Blog #32: Don’t Blame the Boss
You believed in IBP. You pushed for it. You built the templates, fought for executive time, and finally got the process running.
The CEO was there in month one. Engaged, curious, asking good questions.
Month three - still there, but checking their phone.
Month six - sending a delegate.
Month nine - the delegate is sending a delegate.
Two stories.
The first one is flattering - sometimes success is a burden. When IBP or S&OP work, the business goes quiet. Demand signals get caught and acted upon early. Decisions get made. Risks get addressed before they become crises. None of that generates a moment. And the boss who got to the top on ‘decisive heroics’ finds it hard to stay engaged with a process that hums rather than roars.
That story is sometimes true, but 9 times out of 10, that’s not why they faded.
The truth.
The boss’ attention faded because the process wasn’t earning his or her time. The pre-read was not pre-read. Contributors submitted content because they had to, or at the last moment. Presenters were deflecting (if the story was bad), or worse, showboating (if the story was good). The same issues kept coming back month after month wearing different clothes.
They didn’t fade because your IBP or S&OP was too quiet. They faded because it wasn’t worth the time.
Acknowledge it, and do something about it.
Fade is real. Don’t dress it up as proof of your own excellence. Most of the time, you deserve it.
The mechanism that helps more than any other: feedback. Not the survey-monkey kind. The end-of-meeting kind. Every forum - PMR, DR, SR, Optimisation Review, Exec RR, MBR - finishes with the same move. Stop. Pause. Ask what could be better next time. Then shut up and let silence do the work.
The first few times you’ll likely get nothing, or maybe just some polite fluff. Eventually, someone will tell you what’s actually wrong. You’ll squirm. Good - that’s the moment your IBP starts earning its mojo back.
And if the boss didn’t even show up? Make that your feedback question. “Why wasn’t [name] here today?” Then shut up. Don’t fill the silence by making excuses for them. Let the question sit until the room answers it.
What actually compounds.
The organisations I see getting lasting value from IBP / S&OP aren’t the ones that launched with fanfare. They’re the ones still doing it quietly, five years later - with a CEO and Lead Team who still show up, still challenge assumptions, and importantly, they always close their laptops when the meeting starts.
Not because the process is exciting. Because they understood what they were actually building. Honest assumptions. Risks owned and named. Decisions made in the room. Month after month. Year after year.
They didn’t transform. They compounded.
The executive fade is the moment your IBP stops being a decision-making process and starts being a reporting cycle. Once that happens, it’s hard to reverse.
So - has your CEO faded? And before you answer “yes, but they just don’t get it” - are you sure? Have you actually even asked the question?
I don’t write these to chase work. I write them because too many planning processes run on autopilot and nobody says anything. If this sparked a thought, that’s enough. If you want to talk about it, find me at planninglab.co.nz/blogs.
#IBP #S&OP