Beyond Budgeting
by Bjarte BogsnesComparative Beyond Budgeting is an essential part of a data-driven organizational transformation effort from traditional command-and-control thinking to Business Agility
Created by:
Unlocking the Performance Potential
The speed of business is accelerating and people need to be empowered to make decisions quickly in a collaborative manner. Beyond Budgeting unlocks the performance potential necessary to win in today's every-changing business environment.
Enabling Business Agility
The Beyond Budgeting management model offers an alternative to traditional management thinking more suited for a world characterized by Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA).
Stay competitive
Beyond Budgeting is designed to help organizations achieve, maintain and exceeds competitiveness in today’s world. It serves as a practical and logical planning and control framework for transforming and managing organizations.
Decentralized
Beyond Budgeting is a decentralized approach, empowering people at all levels of the organization, unlike traditional management approaches where leaders plan and control organizations centrally.
Beyond Budgeting is a modern management model for organizations that aspire to thrive in today’s increasingly complex world
Traditional management was invented for very different times and is in serious trouble today. The level of VUCA; volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in our business environments is at a record high. People have new and different expectations towards their employers.
How can we enable performance given these new business and people realities? How can we create a more VUCA-robust management model, which also works with and not against human nature?
Beyond Budgeting addresses these important questions, providing guidance but also concrete advice on both leadership and management processes. The result is more adaptive and more human organizations, with higher performance than those still stuck in traditional management.
Comparative Beyond Budgeting will uncover the organization’s readiness to change through key questions such as:
- Is there a sense of organizational urgency to change current ways of working?
- Do we understand *why* we need to change and what benefits we hope to achieve?
- Is there a governance framework with clear priorities and boundaries?
- Do front line teams have the freedom to make decisions within agreed parameters?
- Is there sufficient trust and openness at all levels of the organization?
Leadership Principles | Management principles |
|---|---|
| Purpose Engage and inspire people around 600 and noble causes; not around short-term financial targets. | Rhythm Organize management processes dynamically around business rhythms and events; not around the calendar year only. |
| Values Govern through shared and sound judgment; not through detailed rules and regulations. | Targets Set directional, ambitious and relative goals; avoid fixed and cascaded targets. |
| Transparency Make information open for self-regulation, innovation, learning and control; don't restrict it. | Plans and forecasts Make planning and forecasting lean and unbiased processes; not rigid and political exercises. |
| Organization Cultivate a strong sense of belonging and organize around accountable teams: avoid hierarchical control and bureaucracy. | Resource allocation Foster a cost conscious mind-set and make resources available as needed; not through detailed annual budget allocations. |
| Autonomy Trust people with freedom to act; don't punish everyone if someone should abuse it. | Performance evaluation Evaluate performance holistically and with peer feedback for learning and development; not based on measurement only and not for rewards only. |
| Customers Connect everyone's work with customer needs; avoid conflict of interest. | Rewards Reward shared success against competitions; not against fixed performance contracts. |
Sample Survey Items
Collaboration
Our organization responds quickly to unpredictable events (e.g. supply disruptions, technological change, competitor actions)Collaboration
Our current budgeting process results in budgets that are quickly out-of-date and too restrictive in circumstances where we need to be nimble.Collaboration
In our organization, resources are made available as and when needed, and managers are accountable after the fact for how well they have used them.Collaboration
Our organization sustains strong financial performance. -OR- sustains above-average financial performance relative to our sectorCollaboration
We close our books rapidly and make information available to managers within a few days of month-end.Collaboration
In our organization, all units are accountable for meeting customer satisfaction goals.Sample Survey Items
Collaboration
Our organization responds quickly to unpredictable events (e.g. supply disruptions, technological change, competitor actions)Collaboration
Our current budgeting process results in budgets that are quickly out-of-date and too restrictive in circumstances where we need to be nimble.Collaboration
In our organization, resources are made available as and when needed, and managers are accountable after the fact for how well they have used them.Top Features
Leverage proven, peer-reviewed research to quickly identify where your organization needs attention and initiate a conversation to understand how you can help.
Give your teams a voice – and allow them to express where you can do the most good for your organization.
Gain insights expeditiously - perform analysis at the team, program and organizational levels.
Benchmark the level of readiness across your teams and organization against other organizations in your industry – and define concrete steps on what to do next.
Leverage proven, peer-reviewed research to quickly identify where your organization needs attention and initiate a conversation to understand how you can help.
Give your teams a voice – and allow them to express where you can do the most good for your organization.
Gain insights expeditiously - perform analysis at the team, program and organizational levels.
Benchmark the level of readiness across your teams and organization against other organizations in your industry – and define concrete steps on what to do next.
Beyond Budgeting
Author of Implementing Beyond Budgeting
Senior Advisor Performance Framework at Equinor
Chairman Beyond Budgeting Roundtable
Bjarte Bogsnes is the Chairman of Beyond Budgeting Roundtable and leader in implementing Beyond Budgeting
Bjarte Bogsnes has a long international career, both in Finance and HR. He is a winner of the prestigious Harvard
Business Review/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation, a keynote speaker on many international conferences and
is currently heading up the implementation of Beyond Budgeting at Equinor (formerly Statoil), Scandinavia’s largest
company.
Bjarte is Chairman of the Beyond Budgeting Roundtable (BBRT) and the author of “Implementing Beyond
Budgeting – Unlocking the Performance Potential“, where he writes about his twenty years long Beyond Budgeting journey.
Try it out now!
Fuel data-driven continuous improvement efforts at the team, program and organizational levels through uncommon insights and actionable feedback.