Enhanced Planning & Analysis: Storytelling & Analytics SuperPower

The Buzz 1: “Purposeful storytelling isn’t show business, it’s good business.” [Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, co-owner of NBA’s Golden State Warriors and MLB’s LA Dodgers] The Buzz 2: “Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.” [Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow, co-authors, The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming into the Void, and Make People Love You] The Buzz 3: “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world.” [Robert McKee, Story Mentor] These wise words about storytelling impact today’s Finance planning and analysis function, as the CFO’s team sees the value of weaving a narrative around actual events, explaining variances, and providing guidance. As the role of Finance evolves to a strategic business partner, the team needs to equip itself with the right tools to be a great storyteller. Beyond old-school spreadsheets, they need modern analytics, trusted data and actionable dashboards so they can recommend and guide their organizations to make the best business decisions. We’ll ask Brian Kalish, Pras Chatterjee and Greg Wright for their take on Enhanced Planning and Analysis: The Super-Power of Storytelling and Analytics.