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MS Excel Spreadsheets. More than the tool, what matters is the discipline of all functions (i.e., departments) agreeing on the business processes such as annua

by vivegi 4y ago

MS Excel Spreadsheets. More than the tool, what matters is the discipline of all functions (i.e., departments) agreeing on the business processes such as annual budgeting, quarterly/monthly forecasting, feedback loops to account for recent trends and key program-wise/location-wise assumptions (eg. attrition, shrinkage, training yield, ramp-up/learning curve etc.,). Then, you build up a bottom-up forecast with those key assumptions that translates to revenue and expenses to build a P&L forecast. A spreadsheet offers the most flexibility. Again, more than the tool, it is the process and the discipline (includes agreeing on standards, lead-times etc.,). This culture and practices also varies from organization to organization and in practice, in large organizations, you have the legacy of acquisitions that cause a diverse set of practices. While a common tool might help these organizations streamline and standardize the headcount planning process, the challenges are not technical but human and cultural.

conductr 4y ago
As a corporate finance person that runs budgets for medium to large corporate, this is pretty spot on in those environments. I’ve used various software to help, but it always comes back to spreadsheets. It’s usually too business specific and rapidly changing to try to use something off the self. Even when you build your perfect custom module in a software like Anaplan, Adaptive, Hyperion, etc. you’re at risk because the very algorithm of how you model labor can and does change and sometimes frequently even though you may think that’s something that should be rather set & forget it’s not. So the adhoc-ability of spreadsheets win. The human processes are much more difficult to wrangle and change in a whim. If you’re growing fast, usually prioritization has to come into place and it’s like a horse race. Even some role that’s not even planned can suddenly pop up and get hired without budget. This happens a lot when the perfect candidate comes available and the company wasn’t originally going to hire but don’t want to miss the opportunity. I’d love to be able to say, go build this B2B solution HN! But honestly, I have a hard time imagining anything would compete with the spreadsheet. It’s not like people haven’t already tried, it just doesn’t work well in practice for the end users.
- robinyapockets 4y ago
  Good point! But is this adhoc-ability something you want to support? I often think doing something adhoc never seems to benefit anybody, but happens all the time.

by vivegi 4y ago

conductr 4y ago

As a corporate finance person that runs budgets for medium to large corporate, this is pretty spot on in those environments. I’ve used various software to help, but it always comes back to spreadsheets. It’s usually too business specific and rapidly changing to try to use something off the self. Even when you build your perfect custom module in a software like Anaplan, Adaptive, Hyperion, etc. you’re at risk because the very algorithm of how you model labor can and does change and sometimes frequently even though you may think that’s something that should be rather set & forget it’s not. So the adhoc-ability of spreadsheets win. The human processes are much more difficult to wrangle and change in a whim. If you’re growing fast, usually prioritization has to come into place and it’s like a horse race. Even some role that’s not even planned can suddenly pop up and get hired without budget. This happens a lot when the perfect candidate comes available and the company wasn’t originally going to hire but don’t want to miss the opportunity. I’d love to be able to say, go build this B2B solution HN! But honestly, I have a hard time imagining anything would compete with the spreadsheet. It’s not like people haven’t already tried, it just doesn’t work well in practice for the end users.

robinyapockets 4y ago
Good point! But is this adhoc-ability something you want to support? I often think doing something adhoc never seems to benefit anybody, but happens all the time.