BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to financial modeling of a business framework, and, more particularly, on predicting the financial impact of the business framework in a business environment.
Upstart companies, in a fast changing business environment, use new business models with which they can compete with established incumbents and give them a run for money by challenging them to speed up, slim down, and become more nimble.
Therefore, companies need to adopt the business framework, which will enable them to compete successfully in a "Flattening" business environment or in a business environment that is being dramatically transformed by the confluence of disruptive forces viz.
- opening up of emerging economies i.e. redistribution of global wealth in favor of emerging economies;
- structural shift in global demographics i.e. integration of more than two billion potential customers into the world market; and emergence of India and china as key sources of talent;
- ubiquity of technology i.e. drastic improvements in technology and connectivity; and
- accountability regulation i.e. growing complexity in terms of regulations related to security and privacy
Under this business framework, companies need to do certain key activities differently from its competitors to succeed in the business environment. The highest level groups of such activities in the business framework are termed as "shifts". The business framework

comprises four operational "shifts" viz., China price, Make money from Information, Loyalty through Innovation and Winning in Turns.
Each shift consists of one or more sub-shifts that break down the high level shifts into a more granular level. Each sub-shift has one or more operational activities at company level termed as "activities". Activities are the actions that a company needs to take up at operational level to compete in the business environment.
The business framework further has "metrics" that measure the performance of the activities. Each activity may have more than one metric. The data to measure where a company's standing vis-a-vis each metric is available with the company. The metrics for the industry in which the company operates are available from public sources.
Every business irrespective of its age and size must from time to time perform financial planning as a critical activity for managing cash flow and communicating the financial condition of the business to its stakeholders. For new businesses, the preparation of financial projections is integral to the business planning process. For larger companies, financial planning forms part of annual budgeting and play an important role in long-term planning, business appraisals, corporate development etc.
In the context of the above business framework, there is no financial model available that would help a company to prioritize the activities by using financial metrics as the criteria for prioritization. Accordingly, there is a need for a financial model to predict the impact of the implementation of the business framework in the business environment to enable companies to compete successfully in a flattening business world. Also, there is a need for companies that would be able to
- assess the financial benefits in terms of cash flow of adopting this business framework
- prioritize inter-se amongst the various activities that the company could take up under the Framework.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method to predict the financial impact of the implementation of a business framework for a business environment is disclosed. The method includes the steps of identifying a list of shifts required by a business environment to perform, defining a list of sub-shifts for each shift, describing a list of activities to each sub-shift for executing an operational action by business environment, defining a list of metrics for each activity and constructing a link between activities and metrics for prediction of financial impact of the activity of the business framework in the business environment. The method further includes gathering past financial data and current financial data of business environment and connecting each metric with one or more line items of income statement and balance sheet.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a system for predicting the financial impact of the implementation of a business framework for a business environment is disclosed. The system includes a shift module containing a set of shifts required by a business environment to perform, a sub-shift module containing a set of sub-shifts defined for each shift, a activity module describing at least one activity to each sub-shift for executing an operational action by business environment, a metrics module containing a set of metrics defined for each of the activity, a user input interface for accepting user-specific input on financials of each of the metrics and for accepting user-specific input for improvement in at least one of the metrics and a data simulator adapted to construct a link between at least one of the activity of the activity module with at least one of the corresponding metrics of the metrics module for predicting the financial impact of the activity in the business environment. The data simulator further recast the income statement, balance sheet and total financial cash flow based on the impact of the impact of the activities. The data simulator also prioritizes the activities that a business environment needs to perform to compete in a flattening business environment.

DRAWINGS
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a flowchart depicting process steps in one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating components of financial model of a business environment under a business framework in one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the linkage between activities and metrics of a business environment under business framework in one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a spreadsheet depicting the user input interface for accepting user-specific inputs on financials of each of the metric and improvements in the metrics respectively in one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a spreadsheet page summarizing the financial impact of each activity on income statement, balance sheet and total financial cash flow in one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a spreadsheet page summarizing the financial impact of all the activities on income statement, balance sheet and total financial cash flow in one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a spreadsheet page summarizing the prioritized activities that a business environment needs to take up based on the Recasted income statement, balance sheet and total cash flow in one embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 8 is a system illustrating a generalized computer network arrangement, in one embodiment of the present technique.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The following description is full and informative description of the best method and system presently contemplated for carrying out the present invention which is known to the inventors at the time of filing the patent application. Of course, many modifications and adaptations will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts in view of the following description in view of the accompanying drawings and the appended claims. While the method described herein are provided with a certain degree of specificity, the present technique may be implemented with either greater or lesser specificity, depending on the needs of the user. Further, some of the features of the present technique may be used to advantage without the corresponding use of other features described in the following paragraphs. As such, the present description should be considered as merely illustrative of the principles of the present technique and not in limitation thereof, since the present technique is defined solely by the claims.
The invention relates generally to financial modeling of business framework, and, more particularly, on predicting the financial impact of a business framework in a business environment.
As will be appreciated by people skilled in the art, to best understand the present invention it is important to be familiar with the definitions in which it is used.
The term "business environment" as used herein, refers to the socio-economic environment in which business entities operate. Business environment is defined either locally i.e. a small area or a city or over a larger area like a country or even the whole
world.
The term "business entity" as used herein, refers to group of people organized for some profitable or charitable purpose/ Business entities also include organizations such as corporations, partnerships, charities, trusts, and other forms of organization.

The term "business framework" as used herein, refers to provide the management of a business entity a framework in which that entity and its business partners can work efficiently and effectively, both individually and collectively, and succeed for mutual benefit
The term "shift" as used herein, refers to the highest level of grouping of actions that a business environment perform differently from other business environments to compete in a flattening business environment.
The term "sub-shift" as used herein, refers to the next level to each shift at more granular
level.
The term "activity" as used herein, refers to the actions that a business environment takes up at an operational level to compete in a flattening business environment.
The term "metric" as used herein, refers to the measure of how effectively an activity is performed. An activity has one or more activities.
In FIG. 1 there is shown a flowchart of process steps for predicting the financial impact of the implementation of a business framework in a business environment in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The method starts in step 100, where in a list of shifts and sub-shifts are identified for the business framework.
In step 102, various activities for each sub-shift are defined. The activities are the operational actions that a business environment should take up to compete in a flattening business environment.
In step 104, a single or plurality of metrics have been defined for each activity defined in step 102. The premises in defining the metrics have been that: a) the data to measure where a business environment stands vis-a-vis each metric is available with the business environment and b) the metrics for the industry in which the business environment operates are available from public sources. The activities and the metrics are Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive, i.e., no overlap amongst activities and metrics. In

step 106, each activity is linked with one more metrics defined in step 104. The activities and the metrics are Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive, i.e., no overlap amongst activities and metrics so that the system makes possible to take up any of the metrics individually as well as taking all of the metrics at the same time.
In step 108, each Metric is linked to the individual line items in the Income Statement and the Balance Sheets that would be impacted. In step 110, the financial impact of each activity is determined on the Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Total Financial Cash Flow. The Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Total Financial Cash Flow are recast based on the financial impact of the each activity at step 112. In step 114, the activities that a business environment needs to perform are prioritized based on the recast Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Total Financial Cash Flow.
In Fig. 2, a schematic diagram containing the components of the business framework and the linkage between the list of activities and the list of metrics is broadly explained. The business framework starts with a list of shifts 200. The list of shifts in one embodiment is china price 202, Make money from Information 206, Loyalty through Innovation 208 and Winning in Turns 210. The sub-shifts in step 212 are further dropdown to one or more sub-shift for each shift. In Step 214, the shift "China Price" is linked to a sub-shift "Leverage Global Skilled Talent" sub-shift 216. The list of other sub-shifts linked to "China Price" shift via step 218 is "Implement Global Sourcing 2.0" 220, "Target New Market Opportunities" 222. The list of sub-shifts used in the business environment in one exemplary embodiment of the invention is shown in Table 1.


The third column of the model describes a list of activities 224 taken up at an operational level by a business environment. The linkage as shown via step 226 is to construct a link between a "Leverage Global Skilled Talent" sub-shift 216 and list of activities such as "Develop global talent footprint to match organization needs" 228, "Source Knowledge Globally" 230 and Structure Organizations to optimally work across geographies" 232 respectively. In one exemplary embodiment, the list of activities that a business environment should take up is tabulated in Table 2.


8. Develop metric to measure innovation effectiveness
9. Take actions to continuously improve the innovation process
10. Build analytics and tools to customize interaction with customers

- Customize offerings
- Cross sell and up sell

11. Use low cost global talents to mine customer information to gain a larger share of customer's wallet
12. Use real time data and analytics to drive supply chain and working capital management decisions
13. Create a platform and tool set to enable information sharing and analysis across the value chain for effective collaboration and decision making
14. Ensure information flows to the right parties at the right time
15. Develop global talent footprint to match organization needs
16. Source knowledge work globally
17. Structure organizations to optimally work across geographies
18. Disaggregate & modularize the value chain to source from networks of suppliers
19. Centralize capability &' relationship based sourcing decisions
20. Target emerging markets to achieve economies of scale and scope
21. Leverage global cost structure to target value segment in developed markets
22. Develop a system for timely acquisition, processing and dissemination of forecasting information for decision making
23. Build business cycle literacy capabilities & decision tools
24. Implement an organization structure that encourages business cycle management
25. Design modularized processes for quick ramp up/down
26. Deploy a low fixed and high variable cost structure by outsourcing and off shoring non core activities
27. Re-engineer and automate processes to make them business cycle independent
28. Rebalance product and geographic mix to align with market conditions
29. Align working capital and cap ex strategy for competitive advantage


The fourth column of the model defines a measure of how effectively an activity is measured in terms of metrics as shown in 236. The linkage 238 adapted to construct a link between an "Develop global talent footprint to match organization needs" activity 228 to a list of metrics "Increasing overheads on account of shift to emerging markets" 240, "% of R & D employees in emerging markets" 244, "% of sales and marketing employees in emerging markets" 246 respectively. Each of these metrics were linked to one or more line items in the column where financial impact 248of these activities is performed. In Step 250, the impact of each metric on one or more line items of the income statement 252, balance sheet 254, and total financial cash flow 256 is computed.
Fig. 3 is an exemplary embodiment to construct a link between the activity and one or more metrics under the business framework. The system starts with defining a shift Component "China Price" 300 is categorized into a sub-shift Component "Leverage Global Skilled Talent" 302. The sub-shift Component is further categorized into an Activity "Develop global talent footprint to match organization needs" 304. Using the Data Simulator 306, having a predefined rules engine, a link via step 308 is established between activity 304 and a list of metrics such as "Increasing overheads on account of shift to emerging markets" 310, "% of research and development employees in emerging markets", 312, "% of sales and marketing employees in emerging markets" 314 and "% of general and administrative employees in emerging markets" 316 respectively. The list of metrics considered, but not limited, for establishing a link between activities and metrics are shown in table 3.

Spreadsheet tools or other business value software may be used to perform the financial impact of each activity on business environment as explained below in connection with Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively. A spreadsheet shall be understood herein to mean a software tool having a two dimensional array of cells in which a user may enter data or formulas in the cells to facilitate entry, calculating results and recording values. Some spreadsheets permit data of nearly any type to be entered in a cell including a number, a mathematical formula, alphanumeric variable, test, a graphic, an audio or video clip, or an object of any type such as known in the object oriented programming arts. EXCEL (EXCEL is a trademark of Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.) is an example of spreadsheet software currently available which may be used for such calculations.
In Fig. 4, there is shown an example of a spreadsheet page containing two types of inputs that a user need to specify such as actual financials for each metric as shown in step 400 and the improvements on the chosen metrics as depicted in step 402. Referring to Fig. 5, there is shown an example of a spreadsheet page containing the financial impact of "Leverage Global Skilled Talent" Activity on business environment. In step 500, user will specify the values for each metric. In step 502, user has to provide the improvements

that a user wishes to use in one or multiple metrics. Thus, the user is able to view the financial impact on Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Total Financial Cash Flow as depicted in 506 and 508 respectively. In Fig. 6, there is shown an example of a spreadsheet page containing the summarized view of the financial impact of all the activities that define business environment. At 600, the financial impact of "Develop global talent foot print to match organization" activity on the Income Statement is shown. In Fig. 7, there is shown an example of a spreadsheet containing the prioritized activities that have financial impact on Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Total Financial Cash Flow respectively. At 700, the prioritized activities that a business environment needs to take up under the business environment based on the Income Statement. Similarly. The activities are prioritized based on Balance Sheet and Total Financial Cash Flow at 702 and 704 respectively.
Exemplary Computing Environment
One or more of the above-described techniques may be implemented in or involve one or more computer systems. Figure 8 illustrates a generalized example of a computing environment 800. The computing environment 300 is not intended to suggest any limitation as to scope of use or functionality of described embodiments.
With reference to Figure 8, the computing environment 800 includes at least one processing unit 810 and memory 820. In Figure 8, this most basic configuration 830 is included within a dashed line. The processing unit 810 executes computer-executable instructions and may be a real or a virtual processor. In a multi-processing system, multiple processing units execute computer-executable instructions to increase processing power. The memory 820 may be volatile memory (e.g., registers, cache, RAM), non¬volatile memory (e.g., ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, etc.), or some combination of the two. In some embodiments, the memory 820 stores software 880 implementing described techniques.
A computing environment may have additional features. For example, the computing environment 800 includes storage 840, one or more input devices 850, one or more

output devices 860, and one or more communication connections 870. An interconnection mechanism (not shown) such as a bus, controller, or network interconnects the components of the computing environment 800. Typically, operating system software (not shown) provides an operating environment for other software executing in the computing environment 800, and coordinates activities of the components of the computing environment 800.
The storage 840 may be removable or non-removable, and includes magnetic disks, magnetic tapes or cassettes, CD-ROMs, CD-RWs, DVDs, or any other medium which may be used to store information and which may be accessed within the computing environment 800. In some embodiments, the storage 840 stores instructions for the software 880.
The input device(s) 850 may be a touch input device such as a keyboard, mouse, pen, trackball, touch screen, or game controller, a voice input device, a scanning device, a digital camera, or another device that provides input to the computing environment 800. The output device(s) 360 may be a display, printer, speaker, or another device that provides output from the computing environment 800.
The communication connection(s) 870 enable communication over a communication medium to another computing entity. The communication medium conveys information such as computer-executable instructions, audio or video information, or other data in a modulated data signal. A modulated data signal is a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media include wired or wireless techniques implemented with an electrical, optical, RF, infrared, acoustic, or other carrier.
Implementations may be described in the general context of computer-readable media. Computer-readable media are any available media that may be accessed within a computing environment. By way of example, and not limitation, within the computing

environment 800, computer-readable media include memory 820, storage 840, communication media, and combinations of any of the above.
Having described and illustrated the principles of our invention with reference to described embodiments, it will be recognized that the described embodiments may be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. It should be understood that the programs, processes, or methods described herein are not related or limited to any particular type of computing environment, unless indicated otherwise. Various types of general purpose or specialized computing environments may be used with or perform operations in accordance with the teachings described herein. Elements of the described embodiments shown in software may be implemented in hardware and vice versa.
In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of our invention may be applied, we claim as our invention all such embodiments as may come within the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereto.

We Claim:-
1. A method for predicting financial impact of a business framework in a
business environment comprising:
identifying a list of shifts required by a business environment to perform;
defining at least one sub-shift to each said shift;
describing at least one activity to said sub-shift for executing an operational action by said business environment;
providing at least one metric for each of the activity; and
constructing a link between at least one activity and at least one metric for predicting the financial impact of the activity of the business framework in the business environment.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprises recasting of income statement,
balance sheet and total financial cash flow resulting from the financial impact of the
at least one activity.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprises prioritizing the activities required by a business environment to perform by recasting income statement, balance sheet and total financial cash flow.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the activities and the metrics are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprises gathering past financial data and current financial data of business environment.
6. A system for predicting financial impact of a business framework in a
business environment comprising:
a shift module containing a set of shifts required by a business environment to
perform;
a sub-shift module containing a set of sub-shifts defined for each shift;
a activity module describing at least one activity to each sub-shift for executing an operational action by said business environment;
a metrics module containing a set of metrics defined for each of the activity;
a user input interface for accepting user-specific input on financials of each of said metrics and for accepting user-specific input for improvement in at least one of the
metrics; and
a data simulator adapted to construct a link between at least one of the activity of the activity module with at least one of the corresponding metrics of the metrics module for predicting the financial impact of the activity in the business environment;
7. The system according to claim 6 wherein the shifts required by a business
environment are selected from the group consisting of loyalty through innovation, make
money from information, china price and winning in turns.

8. The system according to claim 6 further comprises the data simulator adapted to connect each metric from the metrics module with a line items of income statement or balance sheet or both.
9. The system according to claim 6 further comprises data simulator adapted to recast the income statement, the balance sheet and total financial cash flow resulting from the financial impact of the at least one activity.
10. The system according to claim 6 further comprises data simulator adapted to prioritize the activities required by a business environment to perform based on the modified income statement, balance sheet and total financial cash flow.
11. The system according to claim 6 wherein the user input interface for accepting user-specific input on financials gather past financial data and current financial data of business environment.
12. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein for predicting financial impact of a business framework, the method comprising:
program code adapted for identifying a list of shifts required by a business environment to perform;
program code adapted for defining at least one sub-shift to each said shift;

program code adapted for describing at least one activity to said sub-shift for executing an operational action by said business model;
program code adapted for providing at least one metric for each of the activity; and
program code adapted for constructing a link between said at least one activity and at least one metric for predicting the financial impact of the at least one activity of business framework on the business model.
13. The product of claim 12, further comprising program code adapted for
recasting of income statement, balance sheet and total financial cash flow resulting
from the financial impact of the at least one activity.
14. The product of claim 12, further comprising program code adapted for
prioritizing the activities required by a business environment to perform by recasting
income statement, balance sheet and total financial cash flow.
15. The product of claim 12, further comprising program code adapted for
gathering past financial data and current financial data of business environment.