The HC Commodities Podcast Planning for the Unplannable with Savvas Manousos
Sep 9, 2025
Savvas Manousos, a Partner at Enco Insights with extensive experience in trading platforms, discusses the complexities of business planning in the volatile commodities sector. He emphasizes the need for agility in strategy, highlighting the shift from static to dynamic planning. Savvas shares insights on aligning performance metrics with market realities and the importance of external perspectives. He advocates for flexible budgeting and fostering a collaborative environment to drive resilience, innovation, and effective decision-making amidst uncertainty.
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Replace Rituals With Readiness
- Traditional annual budgets and static strategies fail in a world of frequent geopolitical and logistical shocks.
- Replace ritual planning with a readiness mindset that enables faster, flexible responses.
Strategy Is Your Durable Right To Win
- Strategy should identify a few sustainable competitive advantages that survive cycles.
- If you cannot prove a durable right to win, question whether you should own that part of the portfolio.
Use Rolling Proof Points
- Monitor strategic proof points on a rolling 12-month basis instead of revisiting strategy annually.
- Use those rolling check-ins to decide if you need augmentation or intervention.