Enterprise excellence: How a global consumer goods leader transformed capital performance

A global consumer goods leader faced a familiar challenge: year after year, its capital planning process underperformed.

With capital spending falling 15% below original forecasts over a three-year span, it became clear the system lacked the strategic rigor needed to deliver on growth goals.

Despite its size and reach, the organization struggled with capital allocation.

In one peak planning cycle, the team was inundated with over 1,700 project requests - a flood of both new initiatives and resubmitted projects that had failed to gain approval in the previous fiscal year.

Submissions required more than 60 data fields, were manually input into spreadsheets, and ranked using subjective scoring based on 13 business questions.

The sheer volume of this ‘data dump - combined with a manual spreadsheet-based intake and subjective scoring - made it nearly impossible to prioritize strategically. 

Unsurprisingly, this fragmented, once-a-year approach led to:

• Inconsistent prioritization
• Limited alignment with business strategy
• Lost or duplicated requests
• Underutilized capital budgets

By introducing a dynamic capital planning tool, the team moved from reactive, one-off budgeting to a dynamic, real-time model. This proved to be a key enabler that gave global teams the visibility, structure, and confidence to make strategic capital decisions year-round.

Key improvements included:

• Ongoing project intake throughout the year, reducing the risk of missed opportunities
• Simplified submissions with only 31 required fields, cutting complexity by nearly half.
• Automated scoring based on objective project data
• Scoring aligned to business priorities 
• Real-time reporting and visibility into future fiscal impacts

By applying new rigor to project approvals and removing unsupported requests, the organization avoided $5mil in unnecessary capital spend in the first year alone.

Projects once considered “essential” were now filtered through a lens of business relevance and risk-adjusted ROI.

Workflows were implemented to better control capital budgets globally – an operational move that unlocked entirely new reporting capabilities through better data visibility.

New tools included:

• Financial tracking reports
• Five-year capital planning models
• Automated business intelligence dashboards

Capital planning can be one of the most powerful levers for growth - or one of the most overlooked. For many enterprises, the real challenge isn’t a lack of budget, but a lack of visibility, alignment, and confidence in how that budget is deployed. 
 
This global company redefined the role of capital planning, not as an annual budgeting exercise, but as a continuous, business-critical function. 
 
The result: clearer priorities, faster approvals, and a stronger link between investment and enterprise performance.

Next Steps: See what disciplined capital planning can do for your bottom line. Explore how JLL helps enterprises unlock value, visibility, and velocity in every investment. Schedule a consultation with our experts.