Introduction
In a world that changes by the quarter, or the week, why are so many organisations still planning once a year?
The annual planning cycle made sense when markets were stable, but today it’s a relic. Assumptions expire fast. Forecasts lose credibility. And opportunities are missed while teams wait for “the next cycle”.
In other words, the annual planning cycle is broken. It’s a ritual that belongs to a slower, more predictable world, and yet, every year, countless organisations still pour months into a static planning process that starts in spreadsheets, ends in PowerPoint decks, and becomes obsolete before Q1 is even over.
Forecasts age like milk. Opportunities vanish while teams wait for “next quarter’s review”. And the obsession with sticking to a plan often prevents organisations from seizing the moment. Annual planning may once have given leaders comfort through the sense that if they could forecast and fix a budget, they could control the future, but the reality is that you can’t lead a real-time world with once-a-year decisions.
The new rhythm of leadership
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) offers a foundation for a new way of working, one built on agility, adaptability, and continuous alignment. Providing organisations with the ability to reforecast and replan continuously, using live data to inform decisions and guide performance in real time, EPM enables businesses to align strategy, operations, and execution in real time, and make proactive course corrections instead of reactive responses.
Instead of being bound by an annual rhythm, leaders can adjust strategies dynamically, making course corrections as conditions change, not after the fact. This isn’t just an operational improvement, it’s a cultural shift. It represents a move from rigid planning to responsive leadership, from managing by hindsight to steering by insight.
Agility eats planning for breakfast
The organisations thriving today don’t have the best plans, they have the best response mechanisms. They don’t lock themselves into a 12-month forecast. They lead through constant calibration, powered by live insights. EPM is the difference between a company that reacts to change and one that orchestrates it.
It’s time to stop treating planning as a one-time event and start seeing it as a living, breathing process, one that evolves as your business does. The companies that will dominate the next decade aren’t the ones who plan best, they’re the ones who adapt fastest. Companies are fast finding out that annual planning isn’t discipline, it’s inertia, and that continuous performance isn’t chaos, it’s clarity. In a world defined by uncertainty, agility isn’t an advantage, it’s the key to survival.
