For most organizations, the annual budget process is a painful, distracting, on-going exercise in futility that consumes a tremendous amount of resources and time, then quickly becomes so outdated that it is often deemed irrelevant for management purposes. The traditional budgeting process generates numerous issues and challenges that impair organization’s planning, forecasting, and performance management capabilities...
The traditional planning process: 
- Proves incapable and ineffective.
- Becomes quickly dated.
- Is calendar-driven and rigid.
- Does not motivate the correct employee behavior.
- Results in a disconnected financial plan.
- Depends heavily on excel spreadsheets and un-structured models.
Given the insufficient failings of traditional planning and budgeting processes, organizations have been exploring alternative solutions to meet the needs of their ever changing budgeting and planning needs, and we have re-evaluated our own planning tools and methods. In today’s highly competitive environment, companies must deal with volatility, uncertainty, and risk; traditional norms and "rules of the jungle" for traditional planning and budgeting no longer apply.
What are some of the innovations and leading practices that organizations have now adopted to escape "the black hole" of planning and budgeting?!
- Direct and Indirect Projects
- Employee Labor
- Proposals
- Forward Pricing
- Institute
Before your organization starts its next annual planning cycle, take a minute, step back, and complete an analysis of the previous years budgeting process. It is essential to engage all key stakeholders and determine what areas have the greatest opportunities for improvement. Now, with this new information and insight the next logical step is to establish a well thought out business plan for the coming year. You can now you understand the challenges of your former budgeting and planning process and can visualize a significantly improved future. Lastly, your organization should initiate a detailed, deep diagnostic to assess your current environment, identify key requirements, foresee the end state, prioritize initiatives, and create a prioritized "road-map" to execute the identified initiatives.
Today’s world demands a planning and performance management capability that is agile, focused on the critical operational drivers impacting business performance, and capable of anticipating and impacting future performance. This capability is essential to position business leaders to make better decisions in the face of increasing concerns.
Learn more about how to transform your budgeting and planning process watch our webinar on-demand for more information contact us.