Budgets and budgeting

By utilizing the reality show format, corporations can create a more effective forum for pitching innovative products.

Paragon Tool is pouring money into growth initiatives. How long can it afford to wait for profits to bounce back?

A senior design engineer for a large American automobile manufacturer recently complained to one of his colleagues. “Those marketing guys want everything. They’ve decided that what they need in the next design series is ‘The All-American Car.’ They say it’s got to be large enough for a family of five (plus dog), small enough to […]

Valuation used to be the province of finance specialists. That’s no longer true.

Corporate budgeting is a joke, and everyone knows it. It consumes a huge amount of executives' time, forcing them into endless rounds of dull meetings...

Three key tactics that make these projects successful.

It has been another long, exhausting budget meeting. As the presenters showed you their plans, you challenged every number, explored every assumption. In the end you raised their targets a little, but, if you’re honest, you have to admit it: the budget this unit will have to deliver next year is not very different from […]

Spend on tomorrow's opportunities, not just today's needs.

Research shows it's an increasingly important form of insurance, particularly for small or vulnerable firms.

Today’s technology can put adjusted present value into the arsenal of every general manager.

In my last post, I argued that companies can't keep their costs in line by attacking them directly. The typical approaches of budget cuts and layoffs...

By closing the loop between sales and operations, they can generate more cash and profits.

Blake Memorial Hospital was in poor financial health, due to rising costs and stagnating revenues. The hospital's quality of care was also a major problem,...

Four steps to prepare your company - before it's too late.

Salary data masks the true extent of the problem.

Green initiatives can, by reducing costs, enhance a company’s bottom line. Actions that harm the environment can have the opposite effect. Now, thanks to a burgeoning market in greenhouse gas emission credits put into effect by the Kyoto Protocol, environmental considerations will increasingly affect not only companies’ income statements but also their balance sheets. A […]

You can be both hopeful and realistic.

Getting the budget right is critical because it impacts the coordination of the whole organization.

Forecasting can seem scary, because the future is inherently unknowable. Accept that fact. Instead, embrace uncertainty and focus on your goal.

This article contends that to be effective every formal long-range planning system must achieve a compromise between “creativity” and “practicality”—goals for planning that are often in conflict. The authors also argue that the problem of maintaining a satisfactory balance can be directly addressed by varying the design features of the planning/budgeting interface. After specifying the […]