Agile

Decision-Making
Generating and sustaining long-
term value through end-to-end
decision-making
September 2021
1 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

Contents
Agile Decision-Making (ADM) 1

01 Executive priority: drive growth through better

and faster strategic decision-making
3

02 Introduction to Agile Decision-Making (ADM) 5

03 A quick glance at the Agile Decision-Making approach 6

04 The role of Finance 7

2 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

Agile Decision-Making (ADM)

The current environment has required businesses to quickly

release cash, re-allocate resources and fund new investment.
Organisations are realising that they are not equipped to take
these decisions quickly because they lack the right processes,
tools, capabilities and governance.
Organisations are turning to Integrated Business Planning (IBP) as
the solution led by the Finance function. However this approach
needs to evolve beyond its current limitations before it can be used
to drive the whole organisation.
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3 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

Executive priority: drive growth

through better and faster
strategic decision-making

Business leaders’ priorities have been recently shifting from efficiency at all costs to
prioritising faster and better strategic decision-making. Two years of fast-changing
market conditions have shown that a key decision taken too late translates into
market share loss, reputational loss, internal disruption, and lost opportunity
for growth.

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Figure 1: Examples of internal and external pressures that are generating a

propagation of decisions
4 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

Organisations are realising that they are not equipped to take faster and better
strategic decisions, because they are lacking the right processes, tools, capabilities
and governance.

Some organisations, especially in the Manufacturing, Consumer Business, Retail and

Pharmaceutical sectors, have turned to Integrated Business Planning (IBP) as the
solution to drive decisions at the speed required.

Whilst IBP is a useful tool that enables cross-functional integration and alignment, it
does not have the capacity and the focus to support strategic decision-making.

IBP is often a very structured, operational process that goes down to the lowest
level of product hierarchy (stock keeping unit (SKU)) and to the upcoming demand
and supply decisions, it focuses on capacity, order fulfilment, tactical promotional
investment and volume forecast accuracy.

IBP does not focus on mid- and long-term strategic decision-making that enables
the organisation to grow, change in line with market trends, disrupt boundaries and
create new opportunities for innovation and competitiveness.

This is the gap filled by Agile Decision-Making (ADM).

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5 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

Introduction to
Agile Decision-Making (ADM)

To deliver better, faster, mid and long-term decisions organisations need to

implement an Agile decision-making approach, which shifts focus from merely
planning and connecting business functions to ensuring business performance is
at the heart of decision making. It is focussed on medium- and long-term scenarios
rather than short-term operational decisions.

ADM only focusses on one key area of value at a time, delivers it in a short timeframe
under an agile integrated approach, releases value and moves on to the next area of
value.

This approach allows more impactful decisions to be made faster, with an increased
focus on what is important to the business and what moves the growth needle.

Customer &
product
portfolio
management
Demand
Integrated planning Agile
Business decision-making
Finance &
Planning budget plan mid- to long-term
Rough cut decision-making
capacity
planning Supply
strategy
Production Assets &
scheduling supplier

Execution Strategy
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6 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

A quick glance at the Agile

Decision-Making approach

Agile Decision-Making (ADM) is often delivered on top of IBP, as they both coexist
with different purposes and enable different type of decisions.

Every function comes together, led and supported by Finance, to define the business
case, drivers and levers, possible impacts and performance scenarios.

ADM is based on five key simple steps:

• Identification of key areas of value

• Enhancement of capabilities, adoption of new ways of working

• Identification of KPIs to measure success and on-going value

• Delivery of value in an agile, project-based approach

• Continuous improvement based on lessons learned and phased

delivery approach.

Below some example decisions we have supported at our clients:

• How do we release funds that can be better invested in stronger

growth areas?

• How do we make our ecosystem more flexible to deal with continuous

changes in the market?

• How do we make Christmas successful given its weight on

annual performance?

• How do we renegotiate supplier and customer contracts to find the

right balance between inventory, margin performance and working
capital efficiency?

• Given that 55% of consumers see price as most important when buying¹
do we have the right pricing structure in place?

• How is the organisation going to reach sustainability targets?

¹EY Future Consumer Index

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7 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

The role of Finance

Finance is best placed to own and drive the Agile Decision-Making approach because
it has the ability to anticipate risks, opportunities and model scenarios, act as an
independent cross-functional integration point and a trusted advisor, and provide
end-to-end insight and recommendations supported by data analysis and scenario
modelling for improved decision-making.

To perform the role Finance will need to:

• Build more capacity in Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) and Finance
Business Partners, mainly by shifting transactional activities to Controllership
and by automating standard, recurring planning and reporting activities

• Define a hybrid Finance operating model which aligns to the key areas of
value and allows finance business partners to flexibly move across, in line with
business priorities

• Build capabilities as project manager, change lead, senior leadership advisor, to

both implement the change and drive adoption

• Keep building business and market acumen to anticipate business needs and
opportunities, and be seen as the catalyst of change

• Be supported by strong processes, technology and governance

At EY, we have built a strong ADM global approach by working with our colleagues
across Finance, Commercial, Supply Chain, Technology, Strategy, Market Research
and Change.
8 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

EY case study
The challenge

A global £20bn consumer business had defined a great 10-year ambition but
was struggling to make the transformation required to achieve the strategy.
They asked EY to define a future-proof IBP process enabled by technology.

Our approach and outcome

When working with the client, we found out the operational processes had
multiple challenges linked to limited cross-functional integration, lack of
modern technology support and of official accountabilities supported by
KPIs and governance. We therefore implemented a technology-enabled
future-proof IBP solution.

We also realised the client’s ability to sustain its leading market position was
the inability to take “better and faster strategic decisions”. We helped the
client to map three key areas of value, identify growth goals and KPIs, and
deliver fast value out of these, supported by technology, governance and a
strengthened operating model for Finance.

As a result, the client was able to take informed strategic decisions and
stopped wasting time on areas that were not moving the needle. The Agile
Decision-Making approach has now become part of the organisations’
mindset and way of operating.

The most important first step is to identify three to five areas where the Agile
Decision-Management approach can be piloted. This is a no-regrets action,
delivering early value through improved decisions as soon as the pilot is established.

For help identifying these areas, or, if you want to benchmark your organisations
current approach against leading practice, then please contact us.

Recent and related publications

How can the CFO evolve today to reframe finance for tomorrow?

Why the future of finance will be data-driven

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9 Agile Decision-Making: Generating and sustaining long-term value through end-to-end decision-making

Contact us
At EY, we have built a strong ADM global approach by working with our colleagues
across Finance, Commercial, Supply Chain, Technology, Strategy, Market Research
and Change.

If you want to hear more about it, do not hesitate to contact us.

James McElhone Mona Bitar

+44 12 2339 4766 +44 20 7951 4437
[email protected] [email protected]

Ale Campanella Euan Holms

+44 20 7951 6102 +44 20 795 16823
[email protected] [email protected]

Matthew Burton Anthony Byrne

+44 7826 905306 +44 20 7980 9107
[email protected] [email protected]

Matt Corkery
+44 20 7951 6121
[email protected]
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