Mark Proctor and others in the modern Excel movement often express frustration that senior management doesn’t prioritize training their teams in the latest Excel features—Power Query, dynamic arrays, and Lambda functions among them. But to understand why this gap persists, we must leave the theoretical domain of Excel features and step into the real world of management priorities, enterprise complexity, and Excel’s silent infrastructure role. This article is not another abstract argument—it’s a case study. A real engagement. A real budgeting challenge. A real mismatch between skills advertised, skills procured, and skills actually needed.

The Job That Wasn’t What It Seemed

The assignment came in after an unexpected convalescence. Following open-heart surgery while on holiday in Sri Lanka, I was advised to avoid stress and physical strain. Upon returning to the UK, I sought light work—something mentally engaging but low-pressure. A recruiter described a “spreadsheet update” role for a four-week budgeting cycle at a national engineering consultancy: WSP.

It sounded ideal—low-key, low pay, and temporary. I knew enough to withhold judgment until I saw it. But even from the initial call, there was a red flag: they wanted the budgeting process “set up so that it will work every year.” That implied something far beyond a spreadsheet update.

First Encounter: Reality Sets In

At WSP, I met Anthony Green, a young, bright accountant overseeing the budget process. He explained that the company had nearly 400 cost centres across four levels, all of which had to submit budgets into an Excel-based process—one that relied on external links and manual consolidation.

What followed was a classic picture of spreadsheet hell:

• The group map (i.e., the organizational structure) had changed since last year and might change again during the budget cycle.
• Information needed from departments—HR, Property, IT—was not yet available.
• Actuals from the ERP system would arrive just before the final deadline.
• The budget template itself was not ready. It was being worked on—hopefully completed mid-cycle.

And despite all this, the idea was that someone would “update the spreadsheets” and make the process run smoothly.

A Risk No One Could See—Except Management

At that moment, I realized that anyone accepting this role as advertised would be doomed to fail. A literal thinker—armed with standard Excel knowledge or even “modern Excel” skills—might soldier on, tweaking spreadsheets, relinking cells, reformatting templates. But the process would collapse under pressure. It was too fragile. The deadlines too tight. The variables too fluid.

I met with the team: the commercial director, the CFO, and Anthony. I laid it out plainly:

“If we proceed with the current model—400 files, external links, late-arriving data—this will fall over by week three. You may hit the deadline, but it will be at the expense of sanity and sustainability. And you’ll be right back here next year, doing it all again.”

They asked what could work.

A Better Way: Hub-and-Spoke Architecture

I proposed an alternative. Not a flashy new Excel trick. Not an off-the-shelf cloud solution. A design rooted in well-understood principles from enterprise systems:

• An Access (later SQL Server) database as the central hub.
• A single Excel workbook application that pulls in all the data: from HR, IT, property, and actuals.
• That same workbook populates the 400 budget templates, applies the right password protections, and stores them with proper folder and permission structures.
• A “PUT” button on each budget sheet uploads submitted budgets into the database.
• Consolidation reports are generated from the central database—instantly and accurately.

This was not just automation. It was architecture. It removed the brittle web of links, the timing risks, and the manual consolidations that invited chaos.

From Contractor to Transformation Consultant

The prototype impressed the commercial director. The project was extended and my rate adjusted accordingly. Over the next three years, I was retained to integrate budgeting, forecasting, and monthly reporting using the same hub-and-spoke model. What started as a £4,000 engagement turned into £540,000 of billing—because I delivered strategic transformation, not spreadsheet patchwork.

There was even a moment when a template error—previously a nightmare scenario—was fixed in hours without disrupting users or recalling files. That’s what enterprise spreadsheet thinking looks like.

The Modern Excel Debate: The Wrong Fight?

Which brings us back to Mark Proctor.

He argues that modern Excel skills are the missing link—that if organizations just trained their teams in Power Query, dynamic arrays, and the like, all would be well.

But I pose two questions:

1. Would a highly-trained modern Excel user have succeeded in this engagement?
   Even with dynamic arrays, Power BI, and Lambdas, would they have seen the architectural failure waiting to happen? Would they have built a robust consolidation system with zero IT involvement in four weeks? If so, what would their strategy be?
2. If management had known to ask for modern Excel skills—would that have helped?
   The job spec didn’t ask for Power Query or Lambdas. It asked for someone to update spreadsheets. That’s what they thought they needed. The agency didn’t know what “hub-and-spoke” meant. Management didn’t either. Even Mark Proctor jokes about it. But this architecture changed the game.

And herein lies the paradox: the people who teach Excel aren’t equipping users to understand enterprise needs. And the people with enterprise needs don’t know how to describe what’s missing. The agency doesn’t know how to filter for it. So we continue the farce—recruiting the wrong people, training the wrong skills, and blaming Excel for the chaos.

The Real Skill Gap: Strategic Insight

What WSP needed was not Power Query training. It was process architecture, relational thinking, and systems design using familiar tools.

The hub-and-spoke model isn’t new. It’s just unknown—drowned out by influencers promoting individual functions without context.

So my challenge to Mark Proctor and others is this:

“In the case of WSP, what would your ‘modern Excel’ solution look like? What specific steps would you take to solve the consolidation, timing, structure, and control challenges under the real constraints of that engagement?”

And to management:

“If your consultants and candidates don’t know what hub-and-spoke means, don’t expect sustainability—expect spreadsheet chaos.”

This isn’t a debate about features. It’s a debate about thinking. And until we elevate the conversation beyond the toolbar, we’ll keep missing the point—and failing the business.

ABSTRACT

PODCAST