Last week Dave Stark, President of Analysis Team and Maik Henkel, Senior Manager, Deputy Director Finance at GlobalFoundries co-presented “Do the Math: How the Right Metrics Can Change the Game” at FinNext 2019, March 17 – 19 in Las Vegas.  FinNext, a conference organized by the Association for Financial Professionals, is an annual event attended by hundreds of FP&A practitioners who gather to discuss trends and solutions related to financial analysis, planning, data visualization, artificial intelligence, and other topics.

When it comes to performance metrics that support corporate goals, straightforward math can deliver game-changing results. Before investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Dave and Maik recommended looking at ways to better leverage available data, proven technologies and simple calculations.
When people understand the metrics and what drives the underlying numbers, they are more likely to take the right actions that improve business performance.

In their session Dave and Maik presented real-world examples of how straightforward metrics, presented clearly and made available when and where decisions are made, are driving financial results in two highly competitive industries:

• At Gap Inc., a $16 billion fashion retailer, improved cost and margin metrics used by decision-makers during the seasonal assortment planning and sourcing cycle immediately resulted in significantly higher product margins. Sustainable financial gains included $300 million Gross Margin increase in the first year and Earnings per Share growth that significantly outpaced Net Sales growth over the following few years.
• For GlobalFoundries, a multi-billion-dollar semiconductor developer and manufacturer, better metrics and visualizations focused management on ways to maximize margin contribution, improve usage of existing manufacturing capacity, and spotlight customer profitability. Assembling key data to calculate understandable statistics presented via dashboards, management has been able to better balance demand and optimize plant utilization, driving improved profitability.

“Performance metrics that are understandable and clear are more readily adopted, which leads to results,” Dave said. “AI and ML are powerful and have their place, but they can be ‘black boxes’ to many people and that’s a hurdle for practical adoption.”

If you’d like to receive a copy of Dave and Maik’s FinNext 2019 presentation, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Info@AnalysisTeam.com.

About Analysis Team, Inc.

Founded in 1995, Analysis Team, Inc. is a leading provider of Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) consulting services. The firm deploys solutions that support business performance analysis, financial planning and management reporting, helping clients to drive strategic business growth. More information is available at www.AnalysisTeam.com.

About AFP

The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) is the professional society committed to advancing the success of finance executives globally. AFP established and administers the Certified Treasury Professional and Certified Corporate FP&A Professional credentials, which set standards of excellence in finance. Each year, AFP hosts the largest networking conference worldwide for over 6,500 corporate finance professionals.