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Management Information |
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Budgets that Damage - The Downsides of Making the Numbers
In my organisational career, I had budgets from the age of 22 to 47. I lived and breathed them and many times, budgets, the gospel that they were, caused havoc, albeit within the corporate retailer framework that I worked. Example One Typically budgets were initially discussed in January, just after the Christmas rush. They were always dependent on year-on-year sales growth and at the time in question, individual businesses were not expected to deliver 'profits', as the
way the business was structured was not capable of sustaining that level of information. So the budget got signed off about May (for the fiscal year staring the April a month before!). Monthly sales budgets were built, usually to a corporate model, as were cost budgets, the biggest of all being salary costs. Half year budgets had to be met and so by the time September's costs were in, you were well into planning your Christmas. One year, after a review of performance of the organisation as a whole at the half year, a decision was made to radically trim salary budgets for the rest of the year. Out of 20 businesses in my geographical region, 8 were told to cut costs
dramatically from November onwards. Because of the way that employment legislation works in the UK, you can't just lay people off. So we had to find a better way to cut costs, just before Christmas (and at that time, the only two months the organisation made any profits to speak of were in November and December!) It was decided to reduce the hours of every member of my staff (some 125 people) by 9.9% (apart, much to my personal disagreement, from the management team, who would be under 'much greater pressure', so would maintain their hours (and salary)). Although I say it myself, I had a great relationship with my team, and everyone made matters much easier by complying with the 'request' within days (instead of the statutory notice-period, which for some could have been up to 12 weeks). My people were rock solid in how they put themselves forward and I was humbled. Example Two My second example is the same organisation, bang up-to-date. Like right now, December 2004. A manager is promoted in July 2004, to a very difficult store to manage - rather beyond his capability really. He inherits a budget cost overspend and is told to recover it by the end of the fiscal year (March 2005). He decides to cut back drastically on anything he can cut his staff costs on. So he 'cancels' Christmas recruitment and plans no extras for the busiest period of the year. Admitted, not the only period
they now make a profit on, but still very, very important to their profitability, for the year.
All to meet the budget... Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website and specifically on budgeting at http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com/budgeting. (Note to editors. Please leave a live link when using this article - thank you!)
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