Traditional Budgeting

By Stefan Spiegel, CFO SBB Cargo AG, former Head Controlling of Retail Division of Swiss Post 2017

In the period from 2001 to 2006, the Retail division of Swiss Post transformed itself from a public service company into a business-driven sales organization. Crucial drivers of change were, on the one hand, the adaptation of the steering systems up to the final implementation of a "Beyond Budgeting" philosophy and, on the other hand, a humanistic attitude of management and finance department against all employees. The success was amazing: The division succeeded in increasing the sales of new retail products from 0 to over 400 million CHF, optimizing the bottom line by more than 100 million CHF or more than 5 percentage points and becoming the first state-owned company in Switzerland to win the EFQM- Award for Business Excellence.

By Steve Morlidge, Business Forecasting thought leader, author of "Future Ready: How to Master Business Forecasting" and  "The Little Book of Beyond Budgeting"

Why, when everyone hates it, do we still have traditional budgeting? My tentative answer to this would be that most people were not aware of the alternatives.

This blog will describe some of the candidates and assess to what extent they address the weaknesses of traditional budgeting that I outlined: cost, timeliness, dysfunctional behaviour and inflexibility.

By Steve Morlidge, Business Forecasting thought leader, author of "Future Ready: How to Master Business Forecasting" and  "The Little Book of Beyond Budgeting"

It’s difficult to think of a business process that is more unpopular than budgeting.

In nearly two decades of writing and talking on the subject I have yet to come across anyone who is prepared to stand up and say it is a good thing.

by Michael Coveney, co-author of "Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting in Uncertain Times"

A few days ago I was looking through some blogs on LinkedIn when I came across a comment that suggested the purpose of budgeting was to set stretch targets. A number of people seemed to support this idea, although I personally have to disagree for two key reasons.

What is a stretch target?

First of all, what is actually meant by a stretch target. This can differ depending on where you sit. As the budget holder of a sales division, this may mean setting sales targets that are higher than what would normally be expected. For production, this may mean producing more goods for less while marketing may see this as attracting more inquiries than last year....

By Rob Trippe, MBA, Financial Modelling Veteran

Many sophisticated business environments use budgets as a bridge between actual and forecast. Within the corporate finance domain, budgets are used to allocate resources and provide a starting point for current and future period estimates. Budgets and revised budgets are often communicated to shareholders and the investor community in numerous ways such as earnings estimates and road show presentations in the form of a “current estimate”. The budget becomes a foundation for expectation.