How effective was your 2008 plan at predicting results and allocating and prioritizing resources? What about your 2009 plan? Is it obsolete already, or are you concerned that it will be by March?

Join industry experts as they share a better approach to planning and managing your business when risk and volatility, rather than steady-state growth, are the key drivers of profitability and success. 

This Webcast will place these concepts front and center:

• Moving from a batch-mode to a real-time approach for running your business.
• Scenario- and event-based planning that assumes and incorporates risk and volatility.
• Alternative approaches to the quarterly forecast and annual budget that trade detail for frequency.
• Plans and processes that focus on what's important – your customers, your products, innovation and markets – rather than line-item cost inputs like travel and depreciation.

About the Presenters:

David Axson, founder and President, The Sonax Group

David Axson is the founder and President of The Sonax Group, a business research and consulting firm based in Bath, OH. He is a noted speaker and author. His second book, Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management, was published by John Wiley in January 2007.

Axson was a co-founder of The Hackett Group and was responsible for developing a number of the firm’s market-leading benchmarks. He also served as Head of Corporate Planning at Bank of America where he was charged with a fundamental redesign of the company’s planning and forecasting processes.

Prior to moving to the United States in 1991, Axson was affiliated with A.T. Kearney, Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, and Lloyds Bank in London.

Leo Sadovy, Product Marketing Manager for Financial Management, SAS

Leo Sadovy handles the product marketing duties for financial and performance management at SAS.

Prior to joining SAS, he spent seven years as Vice President of Finance for Business Operations for a North American division of Fujitsu, managing a team focused on commercial operations, customer and alliance partnerships, strategic planning, process management and continuous improvement, and developed and implemented the ROI model and processes used in all internal investment decisions. During his 13-year tenure at Fujitsu he also held senior management positions in finance and marketing.

Prior to Fujitsu, Sadovy was with Digital Equipment Corporation for eight years in both sales and financial management roles. He started his career in laser optics fabrication for Spectra-Physics and later moved into a finance position at the General Dynamics F-16 fighter plant in Fort Worth, TX.

Mary Driscoll, President, Dover Business Research and Consulting & APQC Senior Research Fellow

Mary Driscoll is an author, editor and lecturer with expertise in corporate finance and business management. She serves as Senior Research Fellow at APQC where she leads the new financial-management best practices research initiative.

Driscoll is also the President of Dover Business Research and Consulting Group, an independent source of thought-leadership content for business advisory firms and technology solution providers.

Previously, she was President of CFO Research, the research services arm of CFO magazine. She spent seven years as a Senior Editor at CFO, developing features on topics ranging from finance transformation and capital markets to financial management information systems and leadership development. CFO magazine is a division of the Economist Group, based in London.  

Driscoll has written several business books, including the professional reference guide Cash Management: Corporate Strategies for Profit (John Wiley & Sons). She has won journalism awards involving corporate finance, treasury operations and personal financial planning topics. She currently serves on the advisory boards of three technology startups.