Reduce your budget and ”Grow the Business” – Now there’s a novel idea!
© Roger La Salle 2011
The business of business is simple
In business, whether profit driven like so many corporations, government services or not for profits organisations, of which there are many, at this time of year we start to review our budgets.
Essentially all businesses are driven by simple arithmetic.
Profit (or final outcome) is derived by subtracting costs from revenue. It’s really all very simple.
In business in the aim is to grow revenues and of course profits. The mandate to achieve this is given to the senior executives that form the so called management team.
The message is to grow or stagnate and risk being overtaken by more aggressive competitors.
The inevitable budget session
Predictably, as our executives develop their next year’s budget you can be sure there will be a requirement for more funds, more money to spend so the department can grow and consequently achieve the forecast improved outcomes.
It is quite amazing that despite all of the technological marvels we provide our staff with to make them more effective and more efficient, costs continue to grow.
Even in Government departments it is a long held tradition to get together in early June of each year and “blow the budget” by purchasing anything that can navigate the overseers of expenses in the few weeks before that mystical 30th of June, year end.
Is this a better way?
One wonders what may happen to ever expanding budgets if some inversion to this thinking was applied.
Take for example the head of a department that may have an annual expense budget of, say $20 million. Predictably the executive comes to the budget session with a well justified request for an additional 7% for the next year. Say an increase to $21.4million, a quite modest increase, but one the executive assures top management is essential to “grow the business”.
It may be interesting to consider what may happen if that very same executive was to be challenged.
“No instead of seeking more funds, if you can achieve your goals with 10% less, you will receive 75% of the reduction, in this case a whopping $1.4million, as a cash bonus, perhaps to be split among your staff in proportion to their salaries.”
Now there’s a novel and innovative approach to management.
What now?
As the budget process starts maybe it’s time to give consideration to this radical, but perhaps very practical way of still achieving the desired results without the never ending need to spend more money.
Instead of more money, find better ways to achieve your outcomes. Again this is innovation, which is not a bad thing to introduce to a business.
Roger La Salle, is the creator of the “Matrix Thinking”™ technique and is widely sought after as an international speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development. He is the author of four books, Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australian and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. Matrix Thinking is now used in more than 26 countries and licensed to one of the world’s largest consulting firms. www.matrixthinking.com
