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There’s a moment every fall when a planning process that only looks at the current year quietly stops being useful. It usually arrives in October. The monthly cycle runs as usual: demand review, supply review, reconciliation, executive meeting. The slides look familiar. But look closely at what’s actually being decided, and there isn’t much leftContinue reading “Running out of Runway: Why you need to see past December”

It’s October, which means somewhere in your organization a spreadsheet is being passed around with a number at the bottom that everyone has agreed to, possibly before anyone has agreed on how to get there. Budget season has a way of blurring two very different questions. The first is what do we want to achieveContinue reading “The Budget is not the Plan”

This time of year I routinely hear the same refrain in executive suites: “We need a better forecast before we lock the plan.” It’s budget season, retailers are resetting shelves post–back-to-school, and teams are gearing up for the holiday quarter. The knee-jerk response is to “scrub the details” or “pressure test” the demand plan. ButContinue reading “Stop Chasing Forecast Accuracy: Build Trust in Your Demand Decisions”

As we head into October, demand planners and IBP leaders are under real pressure. Holiday promotions are being finalized, supply plans are locking, and next year’s budget assumptions are on the table. Every meeting seems to ask the same question in a different way: can we trust the plan? Trust isn’t a slogan; it’s theContinue reading “Q4 Playbook: How to Build Trust in Demand Management When the Stakes Are Highest”

A key principle in Demand Planning (and more broadly, Integrated Business Planning) is that we have a plan until we decide to change it.  It’s an important principle because just like in a team sport, at any given point in time the players need to know what the game plan is.  There can’t be confusion,Continue reading “Demand Planning is Building Bridges”

Much like Godwin’s law, as any discussion about Demand Planning grows longer, the probability of debating where it fits in the organization approaches 1. This week, like any other normal week, I’ve had at least three discussions with clients or partners that touched on or directly addressed the topic of where Demand Planning sits inContinue reading “Demand Planning – Nomads of the Org Chart”