An organisations budget is supposed to be the tool that turns strategy into action. Unfortunately, up to 60% of organisations do not link corporate strategy to the budget. This article discusses the importance of budgeting and provides six distinct steps on how to link corporate strategy to the budget and provides reasons why it is important to link these two variables.
Article
In some organisations, budgeting can be a guessing game, which can lead to a budget which is inaccurate. A budget should be created to direct the way in which the organisation will achieve its strategic goals. For budgeting to become the relevant process it was meant to be and can be; this group must be fixed.
Budgeting is part of a large, closed loop process called ‘performance management’. Performance management is a holistic approach to the way organisations direct and manage resources to achieve objectives. In the context of performance management, budgeting’s central role is to support execution through the allocation of resources to the activities that drive value.
In order to achieve a best practice plan that is linked to a budget, the following six steps have been created:
Steps 1 – Define key objectives
Senior executives should create short and long-term objectives for each section of the strategic plan. These objectives can be based around revenue, growth and operating efficiency. In order to measure the success of each objective, executives should assign a value to each objective.
Step 2 – Identify strategies and impact
The second step is to describe strategies that achieve the objectives. A percentage weight should be assigned to each strategy which outlines the likelihood of achieving that objective. Departments should also be identified who are be responsible for implementing the strategy.
Step 3 – Document assumptions
A list of key assumptions and measures should be made to address the business environmental factors that could affect the organisations ability to achieve its objectives.
Step 4 – Develop tactics and high level operational budgets
At this stage senior executives give the plan to the operational manager who implements the document strategy. For each strategy, managers must develop tactics to implement this part of the plan.
Step 5 – Assess and mitigate risks
Once the tactics have been created, the plan can be assessed. The plan must be: realistic, affordable, and alternative plans must be in place.
Step 6 – Check the plan and finalise it
The final step is to agree the amended tactics and costs/revenues assigned to each activity. The plan can now serve as a starting point for a budget breakdown.
Why is it Important to Link Strategy to the Budget?
This article has focused on one aspect of performance management – strategic management and provided 6 steps to achieve a best practice plan that is linked to the budget. When strategic performance management is linked with other performance management functionalities, the result is a closed-loop performance management system.
It is thought by Waal (2002:24) that organisations that focus on performance management and use performance management software outperform those who don’t. In a survey of 437 publicly traded organisations, those that had structured performance management systems produced better results than those who didn’t.
That is why many companies are turning to performance management to improve budgeting and to enable them to successfully link their corporate strategy to their budget.
By: suzi mezze
Posts Tagged ‘Senior Executives’
Six Steps for linking corporate strategy to the budget and the role of budgeting in performance management
January 1st, 2010C-level Relationship Selling: Sales Managers Must Teach C-level Selling and Use Effective Listening to Cross-sell and Territory Sales Will Skyrocket
November 30th, 2009If sales managers taught their sales and support staffs to interview and listen, they would increase their territory sales tremendously.
I just read an interesting White Paper that said sales people are hindered cross-selling in existing accounts because they are out of their comfort zone. They are OK selling products / services they know well and avoid selling those they don’t know as well.
Now some of my clients argue that their sales people stick with one because they make more money vs. the other. I agree with both, but lean heavily towards this comfort zone observation.
Anyone who has been involved with my coaching knows that I strongly encourage prospecting extensively in existing accounts. It is the easiest place to get more business and grow sales volume because you have contacts, credibility and access – if you choose to use them.
However, sales management has to make this happen. So if sales people are uncomfortable or don’t like the money they get from the cross-sell, what is an astute sales manager and profit-center leader to do? I suggest “Effective Listening”. Relieve the burden of promoting products / services and enforce the tasks of interviewing and listening for key words and phrases.
If a sales person uses his or her contacts to get to the senior executives (C-Levels and profit-center leaders) and asks “Issues and Concerns” questions and listens for remarks that reflect challenges, problems and unmet opportunities, relative to the sales person’s total solution portfolio, they will learn a lot about other opportunities ripe for cross-sells.
For example, one of my clients sells civil engineering and construction services. Many of the people are very knowledgeable with environmental engineering and are connected to some powerful people in government agencies or corporations. To get these people to sell roads, buildings or other engineering services would be a big mistake and a huge lost opportunity.
Here’s why. If they tried to sell these other services, they’d do such a poor job that they’d lose credibility with the executive relative to these other services. As a result the company would lose a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. However, if this person doesn’t use his or her credibility with the executive, the company will have to compete with all the other vendors.
Now if this environmental person was conditioned (from training and role playing) to ask generalized questions, such as, “What are the issues and concerns you have with up-coming engineering projects” and be trained to listen for words, phases etc, s/he could glean trouble spots from the executive where his/her company could possibly assist. The environmental person would then report the findings to a sales manager who would assign someone to assist with expertise.
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The beauty of this is that the environmental person wouldn’t have to worry about promoting. S/he just has to ask some questions and/or listen for remarks spoken either in casual conversations, in meetings or in a formal interview. The onus of “selling” would be removed and the risk of botching the deal would also be removed. Yet, the qualified lead would be at hand along with a senior contact to work it through.
This being said, however, sales management has two key responsibilities to make this “Effective Listening” process happen. First, they have to set up training sessions with the cross-sell services to teach people the keywords and phrases to be listening for. Most training that other services of a company do is usually “How to Sell” rather than “What to Listen For.”
Second, management has to have a process of assignment and follow-up. The qualified lead must be attended to and the person with the relationship networks (transfers his/her credibility) to the expert with the powerful leader. If this process is not managed diligently it will fall through the cracks because the expert and the person with the contact each have other things to do and/or their own agenda.
So what about the money piece? Stated more accurately, what’s in it for the environmental person or any sales person to use his or her contacts for cross selling? Keeping one’s job is a good WIFM. Recognition and money are other obvious incentives. However, I strongly believe that if sales management makes it easy for people i.e. shows them how to interview rather than promote i.e. push services, and gives them the back-up talent as needed, sales people and/or professionals will naturally deliver good leads that will enable the company to cross-sell more. See one of the biggest motivators for sales people is the close – getting that order is a real rush. It doesn’t matter the size or the what. It’s the yes. Conversely, the thought of the “no” is the biggest deterrent.
Sale managers have to get out of their routine and be the trainers and managers for the cross-sell process. Telling sales people they have to do more, training them how to sell it, throwing monetary incentives are 20th Century tactics that didn’t work that well then. Relationship selling – using the contact, Investigative selling – learning about the contact’s issues, and Network selling, – using ones contacts to enable another is the 21st Century strategy for successful cross-selling.
Bonus Tip: FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”. Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link http://www.takemetoyourleaders.com/Antion/Ebookfreesignup1.htm Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to be effective and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders
By: Sam Manfer
