About this session

What happens when the assumptions behind your plan change faster than your planning cycle?

In a world of geopolitical volatility, shifting trade policies, inflation, supply-chain disruption and rapid technological change, can traditional forecasting and annual planning still give finance leaders the confidence to make the right decisions?

Svitlana Drybush, CFO & Board Member at METRO Ukraine, knows what it means to plan when certainty is no longer an option. Having led METRO Ukraine’s financial and operational response through the unprecedented disruption of war — restoring sustainable profitability and positive liquidity within five months — she brings first-hand experience of making high-stakes decisions while assumptions were changing by the day.

Drawing on 18 years across CFO leadership, investment, P&L ownership and Board governance, Svitlana will explore how finance leaders can reinvent planning for a world that cannot be reliably predicted using scenario planning, predictive analytics and more agile decision-making to navigate uncertainty, strengthen resilience and support better business decisions.

Because the question is no longer “What will the forecast be?” but “How prepared are we to act when it changes?”

Discussion Points:

• Rethinking traditional planning: How can finance move beyond rigid annual cycles towards more agile forecasting and continuous re-planning?

• Planning for multiple futures: How can scenario planning help leaders prepare for uncertainty and make faster, more confident decisions?

• Turning data into decisions: How can predictive analytics and emerging technologies improve forecasting without creating false confidence?

• Managing uncertainty at Board level: How should CFOs communicate changing assumptions, risks and scenarios to support decisive action?

• Building resilience through planning: What practical changes can finance make to help organisations respond faster to disruption while protecting growth and value?