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Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1072023
Driving Performance for Private Equity Firms 3 Intuitively, many of us recognize that the decision window for executives has been shrinking with each passing year� Information dissemination has become real-time and ondemand; however, the challenge for many finance functions is to try and keep pace with all the modern sources of insight and analysis that internal and external stakeholders are receiving� Introduction We can layer on an incremental challenge in many industries where the business environment changes more o en and more dramatically than ever before as well� Take for instance commodity prices, which have seen increasing levels of volatility in recent years� Imagine you are a company impacted by the price of natural gas (Figure 1) and consider the implications these price swings can have on your business model� That is but one example of a changing strategic driver� Consumer tastes and demands can shi virtually overnight. Every day, new technologies and new business models replace old technologies and old business models� The luxury of time is something few executives have any more when it comes to making decisions� Figure 1: U.S. Natural Gas Prices of managers saw decision-making time shrink in the last year said they needed data for decisions within an hour of a business event said they needed decision data within a day 64% 28% 42% An Aberdeen study found that 64% of business managers have seen their decision-making time shrink over the last year� In another study, Aberdeen found that 28% of business managers said they needed data to make decisions within an hour of a business event; another 42% needed information within a day. That doesn't provide much time for finance to supplement the decision making process with supporting analysis�