A Day in the Life of a Senior Manager Long Range Planning at Patagonia
A Senior Manager of Long Range Planning at Patagonia's daily activities vary greatly depending on the company's planning cycle, ranging from frequent check-ins and data input to presentations and ad-hoc projects; the role involves significant stakeholder collaboration, "talking with stakeholders" to gather inputs for financial projections, and ultimately facilitating key decisions based on these projections and their implications for the company.
Financial Planning, Forecasting, Cross-functional Collaboration, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Decision-Making
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Jenny Tang
Senior Manager, Long Range Planning
Patagonia
University of California, Berkeley
MBA & M.S. Business Analytics at Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey
Environmental & Related Sciences
Apparel, Beauty, Retail & Fashion, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)
Finance
Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. There is no typical day for a senior manager of long-range planning; the work is highly dependent on the company's planning cycles (quarterly vs. annually).
2. The role involves significant cross-functional collaboration, gathering inputs from various departments (e.g., supply chain) to build comprehensive financial models and projections.
3. A significant portion of the job includes facilitating decisions by presenting projections and implications to stakeholders, ensuring alignment across different parts of the organization and incorporating feedback into plans
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a senior manager of long-range planning look like?
That's a fun question because, while there's no typical day, it really depends on how different companies' planning cycles work. Some companies have a long-range plan every quarter.
At the start of the quarter, you do a lot of check-ins with people. In the middle, you input data into a system to generate results. Near the end, you present those findings.
Other companies have an annual cycle, which is more thorough and slower. This includes many intermittent ad hoc projects.
To break down a full year, it usually starts with talking to stakeholders. You might ask the head of supply chain if they plan to invest in any supply chain changes, and the answer is usually yes.
You take those inputs and multiply them by all the different major departments in your company. Later, you input this information into financial systems, or sometimes just Excel, to see the overall picture for the company.
However, because my role has a high-level view of forecasting, we may get ad hoc questions. For example, if the board wants to know the projection if the business changes in certain ways.
Depending on the deadline, there may be different changes required. Finally, you spend a lot of time checking with cross-functional stakeholders. You confirm decisions, discuss implications, and facilitate those decisions to finish off the cycle.
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