By Hiran de Silva
Imagine a world where everyone drives cars. Motoring isn’t just transport – it’s a way of life, almost a religion.
But here’s the strange thing: in this world, nobody knows what the letter R on the gear stick means.
Some have noticed it, even wondered about it. But driving instructors don’t mention it, the Highway Code ignores it, YouTube has endless videos on oil changes and tyre checks – yet not a word about the mysterious R.
So motorists live with constant frustration:
- They struggle to park.
- They can’t turn around in narrow streets.
- Garages don’t exist, because no one could ever drive out of one.
And everyone accepts this as normal.
Enter a new industry
Of course, such ignorance creates opportunities. Clever entrepreneurs step in and build a new kind of vehicle – one that can go backwards.
It’s marketed as the solution to “Motoring Hell”:
- the agony of parking,
- the pain of getting stuck,
- the endless three-point turns that never work.
These special reversing cars are sold at eye-watering prices. They don’t drive forward very well, but who cares? The big selling point is that they reverse.
Soon they become a status symbol. Chairmen of large corporations boast about their chauffeur-driven reversing cars. Big organisations spend millions. A whole industry is built around the belief that “ordinary cars can’t reverse.”
The audacious revelation
Then one day, someone makes an outrageous claim:
“Every car can already reverse. That’s what the R on the gear stick stands for.”
At first, disbelief. Then anger. Then the penny drops.
Overnight, every driver realises: they already own a vehicle that can park, turn, and back out of a garage – all along, they just never knew how.
The “Reversing Car Industry” collapses under the weight of its own false promise. Because the truth was there, built into the car, from day one.
Now look at Excel
That’s not just a motoring parable. It’s exactly what’s happening with Excel.
For 20 years, an enormous “Alternative to Excel” industry has been telling businesses:
- Excel can’t scale.
- Excel can’t consolidate.
- Excel can’t support enterprise collaboration.
- Excel causes “Excel Hell.”
And so they sell expensive “reversing cars” – FP&A tools, planning platforms, ERP bolt-ons – promising salvation at a premium.
But here’s the revelation:
Excel already has the “reverse gear.”
It already does scale. It already does consolidate. It already supports secure, centralised, global collaboration – if you know how to use it.
Proof in the real world
I’ve demonstrated it. Take a global budgeting model:
- 400 business units across 90 cities, 50 countries, and 4 regions.
- Every budget holder updates their template.
- No files are emailed, no versions multiply, no chaos spreads.
- All updates flow into a single central database.
- Consolidations are live, permissions-based, and available instantly.
That’s not theory. That’s not “modern Excel tricks.” That’s built-in architecture – the R on the gear stick – that most people never knew was there.
The disruption
So what happens when you reveal the reverse gear?
- Companies stop believing the myth of “Excel Hell.”
- They realise they don’t need to spend millions on rigid FP&A tools that do less, slower.
- They discover they already have the most agile, scalable, affordable enterprise platform sitting on their desktops.
And that’s disruptive. Because once you see the R, you can never unsee it.
The Mission Impossible
That’s why I created Excel Mission Impossible.
We take everyday business challenges – budgeting, consolidation, reconciliation – and show how:
- In the “traditional” way, you get chaos.
- In the FP&A way, you get cost and rigidity.
- In the Excel enterprise way, you get scale, clarity, and control – instantly.
The revelation is simple:
Excel already had the reverse gear.
You were just never taught how to use it.
👉 That is the moment of disruption.
👉 That is the end of “Excel Hell.”
👉 That is the beginning of enterprise-grade Excel.
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