Greater integration between finance, HR, IT and property teams in the strategic planning cycle has the potential to drive substantial value for businesses, new research has found. Comment Vernon Blunt, Strategy and Portfolio Planning Committee – CoreNet UK.
The emerging results come from a study being undertaken by CoreNet Global’s UK Chapter and BNP Paribas Real Estate into how support functions can provide the greatest value in the strategic planning process. Vernon Blunt, who leads the Strategy and Portfolio Planning Committee at CoreNet UK, said: “We are in the early stages of our research, but already the message is clear – greater integration and collaboration between organisational functions has enormous potential to increase efficiency, reduce costs and drive value for corporates.”
Feedback was taken by people working within support functions, who were each asked to describe their company’s existing practices and give their views on what could help overcome the barriers that exist to improved strategic planning alignment.
Reflecting on their organisation’s current practices, 77 percent of participants identified ‘leadership and teams acting in silos’ as a barrier to collaboration with other functions in the strategic planning cycle, while 71 percent cited ‘lack of resource’ as one of the main obstacles.
When asked about the potential benefits of greater collaboration, 69 percent of respondents said they believed it would lead to ‘integrated teams with greater alignment to the company vision’, while 60 percent cited ‘greater efficiency’ as a positive outcome.
