Business Plan Pressure Diagnostic & Advisory
A senior, evidence-led review that tests whether a business plan remains robust as operating conditions change. It identifies where climate, energy and resource pressures create exposure, mispricing or missed advantage, and prioritises practical changes to planning, investment and governance.
FI work directly with your team to connect the evidence held across the business, identify the pressures that matter most and agree how to respond. That response covers direct action on the exposure itself, such as a change to sourcing, investment or contract terms, and the changes to planning, governance and decision-making that keep the pressure in view from then on. The work can start from a specific commitment, investment or planning question, or test the whole plan for pressures that haven't yet surfaced.
At a glance
Duration
Usually four weeks, up to six where the scope is broader.
Sponsor time
About four to six hours.
Contributors
Usually four to six people, sometimes with support from their teams.
Core outputs
Impact heatmap, leadership findings, priority changes and an outline 90-day plan.
Best suited to
UK-based FMCG, consumer goods, asset-intensive and retail businesses, typically above £100m revenue.
Whether you have a plan, investment case or contract in front of you, or want to explore how this applies to your business, a first conversation carries no commitment.
Start with the decision that matters
This work is most useful when the question is close enough to a decision that the answer can change something. For example:
Plan or budget submission
Test whether the commitments on growth, margin, cost, supply and returns still reflect the conditions the business expects to operate in.
An investment, sourcing or portfolio choice
Strengthen a live decision where energy, water, regulation, physical conditions or supply reliability may not be fully reflected in the economics.
A commitment becoming harder to deliver
Connect the fragments held across different functions, establish the consequence and identify the decision that still has time to change.
We agree one decision domain and the evidence needed to test it. A broader enterprise review is possible, but it is not the default.
How the work runs
You work with me throughout. I bring the analysis, structure and facilitation; your team brings the business knowledge, evidence and decision authority that make the answer useful.
1. Diagnose
Where could the plan be exposed?
In this phase:
We agree one live decision and trace how changing conditions could reach operations, the numbers and the plan.
Output:
Exposure map, the first draft of the impact heatmap.
2. Prioritise
Which exposures are real and material?
In this phase:
Evidence is tested against the decision ahead. Findings are separated from open questions, and uncertainty is stated.
Output:
Impact heatmap and leadership findings.
3. Design
What should change in the plan, and in how you plan and govern?
In this phase:
We find the capability gap behind each priority finding, then agree the practical changes to the decision, the planning process or governance.
Output:
Priority changes, each linked to the capability gap behind it.
4. Mobilise
Who does what, by when?
In this phase:
The response becomes owners, dates and a route into planning, investment or governance.
Output:
Outline 90-day plan.
What you receive
A clear view of where the impacts land, how big they are and what to do about each.
The work ends with a short leadership pack in business language. At its centre is the one-page impact heatmap.
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The impact heatmap. One page showing where changing conditions land in your business plan, how big the effect is, when it arrives, how sure we are and what to do about it. Where your numbers allow, the effect is sized in financial terms.
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Leadership findings. Five to seven findings. Each traces one chain from what is changing, to where it reaches your plan, to the evidence, to the consequence for cost, margin, cash or delivery.
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Priority changes. Two or three changes to planning, investment or governance. Each has an owner, a first action, the expected benefit and the change that stops the same gap recurring.
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Outline 90-day plan. Owners, dates and first outputs, agreed with the people who will deliver them.
Every finding ends in one of four states. Act, investigate further, monitor against a defined trigger, or close without further action.
This is not a generic climate review or an enterprise-wide maturity exercise. Climate, energy and resource pressures are the lens; the subject is the business plan and the decisions that shape performance.
The immediate value is better investment decisions, sharper management focus and earlier action to protect margin, cash, assets and customer commitments. It can also reveal where acting sooner creates advantage: securing supply, strengthening resilience or directing capital towards growth opportunities before competitors respond.
A traceable path from changing conditions to business decisions
The four phases describe how the work progresses. They are underpinned by purpose-built analytical tools that follow an issue from its source to the business decision it affects.
At its centre is the Business Impact Chain. Each issue is traced along the chain: from an external pressure, through the business activity it affects and its operational and commercial consequences, into the assumption or commitment it tests, the resulting performance and financial implication, and the live decision that can still be changed.
The frameworks and tools bring rigour, consistency and a clear evidence trail. My judgement focuses them on the connections and decisions that matter most in your business.
Who does what
I run the process and bring the analysis. The findings are built with your leaders, so they own them when the work ends.
1. Diagnose
What I do:
Frame the work around a live decision and gather evidence from across Strategy, Finance, Sustainability, Risk, Procurement and Operations. I trace how the pressure reaches the numbers and expose the links no one function can see.
What your team does:
Join one opening discussion of 60 to 90 minutes, share the relevant material and point me to the right people. Each contributor gives 45 to 60 minutes.
2. Prioritise
What I do:
Separate the material signal from the noise and show what is observed, what is inferred and what is still to be tested. I challenge the economics, weigh downside against missed advantage and narrow the open questions to the few that need deeper analysis.
What your team does:
The sponsor reviews the draft heatmap and findings. Colleagues challenge my reading where their knowledge matters.
3. Design
What I do:
Identify the capability gap behind each priority finding and turn the evidence into priority changes leaders can act on. I facilitate calm challenge between stakeholders, make trade-offs explicit and show how the issue reaches their numbers.
What your team does:
The decision-makers join one session of 60 to 90 minutes, test the findings and agree the response.
4. Mobilise
What I do:
Facilitate the session that sets owners and dates, then write up the outline 90-day plan and the route into planning or governance.
What your team does:
Leaders confirm ownership, next steps and how progress will be reviewed.
Worked example of supply chain exposure
An illustrative £300m UK pasta and sauces business has two approved durum suppliers, both sourcing from the same Canadian growing region. Its annual plan assumes only a 3% cost increase.
1. External pressure
Heat and drought on the Canadian prairies, where durum is grown.
A failed harvest can come in any year of the plan.
2. Impact path
Supply tightens
Wheat costs rise.
Customer price changes arrive six months later.
3. Plan weakness
Supply
Two suppliers are counted as diversified but rely on one growing region.
Pricing
Customer terms assume stable wheat costs.
Planning
Budgets assume stable volumes and working capital.
4. Performance implications
Scenario: drought cuts durum supply by 15% and wheat prices rise 40%.
Six months of extra cost before customer prices can change, then lower volumes once they do.
Indicative impact: around £13m of operating profit in the year.
5. Capability Gap
1. Managed external dependencies
2. Integrated Planning
Procurement sees suppliers. Finance sees cost. Neither tests exposure by growing origin in the annual plan.
6. Response & integration
Map critical inputs by origin and assess risk.
Assess contracting a second origin now. Securing supply before prices move protects volume while competitors pay spot prices.
Put a drought range, buffer policy and triggers into the plan.
The thinking behind the work
The frameworks give the work structure. Evidence, commercial context and the judgement of the people accountable for the plan decide what matters. They rest on two ideas. The Climate-Integrated Enterprise is the model of a business that has built external pressures into its decisions. Integrated Value Planning is the discipline for getting there.
Climate-Integrated Enterprise
Is a business in which climate, energy and resource pressures shape the decisions that already drive cost, growth and investment. It is the destination to work towards. In that enterprise, strategy, capital allocation, governance, operating-model choices and delivery take these pressures into account as a matter of course, rather than through a separate programme. The Climate Integration Capabilities Model sets out the nine capabilities that make this possible.
Integrated Value Planning
Is the planning discipline that brings climate, energy and resource pressures into business planning, capital allocation and governance. It is the route to the Climate-Integrated Enterprise. Its five stages run from context and strategy through to budgeting and delivery, sharing one fact base and working through the decision-making forums the business already operates, not a parallel process. The Ways-of-Working Intervention Library sets out 30 practical interventions across those stages.
Start a conversation
If you want to understand where climate-related pressures may be creating gaps in your business plan, the diagnostic provides a focused, evidence-based way to find out.
The first step is a short conversation to answer any questions you may have and to understand your context and confirm whether the timing is right. There is no commitment beyond that.