Integrated Business Planning

Let’s Rethink How We Manage Business

 

IBP is provocative, challenging, and, at times, contentious, yet the benefits are unquestionable. We have experience navigating the dynamics which impede IBP implementation in a variety of different businesses. This experience affords us the opportunity to help others take the concepts of IBP and provide pragmatic operational solutions, avoiding rabbit-holes, minefields, and some of the frustration associated with the deployment.  This site is created to provide online support, answer questions, and help others on their IBP implementation journey.

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Integrated Business Planning

“Independence Day: When Integrated Business Planning Declares Its Own Freedom!”

Introduction: As we celebrate Independence Day, we can't help but draw a hilarious parallel between the spirit of freedom and the world of Integrated Business Planning (IBP). Yes, you read that right! IBP, the strategic planning process that aims to synchronize and liberate business operations, has a comedic connection to the day we celebrate independence. So, grab your party hats and let's embark on a lighthearted journey through the intertwined worlds of IBP and the 4th of July. Breaking Free from Silos: Just as our founding fathers fought to break free from the chains of tyranny, IBP strives to break…
Debbie Evans
July 3, 2023
CapabilityIntegrated Business Planning

Why is my Integrated Business Planning process not working?

Why is my Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process or Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process not seem to work? I have encountered many frustrated IBP or S&OP leaders with a question on why they seem to have a good output from their monthly IBP or S&OP process, which includes an agreed plan that balances demand planning with supply chain. However, what is actually produced in the plant ends up being completely different. Delivery performance doesn’t seem to improve, commercial teams are frustrated that customer orders are not being fulfilled.  Supply chain leader continues to blame an inaccurate Demand plan, finance…
Debbie Evans
June 14, 2023
Business

Why Executive Leadership Wins With Integrated Business Plannin

Every executive I know is drowning in data — dashboards, forecasts, KPIs, scenario models — yet still feels like they are flying blind when it matters most. This isn’t a data problem. It’s a decision problem. Integrated Business Planning (IBP) exists for one reason: to give executive leadership a single, trusted version of the business so they can make the right decisions at the right time, before problems become expensive. IBP quietly becomes one of the most powerful leadership tools in a company because it replaces reaction with foresight. Instead of managing by exception — waiting for something to break…
Debbie Evans
January 29, 2026
BusinessIntegrated Business Planning

Challenges of IBP

After 8 years implementing, coaching businesses and designing Integrated Business Planning (IBP) processes I have accumulated a long list of common challenges that often plague IBP deployments.   To understand all the challenges it is important to understand the intent and purpose of IBP. To contextualize how IBP should work in a business it is best to illustrate with an example.  Let say you want to grow your business from $500M to $1B in 3 years while maintaining a 15% EBITDA.   This is the focus to which the IBP process is centered for all the 5 steps, product portfolio review, commercial…
Debbie Evans
May 24, 2021