As corporate agility becomes paramount in 2025, siloed financial operations pose an existential threat. Les Brookes and Monte Maritz, Partners at Oliver Wight, outline why integrated planning must replace traditional finance models.
As markets become increasingly volatile and unpredictable, organizations need finance teams to help navigate uncertainty quickly rather than impose artificial certainty. This requires a fundamental shift from analysis and review to decision support.
Your organization has invested millions in, or is considering investing in, sophisticated financial forecasting systems – but is it delivering as promised? You have more data than ever before – yet your strategic business decisions are somehow slower, clunkier, and increasingly divorced from reality of the teams who own the numbers behind the plans.
It feels as if every major investment decision or business scenario requires a detailed and sophisticated financial review, requiring perfect information about the future that is simply not available. If this sounds familiar, you might be developing a “finance ivory tower". And it's time to tear it down. Here's why.
At the start of 2025, global businesses are navigating treacherous waters. With ongoing political change and uncertainty, as well conflicts entering new phases, and supply chains and markets still reeling from recent disruptions, organizations need agility and integrated decision-making more than ever.
However, many companies are handicapping themselves by maintaining outdated organizational RACIs that isolate critical functions – none more damaging than the persistent separation of financial forecasting from core business operations. This isolation becomes particularly dangerous as we enter a year when adaptability is crucial for survival.
The traditional model, where finance teams position themselves as independent arbiters and gatekeepers of business decisions, emerged in a different era of relative stability and predictable market conditions. Today, this outdated approach is actively harmful to organizational agility and effectiveness.
In our work with businesses worldwide, we consistently see how this isolation manifests in costly ways. Finance teams create separate forecasting processes, maintain independent budget cycles, and now implement sophisticated FP&A systems that operate in parallel to – rather than in concert with – core business planning processes.
Consequently, more time is spent reliving the past – whether in explaining performance or holding on to outdated budgets and targets – than focusing on a changing future requiring strategic agility.
The consequences cascade throughout the organization. Business units are frustrated by having to repeatedly explain their numbers to finance teams who use numbers that the business unit teams don't recognize or own. Sensing this resistance, finance teams respond by creating even more detailed, time-consuming requirements, attempting to second-guess the business through increasingly complex analysis.
Halting the vicious cycle through integrated partnership
This vicious cycle creates a culture of mistrust and inefficiency. We've seen countless examples where finance teams create enormous amounts of work not to add value but to ensure messages align with broader business targets or strategies – even when those targets might not be achievable. This approach wastes resources and can mask serious operational issues until they become crises.
The proliferation of FP&A software solutions has complicated this dynamic further. While these tools promise enhanced analytical capabilities, they often entrench finance's isolation rather than facilitate integration. The result is a sophisticated echo chamber where finance teams analyze business data without the crucial context of deep business involvement.
The solution to this challenge requires fundamentally reimagining finance's role in the organization. It's about elevating finance from a position of isolated oversight to one of integrated partnership.
A common misconception in financial planning is that integration means forcing everyone to agree on a single number. This oversimplification can be dangerous. In our experience, one set of numbers doesn't mean one number – it means running the business according to a shared understanding of reality.
This reality might include multiple perspectives: current performance, latest forecasts, strategic targets, and stretch goals. The key is that these various views are part of a single, integrated picture rather than competing narratives from different parts of the organization. Modern business demands this more nuanced approach.
Making the transition away from isolated finance functions
The first step to breaking down a business' financial ivory tower involves rethinking the finance team's physical and organizational structure. Progressive organizations embed finance professionals within operational teams rather than maintaining separate finance offices and reporting lines. This is about altering how finance professionals spend their time and who they interact with daily.
We're also seeing a shift in how organizations approach financial technology investments. Rather than pursuing standalone FP&A solutions, leading companies prioritize integrated platforms that connect financial planning with operational execution. This integration extends beyond software, including data sources, reporting structures, and decision-making processes. Many systems and consultancies have re-badged FP&A to names like connected planning or XP&A, but fundamentally, the ownership of volumetric numbers and associated financials is still an issue.
The timing for such changes couldn't be more critical. Supply chain reconfiguration has become a constant reality as organizations adapt to shifting geopolitical alliances and trade restrictions. Climate-related disruptions are increasing in frequency and severity, requiring rapid financial assessment of adaptation strategies. The ongoing energy transition creates opportunities and risks that demand sophisticated financial analysis grounded in operational reality.
Fast forward to the latter half of the 2020s, and two distinct futures will likely emerge regarding organizational finance functions. The first – the ivory tower path – leads to increasingly sophisticated isolation. In this future, finance teams will have access to more powerful analytical tools, more complex modeling capabilities, and more detailed data than ever before. Yet their isolation from operational realities will render much of this sophistication meaningless.
Imagine navigating the impact of a significant supply chain disruption through the lens of pure financial analysis without the deep operational understanding that comes from proper integration. The finance team might produce elegant models showing the cost implications. But without an intimate knowledge of operational alternatives, supplier relationships, and market dynamics, these models become expensive exercises in speculation.
An integrated future with finance at the core
The alternative path – the integrated future – looks radically different. Here, finance teams become central to organizational agility, not barriers to it. When geopolitical tensions affect raw material costs, integrated finance teams can rapidly model scenarios because they understand the numbers and operational context. When supply chains need reconfiguring, these teams can provide meaningful financial guidance because they're already deeply involved in supply chain strategy.
As we progress through the decade, the importance of this integration will only grow. The combination of technological advancement, geopolitical uncertainty, and environmental challenges creates a business environment where traditional approaches to financial management are increasingly inadequate.
Organizations must begin by acknowledging that the finance ivory tower, while perhaps comfortable for those within it, is unsustainable. The complexity and interconnectedness of modern business challenges demand a more integrated approach.
This means developing new skills within finance teams, creating new organizational structures that facilitate collaboration, and implementing technology solutions that support rather than hinder integration. It also means changing how we measure success, moving beyond traditional financial metrics to incorporate operational effectiveness, agility, and sustainable value creation measures.
The path forward requires commitment from the highest levels of the organization. CEOs must champion this transformation, recognizing that it's not just about making finance more efficient but creating an organization capable of thriving in an increasingly uncertain world.
Organizations that successfully break down their finance ivory towers will be better equipped to handle whatever challenges emerge. Those who maintain traditional structures will likely find themselves increasingly vulnerable to disruption and increasingly irrelevant in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
This transformation enhances organizational effectiveness and, more importantly, liberates finance teams from the burden of endless reporting and resistance. By breaking down these barriers, finance professionals can redirect significant time towards value-adding activities. Organizations can either reinvest these efficiency gains into more strategic initiatives or consider rescaling their finance teams.
As we face the complexities of 2025 and beyond, it's time to break down the ivory tower and build something better: an integrated finance function that genuinely serves the needs of modern business.
Find out more about the Oliver Wight team and how they help organizations achieve long-lasting success by visiting https://oliverwight-eame.com.
