot Smith)
  • Rolling Forecast vs a Fixed Plan? Why choose one or another? (Ray Langhaim)
• Architecture 
  • Bottom-Up vs. Top Down operating plan architecture. Why choose one over the other? (Kevin McKenzie)
  • Macro vs Micro - What is the appropriate amount of detail for the operating plan? (Elliot Smith)
• Securing Approval/Reviewing 
  • How do you move from department budgetary wants to needs? (Ray Langhaim)
  • How should the CFO think about Identifying/Communicating Risks to the executive team/board as pertains to the plan? (Kevin McKenzie)

Part 2: Managing the Operating Plan  (15 min) 

• Once you have a board-approved plan, Now what? (Elliot Smith)
  • Processes to manage/keep up with the plan?
  • Critical items to be monitoring?
• How should the CFO deal  and communicate assumption errors & other variances (Ray Langhaim)
• How to deal with unexpected changes in the operating plan? (Kevin McKenzie)
• How should the CFO deal with underperforming departments? (Elliot Smith)
• How to manage executives that aren’t bought into the operating plan? (Ray Langhaim)
• Scenarios 
  • We Exceed the plan (Kevin McKenzie)
    • What to look out for? 
    • When to formally adjust the operating plan? 
    • Problems that unexpected revenue growth creates 

Part 3: The Wartime CFO  - Managing a company turnaround (15 min) 

• Talk about mentality change between peacetime CFO and Wartime CFO (Elliot Smith)
  • How do you think/act differently? 
  • What processes procedures do you put in place? 
• Managing the board and executives during Wartime, what are best practices (Ray Langhaim) 
  • Cutting Budgets/Headcount 
• Setting up decision frameworks for action: & making the hard calls : (Kevin McKenzie)
  • Cutting Budget
  • Canceling initiatives 
  • Layoffs 
• Tips for taking the emotion out of the decision (Elliot Smith)