Marui's FP&A 'OS' redesign

Marui Group rebuilt its finance planning process so managers can ask the chief financial officer questions in Slack and get answers fast enough to change plans mid-cycle. (x.com) Financial planning and analysis, or FP&A, is the part of a company that turns sales, costs, and forecasts into budget calls for the chief executive, chief financial officer, and board. Marui says its chief financial officer, Hirotsugu Kato, is in charge of group financial planning and analysis, investor relations, finance, sustainability, and environmental, social, and governance promotion. (corporatefinanceinstitute.com) (0101maruigroup.co.jp) The redesign described by Washizu centers on real-time Slack channels for chief financial officer queries, updated monitoring rules, and a tighter process for revising plans and sending those updates into board discussions. Marui framed that as replacing the company’s decision-making “operating system,” with more explicit explanations behind each number. (x.com) Marui has been putting more authority around the finance function in public disclosures over the past year. In its May 13, 2025 results briefing, the company listed Kato as director, senior managing executive officer and chief financial officer, “in charge of Group Financial Planning and Analysis,” and the same investor-relations page shows he led briefings on August 5, 2025, November 11, 2025, and February 10, 2026. (0101maruigroup.co.jp) The company is also trying to hit harder market targets by 2031. In its chief financial officer message, Marui says it wants return on equity of at least 15% and a price-to-book ratio of 3 to 4, up from roughly 10% return on equity and a little over 2 times price-to-book at the time of the statement. (0101maruigroup.co.jp) That helps explain why Marui is talking about finance as an “operating system” instead of a back-office reporting job. A company trying to raise return on equity, asset turnover, and margins needs faster answers on why a metric moved and whether a forecast should change before the next board pack is finished. (0101maruigroup.co.jp) (corporatefinanceinstitute.com) Marui has been using the same language in other parts of the business. A March 2026 Speaker Deck presentation by Marui Unite, the group’s digital unit, describes a timeline of organizational change starting with a digital transformation office in October 2022, experiments in July 2023, and the launch of Marui Unite from September 2024 to push group-wide change through digital tools. (speakerdeck.com) The finance overhaul fits that broader pattern: fewer static reports, more live channels, and a shorter path from question to answer. For Marui, the point was not just faster numbers, but faster reasons behind the numbers. (x.com)