Usually I am fairly rational and do not let my personal emotions interfere with how I interact with others. However, as the readers of my blogs and articles may have detected, my more recent writings increasingly reflect my frustrations with old school accountants.
Welcome to this blog series, where I look forward to share with you some of my reflections on what I believe are very important issues for most organisations today.
More than 15 years ago, the Harvard Business Review had already declared corporate planning and budgeting as all but dead. “Corporate budgeting is a joke, and everyone knows it,” the business magazine wrote in 2001. The polarizing article generated an enormous reaction. However, little has changed since then.
We’ve all come across checkpoints in our personal lives where we commonly think about or use phrases such as “let’s take a few steps back”, “I need to reset things” and “let’s start all over again”.
The corporate planning process is a controversial subject on which opinions differ widely. But experience has shown that an effectively implemented planning process brings companies a clear added value in many respects. Enterprises are helped to achieve their set targets or to take corrective action if unforeseen changes occur in the background conditions.
Forecast accuracy is often a subject of discussion. What are the issues met that can generate such level of discussion?