Value Planning: The New Approach to Building Value Every Day

"If each individual in your organization became Shareholder Value-focused and made all of their decisions accordingly, you would have an almost incomprehensible competitive advantage." -Lawrence B. M. Serven.

For some time now, the conviction has been growing that traditional business planning methods are flawed and inefficient. At many companies, attempts have been made to address the problem with new budgeting systems, complete benchmarking studies, and reorganizations of finance functions. Unfortunately, while such initiatives may help reduce planning time, fundamentally they do little or nothing to make the planning process more effective. In this groundbreaking book, Lawrence Serven exposes the real reasons why planning so often fails to get results, and shows you how to transform the planning process from an "exercise in minimization" into a potent, results-driven management system that consistently creates shareholder value.

While most books on the subject discuss value creation in terms of grand strategic moves made by upper management, Value Planning takes a bottom-up approach. Lawrence Serven demonstrates how it is the cumulative effect of all of the little decisions made by individuals throughout an organization, every day, that makes or breaks shareholder value. More importantly, he shows you how to capitalize on that fact, and use business planning as a strategic management tool for aligning all levels of an organization-from the executive suite to the mail room-behind the common goal of increasing shareholder value.

Short on theory and long on step-by-step practical guidance, Value Planning gives you a complete blueprint for implementing a comprehensive value planning management system in your enterprise. Each chapter isolates a key aspect of value-driven business planning and contrasts it with traditional business planning models. Within each chapter you will also find valuable, easy-to-perform self-diagnostics that help you to assess your company's current status in the area under discussion, and a set of "Improve-ment Steps" that can easily be tailored to fit the realities of your organization.

Value Planning is an indispensable working resource for controllers, CFOs, finance directors, and budget directors, as well as for all upper-level managers involved in the planning process.

His work has been profiled in CFO magazine and Controller's Magazine, and he is the author of several articles that have appeared in Chief Information Officer and Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities. An award-winning public speaker, he has been the featured speaker at the AICPA and chaired a World Research Group international conference on reengineering the planning process.

Praise for Value Planning

"Serven demystifies shareholder value creation and provides a pragmatic, actionable guidebook for executives. Value Planning's step-by-step management system focuses business planning on delivering, not just predicting results. The book's self-diagnostic measures should prove especially useful in charting and assessing organizational progress." -Henry A. McKinnell President, Pfizer Inc.

"Value Planning addresses today's number one management issue - building a value management system-and provides a systematic approach with clear guidance that will be helpful to any company in creating shareholder value. I really enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it."- John B. Menzer Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

"Mr. Serven's approach is insightful and uncomplicated. Rather than simply focusing on theory, he has offered compelling real-life examples of how well-known leaders and their companies have built value for their shareholders." -Keith Rauschenbach Second Vice President, TIAA-CREF.

LAWRENCE B. M. SERVEN is the founder and principal of The Buttonwood Group, a Stamford, Connecticut-based consulting firm specializing in organizational effectiveness and performance management. He has helped companies in the entertainment, telecom, consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and financial services industries to enhance shareholder value through improved planning practices. His work has been profiled in CFO Magazine, the Harvard Management Update, the Journal of Accountancy, and others. He can be contacted at lserven@msn.com