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Financial Planning – Whose Job is it Anyway? Back to Home Page
Neil Reed is Senior Associate Director with MCA Cooper Associates
www.mcacoopers.com
Prepare for a shock – financial planning is not about planning finance!
“What is it about then?” I hear you ask.
Evidence proves that the better performing colleges, and schools and universities, no doubt, see financial planning as a task that is the responsibility of everybody. Indeed, if undertaken effectively, the financial plan is merely a translation of the organisation’s operational plan into financial terms. But in so many colleges, financial planning is performed by a remote beancounter in solitary confinement who might, or might not, discuss the task with colleagues. “Well it’s about finance isn’t it? They don’t need to be involved. Anyway, we are the ones with the expertise.” Not so!
Old thinking in new times.
Modern colleges need to involve everybody in the planning process. Whether operational or financial. It’s all the same thing. The core functions of an educational institution revolve around teaching and learning. These must be planned first. There must be a robust curriculum plan that fits the market’s need, whether the market is schools, individuals or employers. Then the efficient resourcing of this must be planned to ensure that a quality product has a chance of being delivered. Then the whole plan should be translated into financial terms to see if it works from a viability point of view. If it does, you have a plan. If it does not, then the operational plan must be revisited to find out why it does not work. Financial targets imposed in isolation do not work.
In the brave new world of FE, there are many targets which colleges are required to hit. Only some of these are financial. Therefore the expertise for financial planning lies right across the board with the whole team.
Original appeared in FE Now in April 2007
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